A Voyage Round new territory: Collaborative poetry of (and in) the environment.

Abstract

Artist William Daniell’s little known book A Voyage Round Great Britain (1813-1823), together with writer Richard Ayton. marks a fundamental watershed in histories of topography. His comprehensive and encyclopedic journey was in its day comparable (and in competition) with J M W Turner’s tours of England. The central theme is to connect this historical landscape project with contemporary methodologies to develop new ways of articulating relationships between identity and place. Specifically, this project will investigate the potential for the arts to inform current and future perceptions of environmental change. Our starting point for exploring this text further will be to visit the places first documented in Voyage in the South West which have been identified by the National Trust as being under significant threat of coastal erosion. Our project partners (artists, writers, and photographers) will consider how to make new work in response to these places. This network’s intention, therefore, is to revisit Voyage and map out its environmental significance and its narrative potential. It is our view that recognition of the transformative potential of stories, which are often articulated as journeys in terms of their narrative arc, can illuminate past endeavors as well as possible future selves