Tom Morton (Arc) and Becky Little (Rebearth) join the team of Creative Collaborative Placement artists. They will be working in Scotland, liaising initially with specialists at the James Hutton Institute, with an enquiry focused on soil.
Read on for more about the artists, and their placement focus.
Continue reading “CCP Scotland Artists – Arc/Rebearth”
Welcome to the LUNZ Hub Creative Collaborative Placement artist in Wales: Jacqui Symons. Jacqui will begin her enquiry in conversation with a team from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) in Bangor.
Read on for more about Jacqui Symons and the placement focus.
Continue reading “CCP WALES Artist – JACQUI SYMONS”
In Northern Ireland, poet Kate Caoimhe Arthur will be enquiring into Land, Livestock and Livelihoods, meeting with researchers at the Agrifood and Biosciences Institute and livestock farmers across Northern Ireland.
Read on for more about Kate Arther and the focus of this placement.
Continue reading “CCP northern ireland Artist – kate Caoimhe Arthur”
In England, the LUNZ Hub Creative Collaborative Placement artist Daksha Patel has begun her process of research with Rothamsted Research, working with an enquiry into agrosystems transition. Daksha has been liaising with Rothamsted to refine the direction of the enquiry and is underway with her research.
Read on for more about Daksha Patel, and the placement focus.
Continue reading “CCP England Artist – Daksha Patel”
In the summer, the PLACE Collective put out a call for Creative Collaborative Placements with the LUNZ Hub, across the UK. There was a huge response and an extremely high calibre of applications – wow, there are so many brilliant artists out there – but after a long and thoughtful selection and interview process decisions were made.
We are delighted to announce the three new placements in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the ongoing work in England.
Continue reading “NEWS! NEWS! NEWS! Artists Selected for LUNZ Hub PLACEMENTS”
Excited to announce an open call for artists based in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales to apply to join the Creative Collaborative Placement programme, which we’re running with the UK LUNZ Hub. If this is for you or someone you know, read on.
Continue reading “CALL FOR ARTISTS”
How can it take twenty people to plant seven trees? That’s a fair question, an out-loud wondering from one of the participants joining the group to plant a Resonance circle in the Langstrath Valley. And it kind of gets to the point – the act of planting a Resonance circle is not about function, speed or efficiency, but about taking time, and about connection.
The seven trees planted on the fellside in the Langstrath valley where the last seven to go in during the year’s planting season – just enough time to get the trees into the ground before they woke from their winter slumber and began to open their leaves. Around the country, people have been planting trees maybe hundreds or thousands at a time, but for the Resonance circles, there are just seven trees. Each circle is planted with the same precise measurements: a diameter of 3.5 metres, with the seven trees set around the circumference of the circle in an equal spacing, angled 51.4 degrees from the centre.
Continue reading “Resonance Birch Circles – the plantings”
Becky’s contribution to the See Here Now exhibition emerged from her visits to Grizedale Forest, research into historical records of the forest and planting regimes, the collection of soil samples, production of chromatographs, and challenges to AI. Read on to find out from Becky about the process and the work currently on show.
Continue reading “Becky Nunes in See Here Now”
When environmental change is happening at planet-wide scale, and in cumulative increments of time, we can be psychologically and culturally distanced from perceiving it ‘here’ and ‘now’. The exhibition … is a compelling effort to bring the meanings closer.
So begins the review of the See Here Now exhibition currently showing in the gallery at Grizedale Forest, written for ecoartscotland by Dave Pritchard, an independent consultant in environment, culture, heritage and the arts.
In this review, Dave highlights some of the work that particularly struck him when he visited. He also asks about what art and artists can or might ‘do’, and shares some questions that arise from this exhibition: If things feel urgent, does the art also need to be urgent, or might it paradoxically be slow? and: What might an exhibition, or individual artworks, urge others to do?
To read the full review, visit ecoartscotland.net here.
We recommend making a brew before you do – while you’re on that site you’ll almost inevitably want to delve deeper. Ecoartscotland is a rich resource, focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics and commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer, and research associate at Gray’s School of Art.
Huge thanks to Dave for the review.
This image from ‘Hakoto’ by Collins + Goto Studio is one of the pieces featured in Dave Pritchard’s review.
Header image shows Sea sediment pigments, created by Naomi Hart (more on this here)
The See Here Now exhibition is in full swing in the gallery of Grizedale Forest. What a week! A joyful install, with perfect weather.
