Alex Harley, Nowhereisland, 2012. Photography: Alex Hartley/Tania Kovats

In 2004, while participating in the Cape Farewell Arctic expedition, Hartley went to the High Arctic, searched for and discovered an island that had been revealed from within the melting ice of a retreating glacier. The island was taken out into International Waters where it was declared a new nation. In 2012, this new nation – Nowhereisland – embarked upon a 500-mile journey around the south west coast of England as part of the Cultural Olympiad: one landscape moving through another. At the end of Nowhereisland's journey, in September 2012, the island was broken up and distributed amongst the 23,003 people from 135 countries who had signed up as ‘citizens of Nowhereisland’. As a final gesture, a small piece of the island was sent to the edge of space where some particles of rock from the island will remain forever in the upper-stratosphere.