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Erin Kavanagh
I am a creative archaeologist and geomythologist, with a particular interest in water, audio, and deep mapping.
My commercial and academic work focus upon interdisciplinary practice and submerged landscapes (both conceptual and empirical) from the space between, where perceptions are transformed. This is largely filtered through myth and Welsh Writing in English, encompassing philosophy of poetry, ecopoetics, SciArt, geoscience, climate activism, and site specific performance - with an emphasis on the relationship between fact and fiction. Through these the machinations of science communication, knowledge integration, and outreach are explored, along with engaging innovative poetry as method and deploying deep mapping as ethnographic practice.
Supported by the British Federation of Women Graduates.
Supervisors: Hester Reeve, Tom Payne, and Harriet Tarlo
My commercial and academic work focus upon interdisciplinary practice and submerged landscapes (both conceptual and empirical) from the space between, where perceptions are transformed. This is largely filtered through myth and Welsh Writing in English, encompassing philosophy of poetry, ecopoetics, SciArt, geoscience, climate activism, and site specific performance - with an emphasis on the relationship between fact and fiction. Through these the machinations of science communication, knowledge integration, and outreach are explored, along with engaging innovative poetry as method and deploying deep mapping as ethnographic practice.
Supported by the British Federation of Women Graduates.
Supervisors: Hester Reeve, Tom Payne, and Harriet Tarlo
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Day One: Water
https://ontransversality.wordpress.com/
Deep mapping is a folding of site specific representations in which epistemic and ontological dynamics of power interweave. As a process, it does not strive to either please or attain authority, making no claim on definitive opinion (Kavanagh, 2018). Rather, its diverse performativity connects into tentacular structures within which a conversation, or conversations, can flourish between multiple perspectives, creating a string figured (SF) enquiry (see Haraway, 2016). Fluid, fragile, flexible, deep mapping morphs and absorbs both traditional and unconventional inputs, provoking new insights through the ambient manifold of transversality; as a by-product rather than as an intentional aim. In this way, the inherent hybrid liminality facilitates poly-dimensional signification in accordance with Karen Barad's concept of intra-acting agencies (Barad 1999; 2003; 2007).
This also tallies with what the moral philosopher Mary Midgley considered to be a pragmatic application of reason: "Much of the time, we are exploring unknown or partially known matters, and we use whatever forms of thought turn out to be needed for them" (2004:26). This 'many maps, many windows' approach is posited by Midgley as a response to Descartian reductionism in which (a misunderstood singularity of) science is hailed above all other disciplines. She countered this by arguing for a pluralistic reflexivity, maintaining that "all perception takes in only a fraction of what is given to it" (ibid) and therefore we should embrace our partiality, without self-limiting from the offset.
This short presentation summarises these points, whilst emphasising how deep mapping as praxis can decentralise knowledge in such a way as to widen a research's audience, as well as to empower neuro-divergent and interdisciplinary thinking. Examples are offered via concrete poetry, where intersectionality is the raison d'etre of form, and also through a short film called 'Layers in the Landscape' (2016) (to be viewed separately).
British Museum/SOAS/RGS, 4-7 June 2020.
The philosopher Mary Midgley argued for a non-reductionist form of thinking that drew upon imagination and empiricism with equal weight, each having an integral position within human experience. For instance, science can clarify how a flood can happen/is happening/has happened-but it is through the humanities and the arts that these narratives take form in our everyday lives; often through social engagement with storytelling, both fictional and otherwise. This presentation offers two examples of how this amalgamation of perspectives can be utilised to communicate information concerning sea level change. It situates itself beneath the umbrella of geomythology, where science and stories come together in the collective memory through myth-making, some of which results are scientifically verifiable (Vitaliano, 2007), and some of which are not (Kavanagh and Bates, 2019). 'King of the Sea Trees' (Kavanagh, 2019; https://vimeo.com/227091459) and 'A Mermaid's Myth' are the two mythscapes cited. They present factual information about sea level change through ecopoetics, performance and art, triggering dialogue via the practice of deep mapping. The former was a POC that has travelled across three continents, the latter is an extension of this, linking Wales and Ireland together through the rising Irish Sea. Together they show how 'other' ways of knowing can aid effective discourse, as well as being a source for valuable information in their own right.
