Contextual Essay Plan

Since researching the sources I want to reference in the last post about my contextual essay, I've begun planning out each paragraph and how to create continuity through the essay. This will be done by covering each area like environmental impact, social and influences in the media, art history and other artists and books I want to reference. In covering many perspectives, I want to evaluate my findings at the end and come to a more defined answer based on my research and understanding of the theme. Below I've categorised each area into bullet points so it will be easier to work through.

The idea of the boundaries being blurred, less definition between the countryside and city as edgelands becomes a blanket term for the areas in the middle, areas we most commonly drive through. Edgelands book was created to glorify these areas and assess different viewpoints from artists and speakers.

In the book 'Ecocriticism and Geocriticism' (Tally Jr and Battista, 2016), this idea is discussed, questioning how our perceptions of 'Edgelands' have been conceptualised through generations, without it even registering in the dictionary. 

'Somehow we know immediately the meaning of “Edgelands.” The word evokes zones where overspill housing estates peter out or factories give way to black fields or scrubland; where unkempt areas become home to allotments, mobile-phone masts, sewage works, cooling towers, dens, places of forgetting, dumping and landfill.' (Frances Spalding, 2011)

“Somewhere in the hollows and spaces between our carefully-managed wilderness areas and the creeping, flattening effects of global capitalism, there are still places where an overlooked England truly exists; … complicated, unexamined places that thrive on disregard.”

 -Edited extract from "Edgelands: Journeys Into England's True Wilderness.

Question Ideas:

• The curiosity surrounding Edgelands and how our perception of them is altered/and the impacts humans have on such fragile environments
• Edgelands through history, and the social and environmental issues that follow
• How our depiction of Edgelands has evolved
• Altered by depictions through art history, media and social impacts, how has the perception of Edgelands become such a prominent part of today's world.
• The curiosity of Edgelands, led by a lust for the past and present industrious landscape 
• How our perception of Edgelands have been altered through time

Introduction

• Should talk about the purpose of this essay, the curiosity surrounding suburban wastelands and Edgelands, how everyone knows the perception and connotations of the word without it even being registered in the dictionary. 
• Summarise areas I want to cover, with reference to how Edgelands have been perceived through history, media, impacts of tv references.
• Quote from Edgelands: Journeys Into England's True Wilderness. The book starts by describing the writer's interpretation of Edgelands and how we all connect to such a landscape; leaving the city via a busy motorway and turning off onto a quieter side street or country lane, marking the territory between the city and the countryside. Whether it's a maze of industrial plants, streets in the suburbs or a singular house bordering rolling fields, in Farley and Roberts's eyes, these areas all have ties to the term 'Edgeland'. It's a concept born through curiosity for these areas and how we perceive them, even without a dictionary definition to abide by. Left wondering 'How did I get here?', it's that journey that defines Edgelands, the sights you see, the way people act, how the landscape shifts and how your emotions are altered by this shift. While the concept is vague and open to interpretation, the same image will appear in our imaginations. 
• 'Time and time again, we found a place that is as difficult to pin down as poetry, but like poetry, you'd know it when you saw it. Realities of these places and how they make you feel, there's a familiarity that almost makes them appear safe. 
• 'Somewhere in the hollows and spaces between our carefully-managed wilderness areas and the creeping, flattening effects of global capitalism, there are still places where an overlooked England truly exists...unexamined places that thrive on disregard, if we could only put aside our nostalgia for places we've never really known and see them afresh'. (Farley and Symmons Roberts, 2012).

Environment Paragraph

• Look at environmental issues- how we can set a good example. became accustomed to these sights, became the norm. We need to question whether this is bad for new generations, will they see this as normal? It's our responsibility to teach them to preserve the environment and show the importance of protecting our 'Edgelands'. Hope for the future.
• Environmental impact, find a statistic maybe, Bernd and Hilla Becher's desire to preserve history before it went into disrepair.
• Areas between the city and countryside that somehow manage to eat into each, spreading like wildfire around the UK. They are becoming increasingly noticeable in the inner cities, making it hard to define the suburbs from the centre. Could link to Covid 19 with sightings of animals moving in, deer spotted in nature- could this be nature's way of taking a stand and making us more aware of the negative impacts were having on their habitats? The city becomes a refuge for wildlife driven out of 'an increasingly inhospitable countryside.
• Show Jean-Marc Bustamante's images of derelict car parks overrun with vegetation. Curiosity about such areas, the subject of photographers and photoshoots. How did these areas become trendy? Why is it that we find them so interesting; is it the reassurance of a place not being perfect, more about looking inwardly and reflecting one's imperfections on an area. 
• Common ground for viewers bringing a sense of reality and common ground (more engaging as they can visualise it as appose to Monaco or Paris streets), photoshoots appear more grounded and bring light to such areas- changing our perceptions of back alleys/industrial plants, landfills, apartment blocks etc. 
• Untapped potential, cities are ever-changing and overflowing with people, need for parking and accommodation, could be used better, in turn making more money for future regeneration while decreasing the chance of areas going into disrepair, association with crime. 

