Robert Macfarlane article in The Guardian

Our colleague Robert Macfarlane has written an evocative article for the Guardian looking at much of the territory covered by The Alchemical Landscape. Published as part of the Guardian's ongoing series on landscape, The Eeriness of the English Countryside cites several of the artists and writers who participated in and attended the event such as English Heretic and Adam Scovell (among others). The symposium is covered in part of the essay as are James Riley's thoughts on the role of contemporary crisis within occulture and the wider geographic turn. It was good to speak with Robert earlier in the year as he was preparing the article and we were organising the symposium. 

Its been interesting to see some of the responses to the article. There's a post over at Sound Mirrors that makes links to Beckett and a few other artists of within the field. Brian Baker at SF 365 has also posted an excellent critical response to both Robert's article and the Alchemical Landscape symposium. Brian was one of our presenters who delivered a brilliant paper on Alan Garner. In his post, 'Landscape and (science) (fiction) (fantasy)', Brian rightly reflects on a number of the issues that arose in the open forum sessions during the symposium and which arguably emerged as meta-narratives as the day went on. Certainly the entanglement of geography, gender and nationhood; the frequently ambiguous intersection of identity, 'home' and ideology as well as the politics of place are all issues that we are keen to elucidate and interrogate as the project develops.