The preview was buzzing, with 25 of the exhibiting artists celebrating the launch. We were welcomed by Hazel Stone, National Curator of Contemporary Art at Forestry England; and a fascinating hour of conversation with five of the artists; then the evening fell into full swing.
For now, here are some images of the exhibition and the preview. There’s more on individual pieces in a series of blog posts, and you can find out more about the See Here Now exhibition here.
SEE HERE NOW Art in a time of urgency, Grizedale Forest, Daily 10am-4pm, until June 8th.
Super excited about the upcoming event in Cumbria, focusing on Land Use for Net Zero, Nature and People in Uplands and Protected Landscapes. The PLACE Collective is running this through our work with the UK LUNZ Hub, and in partnership with the Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas.
It’s a multi-person effort with site visits and an evening meal on Thursday March 27, and a full-day of discussions on Friday March 28. There’s info about the event on this website here; and if you’re curious to see the detail, download the Delegate Information Pack here.
After a long time planning, a group of PLACE Collective artists will be exhibiting work in the stunning galleries of Grizedale Forest, Cumbria, in response to the theme of Art in a Time of Urgency.
All of our practices are concerned with better understanding and caring for the living world – yet in a time of increasingly frequent severe weather events, melting glaciers, political instability, and a critical need for nature recovery, what might artists do? What work do we create, what questions do we ask, what stories do we tell? What might we do differently?
Mark your diaries for a visit, and watch out for blog posts in the coming weeks featuring insights from exhibiting artists.
Exhibiting in Grizedale Forest is to build on a legacy of thoughtful and often boundary-pushing art. It’s a privilege to bring an exhibition to this venue, and while not all work centres on the forest, or even on trees, some artists have chosen to create work in and in response to Grizedale Forest – more will be revealed when the show opens.
Images: Left to right featuring Simon Hitchens, Anna Sharpe, Bryony Ella, Daksha Patel, Siobhan McGlaughlin, Richard Gilbert
Main image: Jools Gilson in Weathering by Mary Wycherley (2023). Photography by Marcin Lewandowski.
Since last November, the Resonance project has been moving on. It revolves around 49 silver birch trees, which have been collected from Bolton Fell Moss peat bog that’s in a process of restoration, and are being planted out in seven tight circles, each of seven trees, across the Lake District National Park.
This is part of the PLACE Collective’s work through the UK-wide Land Use for Net Zero, Nature and People Hub – or LUNZ HUb for short. Working within the LUNZ Hub team, we’re convening opportunities for people from across practice, research and policy to get together, share learning, and focus on actions; all part of a just transition in a time when changes in land management need to be big, and at scale, to mitigate impacts of climate change, nurture recovery of biodiversity and ecosystems, and embed resilience and natural regeneration in UK land use.
Head over to the project page for Resonance to find out more, and watch for updates – there are reflections on the Big Dig Day here, and a reflection on the key take outs from that event on the LUNZ Hub website.
What might farmers and other land users and land managers do in the quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase their sequestration of carbon? This is a pressing question. It’s nested within many actions spanning policy, practice, supply chains and consumer choices that will be required for the UK’s land use sector – and there certainly isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. One of the many groups that is looking at this challenge is the Land Use for Net Zero, Nature and People (LUNZ) Hub – and recent films have been created as part of the PLACE Collective’s involvement with the LUNZ Hub consortium.
“There’s the stereotype that farmers are old boys with their trousers tied up with baler twine, but actually that’s not really the agricultural industry we’re seeing anymore. I think for young people it’s starting to look a really exciting place, and something that you want to get involved with.”
Martha Hayes, farmer, Lincolnshire
To kickstart discussions at the recent LUNZ Hub ‘Big Tent’ event in Edinburgh, where almost 100 people from practice, research and policy met to discuss challenges and opportunities around land use change, Rob Fraser created two short films. The films demonstrate a diversity of land use, land types, governance and policy in the four nations, and share some passionate calls to action from seven individuals.
The film-making journey took Rob around the UK, with Harriet Fraser (also from the PLACE Collective) conducting the interviews – asking each person the same set of questions.
The reason for optimism is that the changes that are necessary are actually positive: positive for the farming businesses and positive for the world in which we live.