"A good poem helps to change the shape and significance of the universe, it helps to extend everyone's knowledge of himself and the world around him. "
In Medieval Wales, 'praise poetry' such as the kind referred to in this quote from Dylan Thomas, was commonly utilised as a means by which to instruct the masses about morality. Stories concerned with the perils of drunkenness, alluring ladies and arrogant kingdoms were allegedly designed to act as warnings; fictions through which people could learn right from wrong. Some of these have found their way across the centuries to be filed under the modern heading of 'myths'. Geomythology is the study of such stories which refer to lost landscapes, like those of Cantre'r Gwaelod and Atlantis. It has developed from one wherein past mythologies are treated as inferior fictions in relation to modern empiricism, to one where it is an equal contributor to our understanding of space, place and narrative. In so doing, the role of deliberately applied 'make-believe' has been explored as a mode by which to incite public engagement through the imagination. This has drawn attention to the significance of truth and trust in storytelling as a prime mover inside epistemic divergence, wherein individuals and communities become attached to various 'myths of information' due to the narratives they have learned, regardless of expert-derived evidence. The result is an ever-increasing gulf in communication which impacts tourism, planning and conservation. This presentation therefore seeks to examine, whether exposure to fiction about the past is a beneficial method for influencing ethical behaviour in today's world. It uses as a case study, the coastal town of Borth in West Wales, where a new mythic poem ('Brenin Y Coed Mór') has been written to disseminate information about environmental change and where 'The Welsh Atlantis' is a popular platform for understanding the human relationship with a forever changing world.
TAG '17 Cardiff, Session: (S-ite)rations: Memory, Forgetting and the Temporal Architecture of Place."
If different processes and phenomena become apparent at different scales of observation, there can be no single unified history…only a multi-scalar [one] written from many different points of view. " (1)
Presenting a nuanced narrative that resolves such ontological divides is often the task of heritage practitioners – but what happens when public practice overrides all offerings from empirical observation? When emergent waves of tangible data and expert opinion are deliberately rejected in the resilient maintenance of an ideological appropriation of place and time? This paper comments on just such a dilemma, using the Welsh Government initiative 'Year of Legends' (2) as a case study. Where local identity has been founded upon a reuse of the 'past within the past' (3) and socially situated memory is reliant upon an active process of forgetting.
(1) Bailey, G, Holdaway, S (ed.) & Wandsnider, L (ed.) 2008, Time perspectivism: origins and consequences. in Time in Archaeology: Time Perspectivism Revisited. Utah University Press, Utah, pp. 13-30.
(2) http://gov.wales/newsroom/culture-tourism-sport/2017/170301-year-of-legends-2017/?lang=en
(3) Bradley, R., & Williams, H. (1998). The Past in the past: the reuse of ancient monuments. London, Routledge.
Session: Poetry as Archaeology
“Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past”
Archaeology is fluent in smoothing out this paradox, yet sometimes incomplete spaces emerge due to the large expanse of periods or geography in question. These voids of information create a narrative incoherency which prevents the findings from being publishable and impedes public understanding.
This paper demonstrates how poetry can came forward to mind that gap. Where geoscience stops on the edge of empiricism, where art and storytelling tend to lapse into fancy and early literature becomes elusive, poetry can sail with confidence.
“The intensities of poetic encounter, of imagination and deep insight…carry with them all the fierce contradiction of what human language is and does.”
Put to work in this way as archaeological method, poetry can curate what David Jones’ calls “mixed data” , employing language as its trowel.
1 Eliot, T. S. (1941). Burnt Norton. London: Faber and Faber.
2 Prynne, J.J. 2008. ‘Huts’, Textual Practice 22.4; 630
3 Jones, D. 1952. The Anathemata. London: Faber
On Wednesday 27th November, 2002, sheltering from a torrential downpour worthy of Gilgamesh, the Temple of Peace in Cardiff held an unusual gathering. This gathering was the opening ceremony for what became an international, multi award winning, charity for global citizenship. It was a statement of faith, of inter faith, where contesting religious narratives laid down their differences and stood side by side.
