Last Wednesday I took myself off for a little jaunt around Bekonscot Miniature Village . It was flippin awesome.
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The place is huge, and no detail's been spared. This microcosm of the 'village world' captures the essence of rural British communities: choc full of the standard landmarks: churches, local businesses, farms, pubs, village greens. Every landscape sees tiny sculpted people going about their daily lives: There's a hunting party, cricket players on the green, kiddies around the maypole, morris dancers in the village square; church-goers, gypsy camps, drunk old men at the pub, old ladies hanging out the washing.... a neat little summary of the cliché of country life.
What gets me about these clichés... they're not just clichés. These are traditions, environments and scenarios which are deliberately practiced and reinforced by the country-folk. They bring greater value, and greater meaning to their way of life and the way they see themselves.
The miniature village is the perfect demonstration of the symbols and associations with which the typical countryside community communicates itself. So what do these symbols mean to people, what effect do they have, and could their associative qualities and effects be just as powerful if applied in the outside world?