Flirting with Space. Journeys and Creativity

The idea of 'flirting' with space is central to this book. Space is conceptualised as being in constant flux as we make our way through various contexts in our daily lives, and is considered in relation to encounters with complexities and flows of material culture. This book focuses on journeys, which are perceived as dynamic processes of contemporary life and its spaces, and how creativity happens in the inter-relations of space and journeys encourage creativity.

Unravelled through a range of empirical case studies of journeys through and encountered with space, this book builds new critical syntheses of the intertwining of space and life. Based on investigations undertaken by the author over the past 20 years, it explores the mundane and the exotic, the 'lay' and the 'artistic', combining and inter-relating them in a diversity of time and expression, fleeting and surviving. Such investigations, using both visual and non-visual material, include examinations of allotment holding, the work of artists, caravanning and tourism, photography and parish maps. The analyses of such seemingly disparate subjects are linked together and build on each other to create a fascinating and original view of humanity's interaction with space. Included are fresh discussions of belonging, disorientation and the working of identity and play. The notion of 'gentle politics' is introduced.

Contents: Prologue; Flirting with space; Everyday abstraction: geographical knowledge in the art of Peter Lanyon; Spacing, performing and becoming: tangles in the mundane; The play of spacetime; Expressive encounters; Landscape and the poetics of flirting (with) space; Some conclusions; Bibliography; Index.

About the Author: David Crouch is Professor Emeritus in Cultural Geography and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Derby, UK

Reviews: 'Crouch invites his readers on a journey that meanders through the workings of myriad artists, sojourners, and theorists, evoking resonances between seemingly unrelated pathways of intellectual and emotional discovery. Flirting with Space is a work of enchanting potential, written from the unique perspective of a mature artist and distinguished scholar.'
Sally Ness, University of California Riverside, USA

'A phenomenal and sensational work, Flirting with Space speaks of David Crouch's intense and passionate interest in how it feels to feel. His spatial theories on life as it's lived are spry and vital, asserting the generative and creative power held by people, trusting in the ordinariness of emotion and common experience, and seeking out practices of humane value.'
Hayden Lorimer, University of Glasgow, UK