This paper presents the teaching methodology which has resulted from that day, offering an auto-ethnographical account (Ellis et al, 2010) of what it has been like building rainbows across the ontological turn. To be one small part of both the process, and the product. In so doing, it travels in the light of Paulo Friere’s work on democracy and hope (1994), presenting a framework for encouraging social evolution through the simple symbol of a mala.
In these times of increasing unrest, the need to pick up Paulo Freire’s challenge to seek democracy through education (1973), has never been greater. Elucidating constructions of religion has become a demanding role for many people who would not ordinarily consider themselves to be spiritually informed, whether in or outside of the classroom. From tackling alternative facts in social media to dodging bombs as we wait for our children at a pop concert, “the voices of intolerance are all around us – the voice of tolerance needs to be louder” (Pam Evans, www.peacemala.org).
Ellis. C., Adams T. and Bochner A. (2011). Autoethnography: An overview. Historical Social Research 36(4): 273–90.
Freire, P. (1973). Education for critical consciousness. New York, Seabury Press.
Freire, P. and A.M.A. Freire (1994). Pedagogy of hope: reliving Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, Continuum.
Deep Mapping Belief
"A deep map is not a thin map… It is a folding of representations akin to the relationship between a "thick" and a "thin" description… it creates a pattern of social and cultural communication, connections which go beyond any single account." (Kavanagh, 2017, forthcoming)
The dissemination of knowledge is frequently weighted either side of an emic and etic divide. Stories, psychism and spirit stand across from science, with contesting notions of truth value stirring the normativity in-between. This paper posits an alternative approach, which has been developed within an interdisciplinary framework to challenge the conventions of geo-mythological narrative along the coast of Cardigan Bay, in West Wales. It applies the concept of 'deep mapping' as ethnographic practice in order to integrate differing epistemological world views without any loss of individual authority. In this way, semantic density may be retained in an ethically transparent manner and multimodal interpretations are afforded the space to speak with equal voice, creating a polyphony of belief.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/storymaking-symposium-tickets-28290961026
Day One: Water
https://ontransversality.wordpress.com/
Deep mapping is a folding of site specific representations in which epistemic and ontological dynamics of power interweave. As a process, it does not strive to either please or attain authority, making no claim on definitive opinion (Kavanagh, 2018). Rather, its diverse performativity connects into tentacular structures within which a conversation, or conversations, can flourish between multiple perspectives, creating a string figured (SF) enquiry (see Haraway, 2016). Fluid, fragile, flexible, deep mapping morphs and absorbs both traditional and unconventional inputs, provoking new insights through the ambient manifold of transversality; as a by-product rather than as an intentional aim. In this way, the inherent hybrid liminality facilitates poly-dimensional signification in accordance with Karen Barad's concept of intra-acting agencies (Barad 1999; 2003; 2007).
This also tallies with what the moral philosopher Mary Midgley considered to be a pragmatic application of reason: "Much of the time, we are exploring unknown or partially known matters, and we use whatever forms of thought turn out to be needed for them" (2004:26). This 'many maps, many windows' approach is posited by Midgley as a response to Descartian reductionism in which (a misunderstood singularity of) science is hailed above all other disciplines. She countered this by arguing for a pluralistic reflexivity, maintaining that "all perception takes in only a fraction of what is given to it" (ibid) and therefore we should embrace our partiality, without self-limiting from the offset.
This short presentation summarises these points, whilst emphasising how deep mapping as praxis can decentralise knowledge in such a way as to widen a research's audience, as well as to empower neuro-divergent and interdisciplinary thinking. Examples are offered via concrete poetry, where intersectionality is the raison d'etre of form, and also through a short film called 'Layers in the Landscape' (2016) (to be viewed separately).
British Museum/SOAS/RGS, 4-7 June 2020.
