DESIRE LINES, 2020-21

COMMISSION FOR CROW PARK, KESWICK

Desire Lines is an art project engaging with communities around Crow Park in Keswick, hosted by the National Trust. The project explores the connections humans have with the natural world, and how a relationship with a local green space can open up wider questions - including conservation, climate change, ecology and access.

Crow Park is a parkland sandwiched between Keswick and Derwentwater. It was once the site of an ancient oak woodland; when the trees were felled in the 18th century, a view across Derwentwater was opened up, and became both a focal point of the early conservation movement and a picturesque ‘Viewing Station’. Through the project, we’ve worked with over 100 local people to map stories of Crow Park and explore the site from different perspectives, including other-than-human.

Through walks, storytelling, podcasts and workshops, we’ve generated new narratives from the landscape; and visual design that inspired costumes made from reclaimed outdoor gear that was going to waste. In July 2021, we worked with community performers to film on Crow Park - bringing together different strands of the project

Throughout the project, I’ve collaborated with artists and creatives to produce different aspects of the project. R.L. Wilson worked on the podcasts, film production and sound design. Wallace Heim collaborated on creative writing workshops and the script development. Simone Kenyon developed movement with the performers. The costumes were created in collaboration with Maggi Toner-Edgar and Viri Sica.

The Desire Lines project is part of Trust New Art, the National Trust’s programme of contemporary arts, supported using public funding by Arts Council England and supported by Arts&Heritage.

DESIRE LINES FILM

This film is the result of the Desire Lines project. The words, ideas and costumes for the film were generated through community workshops from 2020-21. Read the full description and credits here. For subtitles click the “cc” button.

 

RESEARCH

Crow Park Research
Film Launch Risograph Print
Film Launch Risograph Print

Risograph Print for the film launch, Printed by Dizzy Ink.

Eating the Landscape
Eating the Landscape

A collective menu of Crow Park recipes, from the ‘Eating the Landscape’ workshop.

Desire Lines Podcast E3: Recreation Ground
Desire Lines Podcast E3: Recreation Ground

‘Recreation Ground' is the third episode of the Desire Lines podcast and explores Crow Park as a space for leisure, play and imagination. Join Maurice, Jamie, Mary, Duncan, Suzi, Monique and children from St Herbert’s Primary School, to hear about changing uses and views of the landscape. They’ll take us from the birth of the picturesque movement and beginnings of tourism, to how a traveling theatre found a permanent home by the lakeshore, and other stories that spring from Crow Park.

Desire Lines Podcast E2: Knowing the Landscape
Desire Lines Podcast E2: Knowing the Landscape

'Knowing the Landscape' is the second episode of the Desire Lines podcasts, a series of audio collages based on Crow Park. Part two explores different ways of knowing and understanding the landscape. We’ll hear about industrial history, intelligent sheep, what plant can tell us, soil compaction, and walking as a way of knowing the fells.

Desire Lines Podcast E1: Deep and Slippery Time
Desire Lines Podcast E1: Deep and Slippery Time

The first episode in the Desire Lines podcasts, a series of audio collages based on Crow Park in Keswick. In part one, join Maurice, Jessie, Roy and Livi, Morwenna and Geeta to delve into deep, slippery time - mixing up the past, present and future. You’ll hear snippets of conversation about the history of Borrowdale from the beginning of time, geology as time travel, changing landscapes and people’s visions of a future which does not yet exist.

Weather Patterns
Weather Patterns

A visual blog recording pattern language from Crow Park.

Desire Lines: postcards and feedback
Desire Lines: postcards and feedback

Share feedback from October’s activities on Crow Park, and download the postcards here.

