App preparation using the conceptual framework

The conceptual framework (p. 40) informed the preparation and creation of the Hayle Churks App. Methods identified in the Methodology chapter 4 (p. 84) – body-mind ‘field work’, body-mind research, gathering, journal reflections, drifting and collaging were used.

Approaches to landscape identified in Chapter 3 (p. 70), geopoetics, chorography and deep mapping, influenced the practice process.

To answer the research question, experiments were undertaken to move the participant through layers of immersion and shift the emphasis of embodiment to connect them with both the digital storyworld and physical landscape. Something occurs when digital

storyworld and physical landscape, immersion and embodiment, mind and body interact during locative media experiences, something I believe that can lead to connection to landscape.

6.3.1 Landscape

Elements of all three approaches to landscape were used in preparation of the app.

Geopoetics connected the app creator to the lines of the world through body-mind ‘field work,’ walking the site and then reflecting on it. Walking continued throughout the whole making and evaluation process and functioned as a way to connect to community (stopping to chat) as well as place. Walking or embodied investigation using the body-mind, included different approaches in all weathers and seasons, alone and with others. There was a methodical wandering along all paths, using different directions to challenge habitual actions, footwear (affecting not only warmth and comfort), and sound of the body as well (for example when wearing waterproofs). Then there was drifting. Letting the mind drift as the body drifted was encouraged to let deeper ideas surface and connect with

preoccupations in present working memory (Singer [1975 and 1978] cited in Gilhooly 2002:

210) when ‘alone and in a restful state’ (Gilhooly 2002: 196). Walking alone presents an ideal opportunity for daydreaming or ‘unstructured thought’ (Christoff 2014) that has been linked to creative thinking, problem-solving, increased wellbeing and life satisfaction (Christoff 2014). What brought the mind out of drifting was then of interest – the coconut scent of gorse or the sound of feathers being preened.

150 Inspired by Guy Debord’s Situationist International drifts and suggestions by artist

performer Phil Smith as the ‘Counter Tourist’ and his collaborations with Wrights & Sites, landscape ‘situations’ were set-up to open up new paths to knowing. For example, I walked a shape spotted in the landscape, followed a line, followed the flight of a butterfly.

On 2 June 2013 I participated in a geopoetics walk on the South Downs organised by the Scottish Centre of Geopoetics. Led by Alistair Duncan the walk aimed to

develop our poetic knowledge of the geology, natural history and human history of the rich human/natural landscape and explore some relaxed practices as we journey to deepen our experience of the landscape through our senses and our body-mind.

(Peters et al 2013:1)

Duncan’s geopoetic landscape practices, taught in a quiet copse, involved guiding attention away from a frontal focus to open up peripheral vision, walking gently without making noise or leaving a mark and focusing on quieter sounds such as the rustling of a leaf, rather than being distracted by more dominant sounds (summarised from journal reflections in 2013).

Geopoetic exercises were practiced during some of the site walks from this date which, like the ‘situations,’ broke up habitual routes and ways of moving and sensing. Moving quietly and slowly though landscape with senses alert led to embodied observation. Tuning into different use of the body opened it to an alternative experience of landscape from which knowledge and ideas for interaction emerged. Small sounds were brought up in the audio mix to change the balance of sound in the participants’ ears. Stereo and binaural sounds on both sides of the head stretched senses to the periphery.

Chorography inspired the body-mind research and gathering of myths from the site and people’s stories. Recorded oral histories were reviewed as well as tales and characters from before living memory, such as King Teudar, a medieval king of Cornwall who lived on the dunes above Hayle. He is said to have martyred Christians (to him, invaders) who sailed over from Ireland.

The writer writes herself into a chorographic piece on landscape. For the first evaluation my hand as creator was felt through the choice of stories and their location in the piece rather than writing myself in as narrator. My voice appears three times in the final published app.

Deep mapping encouraged a wider search of sources through body-mind research. There was drifting through the site with experts, sometimes recording, sometimes not. Knowledge and passion for their subject was walked and talked into the site. I gathered gossip as I moved around and visited different archive buildings and websites. Gossip is a relevant source in deep mapping and can open rich unexplored and contested stories of site. How one responds to gossip if it cannot be substantiated needs sensitivity. Collaging layered my walking by listening to others’ work using different headphones. Sometimes the recordings worked serendipitously with the new terrain. I recorded pertinent passages from books on landscape and my journal reflections and recorded memories and took them for a walk to embody the knowledge.

6.3.2 Immersion and embodiment

In addition to ‘landscape,’ the other elements of the conceptual framework are ‘immersion’

and ‘embodiment’. They are mentioned together as they interact with each other.

Provisional knowledge from reviewing others’ work suggested that too much immersion in the digital storyworld led to less embodiment in landscape and visa versa. How they could interact to connect the participant to landscape could be imagined but needed to be discovered through the practice. Early in the research and practice process the first evaluation was a way to test hypotheses and design decisions as well as gather data. To draw out answers to the research question, whether locative media can connect human to landscape, I formulated hypotheses around the independent variables of locating (fixing a particular story to place), memory versus scripted speech (delivery style), and narrative story versus oral history trace (whole story versus story remnant), as well as levels of immersion and embodiment. In the first evaluation sounds were assembled for different effect. Some stories were illustrated through sound that helped tell the story (local dare devil character Bill’s story). In other memories sound was used to create atmosphere (an Italian song about home for a PoW story). In others, the sound of the space of the interview was audible, teacups clinking and people chuckling at the Day Care Centre. How different sound effects and modes of address (narrator of Minnie’s Story, interviewee and ‘Counter Tourist’, for example) affected immersion, enjoyment and embodiment could come out in the questionnaire and through observation of participants.

152 To aid immersion, stories played to the end unless the participant paused or skipped them.

Minnie, the narrator of the seven-part script, was heard sometimes in one ear to encourage the participant to walk that way rather than interrupt the narrative with instructions on where to walk. A background loop of collaged ‘field work’ recordings was used to reassure that everything was working. Immersion was disrupted intentionally by ‘Counter Tourist’

interventions written and performed by Phil Smith. I recorded and included these to both interrupt immersion and to encourage embodiment by attention being directed to the physical site and thoughts about it.

Questions about the future of the site disturbed the immersive flow of oral histories as participants needed to stop and text their responses. Other interaction with the interface was through images. Would they aid imagination and therefore immersion and pull attention into features in the landscape and increase embodiment in the physical world?

More subtle immersion interruptions designed to encourage embodiment were included in the narrative, for example references to seeing a couple and certain boats that might or might not be visible when the walk was undertaken. The narrative also provided a way to encourage participants to look for landscape traces; a turning circle and a remnant of a piece of machinery from Harvey’s of Hayle were mentioned. Keeping the participant moving rather than having to stop and listen also encouraged embodiment in the material world.