The Future Contemporary

Inquiries into Visual, Performing, and Media Arts

Enchanted Cutaway: Nurturing Imaginations through Regrowth and Remembrance in the Altered Landscape of the Weald (UK)

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Abstract
This study traces the impacts the iron industry of the Weald (UK), called Cutaway wood. It emphasises that the sixteenth century, which spanned the boom of the industry in the UK, also saw the greatest impacts of enclosure upon the landscape, the scientific revolution strip life down to its basic elements, and religious theory manifest notions of supernature. All of which created space for a burgeoning industrial capitalism to exploit natures resources. These capitalist abstractions haunt the present, forming a psychological hurdle as we try to visualise a new world. In this article I argue that rekindling a connection to land through visitation may help to reorient our diminished capacities for envisioning solutions to the climate crisis.


open access

Submitted: Oct. 3, 2023 | Published Dec. 14, 2023 | Language: en

Keywords Extraction • Woodland • Imagining otherwise • Coppice • Visitation

Copyright © 2023 Sam Risley. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-756-2/005


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