Convenors: Dr Keith Halfacree (Swansea University) and Professor Richard Yarwood (University of Plymouth)

In line with the creativity theme of the conference, this session aims to explore aspects of the rural through creative lenses. It approaches this in two ways. On the one hand, we are interested in papers in which the rural is drawn upon and (re)created in culture: this might range from analogue (e.g. model villages) or virtual representations (e.g. virtual AI generated ruralities) through to representational and more-than representational films and artworks. On the other hand, a more active rural can be foregrounded in papers exploring its roles in creative acts or performances such as (re)creating folk music, through shaping the experience of a day out or of a walk, to inspiring artists and people more broadly.

We welcome papers that creatively represent or perform rurality via poetry, art, videos, music, models, etc. The session’s deliberately broad scope allows exploration of relationships between rurality and creativity in many forms, (re-)emphasising rurality’s sustained importance within geography today.

Please send abstracts to Dr Keith Halfacree (k.h.halfacree@swansea.ac.uk) and Professor Richard Yarwood (R.Yarwood@plymouth.ac.uk) by 12:00 noon, Monday 24th February 2025.