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

http://thealchemicallandscape.blogspot.co.uk/