After reading the two short essays Wire and I am struck by the endless possibilities this approach offers. The two essays cover such topics as Cooling stations, Wind Turbines, Cold War buildings and wire fences. All linked by being on the edge of Society in one way or another. Services that we want to keep close enough to use but distant enough to be not seen. The second link I saw was barriers, razor wire and pointy fences.

The work around Greenham Common and the Hush House were interesting to me. Making me think of textile mills locally that are now unused.

If I walk a mile through my local area noting these types of things I get the list below.

1. Walls (Drystone).

2. Walls (Mortared).

3. Waste bins.

4. Derelict farms.

5. Ancient boundaries.

6. Old industrial sites.

7. Wire fences.

8. Wind turbines.

9. Litter Bins.

So spending 20 minutes wandering around looking has produced eight topics that could easily be projects and long term ones at that.

Reading of the sites that were edgelands in the time of writing some of the ones I know such as Tinshill cooling tower are now not on the edge they are part of the town. It could be interesting to find old edgelands within our towns.

Work Cited

(1) Wire Farley, P. and Roberts, M.S. (2011) Edgelands, Journeys into England’s True Wilderness.

(2) Power Farley, P. and Roberts, M.S. (2011) Edgelands, Journeys into England’s True Wilderness. London: Vintage Books