and even sculpted in wood and burnt on the fire. Inviting people to share their knowledge and expertise (campsitevisitors and local residents) opens the project to increased engagement and participation. Creating opportunities for others is a generous activity that spawns wider networks of involvement and potential for future collaboration. Extended collaborative projects have arisen from these inhabitations or have been generated through the relational encounters and shared experiences that have occurred.
Fig. 79. Mac Dunlop. a smile left hanging in the air. Fig. 80 Alyson Hallett. tread softly…
As a poet my work has been quickly integrated into the fabric of place: also, the sited work looks as if it has always been there, as if it was meant to be there. This is the joy of caravanserai. It invites anyone and everyone to creatively connect with the
ongoing, ever-changing nature of landscape (Alyson Hallett, writer-in-residence, August 2009).
GENEROUS and OPEN-ENDED: the work is generous in its inclusivity and open to influence from all who partake in the various activities and events. Although many of
the activities happen on the campsite they are accessible to outsiders, and are advertised locally and on the website.30 Events, workshops and artworks have also been sited in village venues, or showcased at occasions like Portscatho annual regatta raft race where the bespoke willow and canvas canoe drew in the curious to admire the craftwork.
‘Annie’s and Mac’s residencies, along with those of the other resident writers and artists weave the local community into larger networks. Drawing attention to what is on the doorstep, they enmesh local anecdotes and histories, revive dying craft techniques and instigate environmental practices and discourses in an organic interlacing of politics, history and poetics. (Harriet Hawkins, geographer-in-residence, July 2009)
Generosity is apparent in the many contributions to the guidebook, people have given their time to chat and welcome me into their homes. Others have contributed informative articles such Gerrans-based Cornwall Wildlife Trust volunteer Debs Wallis,31 or local artist Andrea Insoll who provided me with a selection of paintings specially created for the guidebook (fig. 81). Pensioner, Pearl Sutton provided me with stories, memories and photographs;32 whilst Margaret Davis allowed me to peruse her fantastic collection of old postcards (dotted throughout the book). These are but a few instances of the generosity visible in the guidebook, perusing its pages will reveal many more – all are credited.
30 The project website is available at http://www.caravanserai.info and is also accessible from Treloan’s website at: http://www.coastalfarmholidays.co.uk/cornwall-eco-campsite.html
31 discovering whats on our doorstep p.49
32 discovering whats on our doorstep p.37
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Fig.81. Andrea Insoll. A series of paintings for the guidebook
The remaining criteria are listed together as follows: APPEALING in the sense of being memorable, SIMPLE and FAMILIAR so as not to repel, LAYERED,
COMPLEX and UNFAMILIAR to stimulate curiosity, EVOCATIVE of people’s experiences, PROVOCATIVE and CRITICAL enough to reference place issues.
All of these criteria are reflected in the various events of the field and are ongoing as the project evolves. Added to direct experience are the publications that re-present
activities and events offering a sense of the project through visual, textual and audio documentation. These expositions extend the work further through various
communities of interest. For instance, the ‘guidebook’ discovering what’s on our doorstep is of direct relevance to campsite visitors and local residents, whilst insites – a notebook is specific to local interest as well as being relevant to transdisciplinary discourses concerned with people and place.33 Colin Hastings a village resident, said that ‘it reminded him of all the reasons why he wanted to live in Porstcatho’;
evidencing Lippard’s place ethical criteria of being ‘SPECIFIC enough to engage people on the level of their own lived experiences’. Similarly the following comment references the criteria of being ‘evocative’ and ‘provocative’34 (Lippard, 1997: 287):
‘the book…its wonderful – beautiful, evocative and provocative. And for me spending so many holidays in the patch as a child it was particularly moving’. (Rose Barnecut Area Cultural Service Manager, Cornwall Council, email received 8.9.09)
The web log contains and extends these multi-layered senses of place through online interest as well as providing a practical resource for visitors to the campsite and local residents. The ‘guidebook’ is APPEALING in design and content. It is SIMPLE and FAMILIAR enough to be accessible in its format and delivery of information and poetics. It is LAYERED, COMPLEX and UNFAMILIAR enough to stimulate curiosity, through its stories, anecdotal information, ‘how to’ pages and assemblages of present day realities, memories and histories. It is EVOCATIVE of people’s experiences throughout, presenting multiple contributions, responses and perceptions – senses of place, of a particular locality – Treloan. Finally, it is
33 Insites was designed in collaboration with caravanserai geographer-in-residence Harriet Hawkins, for delegates of the Royal Geographical Society & Institute of British Geographers Annual Conference in 2009. This collaboration is discussed earlier in this chapter and documented in Appendix D
34 EVOCATIVE enough to make people recall related moments, places and emotions in their own lives’
and ‘PROVOCATIVE and CRITICAL enough to make people think about issues beyond the scope of the work, to call into question superficial assumptions about place, its history and its use.’ (Lippard, 1997: 286).