3
In 1968
Robert Smithson
commented:
‘One’s mind and earth are in a constant state of erosion, mental rivers
wear away abstract banks, brain waves undermine cliffs of thought,
ideas decompose into stones of unknowing and conceptual
Whether we wish to control,
crystallisations break apart into deposits of gritty reason.’
understand, retreat from, or move
through the water to overcome its
otherness, it seems that we must
imagine cultural interactions with
water that bring together
Wordsworth in apoplexy. This is not just an artistic utopia. The project
participation, ecology, society and
exemplifies the new spirit of inter-disciplinary working with
climatologists, ecologists, artists and architects coming together to
even politics.
create possible futures outside of the normal framework of
environmental management.
What if, instead of retreat, we could envisage the life aquatic, where
bathing in the regulated safety of a chlorinated municipal pool becomes
the daily commute? Amy Sharrock’s work SWIM (2007) was inspired by
the 1968 film The Swimmer starring Burt Lancaster. Based on John
Cheever’s indictment of suburban vacuousness, it is the story of a man
who decides to swim home through his Californian neighbours’ luxury
swimming pools. Sharrock’s work involved 50 participants in swimming
caps and costumes who boarded buses, ran, walked and swam across
London through its pools, visiting Tooting Bec Lido, the Serpentine and
Hampstead Heath swimming ponds.
Whether we wish to control, understand, retreat from, or move
through the water to overcome its otherness, it seems that we must
imagine cultural interactions with water that bring together
participation, ecology, society and even politics. ‘Immersion’ is a project
that aims to do just that. Funded by the Bright Sparks programme, set
up by Landscape Arts and Network Services, this research project took
as its supposition the idea that leisure, usually painted as a threat to
environments, could be used to combat ecological degradation.
The research in partnership with the Marine Institute in Plymouth
and Childs Sulzmann architects, combined themes of invasive
biological threats, overfishing and the need for new aquacultural
practice. Closely aligned with Defra’s ‘Invasive Non-Native Species
transcend the usual notice board and trail syndrome. Mick Petts’ work Framework Strategy for Great Britain’ it proposes the regeneration of
for the Wildlife and Wetlands Reserve at Penclacwydd in 2000, the disused lidos as facilities for the containment of non-native species,
Heron’s Wing Gateway Hide, consists of a series of human scale swan’s aquaculture centres, educational facilities on marine and riparian
nests, bird boxes and vole tunnels which visitors can enter, encouraging ecology, and diving and swimming centres. Through this strategy new
empathy with nature, as Petts says: ‘Reducing people down to a bird’s relationships have been generated between artists, scientists, land
size so they can experience the environment from their perspective.’ managers and communities, joining to form a holistic understanding
Interpretation is one way of breaking the surface tension between of land and waterscapes, that spans land and water, creating an
nature and culture. Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison immersive experience.
prophesy of a drowned Britain. Losing Ground; Gaining Wisdom(2008)
takes predictions of apocalyptic sea level rises and models them
through computer simulation to propose different strategies of defence
and retreat to high ground. The Harrisons also suggest new utopias of
high rise buildings for communal living on the mountainous spine of
*Alex Murdin is an artist and freelance curator.
Britain, a use of what are now mostly National Parks that would have
For further information visit www.ruralreceation.org.uk.
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