Soundscapes and Connections on Fala Moor – MA Geography Field Trip
Join our MA Geography students as they explore Fala Moor, discover the power of sound, and reflect on the stories our landscapes hold.
MA Geography students from the University of Edinburgh travelled to Fala Moor, Midlothian for a unique field trip blending creativity with the art of geographical writing. The field trip explored the connection between landscapes, soundscapes, and storytelling, guided by acclaimed singer-songwriter Karine Polwart and composer and sound designer, Pippa Murphy.
The field trip took place as part of the Writing Landscape course, where students are encouraged to reflect on the interplay between people and the environment and introduced to concepts such as genre, narrative and authorial voice, and how to apply the craft of writing to place-specific contexts.
Karine’s music, including her album A Pocket of Wind Resistance, served as inspiration.
Students explored aspects of the Scottish folk tradition as a prompt to help them reflect on their relationships with other cultural contexts and landscapes.
I definitely think it’s important to have the creative side alongside the academic side. It helps you really put everything more into perspective, especially within geography when you’re not just focused on nature, you’re focused on the human side of things. And to me, the way humans interact with nature and vice versa is my favourite part of geography. It’s really important that our universities across Scotland are looking and connect with makers and thinkers and doers of all kinds that don’t operate within the academic frame.
Milly, MA Geography student
Students also took part in a “Sculpting with Sound” workshop with Pippa Murphy, Karine’s collaborator.
By using sound recording technology, students examined the hidden worlds of soundscapes in nature.
It’s really important to tell stories about our environment and to try and tell, I suppose, our own interpretation of what we believe could have happened and taken the landscapes and the sounds as inspiration to take some of those tales forward.
Pippa Murphy, Composer and Sound Designer
All on a Summer’s Evening Lyrics
As I was walkin’ down yon hill
All on the summer’s evening
There I spied a bonnie lass
skippin’ barefoot through the heather.
And oh but she was neatly dressed
she neither needed hat nor feather
she was the queen among them all
skippin’ through the heather.
Interested in studying Human Geography?
The Master of Arts (MA) Geography enables you to specialise in human geography.
It is key to understanding and resolving many of society’s most pressing problems.
Studying human geography not only involves scientific topics, but also looking at the subject through a creative lens.
Find out more about our undergraduate degrees in Geography
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