Performing Landscapes: Mountains

几千年来，山脉与艺术和审美表现模式有着内在的联系。从阿卡迪亚的古希腊转化仪式，到喜马拉雅山脉的指定仪式，再到安第斯山脉的祭祀仪式，山脉的地形、视觉冲击和偏远都鼓励了复杂的基于表演的行为的发展。自从1336年（1898:307-20）第一次记录了对彼特拉克的反思以来，登山者们把他们的经历写成了散文和诗歌，在周围的地形和他们自己的内心寻求意义。1786年首次攀登勃朗峰后，阿尔卑斯山脉被开放，这一山脉的“史前”（Frison-Rouche and Jouty 1996: 17）被蓬勃发展的登山活动和随之而来的文学所取代。对山的创造性反应涵盖了美术、文学、诗歌、音乐和电影等多种艺术形式，在19世纪和20世纪的山美学和批评运动中占有重要地位。然而，值得注意的是，没有大量文献研究山脉的戏剧性——考虑到山脉、仪式和戏剧之间的古老连接点，以及山脉在多大程度上激发了作家和艺术家在传统剧院空间和最近的山区环境中创作表演，这是一个奇怪的悖论：NVA (the Storr, 2005)；Simon Piasecki（《夜航计划》，2006）；路易斯·安·威尔逊（Fissure, 2011; Y Helfa, 2014; Warnscale, 2015）；斯普林和斯蒂芬斯（再见，高利山，2014）玛丽亚·弗斯科（大师岩石，2015）。通过出版专著，创作一部新的山地表演作品（与博士后研究员合作），几次公共活动以及通过研讨会建立一个新的跨学科网络，该奖学金旨在解决山地研究中的这一空白，首次全面批评山地如何被利用为表演场所，在戏剧文学中表现，以及它们自己如何“表演”。在对地球的开发利用中，山脉是最明显的受害者之一，无论是硬工业（例如山顶移除的做法）还是软生态旅游（游客攀登珠穆朗玛峰和其他“标志性”山峰的影响）。他们继续吸引着媒体的极大兴趣，许多登山者享有名人地位，与他们在山地电影中的演员一样。在社交媒体的推动下，这种能见度对山区环境来说是福也是祸；一方面，它提高了人们对山景独特性和保护需求的认识，另一方面，它建立了参与者对这些景观的直接体验的期望，鼓励长途旅行，并在微妙的平衡环境中增加客流量。该项目专注于行为、空间、心理和技术，旨在为艺术观众和户外爱好者提高对山区环境挑战的认识，与项目合作伙伴肯德尔山地节合作，并利用山地节网络（威廉堡、兰贝里斯以及加拿大班夫和贾斯珀的国际）传播研究成果。总而言之，该奖学金将开展和传播研究，以发展对戏剧和表演与山区文化和登山之间关系的新理解。它将利用基于表现的历史和具体的知识来扩展我们对特定社区如何与山脉互动、价值和调解的理解，并提出我们与高地不断变化的关系的基本问题。

For thousands of years mountains have been intrinsically connected to modes of artistic and aesthetic performance. From ancient Greek transformation rituals in Arcadia, through designated ceremonies in the Himalayas, to sacrificial rites in the Andes, the topography, visual impact and remoteness of mountains have encouraged complex performance-based behaviours to develop. Since the first documented reflection of Petrarch in 1336 (1898: 307-20), mountain climbers have translated their experiences into prose and poetry, seeking meaning in the surrounding topography and within themselves. This mountain 'prehistory' (Frison-Rouche and Jouty 1996: 17) was superseded by a flourishing of mountain activity and its accompanying literature once the Alps were opened up after the first ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786. Creative responses to mountains have covered several art forms with fine art, literature, poetry, music and film figuring strongly in the movement of C19th and C20th mountain aesthetics and criticism. Notably absent, though, is a body of literature examining the theatricality of mountains - a curious paradox given the ancient connection points between mountains, ritual and theatre and the extent to which mountains have inspired writers and artists to produce performances both within traditional theatre spaces and much more recently in mountain environments themselves: NVA (The Storr, 2005); Simon Piasecki (The Nightflight project, 2006); Louise Ann Wilson (Fissure, 2011, Y Helfa, 2014, Warnscale, 2015); Sprinkle and Stephens (Goodbye Gauley Mountain, 2014) Maria Fusco (Master Rock, 2015). Through the production of a monograph, the creation of a new piece of mountain performance (working with a Post Doctoral Research Fellow), several public events and the inauguration of a new interdisciplinary network via a symposium, this fellowship seeks to address this lacuna in mountain studies, delivering the first comprehensive critique of how mountains are exploited as sites for performance, are represented in dramatic literature, and how they themselves 'perform'.Mountains are one of the most visible victims in the exploitation of the planet, both in terms of hard industry (the practice of Mountain Top Removal, for instance) and softer eco-tourism (the impact of tourist climbing on Everest and other 'signature' peaks). They continue to attract enormous interest from the media and many climbers enjoy celebrity status, equal to that of their acting counterparts in mountain films. This visibility, fuelled by social media, is a blessing and a curse for mountain environments; on the one hand it raises awareness of the uniqueness of mountainscapes and the need to preserve them and on the other it builds expectations of participants' direct experience of those landscapes, encouraging long-haul travel and increasing footfall in delicately balanced environments. Focusing on behaviour, space, psychology and technology, the project seeks to raise significant awareness of the challenges to mountain environments, both for arts-based audiences and outdoor enthusiasts, collaborating with the project partner Kendal Mountain Festival and disseminating research findings using the mountain festival network (Fort William, Llanberis and internationally in Banff and Jasper, Canada). In sum, this fellowship will carry out and disseminate research that develops a new understanding of the relationship of theatre and performance to mountain culture and mountaineering. It will harness performance-based histories and embodied knowledges to expand our understanding of how specific communities interact with, value, and mediate mountains, asking fundamental questions of our changing relationship to high places.