The philosopher Mary Midgley argued for a non-reductionist form of thinking that drew upon imagination and empiricism with equal weight, each having an integral position within human experience. For instance, science can clarify how a flood can happen/is happening/has happened-but it is through the humanities and the arts that these narratives take form in our everyday lives; often through social engagement with storytelling, both fictional and otherwise. This presentation offers two examples of how this amalgamation of perspectives can be utilised to communicate information concerning sea level change. It situates itself beneath the umbrella of geomythology, where science and stories come together in the collective memory through myth-making, some of which results are scientifically verifiable (Vitaliano, 2007), and some of which are not (Kavanagh and Bates, 2019). 'King of the Sea Trees' (Kavanagh, 2019; https://vimeo.com/227091459) and 'A Mermaid's Myth' are the two mythscapes cited. They present factual information about sea level change through ecopoetics, performance and art, triggering dialogue via the practice of deep mapping. The former was a POC that has travelled across three continents, the latter is an extension of this, linking Wales and Ireland together through the rising Irish Sea. Together they show how 'other' ways of knowing can aid effective discourse, as well as being a source for valuable information in their own right.
"A good poem helps to change the shape and significance of the universe, it helps to extend everyone's knowledge of himself and the world around him. "
In Medieval Wales, 'praise poetry' such as the kind referred to in this quote from Dylan Thomas, was commonly utilised as a means by which to instruct the masses about morality. Stories concerned with the perils of drunkenness, alluring ladies and arrogant kingdoms were allegedly designed to act as warnings; fictions through which people could learn right from wrong. Some of these have found their way across the centuries to be filed under the modern heading of 'myths'. Geomythology is the study of such stories which refer to lost landscapes, like those of Cantre'r Gwaelod and Atlantis. It has developed from one wherein past mythologies are treated as inferior fictions in relation to modern empiricism, to one where it is an equal contributor to our understanding of space, place and narrative. In so doing, the role of deliberately applied 'make-believe' has been explored as a mode by which to incite public engagement through the imagination. This has drawn attention to the significance of truth and trust in storytelling as a prime mover inside epistemic divergence, wherein individuals and communities become attached to various 'myths of information' due to the narratives they have learned, regardless of expert-derived evidence. The result is an ever-increasing gulf in communication which impacts tourism, planning and conservation. This presentation therefore seeks to examine, whether exposure to fiction about the past is a beneficial method for influencing ethical behaviour in today's world. It uses as a case study, the coastal town of Borth in West Wales, where a new mythic poem ('Brenin Y Coed Mór') has been written to disseminate information about environmental change and where 'The Welsh Atlantis' is a popular platform for understanding the human relationship with a forever changing world.
TAG '17 Cardiff, Session: (S-ite)rations: Memory, Forgetting and the Temporal Architecture of Place."
If different processes and phenomena become apparent at different scales of observation, there can be no single unified history…only a multi-scalar [one] written from many different points of view. " (1)
Presenting a nuanced narrative that resolves such ontological divides is often the task of heritage practitioners – but what happens when public practice overrides all offerings from empirical observation? When emergent waves of tangible data and expert opinion are deliberately rejected in the resilient maintenance of an ideological appropriation of place and time? This paper comments on just such a dilemma, using the Welsh Government initiative 'Year of Legends' (2) as a case study. Where local identity has been founded upon a reuse of the 'past within the past' (3) and socially situated memory is reliant upon an active process of forgetting.
(1) Bailey, G, Holdaway, S (ed.) & Wandsnider, L (ed.) 2008, Time perspectivism: origins and consequences. in Time in Archaeology: Time Perspectivism Revisited. Utah University Press, Utah, pp. 13-30.
(2) http://gov.wales/newsroom/culture-tourism-sport/2017/170301-year-of-legends-2017/?lang=en
(3) Bradley, R., & Williams, H. (1998). The Past in the past: the reuse of ancient monuments. London, Routledge.
Session: Poetry as Archaeology
“Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past”
Archaeology is fluent in smoothing out this paradox, yet sometimes incomplete spaces emerge due to the large expanse of periods or geography in question. These voids of information create a narrative incoherency which prevents the findings from being publishable and impedes public understanding.
