Reimagining travel and imagination

When an individual embarks upon a journey they do so in possession of a unique subjectivity informed by a multitude of experiences leading up to that particular moment in time. They usually, though not always, depart from a 'home environment' in which they have been travelling in various ways (physically, virtually, communicatively, imaginatively) from birth, albeit to varying degrees (Lean 20l2a). As such, each individual traveller carries with them a quite unique experiential baggage, which can spark, inform and limit their imaginings in innumerable and unpredictable ways. This becomes even more complex when one considers that the spaces, places and landscapes through which we travel are themselves mobile, shaped by various flows of people, information, ideas, representations and objects, both historical and contemporary (Leed 1991, Rojek and Urry 1997). This multitude of catalysts may resonate with the traveller in a variety of ways, linking with past experiences and memories, to inform and stimulate the traveller's imagination. What is more, places are in a constant state of flux (Coleman and Crang 2002, Cresswell 2002, Brerenholdt et al. 2004). Both familiarity and difference abound, and while the physical journey may be somewhat easy to map, the mental voyage is a rather more unpredictable and unbounded affair