Spectacle and Performance in the designed landscapes of eighteenth-century Britain

我的博士项目考虑了18世纪社会的更高阶层将他们的风景作为娱乐和娱乐的令人印象深刻的空间的无数方式。这项研究项目将探索18世纪英国乡村别墅景观中的奇观和表演的性质。这将涉及评估1740年至1820年期间在设计景观中对景观概念的更多关注如何有助于理解乡村庄园作为精英文化和国家文化的空间和舞台。我将突出乡村庄园和城市中心的设计景观，以考虑以灯光表演和数字或模拟海军战斗的形式进行壮观的展示，以将乡村住宅文化与商业和大都市娱乐形式重新结合。这将是对艺术和海洋奇观在18世纪渗透到流行文化和精英文化中的程度的前瞻调查。我的研究将位于社会、文化和艺术史、海洋历史研究和文学研究的交叉点上，展示了在与景观和表演有关的研究领域进行跨学科研究的价值。该项目将把这些空间视为提供新的文化和艺术发展历史的途径。此外，它的资源基础将包括不列颠群岛上的一系列房屋和景观，以便仔细考虑奇观的表演所鼓励的跨越地理边界的政治和文化影响。

My doctoral project considers the myriad of ways that the higher echelons of eighteenth-century society used their landscapes as impressive spaces in which to entertain and amuse themselves. This research project will explore the nature of spectacle and performance in British country house landscapes during the eighteenth century. This will involve evaluating how a greater attention to the concept of spectacle in designed landscapes between 1740 and 1820 can contribute to understanding country estates as spaces and stages of elite, and national, culture. I will foreground the designed landscapes of country estates and urban centres in tandem to consider spectacular displays in the form of light shows and numachiae, or mock naval battles, to reintegrate country house culture with commercial and metropolitan forms of entertainment. This will foreground investigation into the extent to which artistic and maritime spectacle permeates both popular and elite culture in the eighteenth century. My research will sit within intersections between social, cultural and art history, maritime historical studies and literary studies demonstrating the value of pursuing an interdisciplinary study across research fields concerned with spectacle and performance. The project will consider these spaces as avenues through which to offer new histories of culture and artistic development. Furthermore, its resource base will include a range of houses and landscapes across the British Isles, allowing for careful consideration of the political and cultural influences that the performance of spectacle encouraged across geographical boundaries.