Recreation Ground
Recreation Ground

A whistle-stop tour of Crow Park with pupils from St Herbert’s Primary School, and reflections on a chat with archeologist Jamie Lund about the cultural history of leisure…

The long view: rock time, moss time, tree time
The long view: rock time, moss time, tree time

A journey through Borrowdale from the formation of the landscape and the arrival of different species over millennia, to the impact of plant, animal and human inhabitants. 'We think in such short timeframes,’ Maurice tells me…

Mapping Crow Park
Mapping Crow Park

In my first few visits to Keswick, I invited everyone I talked to about Crow Park to draw me a map. The invitation was to draw from memory, to treat it as the back-of-an-envelope, to take me for a real or imagined walk around the site. Each map and conversation offered a different perspective on the place…

Draw a map
Draw a map

Whilst I can’t visit Crow Park, I’d love to hear more stories and maps describing it. If you live locally, or know the site, please follow these instructions…

Events

Past events
Desire Lines at Keswick Museum
Nov 4
Desire Lines at Keswick Museum

The Desire Lines film launches at Keswick Museum this week, alongside an exhibition of costumes and props from the project - the culmination of a yearlong programme of activity in partnership with National Trust at Crow Park.

DL-film-4 small.png
Oct 16
Desire Lines Film Launch

Join us at the Keswick Alhambra for the World Premiere of ‘Desire Lines’ - a short film made on Crow Park in Keswick. The film is the result of an art project engaging with local communities and exploring connections humans have with the natural world, hosted by the National Trust.

Workshop: Writing a Crow
Apr 7
Workshop: Writing a Crow

Join Rebecca Beinart and Wallace Heim for a series of creative writing workshops to explore Crow Park from multiple points of view. This workshop will take you from writing about characteristics of the landscape, relations with other entities (such as weather or other living beings) through to connections with the future; and distil those ideas into a ‘Crow’. The Crow is an invented form of writing that references conjuring and spells as a way of paying attention.

Workshop: Eating the Landscape
Mar 24
Workshop: Eating the Landscape

Join Rebecca Beinart and Wallace Heim for a series of creative writing workshops to explore Crow Park from multiple points of view. In this session, we’ll explore the idea of ‘portals’ into other ways of seeing. We’ll play with creating recipes for Crow Park, and the idea of ingesting elements of the landscape to alter your perspective.

Workshop: An archaeology of the future
Mar 10
Workshop: An archaeology of the future

Join Rebecca Beinart and Wallace Heim for a series of creative writing workshops to explore Crow Park from multiple points of view. In this session we’ll use real and imagined objects as a starting point for our writing, and create an ‘archaeology of the future’ to think through different time frames.

Discussion: Slippery time and other-than-human perspectives
Mar 4
Discussion: Slippery time and other-than-human perspectives

Does viewing the natural world through human eyes limit our understanding? How can we imagine beyond linear time, and human viewpoints? And what could we learn from these different perspectives? Join Rebecca Beinart for a conversation with Maya Chowdhry and Wallace Heim to hear about their work and their responses to these questions.

Creative Writing Workshop - POSTPONED
Jan 18
Creative Writing Workshop - POSTPONED

Join Rebecca Beinart and Wallace Heim for a creative writing workshop at Keswick Museum exploring Crow Park in Keswick. Through a series of creative exercises we will explore writing from different perspectives, and play with the relationship between different objects, stories and inhabitants. Free, booking essential.

Desire Lines: self-led activities on Crow Park
Oct 27
Desire Lines: self-led activities on Crow Park

Self-led activities that invite you to slow your pace, take your time, and get to know Crow Park in ways that might surprise you.

Crow Park Workshop: Movement
Aug 22
Crow Park Workshop: Movement

A workshop with Rebecca Beinart and Simone Kenyon, to learn more about Crow Park through sensory experience and movement. We will meet for an introductory workshop via Zoom, where we will talk through the project and share a 'menu' of actions to be carried out on site – from very subtle invitations to notice your environment, to more visible actions. Participants will be invited to carry out their chosen action on Crow Park, with the option to come back together to reflect on the experience afterwards.

This free event will take place remotely via Zoom. Limited numbers, booking essential.

Crow Park Workshop: Creative Writing
Aug 15
Crow Park Workshop: Creative Writing

A creative writing workshop with Rebecca Beinart and Wallace Heim exploring Crow Park. We will begin the workshop with a series of objects selected by participants. Through a series of writing exercises we will explore the site from different perspectives, and play with the relationship between different objects, stories and inhabitants.

This free event will take place remotely via Zoom. Limited numbers, booking Essential.