I will be very interested to hear what you all say about this place, its rich. I once knew thickets of FASR Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal detail but how will I see it now? The place will have changed but how much will I notice? I have certainly changed in two decades and more significantly so have sensibilities about place as more of us become more aware of the fragile and changing qualities of all our world(s).
Although seeing that fragility often comes along with disturbing news of environmental ‘disaster’, I like the apparently increasing awareness we gain of the dynamics of our environments, our places. It feels better to be more in touch with that sense of life and aliveness. And I am guessing that this is one of the things we will explore.
Do we begin with ‘disaster’? I am certainly drawn to it, drawn within an aesthetic that is not perhaps dominant, but certainly influential within the margins of genre fictions and media. I am suspicious of its attractiveness. Is it the old story of reforms (and technical developments) dressed up as revolutions?