Watershed Intraplay

Fraser, Harriet ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2490-3496 and Mcphie, Jamie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5290-1685 (2024) Watershed Intraplay. In: University of Cumbria Summer School Research Now Conference, 9 July 2024, University of Cumbria, UK. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

It takes a full year for water that flows down fells into the lake known as Ullswater to leave the lake. The body of water is constantly changing its make-up; the many other elements of the valley are similarly dynamic – soil, people, animals, trees, weathers, grasses, mosses etc. They are in intraplay. When a group of artists with a shared research purpose enter this medley, their artwork is introduced as an ecological concept, affecting the assemblage. How might this create new trophic cascades, how might it spark new relationships, new intraplays? Artists can encourage critical thinking and may reveal things – and values – that are seldom noticed outside specialist areas of experience. In this, however, the artists do not hold individual agency. The impact is driven by and felt by the assemblage. As a contribution to research into action and agency in the Ullswater valley, five artists joined residents and local workers; they carried out interviews, they walked, sailed, swam and relaxed, and produced an exhibition including film, music, sculpture, maps, images and poetry. What happened in this process that aligned with theories of distributed agency? What did the artists and other experience? How did art embrace complexity, and bridge theory and practice? What did the work show, and what actions might it have catalysed? In this joint presentation given at the University of Cumbria’s Summer School, Harriet Fraser and Jamie Mcphie shared reflections of the Watershed project (2023), using a conversational approach to their presentation, while visuals and video footage of artwork, meetings and the Ullswater Valley were shown. Their presentation explores ideas of distributed agency in both artwork and ecological systems, discusses community cohesion, power and possibility, and introduces new research into overlapping scales of action and reaction in the Ullswater valley.

Note:
The research conducted by five artists, and the exhibition of their work in Glenridding Village Hall in 2023, was made possible with funding from UKRI, through its ‘Enhancing Research Culture’ fund, and with support from residents, landowners, farmers and land managers in the Ullswater Valley. The Watershed project has been instrumental in Harriet Fraser’s PhD research: ‘Rethinking agency and action in land/scape r/evolution, using art as a tool for critical enquiry’. It has been part of the work of the PLACE Collective, within the Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas, through the University of Cumbria.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Departments:	Institute of Science and Environment > Forestry and Conservation Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas (CNPPA)
Additional Information:	Harriet Fraser, PhD student, University of Cumbria and Dr Jamie Mcphie, Associate Professor of Environmental Humanities and Social Science, University of Cumbria, UK.
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	06 Aug 2024 09:37
Last Modified:	29 Aug 2024 09:08
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/7830

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