Nature and Models of Peace
Walking with Dad in the Lake District



I have always associated the Lake District in Cumbria with a condition of meditative and receptive tranquility; something to do with long childhood walks, shooting the breeze with various members of my extended family. The ever changing landscape and the rhythm of walking provided a diversion from the difficult emotions sometimes stirred up by the customary familial dramas. We would exchange political, religious and personal opinions in heated debate and the awesome expanse of the landscape; the neutral territory of the national park would absorb some of the intensity of the disputes.

I've just returned from a couple of days in the Lake District with my Dad. I took a load of images for the image bank and kept a diary. I wanted to explore the personal significance of this feeling of tranquility and its relationship to ideas of nature and whether this had any relevance to my exploration of strategies for peace.

Territoriality is key factor in all strategies for war and peace. But this trip helped me to understand that the importance of 'Nature' as a symbol in strategies of cooperation is less about territory and more to do with its representation of a non-zero-sum model as well as paradigms of relationship, synergy and symbiosis. Ideas and experiences of nature also reinforce the relatedness and wholeness of seemingly disparate parts of us as individuals.

Here are some relevant passages from my diary and links to the images that I intend to use as starting points for environments for the new chess game.