Social Paragraph

• How edgelands are perceived in the media/tv. Turn on the news and you are greeted with a crime scene with all the usual iconography of police tape and a suburban cul-de-sac. The idea that it's almost normalised and what we have been accustomed to. Is this due to the rise in technology and the fact we are constantly bombarded with negativity in the news? The two often go hand-in-hand which adds to their reputation.
• Abandoned places book shows Henk Van Rensbergen's motives for visiting and photographing industrious places, 'For me, the challenge in photography was not simply to record what was there to see, but to reproduce the atmosphere: the tension, the complexity, the philosophical questions, the emotions and the surprises these places would have in store'. (Rensbergen, 2007)
• Robin Friend is a London-based award-winning photographer who grew up in Melbourne, Australia. 'Bastard Countryside' (Friend and Macfarlane, 2018) is an explorative collection of photographs collated over 15 years. Friend unapologetically presents a raw, unedited portrayal of the British countryside, showing the negative impacts of human and digital evolution. The wastelands that are left behind and how a trail of animals suffering is scattered across the landscape. 'Moments in which the expected narrative of the landscape is rudely interrupted.' (Loose Joints Publishing, 2022); a phrase used to describe the book that is poignant and summarises both the book's identity/perception and its relation to the reality of our country. 
• How much suffering is caused by our mundane activities? Do we realise the impacts of everyday life; the extent of poor recycling habits and littering can cause. The images highlight Friend's (craving) for use to change. In hopes that these images with provoke an emotional response and make you question the harsh realities of our current landscape and how much impact with singularly have. 

TV/Movie Paragraph

• Movies' portrayal of leaving the city, seeing how the landscape changes, reference Wall-e and how art directors use colour stories to create harmony through a movie but also have a way to show atmospheres changing. The colours mimic the storyline and create continuity between cinematography and narrative. In Wall-E, the earth is dusty and forgotten, much like Bernd and Hilla Bechers photographs it shows the colour drain from a landscape, making it appear solemn/sober. The influence of colour can be so important in creating an atmosphere-link to past artists. While the landscape appears to be abandoned, there are signs of human impact in the manmade structures in the towering skyline and landfill sites. A common feature of the enormity and scale of these structures, almost like skyscrapers themselves, industrial structures have equal impact on purposely placed buildings.
• Cities have been forgotten and left in ruins. Links to the idea of a dystopian landscape, how movies reconstruct these landscapes using familiar iconography like cars, skips, neglected buildings, rubble, overgrown vegetation, incorporating signs of humans leaving in a hurry. This could be interesting to link to my photos, looking at real-life compared to film sets/ reconstructions.
• Has this added to our curiosity for industrious landscapes seeing it more in the media? Visiting a new place such as Prague and being able to tell the cities outskirts from centre, seeing each as different landscapes as they are regarded in different lights. Could be interesting to look at people's perspectives of 'Edgelands', why they exist and how we associate with them. Could be regarded as unsafe, unknown territory as it's mainly unowned, people feel safer in the inner city. 
• Positive or negatively impacted our perception of these places?
• Made to fear them or add to curiosity, could be seen in both lights. Younger children are led to fear them, the darkness is almost a warning sign, a message not to trespass while older generations see the curiosity and want to explore. Full of life and driven by a lust for adventure, finding something that shouldn't be in the wild. 

References:

Farley, P. and Symmons Roberts, M., 2012. Edgelands: Journeys Into England's True Wilderness. Bath, England: Random House, p.10.

Frances Spalding, Review of Edgelands: Journeys into England’s True Wilderness, by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts, The Independent, February 25, 2011.

Tally Jr, R. and Battista, C., 2016. Ecocriticism and Geocriticism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.77/78.

Rensbergen, H., 2007. Abandoned places. [Belgium]: Lannoo, p.6.

Bristow, T., 2016. Affective Edgelands: Wildness, History, and Technology in Britain’s Postindustrial and Postnatural Topographies. [online] Springer Link. Available at: <https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137542625_5> [Accessed 27 February 2022].

Shoard, M., 2013. Edgelands of Promise. [online] Taylor & Francis. Available at: <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/lan.2000.1.2.74> [Accessed 27 February 2022].

Google Books. 2022. Edgelands: Journey into England's True Wilderness. [online] Available at: <https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Rlf07TWw0JkC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&ots=Ir0NHQxfRA&sig=cwRjw_ikKDK-q2sNXdmWSRuHYf0&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false> [Accessed 27 February 2022].

Loose Joints Publishing. 2022. Robin Friend - Bastard Countryside. [online] Available at: <https://loosejoints.biz/products/bastard-countryside> [Accessed 27 February 2022].

Friend, R. and Macfarlane, R., 2018. Bastard countryside. Loose Joints.