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. 2018 May 1;4(1):132-156.
doi: 10.1080/2373566X.2018.1441736. eCollection 2018.

Wandering Minds: Tracing Inner Worlds Through a Historical-Geographical Art Installation

Hilary Powell  1 , Hazel Morrison  1 , Felicity Callard  2
Affiliations

Wandering Minds: Tracing Inner Worlds Through a Historical-Geographical Art Installation

Hilary Powell et al. GeoHumanities. .

Abstract
in English, Chinese, Spanish

The human act of wandering across landscapes and cityscapes has carved the research interests of scholars in cultural, urban, and historical geography, as well as in the humanities. Here we call for-and take the first steps toward-a historical geography of wandering that is pursued in the head rather than with the legs. We do so through analyzing how our audiovisual installation on mind wandering opened up epistemological and ontological questions facing historical geographies of the mind. This installation both modeled mind wandering as conceptualized at different historical moments and aimed to induce mental perambulation in its visitors. In so doing, it was intended both to stage and to disrupt relations between body and mind, the internal and external, attention and inattention, motion and stillness-and, importantly, between the archival and that which resists archival capture. We reflect on how we interspersed traditional scholarly historical and geographical enquiry with methods gleaned from creative practices. In particular, we consider the challenges that such practices pose for how we conceptualize archives-not least when the focus of attention comprises fugitive mental phenomena.

人类在地景与城市景观之间的漫游行动，开拓了文化、城市与历史地理学者以及人文学者的研究旨趣。我们于此呼吁在脑中进行、而非透过双脚进行的漫游历史地理学，并向该目标初步迈进。我们通过分析心灵漫游的视听设置，如何开启心灵历史地理学所面临的认识论与本体论问题。此一设置同时将心灵漫游模式化成为在不同历史时刻的概念化，并旨在引发拜访者的心灵巡迴。通过这麽做，本研究意图同时展现并颠覆身体与心灵、内在与外在、注意与无意、动态与静态之间的关系，以及重要的是，档案与抗拒档案取得之间的关系。我们反思自身如何以创意实践中拾获的方法，点缀传统历史与地理的学术探问。我们特别考量此般实践对于我们如何概念化档案所带来的挑战——特别是当关注焦点包含短暂易变的心灵现象之时。.

La acción humana de deambular a través de paisajes rurales y urbanos ha tallado los intereses investigativos de estudiosos en geografía cultural, urbana e histórica, lo mismo que en las humanidades. Aquí nosotros clamamos ––y damos los primeros pasos al respecto–– por una geografía histórica del deambular que se persiga más con la cabeza que con las piernas. Emprendemos esa tarea analizando cómo nuestra construcción visual sobre el deambular de la mente abrió cuestiones epistemológicas y ontológicas que enfrentan geografías históricas de la mente. Esta construcción a la vez modeló el deambular de la mente según se le conceptualice en diferentes momentos históricos y apuntó a inducir deambulación mental en sus visitantes. Al hacerlo, se intentó poner en escena y afectar las relaciones entre el cuerpo y la mente, lo interno y lo externo, la atención y la desatención, movimiento y quietud ––y, muy importante, entre lo archivístico y aquello que se resiste a la captura en archivo––. Reflexionamos sobre la manera como intercalamos la indagación docta histórica y geográfica tradicional con métodos derivados de prácticas creativas. Consideramos particularmente los retos que plantean tales prácticas sobre el modo como conceptualizamos los archivos ––menos aun cuando el foco de atención consta de fenómenos mentales huidizos.

Keywords: archive; art exhibition; audiovisual installation; interdisciplinary; mind wandering.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The Cubiculum—without curtains, so as to reveal the projection screen inside. Photo by Peter Kidd; used with permission. (Color figure available online.)
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
The Cubiculum—with curtains, so as to demonstrate its potential for seclusion. Photo by coauthor Felicity Callard. (Color figure available online.)
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
“Rest & its discontents” at Mile End Art Pavilion, London. The Cubiculum is the construction with the open arch, just to the right of the center of the photograph. Photo by Peter Kidd; used with permission. (Color figure available online.)
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
The Cubiculum video screen: Still image sequence from the opening animated film. Reproduced with permission of the artist, Ed Grace.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
The Cubiculum video screen: Still image sequence from “Dunstan and the Devil.” Reproduced with permission of the artist, Ed Grace.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
The Cubiculum video screen: Still image sequence from “Frost at Midnight.” Reproduced with permission of the artist, Ed Grace.
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
The Cubiculum video screen: Opening menu. Reproduced with permission of the artist, Ed Grace.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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