Output details

Shifting Terrain: site responsive performance across international floodlands

Reflecting across the discourses of contemporary Theatre and Dance practice, Ecology, Environmental Science, and Geography, ‘Shifting Terrain’ is a cross disciplinary research project that interrogates the ways in which diverse knowledge systems can find parallels with emerging questions surrounding sustainability within the land, the body and their associated linguistics. The project responds to the wider Department initiative of collaborative arts practices that are centred around ‘Performing Ecologies’ and follows a composite, practice based directive, reflecting a range of embodied approaches that collate and disseminate performance practices across disciplines within the academy and wider professional field.

The research practices surrounding Shifting Terrain recognise a fundamental parallel between diverse ecological responses to floodlands throughout the UK and Australia which take into account scale, domestic narratives, climate impact and economic values. A series of practice based research outputs including an exhibition , the production of a dance film, an online symposium and workshop and four peer reviewed academic publications, all provide a responsive approach to the Department’s wider initiative of social and environmental justice, through a series of practical and performance projects that have widened definitions of environmental and artistic relationships, as illustrated visually as well as through academic address. Project outputs such as ‘Driftlines’ and ‘The Austerity Project’ continue to tour to international venues, demonstrating sustainable impact across diverse communities.