Co-Creation MTH session: I.N.S.E.C.T. Summercamp - Resonating Worlds

Pre-amble about the sandbox

Calls for an economic model that is more equitable, sustainable, and responsive to the complexities of the 21st century are increasing, thereby challenging traditional mainstream economics, including the notion that nature (eco-logy) and the eco-nomy are separate from each other.

If the economy is a nested system within nature and taking place within the realms and boundaries of the natural environment, then it makes sense that in our rethinking of the dominant economic model, we ought to better understand what actual co-creation with nature and the more-than-human looks like; what challenges and opportunities arise when we implement this in our contemporary world; and how far we are in our understanding and ability to apply this in practice. For this purpose, we can take clues from the rapidly expanding 'field' of approaches and methods to engage with and represent or involve nature and the ‘more-than-human’.

To this end, Kincentric Leadership in association with The Repatterning Collective is organising an initial series of learning sessions as part of a Co-creation with the More-than-Human sandbox. Rather than webinars, the learning sessions create a collective space for semi-structured dialogue & discussion on a bespoke topic, with each session featuring an expert practitioner who takes us on a mini deep dive into the workings, developments, (im)possibilities & directions of a particular approach to engage with, involve, represent or connect with the more-than-human.

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Resonating worlds: Amplifying vibrational relationships during I.N.S.E.C.T. Summercamp

In the next learning session, we’ll be exploring insights, methodology & experience from the I.N.S.E.C.T. Collective & Summercamps on how we can integrate post-anthropocentric and multispecies perspectives into our works and everyday lives. Although there is certainly no shortage of theory, the I.N.S.E.C.T. Summercamp - an annual gathering of an interdisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners engaged in more-than-human perspectives and design, and now in its fifth edition - investigates creative approaches in practice, co-created with participants, while building factual and tacit knowledge and community.

The acronym I.N.S.E.C.T. grew from practice: an INterSpecies Exploration through biodigital Craft and manufacturing Technologies. Here it’s used as a term to embrace small organisms that do not commonly attract human attention, particularly the very diverse and abundant group of animals we call insects. To address complex and wide ranging dynamics - such as the decline of the insect population - and the destructive ways we relate to ourselves, others, and our natural surroundings, we need to reconfigure our ways of thinking, doing, and knowing, and harvest the gifts of everyone to access the intelligence of the collective.

'Imagine hanging out with insects in embodied, imagined, and amplified ways every summer. You discover the physiology, behaviour and communication of a chosen species companion and engage in creative practices of mapping, making and being/becoming. You listen to dock beetles walking and picking seeds on a dock plant, imagine the ways they produce vibrational messages via a shape-shifting meditation and through instrument-making, write a poem that turns into a rap song, and talk insect even when foraging plants for dinner.'

The annual I.N.S.E.C.T. Summercamp, held since 2022, serves as an opportunity to co-develop, apply and adjust an evolving methodology to foster relationships with the ecosystem local to the camp's location through both digital and physical means of co-creation. For the next three years, the summercamp will closely collaborate with the Weaving as Worlding Practices with Earth Beings (WeB) research project that is funded by the Swedish Research Council.

WeB focuses on collaboration between the I.N.S.E.C.T. Community and the indigenous Sarayaku people of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Through shared engagement with materials such as clay, wood and textiles, the project fosters learning, interaction and knowledge exchange, exchanging artefacts as shared objects of inquiry, demonstrating vibratory, acoustic, and material properties that connect different aesthetic worlds.

Together with members of the I.N.S.E.C.T. Community and WeB, Svenja Keune will provide insights into how the summercamp is being woven and weaving itself in different ways shaped by its members. We look back at four summercamps and into the co-creation of the fifth taking place in late August 2025, titled Resonating worlds: Amplifying vibrational relationships.

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