Critical and Creative Geographies of Flooding in Morpeth, UK

The severity of global flooding is rapidly increasing. We critically need alternative ways to think about and manage this crisis. This project engages with this challenge through the development and critical evaluation of a new interdisciplinary and creative methodology called the ‘River Studio’ – a collaboration between artists, flood, and urban practitioners, and those affected by flooding to use art-based approaches to explore flood knowledge grounded in the experience of people and places. Building on my expertise on geographies of participatory art and the built environment, the project will evaluate the critical ability of art practice in creating new flood knowledges through a series of pilot ‘River Studio’ workshops in Morpeth (UK) to establish and refine this methodology. The project will critically investigate the extent to which this experimental approach creates new knowledge and understanding of the relationships between embodied knowledge, place, flooding, and flood risk management.