This paper demonstrates how poetry can came forward to mind that gap. Where geoscience stops on the edge of empiricism, where art and storytelling tend to lapse into fancy and early literature becomes elusive, poetry can sail with confidence.
“The intensities of poetic encounter, of imagination and deep insight…carry with them all the fierce contradiction of what human language is and does.”
Put to work in this way as archaeological method, poetry can curate what David Jones’ calls “mixed data” , employing language as its trowel.
1 Eliot, T. S. (1941). Burnt Norton. London: Faber and Faber.
2 Prynne, J.J. 2008. ‘Huts’, Textual Practice 22.4; 630
3 Jones, D. 1952. The Anathemata. London: Faber
On Wednesday 27th November, 2002, sheltering from a torrential downpour worthy of Gilgamesh, the Temple of Peace in Cardiff held an unusual gathering. This gathering was the opening ceremony for what became an international, multi award winning, charity for global citizenship. It was a statement of faith, of inter faith, where contesting religious narratives laid down their differences and stood side by side.
This paper presents the teaching methodology which has resulted from that day, offering an auto-ethnographical account (Ellis et al, 2010) of what it has been like building rainbows across the ontological turn. To be one small part of both the process, and the product. In so doing, it travels in the light of Paulo Friere’s work on democracy and hope (1994), presenting a framework for encouraging social evolution through the simple symbol of a mala.
In these times of increasing unrest, the need to pick up Paulo Freire’s challenge to seek democracy through education (1973), has never been greater. Elucidating constructions of religion has become a demanding role for many people who would not ordinarily consider themselves to be spiritually informed, whether in or outside of the classroom. From tackling alternative facts in social media to dodging bombs as we wait for our children at a pop concert, “the voices of intolerance are all around us – the voice of tolerance needs to be louder” (Pam Evans, www.peacemala.org).
Ellis. C., Adams T. and Bochner A. (2011). Autoethnography: An overview. Historical Social Research 36(4): 273–90.
Freire, P. (1973). Education for critical consciousness. New York, Seabury Press.
Freire, P. and A.M.A. Freire (1994). Pedagogy of hope: reliving Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, Continuum.
Deep Mapping Belief
"A deep map is not a thin map… It is a folding of representations akin to the relationship between a "thick" and a "thin" description… it creates a pattern of social and cultural communication, connections which go beyond any single account." (Kavanagh, 2017, forthcoming)
The dissemination of knowledge is frequently weighted either side of an emic and etic divide. Stories, psychism and spirit stand across from science, with contesting notions of truth value stirring the normativity in-between. This paper posits an alternative approach, which has been developed within an interdisciplinary framework to challenge the conventions of geo-mythological narrative along the coast of Cardigan Bay, in West Wales. It applies the concept of 'deep mapping' as ethnographic practice in order to integrate differing epistemological world views without any loss of individual authority. In this way, semantic density may be retained in an ethically transparent manner and multimodal interpretations are afforded the space to speak with equal voice, creating a polyphony of belief.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/storymaking-symposium-tickets-28290961026
This methodology is then applied to a case study, linking aspects of the Second Branch of Y Mabinogi with Cardigan Bay based upon a deep map of the myth cycle. It examines three mythical inclusions and considers their scientific viability before postulating how best to express this information in the future via a transdisciplinary form of archaeological representation.
Fact, fiction, it’s a dialectical debate that both crosses and divides disciplines from archaeology to philosophy. Questions of truth value via authenticity, authority and provenance abound alongside those of definition in theory and practice. However, this paper argues that maybe, on occasion, it really doesn’t matter if we cannot tell fact from fiction – assuming that such telling is even possible. Instead, the blurring of this normative line may open an intersection in which our minds can engage in alternative ways of thinking than those which our academic and professional training usually dictates.
