Invisible Scotland: an International Symposium

I am going to participate in Invisible Scotland : an International Symposium.  PLaCE Scotland1-4 August, Dundee and across ScotlandInvited speakers and tour guides from various disciplines will present material concerning ‘invisible’ aspects of Scottish culture; this overview will address things the typical tourist will never see or learn. These include aspects of the oral tradition, musical ballads, personal narratives, traces of vanished communities, case studies and first-hand exploration of woodlands, plants, watersheds and moorlands, coastal villages, historic ruins, and live performances.Importantly, Scotland itself will be the focus of close investigation by place-based researchers, with the aim of expanding future collaborative research about Scotland through research projects. In two days of presentations and performances set in Dundee, and with two days on ‘peripatetic seminars’, in a choice of several guided trips, participants will not only hear and see, but visit first hand, examples of ‘invisible’ traces in countryside, city, island or community.The audience will be comprised of invited researchers from three separate research networks (artists, landscape architects, architects, curators, geographers, writers, historians, performers and practitioners), with Scottish hosts and guests, with the aim of promoting new collaborations concerning the land and Scottish culture through discovery. A book publication will document the event, with each participant contributing images and/or text to the printed publication, and a copy will be posted to each attendee in the early autumn.Discoveries made throughout the event will lead to future research, art works, and projects. Collaborations and a rich on-going discourse will be a lasting result of this exploration of Scotland.