I'm planning nothing.

"We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves." - Pico Iyer

There is an underlying desire that lives inside every heart, in every person throughout all "Western" culture. From our first days of learning until the last days of our lives, most of us will experience the want to move ourselves around the earth to be somewhere completely new.

No one really knows why though. Can you honestly identify what it is that inspires you to save up all your money to get on a plane to mill about amongst a culture that you don't fully understand and who probably don't readily accept your presence anyway? It's a strange thing.

I'm relatively sure it's a more Western fixation - There are rarely any books written by Asian or African explorers, mapping out their many exploits in new lands. The reason for this seems to be one of logistical practicality; in the west, we are bombarded with adverts and offers telling us that we can load ourselves onto all manner of planes, trains, boats and the like, so we can witness this glorious planet of ours in all of its splendour, for a small fee.
These things are not offered to all nations, many of whom simply cannot afford them, others which do not seem to put so much emphasis on the brilliance of exploration. So why do we?

Is it a matter of fulfilment? Perhaps a deep, biological wanderlust passed onto us from the likes of Cabot and Columbus? Maybe it's more sinister, the desperate actions of a culture of escapism? This is the question I am trying to answer.

I am beginning the Third year of my Illustration Degree at the University of Portsmouth, and my self directed project is approaching this question. Running in sequence with it will be this blog; I am not a man of massive income and can guarantee that I will not be packing my bags and jetting off to Machu Picchu/Iceland/Laos any time soon. So, I am going to relay to you all the feelings and desires that are in any way related to moving away from the city I find myself in. Maybe this way I can tap into the reasons for it all - I know I want to journey about and I adore being moved across the earth, but i'm not sure why either.

So, now I begin. Any contributions of any description to this experiment are more than welcome. Send me a message at spontaneous_nick@hotmail.com or leave a comment on this post!


Remain peaceful. x