Nature Writing Beyond the Page: Tracks, Traces, Trails

这个为期12个月的项目被设计为最初的“陆上线路”项目的直接后续项目，该项目从2017年4月到2019年3月，在两年的时间里获得资金，因此已进入最后阶段。汇集了利兹大学(主要合作伙伴)、苏塞克斯大学和圣安德鲁斯大学的研究人员，《陆线》的主要目的是绘制从18世纪末吉尔伯特·怀特的基础工作到现在的英国自然写作的历史。《陆地线》已经产生了广泛的影响，特别是通过2017年的民意调查发现了美国人最喜欢的自然书籍，据估计，全球媒体对这本书的报道达到了3000多万人。虽然后续项目的雄心较小，但它们仍然意义重大，即吸引新的受众，让英国自然写作充分利用其恢复与自然世界失去的联系的潜力。特别设想了两类受众：小学生，他们的感官可能是活的，但他们的阅读技能可能有限；老年人，他们虽然经常是狂热的读者，但缺乏与自然世界更直接互动的机会。后续项目旨在为这两个群体提供相互互动的机会，并在亲身体验当地自然环境的过程中，使他们充分感受到感官，同时也有助于将自然写在纸上。大自然也“书写”，该项目的目标之一是创造新的自然步道和其他方式来照亮自然环境和通常隐藏在其中的生物，使它们的运动(“书写”)可见，并使它们能够被跟踪和追踪，跨越空间，也跨越时间。重点将放在鸟类上，这是该项目最初研究的主要主题之一。后续项目的拟议活动(基于鸟类标记的踪迹、音频收听帖子等)将与鸟类学习材料相结合，其中一个亮点将是一本关于夜壶的插图书，由儿童与当地一位作家和插画家合作为儿童制作。夜壶是夜间活动的动物，后续项目的另一个目标是让看不见的东西变得可见，从简单的灯笼点亮的自然小径到Son et Lumiere的盛大表演。盛大的结局将是2020光之夜利兹的一个壮观的装置，它将以项目过程中创作的作品为基础，在巨大的公共屏幕上为相当大的观众(约8.5万人)呈现委托艺术。这些活动和其他活动将有一个地区重点。主要活动地点将是自然英格兰约克郡的两个自然保护区，分别位于下德温特山谷(LDV)和洪伯黑德泥炭地(HH)，而该项目将由最初的陆上线路团队的两名利兹成员监督。然而，这并不是说该项目的范围只限于当地；相反，它的活动和产出旨在反映我们当前环境危机的全球层面。正如英国《自然》杂志所做的那样，这项工作跨越了不同的层面--地方、地区、国家、全球、地球--敦促我们考虑重新将人们与他们的自然环境联系起来的新方法，从而让他们洞察到在现在被压倒性地接受为生态威胁的世界中保护自然环境的重要性。因此，该项目强调向儿童伸出援手，增强他们在关心我们共享的地球方面的代理感；因此，该项目的目标也是将他们与老年人联系起来，老年人对自然世界有丰富的故事，他们--以及我们--可以向他们学习。

This 12-month project is designed as a direct follow-on to the original 'Land Lines' project, which was funded over 2 years from April 2017 to March 2019 and is consequently in its final stage. Bringing together researchers based at the University of Leeds (lead partner), the University of Sussex, and the University of St Andrews, the main aim of 'Land Lines' has been to chart the history of British nature writing from the foundational work of Gilbert White in the late eighteenth century to the present day. 'Land Lines' has already generated extensive impact, notably through its 2017 poll to discover the nation's favourite nature book, the media coverage of which is estimated to have reached over 30 million people worldwide. While the ambitions of the follow-on project are more modest, they are still significant, namely to engage new audiences for British nature writing that make good on its potential to restore lost connections to the natural world. Two types of audience in particular are envisaged: primary schoolchildren, whose senses may be alive but whose reading skills may be limited; and older adults who, though often avid readers, lack opportunities for more direct interactions with the natural world. The follow-on project aims to provide opportunities for these two groups to interact with one another and, in experiencing local natural environments first-hand, to make them fully animate to the senses while also helping to bring nature writing off the page. Nature also 'writes', and one of the aims of the project is to create new nature trails and other ways of illuminating natural environments and the creatures often hidden within them, making their movements ('writings') visible and enabling them to be tracked and traced, across space but also across time. The emphasis will be on birds, one of the primary subjects of the project's original research. The follow-on project's proposed activities (trails based on bird-tagging, audio listening posts, etc.) will be combined with learning materials on birds, a highlight of which will be an illustrated book on the nightjar, produced by children for children in collaboration with a local writer and illustrator. Nightjars are nocturnal creatures, and a further aim of the follow-on project will be to 'make the invisible visible', ranging from simple lantern-lit nature trails to a son et lumiere extravaganza. The grand finale will be a spectacular installation at 2020 Light Night Leeds, which will feature commissioned art based on work produced during the course of the project, 'writ large' for a sizeable audience (approximately 85,000 people) on giant public screens. These and other events will have a regional focus. The primary activity sites will be two of Natural England's Yorkshire-based nature reserves, at Lower Derwent Valley (LDV) and Humberhead Peatland (HH), while the project will be overseen by the two Leeds-based members of the original 'Land Lines' team. This isn't to say, however, that the project is 'just' local in scope; on the contrary, its activities and outputs are designed to reflect on the global dimensions of our current environmental crisis. This works, as British nature writing does, across different levels -- local, regional, national, global, planetary -- enjoining us to consider new ways of reconnecting people with their natural surroundings, thereby giving them insight into the importance of protecting natural environments in what is now overwhelmingly accepted as being an ecologically threatened world. Hence the project's emphasis on reaching out to children, empowering their sense of agency in caring for our shared planet; but hence also its aim of connecting them with older adults, who have rich stories about the natural world from which they -- and we -- can learn.