Languages of land as night draws in

This event—co-hosted by CUSP at the University of Surrey (UK) and Artsadmin, in partnership with The Bare Project and Lyth Arts Centre, as part of the 2021 ESRC Festival of Social Science—is designed for people who are interested in land justice, the role of language in our relationships with land, and arts-based approaches to research and activism.

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Whilst the COP26 conference was in full-swing in Glasgow, The Bare Project (a theatre and interactive arts company) and CUSP spent two weeks in the Highlands at Lyth Arts in Caithness, the UK’s most northernly mainland arts centre. Together with local crofters, foresters, artists, and young people, they questioned our ancient relationships with land, and how those relationships could help guide our future. While they were up there they discovered four giants, inspired by folklore, but created out of conversations and research into the more-than-mortal forces that control and shape our landscapes.

At this roundtable you will meet these four giants, hear their stories, and discuss how we can ourselves become giants, capable of building new, sustainable, and just landscapes. What do we need to play a more-than-mortal role in our landscapes? We will also be showcasing some early cuts of a film we are creating on this subject with filmmaker Regina Mosch.

Join us at 6pm on the 24th November for a film screening and online discussion about the project as we continue to ask these questions.

This piece is part of a broader project called The People’s Palace of Possibility, a long-form arts and permaculture project which began via the postal service during the lockdowns of 2020, and will culminate in a community-owned food forest in South Yorkshire. It is supported by the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP), Creative Carbon Scotland, and University of Glasgow. The piece we will be screening is directed by CUSP researcher Dr Malaika Cunningham, and forms part of her practice research residency with Artsadmin. The project is part of the Caithness and Sutherland Climate Beacon ‘The Land for Those That Work It’, part of Creative Carbon Scotland’s Climate Beacons programme.