Where Land Meets Sea : Coastal Explorations of Landscape, Representation and Spatial Experience

Combining philosophical thinking with an empirical project which encouraged 62 participants to explore their own spatial relations with the Irish coast through a process of drawing and photography, Anna Ryan develops an innovative argument which offers unique insights into the relationship between self and surroundings. In exploring the experienced spatiality of the coast, she argues that a heightened awareness of the connections between self and surroundings is required if we are to tackle major environmental issues such as coastal erosion and climate change.

Drawing together philosophical, empirical and academic thinking, this book focuses on generating awareness of the relationship forged between self and surroundings. It details research undertaken at two coastal sites, the South Wall in Dublin city and the Maharees peninsula in Co. Kerry, Ireland. Sixty-two participants were engaged in photography and drawing to enable this exploration of spatial experience. The participants'' photographs and drawings present how spatial sensibilities can be revealed by becoming more attentive to the immediacy of bodily knowledge: our more-than-cognitive experience. Their communications resonate with the philosophers and theorists considered, including Merleau-Ponty, Edward Casey, Gilles Deleuze, Dalibor Vesely, and contemporary cultural geographers. From exploring the experienced spatiality of the meeting of land and sea, this book begins to suggest an alternative politics of the coast.