Andrew Barbour, famer
The Frasers went to the flat lands of Lincolnshire, where they met arable and beef farmer Martha Hayes; and to windswept peatlands and intimate valleys of Wales, to meet hill farmer Lisa Roberts. They spent time among rolling fields of Northern Ireland, where they met dairy farmer Hugh Harbison; and visited the small mixed farm of Flavian Obiero in southern England. In Scotland, the Frasers visited Andrew Barbour on his organic hill farm, which embraces woodlands, moorland and mixed-use land; they wandered through old and new woodlands with Balbeg Estate owner Andrew Sinclair; and chatted among cucumbers and tomatoes on an Edinburgh city farm with Land Workers Alliance Scotland Policy and Campaigns Coordinator Tara Wight.
“This is maybe not what you want to hear, but it’s not really financially worthwhile for us to go down the road of trying to get to net zero…. nobody’s going to pay us to be net zero. People pay us to produce really good quality milk.”
Hugh Harbison, Aghadowey, Northern Ireland
Hugh Harbison
The films reveal different views about change, opportunities and challenges: and many commonalities too, including experiences of unpredictable, volatile weather and uncertainty around policies and markets. They share calls for more joined-up thinking among decision-makers, greater recognition of effective low-tech solutions, reform in land ownership, more trust in farmers, food sovereignty, and greater clarity about ‘net zero’ as well as carbon auditing and soil testing – among other things.
The interviewees discuss experiences of positive measures, including using Lidar scanning and soil testing to better understand a farm’s ability to store carbon, planting hedges and trees, changing grazing patterns and supporting resilient communities – and an enthusiasm for increasing understanding, skills and community efforts that can help in the move towards net zero.
“One of the things that brings me joy through working with the Landworkers Alliance is getting to see the work that our members are doing. They are literally growing beautiful things, producing delicious food, creating amazing habitats.”
Tara Wight, Scotland Policy and Campaigns Coordinator and Research Coordinator, Landworkers Alliance
Tara Wight
“It’s a challenge to select short excerpts from seven incredibly rich conversations,” says Rob. “And of course the conversations during each visit extended beyond the formal interview. I’ve tried to include the wider context by sharing footage from each person’s location. Everyone has been extremely generous with their time – there’s no better way to learn about a patch of land than to walk it with someone who knows it well, cares for it, and has a vision for its future.”
Favian Obiero
The pressure is on for the Land Use sector to build on existing good practice and scale up transformative changes to contribute to the UK’s target of reaching net zero by 2050. But the focus is not exclusively on carbon or net zero. The voices in the films show that carbon sequestration is in an inseparable relationship with nature and people: and there’s emphasis that actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase sequestration need to be integrated with actions that improve habitats and connectivity in the landscape for wildlife to thrive, and will also support land use businesses, not just for the provision of food but also as foundations for rural communities.
“When you’re trying to get to net zero, you can’t do it in little silos. You can’t just look at farming, you’ve got to look at the whole food system. You’ve got to look at what the land can produce and therefore what should be supported in a sustainable fashion … You should stop trying to produce foods that are damaging to the world that we live in – simple as that. And just because it can be done, doesn’t mean that it should be done.”
Andrew Barbour, Fincastle, Scotland
Andrew Sinclair
The two films aim to highlight experiences of change among land users and provoke further discussions about finding ways forwards that are positive for nature, people, and the target of net zero. Their first showing at the Edinburgh event did just this; following on from a speech by Professor Mathew Williams, Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture for Scottish Government outlining the link between science and policy, the views shared in these films spurred on some lively conversations in breakout sessions.
There’s an ambition to create more films to bring in a wider range perspectives, to feature other land managers, specialists in conservation and forestry, scientists, community movers and shakers, and those involved in shaping governance and policy. Watch this space!
Andrew Barbour
The PLACE Collective is one of the consortium members of the UK-wide Land Use for Net Zero, Nature and People Hub (or LUNZ Hub for short) – an innovative research initiative whose focus is to bring people together and help drive the transformation of UK land use needed to achieve net zero by 2050. It aims to equip UK policy-makers, industry, civil society and communities with the evidence they need to drive transformational change in land use – and understand and present pathways of change, so that it’s not just about theory, but about practice.
Over the next few years, in collaboration with other members of the hub, PLACE Collective artists will be devising and delivering a suite of creative practices, interventions and presentations, to suit specific purposes, and, importantly, to open up questions and challenge preconceptions.
A fuller version of this article was first published on the LUNZ Hub website here.
For more films related to the LUNZ Hub, check out their YouTube page here: https://www.youtube.com/@LUNZHub
Martha Hayes
Huge thanks to the seven people who generously shared time with us and showed us around their places; and to the team in Wales who helped with accurate translations.
