“Either Side of Delphy Bridge”: A deep mapping project evoking and engaging the lives of older adults in rural North Cornwall

• Published in: Journal of rural studies 2012-10, Vol.28 (4), p.318-328
• Main Authors: Bailey, Jane, Biggs, Iain
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Art practice; Arts; Connectivity; Conversational approach; Creative work; Creativity; Cultural life; Deep mapping; Educational Change; England; England (Cornwall); Ethnography; Foreign Countries; Gerontology; Innovation; Interdisciplinary Approach; Interviews; Landscape; Mapping; Older Adults; Place relations; Reflection; Research Methodology; Rural Areas; Rural life; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 0743-0167; 1873-1392
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2012.01.001

This article reports on work to date by an arts practice-led research team exploring older adults’ conceptions of, and connectivity with, the physical, social and cultural landscapes in which they locate themselves. The team is based at the Department of Art and Design, University of the West of England (UWE) and has conducted fieldwork, interviews and small-scale interactions in an area of rural North Cornwall with a view to “deep mapping” older adults’ “lived landscapes” using a variety of practical methods derived from creative arts practices, critical reflection on deep mapping, ethnographic approaches, and referencing a range of theoretical positions. The project forms part of a work package within “Grey and Pleasant Land? An interdisciplinary exploration of the connectivity of older people in rural civic society” (abbreviated below as GaPL), funded by the UK Cross-Research Council ‘New Dynamics of Ageing’ Programme. In what follows we will describe and critically discuss the fieldwork undertaken and the various ways in which the performative interactions and the creative multimedia evocations that draw on the team’s interactions with older people might extend the growing dialogue between deep mapping, visual and other innovative ethnographies, and critical gerontology. ► Dialogue between art practice, deep mapping, ethnography, and gerontology. ► Broad conversing as fieldwork with older adults in rural north Cornwall. ► Productive alliances between transplanted and native locals/glocals. ► Performing and mapping connectivity across a spectrum of place relations. ► Working in and mapping the tensioned spaces-between.