Poetry sits in this intersection. It affords both the writer and the reader room to explore a variety of perspectives in a succinct form. Akin to a photograph it can be both art and reportage, a snapshot in which to hold a moment or to expand a concept, empowering us to “seize back the creative initiative” (Eshun & Madge, 2012). As archaeologists we not only have a responsibility to the cultures we are representing but also to the process by which we achieve this with one another - and to ourselves. The diktat of site reporting can be at odds with the demotic positon we inhabit as living beings (Pluciennik, 2015) which can strip away the emotional meaning we glean from the wonders we are uncovering; and in so doing the whole reason we began archaeology in the first place. Thus, perhaps it is time to consider whether or not we can allow ourselves a small platform in which to regain and express the wonder we feel when we hold a pot, discover a mosaic, make a leap of interpretation.
For if we are writing about wonders, can we therefore not do so wonderfully?
Keywords
*Poetry *Method *Encounter *Fact *Fiction
spirituality
Studio
Ganesha Filmes
About
Through the story of Nela, a woman who was held in a Psychiatric hospital, but believes she is possessed by spirits, we will learn about faith.
Plot Outline
A few years ago, mediumship was considered a mental illness. That means, any report of hearing voices or seeing things that most people couldn't, was considered... See more
Starring
Teresa Danae, Mae Nancy, Halo Addis, Celia Resende and more
Voice Over/Subtitles By
Erin Kavanagh
Wriiten and Directed By
Monica Demes
Dedicated 'Unexplainer' John is desperate to find the sunken kingdom of Atlantis. After too much time using the internet, he becomes convinced the Welsh coast might hold the answers. The Unexplainers travel to the shores of Cardigan bay to meet a local storyteller, a Geo-archaeologist, and a bloke called Steve who rents wet-suits.
https://www.npr.org/player/embed/551233041/551233331
Guest expert.
Guest expert.
https://queersts.com/forum-queer-sts/queer-sts-forum-5-2020/queer-sts-forum-5-2020-2-voices/
erin.kavanagh@uwtsd.ac.uk
Discussant: Eloise Govier
e.govier@uwtsd.ac.uk
‘CREATIVE FRONTIERS’
Applying Theory
to foster
discussion
beyond
research,
is
to build
perceptions
in society.
(Kavanagh, 2018)
Influencing perceptions is a role attributed to public intellectuals, yet archaeologists appear to be absent from inhabiting such a stage (Tarlow and Stutz, 2013). This session seeks to question if this is actually so, when our collective and individual works are engaged with the process of re-creating worlds, potentially impacting the way that society can be perceived.
We therefore contend that processes of making are a critical area of investigation for applied archaeological theory, requesting creative responses from those addressing the 'worlding world' (Ingold, 2017) through the production of archaeological narratives.
Questions include, but are not exclusive to:
• What theories, methods and practices do archaeologists embrace to reveal/veil and re/create unique lifeways – and how might these shape current social debate?
• Does archaeological theory simply scavenge from innovators, or does it create new frontiers of thought, be they disciplinary, commercial or conceptual?
• Archaeological narratives have been apparent in creative media for millennia, from poetry to television. Could these be seen as oblique modes of social influence?
• And are archaeological worlds peopled only by the past, and therefore not of relevance to a present public..?
We welcome digital and exhibition content to support delivered presentations.
Keywords: Representation, World-Making, Creative Method, Innovation, Social Debate.
Kavanagh, K.E. 2018. ‘Applying Theory’, in exhibition with The Big Heritage, TAG Deva.
Tarlow, S. and Nilsson Stutz, L. 2013. Can an archaeologist be a public intellectual? Archaeological Dialogues 20(1): 1-78.
Ingold, T. 2017. 'On Human Correspondence'. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Volume 23, Issue 1. Pp.9-27.
http://www.institutofranklin.net/en/events/international-conference-on-environmental-humanities/
Nestled within the CFP shone the following incipit: “Other forms of participation…” - which reads rather like an invitation to innovate. I am therefore proposing an alternative mode of engaging with your conference – an engagement via drawing portraits and poetry. The former will be of the speakers as they are speaking, thus not their resting faces but their performative ones. The latter will be variants upon the modern haiku or tanka, summing up what I have, personally, taken away from the presentations in tweetable bite sizes. This cultural amalgamation of Japanese and English poetic form will allow for rapid, immediate impressions; aiming to compliment the more considered and extended responses that usually follow sessions.