Andrew Sinclair, owner, Belbeg Estate, Ayrshire, Scotland
Martha Hayes, arable farmer, Lincolnshire, England
Hugh Harbison, dairy farmer, Aghadowey, Northern Ireland
Tara Wright, Scotland Policy and Campaigns Coordinator and Research Coordinator, Landworkers Alliance
Flavian Obiero, farmer, Hampshire, England
Lisa Roberts, farmer, Dovey Valley, Wales
Andrew Barbour, farmer, Fincastle, Pitlochry, Scotland
Lisa Roberts
A few images of the exhibition in place at Florence Arts Centre: Half Lives / Gathering / The Flow, with artwork from Alistair Debling, Jamie Jenkinson and Cristina Picchi. Despite undertaking very different residency journeys, there’s a cohesion in their work – considering time, relationships to place, what’s seen and unseen. For more on their approaches, there’s background in our previous post here.
“Like layers of rock, these invisible and inaudible histories are within the foundations of these landscapes; hidden but not forgotten, lingering beneath our feet. The Flow raises questions about how we shape our environments and, in turn, how they shape us.” Cristina Picchi
“The installation not only portrays this process of collection but symbolises a convergence of people, landscapes and experiences, underscoring the communal essence at the heart of Jenkinson’s practice.” Will Rees
For more, you can read reflections from each artist, with captions for each piece, in this exhibition guide, which has been put together by Will Rees.
While the exhibition was on show a one-day event was held at Florence Arts Centre. This was an opportunity for the artists to talk about the process of their work, and join academics from CNPPA to reflect on the impact of their inter-disciplinary collaborations. Rich conversations explored the experience of artists working with scientists and specialists in other professions both in a panel discussion session, and in small groups.
The day was co-run with Dr Martin Fowler from University of Cumbria, and was attended by university students and by local artists. In breakout sessions, groups were invited to discuss the issues raised in the panel sessions, and talk about the role of artists today – both in West Cumbria and more widely.
It was a lively afternoon with one of those conversations that kept us all in the building longer than we planned to stay! There was a strong sentiment from the group about the necessity of artists – and other researchers and academics – to challenge current systems (including the education system), offer social commentary, and to contribute critical thinking to debates and discussions about caring for places, and the way stories are told, and by whom.
For students who attended the day, the discussions continued during their course with Dr Fowler and other lecturers, and have fed into their production of dissertations.
“Confronting the deep time of the nuclear industry gives us an opportunity to consider which parts of our culture are important to hold onto for future generations, and which areas might be radically reimagined.” Alistair Debling
Attendees sit inside Jamie Jenkinson’s immersive 5:1 surround system audio installation, ‘Gathering’
The artists’ residency placements and the exhibition have been funded by Arts Council England and Cumberland Council, with support from the University of Cumbria and the Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas (CNPPA). The exhibition is curated by Harriet Fraser and Rob Fraser (somewhere nowhere) of the PLACE Collective, an environmental artists’ collective based at CNPPA. The event was run in partnership with University of Cumbria, Institute for Education – Arts and Society, and with support from Will Rees. The residencies and exhibition are part of Cumberland Council’s Coastal Programme.
September 6 – October 13, 2024
A year on from their research along Cumbria’s coast, three artists will be sharing work at Florence Arts Centre. It’s an exciting and thought-provoking exhibition that gives insights into each artist’s work and the role of collaboration and process in arts-research.
Alistair Debling, Jamie Jenkinson and Cristina Picchi were selected from more than 100 applicants. In 2022 they headed to the west coast of Cumbria as part of Cumberland’s Coastal Programme. The artists were paired with an academic specialist at the Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas at Cumbria University, to promote interdisciplinary collaborations in place-based research. It’s been great for the PLACE Collective to have helped with creating these connections, and to co-curate the exhibition.
Each artist approached their exploration of the west coast of Cumbria in a different way, encountering new places and perspectives with the support of local residents, and developing their specific line of enquiry and their creative responses.
The artists’ work is concerned with place, queer ecologies, what goes unseen, how nature and industry interact, arts-science research, and the power of art to shift narratives. They resist Romantic visions of the Lake District; instead, their research has been driven by an interest in in/visibility, safety and scales of time.
Their film, photography, installation and audio pieces reveal unseen aspects of lives on the west coast and invite discussions about identity, belonging, heritage and futures.
