Light, land, and the lens: digital landscapes, fell farming, and the politics of vision in the Lake District

Thesis

This thesis explores how the Lake District National Park is encountered as a digital landscape in the social media platform, Instagram. It aims to develop innovative digital methods, embracing both qualitative and quantitative approaches, to examine how longstanding romantic representations of the Lake District are continued through contemporary digital mediums. The thesis draws together conceptual underpinnings from studies of visuality and digital ecologies to interrogate how rural geographies of the #lakedistrict can be understood and reimagined. The thesis then focuses on the fell farming communities of Herdwick sheep farmers to explore what happens when we make interventions into dominant manifestations of the online #lakedistrict using participatory digital visual methods.

By developing methods such as digital textures and the concept of aperturing, this work examines how less visible #lakedistricts can be brought into light. The thesis deploys experimental analytical approaches such as digital textures to develop a cumulative ‘hyperscene typology’ of the #lakedistrict, moving from formal representations and influential conceptions of the #lakedistrict in the first half, to visioning farmers’ #lakedistricts as lived space and lived shade. The thesis offers new considerations about how alternative digital landscapes can challenge and enrich dominant hyperseen manifestations of the #lakedistrict.

Authors: Dodsworth, JM

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-zryppkb2n
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Lake District; instagram; photovoice; Herdwick sheep; cultural analytics; digital ecologies; cultural landscapes; digital landscapes; farming; fell farming
• Subjects: Landscape; Community-based research; Digital Geography; Cultural Geography; Social Media; Environmental geography; Rural Geography