Additionally, cross out poems will be created from the submitted abstracts in advance, which reduces the delegates proposals into their apparent core components; extracting the breath of ideas and drawing between the lines.
In August 2017, many of us received an email from Fraser Joyce which stated that
“This year the foundation would like to capture some of the discussions arising out of the workshop ‘Today’s Futures’ in the form of constructed conversations built from contributions submitted by the ISRF delegates.”
The email also requested that our contributions were “short” - and the result was an article that reflected the workshop whilst mimicking the style of a roundtable discussion.
I then applied an Erasure-Cento(1) method of poetry to that completed montage, which shortened each contribution further, into what I (rightly or wrongly) understood from the constituent parts (1.0). A different colour was assigned to each author to clarify who had written what, as well as to depict visual balance. The left me with a version of the original prose, in the form of a poem (2.0). However, this was still too long for the publication space… therefore I then had to Cut Out from the original Cut Out, creating an abstract (3.0). This is the version that went into print.
The display here, makes partially transparent this process of reducing 14 different voices from 6573 words into only 842. It is only partial because the thinking that was required to negotiate multiple styles, perspectives and topics remains elusively opaque. Some edits flew from the page with ease, others fought and tangled, turning in on themselves. All were at the mercy of their own punctuation. I hope that they have been fairly represented. Whether my own voice is present in the twisting of angles, the spaces in between lines, where the shadowed silences almost sit - is for the reader to decide.
Thank you all for playing along.
https://issuu.com/isrf/docs/isrf_bulletin_issue_xiv/7
(1) Erasure is a form of poetry where some signifiers are erased, leaving a different through line. Cento is a form of poetry where all the signifiers are taken from existing poetry, often identifying the different voices with different coloured text, putting them together to produce a different narrative from the original intentions. The method deployed here, combines both.
There is a river of sound
That runs from myth to mountain
A prophecy
Of provision
Guiding battles through the flood)
The Crow Road is a deep map. Produced initially as a performative presentation, it interweaves academic criticism with poetry and art around the relationships between non-human and human beings, reflecting upon the related issues of place, presence and absence.
In so doing, Erin Kavanagh’s poem and images evoke imaginal projections that both converge with and counterpoint Iain Biggs’ long-term research concerns with an animism ‘hidden in plain sight’ in traditions of Scottish vernacular culture. This provides the productive tension that animates their collaboration.
This chapter presents snippets of that resonant constellation, along with some critique of the process and experience, reflecting upon why limitations inherent in current notions of cross, multi, inter and trans-disciplinarity are inadequate to our current psychosocial and environmental situations.
KEYWORDS: Birds, environmental humanities, deep mapping, animism, ecopoetry, interdisciplinarity
Deep-mapping is a process. It is a process that does not strive to either please or attain authority, it makes no claim on definitive opinion. Rather, deep maps are the structure within which a conversation, or conversations, can flourish between multiple perspectives. Fluid, fragile, flexible, they morph and absorb new inputs, provoking new insights as a by-product rather than as an intentional aim. In this way, the deep map can become a conduit for rethinking geomythological research and representation.
Traditionally, geomythology has been the study of landscape stories through the purview of geoscience with little regard for myth’s own voice. Bounded in the epistemic bias of orthodox perspectives storytelling has been dismissed as an inferior feature in the landscape; a source to be critiqued or stood behind as a bridge for public engagement but not as a partner to be afforded equal value.
It is, however, possible to challenge that stance, to suggest that an alternative is possible. For ‘the world as it is’ does not stand still, it does not pose for a portrait; it is forever in flux. To map a landscape is more than geography, it is to facilitate a palimpsest of cultural narrative which struggles to be contained within the rigid parameters of a conventionally academic bracket. This chapter introduces such an approach. It seeks to give voice to one stretch of coastline across time, space and disciplines with the aim of not compromising integrity and to re-establish the very foundation upon which normative perspectives reside.