– architectures of safety; (re)presentations of nuclear, mining and farming perspectives.
Film and installations.
“Half Lives features interviews with members of Sellafield Nuclear Power Station’s internal LGBTQ+ network. Sellafield stands on the site of the UK’s first nuclear weapons tests, which then became Britain’s first nuclear power station. It had an extended life recycling European nuclear waste until finally starting a 100 year decommissioning process in 2022. Sellafield is a seemingly unlikely host of one of West Cumbria’s only public-facing queer groups. However, conversations with queer-identifying staff reveal unexpected connections between the work of decommissioning—of building, architecturally, extraordinarily safe spaces—and the work of the network to build socially safe spaces within a historically unwelcoming industry.”
Based in Cumbria, Alistair Debling makes films, photographs, performances, meals and installations that share unexpected stories about rural life. His work investigates the relationships between diverse fields, from ecology and queer nightlife to militarism, agriculture and architecture.
– local voices and shifting of scales in time and place
Side specific sound installation, illustrations and images.
gathering is a 5.1 surround sound archive, recorded in 2022 during 30 days backpacking across what was the Copeland District. This alternative archive — currently exhibited as nattering at Millom Library — comes together around experiences of gatherings. Reflecting current and lost pockets of habitation / community / sharing that have left their marks across the district. Pubs / vapour bars / repurposed nightclubs / the peak of Scafell Pike / peak tourist season / ancient stone circles / Roman ruins / banks of Sand Martins / St Bees’ Guillemots / sands of Drigg / cairns / Sellafield’s nuclear waste / Haverigg’s Black-headed gulls / caves of Alcathoes bats / fires on the beach / … These places became sites of dialogue with people / animals / foliage / landscapes / elements, recorded and collated to surround and traverse the listener, as a place of gathering.
Jamie Jenkinson is an artist, researcher, and programmer based in sunny Morecambe. He is interested in low-cost and accessible creative practices, user cultures, quantum philosophies, improvisation and decentralisation. Jamie is an associate tutor at the Royal College of Art, and co-programmes the online platform xviix, and Morecambe project space, Jewellers.
– water, the shaping of place, and the microscopic worlds within water
Film, three screen presentation.
“For The Flow, I followed a metaphorical river (in reality, made of different streams and rivers) from its source, through the fells, the lakes and eventually to the sea taking in abandoned mines, lighthouses, and the slow mechanic movement of the off shore wind farm. Local biologist Gill Notman gathered and tested water samples and the results and microscopic images are featured in the film. Sound design is a vital part of my practice and I used contact microphones to capture the vibrations of objects and locations on land and underwater, which became part of an immersive soundscape reflecting the place and people’s past and present, against a backdrop of ghostly industrial leftovers and breathtaking coastline.”
Cristina Picchi is an Italian filmmaker, artist and writer. Her short films, documentaries and video installations have been screened worldwide, winning prizes including the Silver Leopard in Locarno, and a nomination for Best Short Film at the Italian Academy Awards and at the European Film Awards. Picchi is currently developing a feature creative documentary, About The End, exploring apocalyptic scenarios and fantasies in different communities and continents. The film was nominated for the Solinas Scriptwriting Prize and is supported by the Swedish Film Institute and the Sundance Institute.
Cristina Picchi worked particularly closely with Dr Gill Notman, Course Director in Marine and Freshwater Biology.
Jamie Jenkinson spent time with Dr Jamie Mcphie, Associate Professor of Environmental Humanities and Social Science.
Alistair Debling met with Dr Lois Mansfield, former Professor of Upland Landscapes at the University, and now Rural and Environmental Land Management consultant at Environmentors, and with Dr Jamie Mcphie.
The artists’ residency placements and the exhibition have been funded by Arts Council England and Cumberland Council, with support from the University of Cumbria and the Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas. The exhibition is being curated by Harriet Fraser and Rob Fraser (PLACE Collective co-founders), with additional support from Will Rees. The residencies and exhibition are part of Cumberland Council’s Coastal Programme.
… is open Friday – Sunday. Please check the website for opening times, location and contact details. https://www.florenceartscentre.com/
How might we hear leaves speaking? What does it mean to share soil, water and air with trees and other living things? Can sound and technology open up new empathic relationships? Reiko Goto Collins (Collins + Goto Studio) will be sharing Hakoto performances, followed by a discussion, this June at Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art. She’ll be coming to Glasgow after performing in Vienna and Cologne.
