Field notes from the edge

<p dir="ltr"><i>Field Notes from the Edge</i> is a creative investigation through a lens-based practice responding to an overarching framework of edge-worlds and the Anthropocene by investigating two specific northern and southern peripheral island sites: Spitsbergen (Svalbard, Norway) and <i>Iutruwita</i>/Tasmania (Australia). The project contends that the two polar opposite sites present unique spatial temporal experiences of edge-worlds through their ecological ‘aesthetics’ of remoteness and powerful natural environments while concurrently the convergence of human industrial activity is marking their topography. <br>The thesis considers the need for a ‘more-than-green’ aesthetic realisation of ecology to better comprehend the messy, polychromatic world in which we are enmeshed. While ‘green’ can be easily interpreted in the context of the southern <i>Iutruwita</i>/Tasmanian environment, it is not the case for the northern Arctic Svalbard. The fact that Svalbard is turning greener is of deep concern. <br>Theories from across the fields of eco-theory, aesthetics, media studies and human and environmental philosophy are explored to support conceptual ideas and concepts arising from the research process. Networks are identified and linked through their binary sensation; including the edge, the glance, melancholy, the uncanny and affect. This is creatively tested alongside ideas around time and scale – both considered inherent within the photographic medium and the concept of the Anthropocene. <br>As a person of remote northern Norwegian origin, my lived understanding of places at the edge of the world informs the methodological approach to the field work and the ensuing studio research in this project. This is framed by Edward S Casey’s concept of practicing peri-phenomenology (being open to the edges of things). I propose that due to their peri-phenomenological disposition, these north and south edge locations encourage a heightened phenomenological openness to the environment; one that delivers an intensified consciousness of the human/more-than-human entanglement. The creative outcome interrogates the findings from the field trips and the correlating studio research through an expanded photographic approach, to deliver an exegesis and a body of artistic works that reveal unique insight to edge-worlds in the shadow of the Anthropocene.</p>