Even in cities, encounters with the countryside texture our daily routines. Whether we buy an organic chicken sandwich at lunch-time, wash our clothes in ‘Meadow Fresh’ fabric conditioner, or daydream about escaping the pressures of modern living amid the beauty, fresh air and tranquility of the countryside, popular perceptions of the rural permeate our lives. Yet, how do such bucolic notions hold up against reality? How, and through which processes, are rural mythologies perpetuated? How might binary perceptions of ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ serve particular cultural, economic and political agendas, and what role does imagination play within social constructions of the countryside?

We propose to explore these questions by convening an interdisciplinary seminar, which will bring artists and geographers together with other creative practitioners and researchers, from different cultural backgrounds, who share an interest in ‘the rural’. We invite papers, presentations of artworks, short films, performances and readings, which challenge preconceptions about the contemporary countryside by engaging with the complexities and contradictions of specific rural places. In particular, we aim to examine how imagination and creative work, as a means of exploration and documentation, can produce new forms of geographical knowledge, which promote more complex and generative interpretations of rural environments.

Session organisers: Elaine Speight (University of Central Lancashire), Rosemary Shirley (Manchester Metropolitan University), Joanne Lee (Nottingham Trent University), Rebecca Chesney (independent artist).

To submit a proposal for the seminar, please complete the online form: https://www.frens.info/site/tmpl/reg9_abs_1028.php The deadline for proposals is 15th November 2014. For more information, please visit: http://www.tlu.ee/en/NGM2015/Conference-information or e-mail Elaine Speight: [email protected]