Reiko’s work also features in the Peace Arbour: her creation of a fruit tree nursery alongside Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree and Zana Araki’s Diverse Beings – Feel My Frequency – Lines of Connection. The trio’s work responds to the themes of trees, hope and healing; it offers a space for discussions and the expression of wishes, needs and aspirations for peaceful futures.
HAKOTO: Reiko Goto Collins, Performances at Glasgow Womens Library*
Friday 7th June: 7am
Saturday 8th June: 1pm, 3pm
Saturday 22nd June: 1pm, 3pm, 8.30pm
PEACE ARBOUR
Sat 1 June – Sat 31 August
Tue, Wed & Fri, 10am – 4.30pm
Thu, 10am – 7pm; Sat, 12pm – 4pm
*23 Landressy Street, G40 1 BP
More information on Reiko’s performances here
Soils contain more carbon than in the atmosphere and all vegetation on the planet combined. In the UK, soils store over 10 billion tonnes of carbon in the form of organic matter; this is roughly equal to 80 years of annual UK greenhouse gas emissions. The health of soil is impacted by how land is used and managed – but when it comes to improving soil health, action and inaction are influenced by a range of economic, social and environmental factors …
Making changes in land use that will help the UK reach its Net Zero targets, while boosting diversity and abundance in vegetations and wildlife species, and supporting thriving human communities is a huge challenge. There are many teams initiatives across the UK focussed on finding ways forward. And we’re delighted to be joining one of these: the LUNZHub – Land Use for Net Zero, Nature and People.
The PLACE Collective has joined the LUNZHub consortium with more than 30 organisations, and a wider network of 60+ partners. Artists with a diverse range of specialist interests, different media, and in different locations, will be joining people from across UK policy, academic, farming, forestry, food and community sectors.
We’re looking forward to being part of this novel approach to collaboration. It’s a huge opportunity to bring art and artists into conversations and the development of pathways, policy and actions that may have meaningful impact and legacy.
We’re at the start, and Harriet and Rob Fraser are joining meetings around the UK to learn from the wider team and get a feel for where and how art and artists will be effective. Artists from the PLACE Collective will be working within the LUNZHub team to encourage critical reflection and discussions that cross and connect different areas of knowledge, and we will be meeting and working with individuals and communities beyond the team who face the real-life impact of change and have valuable experience and ideas to share.
We’ll be imagining and creating spaces and opportunities for people to come together, and working with others to assist knowledge exchange, and to bridge the gaps between policy makers, science, and people ‘on the ground’, across all four nations. Not a small ambition … and it may not be smooth, but the Hub has many brilliant people in it and we’re all optimistic.
The LUNZHub – Land Use for Net Zero, Nature and People – is being co-led by the James Hutton Institute and the University of Leicester, with funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra, on behalf of England and Wales), the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and the Scottish Government. It has been co-designed with Defra and the Welsh and Scottish governments. (Website soon to be launched … and we’ll insert a link here when it’s live.)
From North America to North Yorkshire, the Moss of Many Layers film has been journeying to different cinemas and film festivals across the world. The first showing (and for me the most important) was in a village hall in Hethersgill, close to the Moss. The audience was made up of the local community and the many people included in the film: the school children, neighbouring farmers, researchers, artists and conservationists.
But now the film is shared far and wide, telling the story of the moss beyond its neighbours and the scientific community.
Art within science serves as a mirror: it can communicate ideas and data accessibly as different attention is required. Additionally, it acts as a versatile tool, allowing us to manipulate scale, delve into details, and expand our understanding of the landscape.
When recording or decoding science – as an artist – it’s important to include the human story that is connected to the Moss. That’s my motivation for including the ‘breathing portraits’ of subjects in the film.
I certainly haven’t stopped thinking about Bolton Fell Moss, and am happy to keep going back. Here are two images from my last visit to the Moss, to see Harriet’s Poetry Signs and watch Dr Simon Carr and PHD Student Jack Brennan use a carbon flux monitor.
View Juliet’s Moss of Many Layers film here.
For more about the Moss of Many Layers project, visit the project page here; and use the search tool for Moss of Many Layers and browse the blogs.
