Performing Landscapes: Mountains

几千年来，山与艺术和美学表现模式有着内在的联系。从阿卡迪亚的古希腊转化仪式，到喜马拉雅山的指定仪式，再到安第斯山脉的祭祀仪式，地形、视觉冲击和山脉的偏远鼓励了复杂的基于表演的行为的发展。自1336年彼特拉克的第一次有记载的反思（1898：307-20）以来，登山者将他们的经历翻译成散文和诗歌，在周围的地形和自己身上寻找意义。这座山的“史前史”（Frison-Rouche and Jouty 1996：17）被1786年首次登上勃朗峰后阿尔卑斯山被开辟后，山上活动的繁荣及其伴随的文学所取代。在19世纪和20世纪的山岳美学和批评运动中，对山岳的创造性回应涵盖了美术、文学、诗歌、音乐和电影等多种艺术形式。然而，值得注意的是，没有一部文学作品研究了山脉的戏剧性--这是一个奇怪的悖论，因为山脉、仪式和戏剧之间的古老联系，以及山脉在多大程度上激发了作家和艺术家在传统戏剧空间和最近在山区环境中进行表演。（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）.通过制作一部专著，创作一部新的山地表演小品（与博士后研究员合作），几个公共活动和通过研讨会新的跨学科网络的就职典礼，该奖学金旨在解决山区研究中的这一空白，首次全面批判山区如何被利用作为表演场地，在戏剧文学中表现出来，山脉是地球开发中最明显的受害者之一，无论是在硬工业（例如山顶移除的做法）还是软生态旅游（游客攀登珠峰和其他“标志性”山峰的影响）方面。他们继续吸引着媒体的巨大兴趣，许多登山者享有名人地位，与他们在山地电影中的表演同行不相上下。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，它提高了人们对山区景观独特性和保护这些景观的必要性的认识，另一方面，它建立了参与者对直接体验这些景观的期望，鼓励长途旅行，增加在微妙平衡的环境中的步行量。该项目以行为、空间、心理和技术为重点，力求提高艺术观众和户外爱好者对山区环境挑战的认识，与项目伙伴肯达尔山地节合作，并利用山地节网络（威廉堡、兰卡斯特和国际上的班夫和加拿大碧玉）传播研究成果。总之，该奖学金将开展和传播研究，开发戏剧和表演与山区文化和登山运动的关系的新认识。它将利用基于绩效的历史和具体的知识来扩大我们对特定社区如何与山脉互动，价值和调解山脉的理解，询问我们与高处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 This mountain 'prehistory' (Frison-Rouche and Jouty 1996: 17) was superseded by a flourishing of mountain activity and its accompanying literature once the Alps were opened up after the first ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786.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.