insites – a notebook

‘Insites: a notebook’ is a limited edition (1500) artists’ book produced for the Royal Geographical Society & Institute of British Geographers Annual Conference 2009.

Insites is a critical reflection on geographical ways of knowing emerging from a collaboration between artist, Annie Lovejoy and geographer, Harriet Hawkins.

Developed during Harriet’s residency within the Caravanserai project at Treloan in Cornwall, the notebook attempts to make visible the processes of responsive arts practice, weaving together the meshwork of relations that arise from ‘being’ in a place.

For Harriet to be ‘geographer-in-residence’ was to have the opportunity to think amidst creative occupations of place, to critique the concept of ‘residency’ in the context of terms such as dwelling, duration, mobility, community and connectivity.

NEWS UPDATE 2013

The central project caravanserai and the collaborative production of insites: a notebook are the subject of a chapter On residency and collaboration in Harriet Hawkin’s recent Routledge publication – For Creative Geographies:Geography, Visual Arts and the Making of Worlds.

Hawkins, H. 2013. Insites: On residency and collaboration in For Creative Geographies: Geography, Visual Arts and the Making of Worlds. Routledge pp153-180

for further information see PDF(s):

overview (162KB)

Through its production of a particular place,Roseland Peninsula, Cornwall, UK, insites opens up critical space for the discussion of geographical knowledges. It aims to explore different ways of knowing place, the collaborative process and the potential value of creative cultural practice in considering geographical ways of knowing.

insites part 1 (2.6MB)

The first half of the book asks us where we are, but suggests that the map does not tell us everything about the place. It juxtaposes the conventions of the map with experiential encounters and fragmented narratives – a bricolage of knowings about a place.

insites part 2 (2.3MB)

The second half of the book concerns itself with practice. A way of thinking about responsive arts practice is through an understanding of ‘context’ as the weaving together (‘con’ with and ‘textere’ to weave) of the relational aspects of place.

With its gaps and slippages, the book is intentionally unfinished.

The book is an active object of enquiry, it is both aesthetic and functional – its blank pages offering space for input in recogniton of the evolving nature of the practice upon which it reflects.

Stories and myths trace routes through the landscape,

historical roots both personal and political, tensions in ownership of the land and property abound.

There is a tendency..

…to think of the caravan site as somewhere where people are in motion and transient and the village as static and continuous.

However, this easy distinction, which brings with it a politics of belonging and identity, is disrupted by the many layers of community in which people come and go, stay for different amounts of time either through desire or need, and are differently in motion through the site and the village – with different trajectories.

Combined with this are the vicissitudes of the weather and the rhythm of the tides, structuring activities and everyday life.

the pure subject of art: certainly the word ‘art’ has come to signify so many things that it no longer signifies anything. It has become a particularly confusing ‘objective’ fixation to mix up the ‘objects of art’ with the subject ‘art’. Robert Irwin,

The second half of the book concerns itself with practice. A way of thinking about responsive arts practice is through an understanding of ‘context’ as the weaving together (‘con’ with and ‘textere’ to weave) of the relational aspects of place. Within this in-habited weave ‘art’ as a process of ‘doing’ is implicitly philosophical … and made explicit as past ‘doings’ evolve into current understandings and explorations.

The partnership with Pete & Debs has evolved through being at Treloan in dialogue with them and engaging in collective action such as starting an allotment on site.

The garden has sustained hospitality throughout, its produce working its way onto the tables of our resident guests, or shared at fireside sessions and village events. It is within this atmoshere of generosity and trust that practitioners have been invited to work and local residents and vistors have been inspired to participate.

Ecology and sustainablitiy are at the heart of Caravanserai – reciprocity, immersion, invitation, and hospitality give the project its emergent properties. This is the ‘art’ of Caravanserai – reflective of it’s meaning as a place where caravans or companies of people meet –a place of shared exchange and conviviality.