The landscape can speak to us… if only we are willing to listen. This guided workshop will encompass a gentle walk in which participants will be encouraged to observe and absorb their surroundings. Maybe we will hear the starlings click and whistle, smell the sea foam or notice the hue of the castle ruins. We will interact with the landscape through both words (poetry and prose) and drawing and mark-making. Participants will have opportunity to write and draw the landscape and to make the everyday extraordinary, and will leave with a small booklet full of their own creations. Led by writer Mari Ellis Dunning and artist Emily Wilkinson, this project is a collaboration between Aberystwyth School of Art and the Spineless Wonders network.

Learn the basics of book art structures, following templates to create a selection of folded artefacts. Considering the book as a permeable container, we’ll be exploring physical gestures such as folding, cutting, tearing, collaging, tracing, and erasing, to create sequences held within its form. The workshop will be led in English and Welsh by visual artist Catrin Menai and print specialist Harriet Fuller.

All materials will be provided, but you’re invited to bring any papers, fragments, notes, or found elements you feel drawn to incorporate into the process. Reserve your free place in advance on Eventbrite. This project is a collaboration between Aberystwyth School of Art and the Spineless Wonders network.

Addressing the theme of Reading the Landscape, this online Zoom event will bring together special collections at the National Library of Wales/Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, Aberystwyth; University College London; Senate House Library, University of London; and the John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester.

Including presentations by Timothy Cutts and Miidong P. Daloeng from NLW/LlGC; Liz Lawes, UCL: Tansy Barton and Leila Kassir, SHL; and Tabitha Tuckett, UoM, we will be sharing small press publications and other ephemera that relate to Reading Landscapes, which is one of the overarching themes of Dinas Llên Aberystwyth Ceredigion UNESCO City of Literature. This online event forms the first section of the in-person PhD Symposium taking place at Aberystwyth School of Art between 2 and 6pm – see details below.

This in-person Symposium: Reading the Landscape is organised by Miranda Whall – interdisciplinary artist, academic, and coach/mentor – and doctoral students at the University’s School of Art, Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, and Department of English and Creative Writing. The symposium brings together guest speakers Ben Porter and Elinor Gwynn, chairs Zoe Quick and Heledd Wyn Hardy, and the University’s doctoral students to explore new ways of being, perceiving, representing, and reimagining the Welsh landscape. The first hour includes the online symposium above. For further information and to book your free place, please visit our Eventbrite page.

The landscape can speak to us… if only we are willing to listen. This guided workshop will encompass a gentle walk in which participants will be encouraged to observe and absorb their surroundings. Maybe we will hear the starlings click and whistle, smell the sea foam or notice the hue of the castle ruins. We will interact with the landscape through both words (poetry and prose) and drawing and mark-making. Participants will have opportunity to write and draw the landscape and to make the everyday extraordinary. Led by writer Mari Ellis Dunning and artist Elin Crowley, this project is a collaboration between Aberystwyth School of Art and the Spineless Wonders network.