Thursday, December 18, 2014

Call for Papers: The Alchemical Landscape

THE ALCHEMICAL LANDSCAPE: Counterculture, Occulture and the Geographic Turn

Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge
23rd March 2015
An interdisciplinary symposium presented by the Cambridge University
 Counterculture Research Group

"If any one book put ley lines on the map, re-enchanted the British
landscape and made Glastonbury the capital of the New Age it was John
 Michell's seminal 1969 tome The View Over Atlantis." ---Bob Rickard,
Fortean Times, 2009.

 In an age of vast ecological crisis and a widespread re-calibration of the
arts and humanities towards questions of eco-criticism, an increasing
 number of writers, artists and film-makers are re-investing the British
 landscape with esoteric and mythic imagery. From the revival of 'Folk
Horror' to the cross-over between magical and artistic practice, this
'enchanted' representation of the rural works as both a link to the past
 and an articulation of pressing contemporary concerns.

This special one-day symposium at the University of Cambridge seeks to
explore the creative, aesthetic and political implications of this
'geographic turn'.

300-word proposals for presentations of up to 20 minutes are invited on any
aspect of this theme.

Possible topics could include but are not limited to:

 - John Michell, T.C. Lethbridge, J.A Baker, T.H. White, Helen Macdonald,
 Paul Devereux, Andrew Collins, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Alan Moore, Derek
 Jarman, Penny Slinger, Arthur Machen, Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Dennis
Parry, Sven Berlin, Geraldine Monk, Michael Bracewell, Gary Spencer
 Millidge, Alice Oswald, David Pinner, Diana Durham, Charlotte Hussey, Brian
 Catling, Janni Howker.

 - English Heretic, Ghost Box, Drew Mulholland, Julian Cope, The Outer
Church, Pye Corner Audio, Matt Shaw, The Sinister Insult, Phil Legard, The
Geography Trip, The Wyrding Module, The Haunted Shoreline, The House in the
 Woods, Wyrd England Gazetteer, The Soulless Party, A Year in the Country,
 Wyrdstone, Scarfolk, The Old Weird Albion, The Sons of T.C. Lethbridge,
 Psychic Field Recordings.

- The Stone Tape, Children of the Stones, Quatermass and the Pit, A Field
 in England, The Wicker Man, Blood on Satan's Claw, Antichrist, Voodoo
 Science Park, Robinson in Ruins, On Vanishing Land, Cobra Mist, The Living
 Dead at the Manchester Morgue, The Owl Service, Robin Redbreast, Penda's
 Fen.

 - Mystical, visionary and imaginative landscapes, folklore, hauntology,
 alternative nostalgia, psychogeography, speculative archaeology, inner
 space, psychedelic pastoralism, the contemporary bucolic.

 - The creative potential of magical thinking, Fortean phenomena and
 parapsychological practices: crop circles, dowsing, residual haunting,
 remote viewing, geomancy.


 Proposals can be e-mailed to: thealchemicallandscape@gmail.com

 Deadline: 5th January 2015.

Please include a short biographical note with your submission.


 Conveners

Yvonne Salmon FRSA FRGS FRAI
Preceptor, Corpus Christi College
Lecturer, University of Cambridge
www.eviesalmon.com

 James Riley FRSA
 Fellow of English
Corpus Christi College
University of Cambridge

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