Creating a more diverse, inclusive adventure culture means expanding our understanding of what adventure is.  

Part of the challenge defining ‘adventure’ is identifying the characteristics of adventure that should form a broad definition. This is why, this month, we put four questions to adventurous folk ranging from outdoor eco-psychotherapist Ruth Allen through feminist media founder Erin Monahan to world-renown photographer Chris Burkard. We asked what adventure is to each of them, what adventure used to be, what has changed their perspective and what they see as a big challenge for the adventure community.

Better than definitions, though, is seeing playful, unexpected and thought-provoking adventures in action. That is what this Edition is about.

One common idea of adventure is to escape into a place unknown and remote. But what if the unknown is where you already are - your city, perhaps? The Midnight Run, started by poet and playwright Inua Ellams, is premised on this idea and uses nighttime walks and artistic play to delve into urban culture and society. We spoke with artist and Midnight Run facilitar Andy Craven-Griffiths to learn more.

The notion of the humble walk as high adventure runs through the Edition. We were delighted to speak with radical walker, ‘counter-tourist’ and professor Phil Smith (also known as Crab Man) about the transformative possibilities in walking in novel ways. We also asked artists Clare Qualmann and Claire Hind about Ways to Wander: a rich collection of creative walking ideas they recently edited. Both conversations beg the question: what would happen if we walked in wacky ways?

Somebody else reworking the idea of far-flung adventure is artist Miranda Whall, who in an attempt to forge a more equal, intimate human-landscape relationship has been staring at plants and crawling through Welsh countryside dressed as a sheep and a badger, covered in GoPros. We had to speak with her.

None of this is to say adventure shouldn’t be pushed in more obviously epic directions. These can be equally surprising. Alicia Colson, archaeologist and ethnohistorian, writes beautifully on this note about archeology as adventure, both as field expeditions and as a journey into deep human history. Another environment harbouring remarkable secrets to our past and future is space - the greatest wilderness of all. On this note, we spoke with astronomers Sheila Kanani and Megan Arno about space exploration as adventure.

Beyond experimenting with playful adventures, it is useful to zoom out and think about how adventure is framed culturally. We spoke with two people doing this in different ways. Activist and writer Harriet Wood introduces us to the act and idea of ‘unexploring’, with implicit critiques of traditional exploration. And Kristin Jacobson tells us about what her new book calls The American Adrenaline Narrative: the world’s dominant type of adventure today, with far-reaching implications. 

One implication here is who is celebrated as adventurous - a vital consideration is adventure is to be inclusive. Filmmaker and adventurer Frit Sarita Tam writes openly on this note about the challenge of finding a foothold in the adventure world as a gay Chinese woman with few role models to look to.

Any understanding of adventure is cultural, but also individual, which means it can shift. To round out this month’s Edition Paralympic gold medalist Steve Bate MBE tells us about his perspective on adventure, and how it shifted as he lost his sight. And doctor Stephen Fabes, to celebrate the launch of his first book, about cycling six continents over six years, writes about adventure, ultimately, as a ‘change of tack’. And last but not least, Andy Middleton, Chief Exploration Officer an early B-Corp company TYF Adventure, shares why, in the midst of a global pandemic, we face our greatest adventure yet. 

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