It has been said more than once, and it’s true: it’s not possible to give a final ‘evaluation’ of the impact of a project until some time has passed. Arts interventions and multi-disciplinary engagement in community, scientific and conservation work have effects across a wide timescale: in the days, weeks or months in which direct research and engagement take place, and then in the months and years following that. Moss of Many Layers (MoML) is a case in point. So, 14 months on from the Wide Open Day celebratory event, we (Harriet and Rob) sat down with Emma Austin to hear her reflections.
Emma, Natural England Senior Reserves Manager for North Cumbria, was part of the MoML project team. She already had an established relationship with Bolton Fell Moss – the vast area of peatland that is currently under restoration – and with some of the residents living around the edges of the moss before the project began. So what was the impact, or the novelty, of a project that brought together artists, scientists, restoration specialists, reserve managers and local residents? This was the first question we put to Emma.
What was the impact, or the novelty, of a project that brought together artists, scientists, restoration specialists, reserve managers and local residents?
Emma tells us that she really hoped the project would focus on the local community, helping to build bridges where people had been impacted by the difficult transition from an industrial site of peat extraction with local jobs and income, to a National Nature Reserve. ‘Having new faces that had no prior history with the place, artists who were independent, scientist with new knowledge, was brilliant,’ says Emma. ‘And the things that were introduced – whether it was a camera, a poem, specialist kit – these were new, and fresh, and I think the local community who became involved perhaps felt involved in a way they hadn’t been before.’
Emma taking part in the schools events, co-designed with artist Anne Waggot Knott
Emma says that she senses the project’s impact through the new links made with the local community. The first time this hit home for her was the huge turnout for the Wide Open Day. Emma always grins when she talks about this: the peat core extending the length of the hall, the room buzzing with conversation, curiosity about the artworks, school children and their parents, and local people meeting one another, some for the first time.
Emma tells us there has been a real growth in interest in the moss since then, nicely coinciding with the completion of the new 3km boardwalk. Juliet Klottrup’s film has been a feature at local discussion events, and there is a definite interest for more of these. The mailing list for news of Bolton Fell Moss has grown fourfold; and events on site run by an engagement officer over the summer were really popular.
In June 2023, during a nationwide heatwave, there was a fire at Bolton Fell Moss, and for six days people worked together to tackle it.
In June 2023, during a nationwide heatwave, there was a fire at Bolton Fell Moss, and for six days people worked together to tackle it. ‘It sounds strange,’ says Emma, ‘but I think the fact that we did the Moss of Many Layers project may have made a difference. I certainly felt able to ask for help in a way I would have been wary of in the past. It’s hard to say for sure that this is linked with MoML, but the project may well have played a part in the way it helped create new friendships and familiarity.’ The intervention of artists helped to bring people together, and the continuing use of the film in Emma’s meetings helps to spotlight local people who are connected with the moss – who live nearby, who once worked there, who are engaged in monitoring, or just love to visit, and who have stories to share.
Emma smiles as she talks about the poem signs on the bog. She often hears positive comments about them, and just last week she heard from a group of MSc students who had said they loved the poem and had a WOW moment when they learnt that the signs are anchored and so they will act as a measure of peat accumulation for centuries to come – a novel combination of art and science.
‘People get used to seeing things in a certain way,’ says Emma, ‘We all do. But seeing it from a different perspective – through the arts – can bring a different outlook.’
One of the central elements of Emma’s role with Natural England is to get to know people and liaise with land owners and farmers about changes that are needed to support restoration of the moss. Emma thinks that the inclusion of art, and the presence of the artists and scientists in the area during the project, has helped people understand the bog more and feel the importance of it, and has also helped to soften the edges of difficult conversations. ‘People get used to seeing things in a certain way,’ says Emma, ‘We all do. But seeing it from a different perspective – through the arts – can bring a different outlook.’
For her, the Moss of Many Layers project helped, above all, to put the community first. ‘How do you make sure that you create a discussion or a conversation where the person whose place you’re in feels as important, or the most important, part of the jigsaw. Because if we are going to achieve any of the things we want to achieve for nature, we’ve got to involve everybody – and the way the Moss of Many layers brought different strands together, through art and science, helped to create a neutral space of shared ownership.’
‘… if we are going to achieve any of the things we want to achieve for nature, we’ve got to involve everybody – and the way the Moss of Many layers brought different strands together, through art and science, helped to create a neutral space of shared ownership.’
For more on Moss of Many Layers:
Visit the main project page here.
Also tap into these blogs about the process, including work with schools, the Wide Open Day, Scientist Jack Brennand’s reflections and you can use the search function, looking for Moss of Many Layers to explore further.
