Maps, Art and Mindful Engagement with the Landscape
Meet Jessica Emsley, an artist, Mountain Leader and creative facilitator whose work explores the intersection of movement, creativity and place. Rooted in the landscapes of the Lake District and inspired by her academic research into walking-based art practices, Jessica uses drawing and sensory observation as tools for mapping experience.
Through her workshops and guided walks, she invites participants to slow down, notice the subtleties of the natural world and engage with the outdoors in more mindful, imaginative ways. As a member of the Wonderful Wild Women community, Jessica champions inclusive, reflective approaches to outdoor access, especially for women, offering alternatives to the fast-paced, achievement-driven culture often associated with adventure.
What first drew you to the idea of mapping as a creative and reflective practice, and how has it evolved through your workshops?
I’m a keen walker and maps are part of my daily language but, by exploring drawing as a way of engaging with the landscape, this started to become a form of mapping. My understanding of what a map is has become more open. Maps can do lots of things; sometimes they’re practical and give us information we can use to get from A to B, but sometimes they’re records of something specific and their value shifts to focus on the documentation of experience.
Even a professionally printed map can become a personal object and unique record of a journey, full of creases, worn patches, marks from plotting routes, mud spatters. My workshops build on this understanding and allow the subjective to be pulled out through the use of drawing to both find a receptivity to the act of walking and document what is noticed.
Can you share a moment from one of your creative mapping sessions that really captured the emotional or imaginative connection people can have with place?
A moment I loved on a recent workshop happened during an exercise in mapping sounds. We were making marks in response to what we could hear (quick dotty marks for bird cheeping, wispy soft swirls for the wind, etc.,) and someone was finding the abstract nature of this challenging. I gave the alternative of using words to label sounds and she combined words with mark-making, writing in the style of the sounds she could hear.
This just showed that we all experience the world and walking differently, for this person words and verbal language was important and making this connection made the experience of walking more profound and the resulting map more personal.
How do you integrate your artistic sensibilities into your role as a Mountain Leader, especially when guiding groups through wild landscapes?
I find creativity really lends itself to sharing the outdoors with others, especially when people might be new to the environment they find themselves walking in. Inviting a greater openness to place is a wonderful thing on a walk and this can be done by engaging with the senses and making observations, whether written, drawn, or just thought about and acknowledged. This openness allows for a sense of wonder to emerge as new things are noticed, but can also have practical value. When someone is more attuned to a place, they notice changes which can be helpful in navigating or moving safely, for example noticing a change in pattern of footfall might indicate a new texture on the ground or an incline under foot.
What does a typical day look like when you’re leading a walk that blends both physical exploration and creative expression?
I always start with welcomes, a safety briefing and a short grounding exercise so people can feel they’ve really arrived in a place and can set aside any other day-to-day stresses or worries that aren’t needed on the walk. We’ll then start walking and allow conversation to flow as we settle into a pace. The walk is usually broken up by pauses in which we draw – these are longer in fair weather and shorter when it’s rainy or a bit chilly. The drawing activities generally take us on a journey of some kind, perhaps through different senses or from distant vision to those things closest. Each day will finish with a moment of reflection, and this is usually accompanied by cake!
You’re part of the Wonderful Wild Women, how has that community influenced your work and your approach to outdoor experiences?
Wonderful Wild Women is a brilliant Lakes-based community group. It was this group that allowed me to make new friends and see other women out enjoying the Lake District. This gave and continues to give me confidence in the outdoors but has also demonstrated that there’s a need for alternative ways to interact with walking and the outdoors.
Often, there’s a big focus on competitive, adventurous or extreme outdoor activities in the Lakes and this can be fun but isn’t the only option and can seem intimidating to some. I’m increasingly realising the need and appreciation for slower and more mindful ways of engaging with this landscape and a supportive group like Wonderful Wild Women makes space for this.
In your experience, what are some of the barriers women face when accessing outdoor spaces, and how do you try to address those in your work?
Whilst things have changed a lot in recent years, accessing outdoor spaces can still be charged, particularly for women. Sharing in the experience of walking increases confidence and comfort in being outdoors and confirms that this is a space for everyone.
From leading walks and workshops, I find that a lot of women rely on a male friend or partner to cover things like navigation, checking the weather, and knowing what to pack. A slower paced walk allows more time to chat about things like this and signpost anyone interested to resources which will help them to get outdoors safely. I think, by its very nature, a creative walk demonstrates that a walk doesn’t have to be big or extreme to be valuable, that there are a range of different ways of walking and that it’s possible to build up skills progressively.
How do you encourage people to slow down and notice the subtleties of the landscape, especially in a culture that often values speed and achievement?
Funnily enough, one of the ways I do this is by limiting drawing time. When you have 60 seconds to make a quick drawing you can’t include everything, and you know it’s not going to be perfect. This temporary speeding up can actually help with slowing down overall as intuition comes into play and there’s less space for over-thinking or perfectionism.
We take longer pauses too, of course, and physically walk slowly so that we have time to notice things and speak about them as we walk. The pattern of walking and drawing encourages a continuation of observation; the last drawing exercise tends to run into the next as the period walking in between is often spent reflecting and noticing more.
How has your academic research into walking-based art practices deepened your understanding of the relationship between movement, creativity, and place?
Much of my research has been focused on the more-than-human and different ways of understanding our relationships with the world around us. We inherit a binary understanding of the world as being split into human and nature, and this is usually understood hierarchically with humans being placed above nature and therefore able to use nature for our benefit. There’s a lot of thinking out there on this, but I see physically moving with and being receptive to those places we most associate with ‘nature’ as holding a potential to change this thinking and allow for a more inclusive and networked understanding which includes both the human and nonhuman.
People tend to go on walks for different reasons – to improve fitness, to escape, to tick off Wainwrights, etc., and we bring this with us when we walk. By moving differently and inviting creativity, it becomes possible to notice more and actively observe ourselves as part of the landscape.
Looking ahead, what changes would you love to see in how women are represented and supported in outdoor and mountain environments?
I would love to see more women and more diversity outdoors represented generally. I think intersectionality is important in this and, not only do we need to see women represented and supported, but we need to be supporting each other, especially when there are multiple barriers to accessing the outdoors for some.
It would be great to see more variety of representations of women in commercial and social depictions of people in outdoor environments. I’d love to see more representation and support of people learning to access these places in particular; this would demonstrate that it’s a journey and everyone who manages to summit that mountain has had to learn things to get to that point. I think more representation of this process would make the outdoors appear more accessible to all and would support people in getting outdoors safely and responsibly.
Find out more about Jessica and her work on her website and Instagram:
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By Hilary Pullen
Meet Hilary, Editor of Get Outside – the Ordnance Survey Blog. Hilary is based in North Wales and loves hiking with her dogs in the mountains of Eryri and Bryniau Clwyd, you can find her on Instagram @nearlyuphill and read her guides to walking in North Wales on her blog. Drop her an email hilary.pullen@os.uk if you are interested in posting an article on Get Outside.
