Many seaside towns often mask their own sense of community by immersing themselves in the idealised version of the tourist, Jonathan Polkest’s Matter exhibition returns to the origins of what makes a seaside community?
Matter by Jonathan Polkest, Until 18 August 2011
Originally Posted Jul 2, 2011 7:03 pm | view here
Many seaside towns often mask their own sense of community by immersing themselves in the idealized version of the tourist, even though tourism could be seen as a constructed ideal, created to benefit the same community it now deludes. Seaside communities sprang up as they obviously benefited from their close proximity to the former superhighway for all material and intellectual cargo – The Sea.
The origins of seaside communities can often be reduced to a few factors that have exerted influence over the people and the environment, before the idea of an all seeing monitoring authority was created by society. The coast was the place were strangers arrived, travellers departed, the seaside was a portal to the known and respected vicissitudes of tides, weather patterns and topographical conditions. The strangers arriving – not by road or by any other means but simply over water became the visible link between the seashore and the vast unknown, the exotica fuelling the imagination and inspiring.
Jonathan Polkest
Visit Jonathan website https://pagettypow.wordpress.com
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