This month I have spent a lot of time thinking about a collaborative piece of work which I will use for my external facing project. The search for a suitable partner has been a frustrating and time-consuming time for me filled with worry that if I don’t get planning for this piece of work started it might hold up progress on this unit.  In addition to my worries over external facing project, I have conducted further research into the liminal space and specifically looking at mental and physical impacts due to grief. It is as if being in this liminal space is bad for the living. I imagine this idea as being like the “death zone” which is the point above 26,000 feet when mountaineers experience conditions hostile to life.  Climbers who go higher than approximately 7,800m, experience very harsh conditions with a severe lack of oxygen, high winds and very cold conditions, physical demands on the body putting stress on the heart, lack of food and water as well as impaired mental function and high altitude sickness such as cerebral edema. (Lankford, 2021)  The term death zone was coined by Swiss climber Wyss-Dunant in 1952, “I have spoken of the ‘lethal zone’: it is fitting to give some explanation of this term. Survival is the only term suitable for describing the behaviour of a man in that mortal zone which begins at about 25,500 ft [7800 m]. Life there is impossible and it requires the whole of a man’s will to maintain himself there for a few days. Life hangs by a thread.” (Dr Wyss-Dunant, 1953, p. 115) This idea of life hanging by a thread is an interesting way to consider working and writing about the death space.

In addition to trying to find a way forward on my external facing project, I have updated my plan for this unit devoting more detail to planning and writing I will do for my dissertation. I have worked on research into the physical and mental impacts of grief and am currently working on wrappin this and previous research into my dissertation. I have constructed new creative test pieces looking in more depth at idea of liminality and death.

Next month I plan to spend majority of my time writing my dissertation although will also find time for peer feedback and to continue my reasearch. I will also try and arrange a call with collaborative partner so might put together a short presentation for that.

Bibliography

Dr Wyss-Dunant, E. (1953) ‘Acclimatisation’, in Kurz, M. (ed.) The Moutain World. London: George Allen & Unwin, pp. 110–117. Available at: https://archive.org/details/mountainworld195029881mbp/page/n5/mode/2up.

Lankford, H. V. (2021) ‘The Death Zone: Lessons from History’, Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, 32(1), pp. 114–120. doi: 10.1016/j.wem.2020.09.002.