The Brigstow Institute and the Centre for Environmental Humanities at the University of Bristol present a workshop on the role of creativity in conducting and communicating environmental research. During this one-day event, participants will consider how creative research methods and collaborations between researchers and artists can enrich our understanding of contemporary ecological challenges.

Amid growing scholarly interest in art-science collaborations and in transdisciplinary and co-produced research, what can be learned from existing best practice, and what innovations are needed in order to further cultivate ‘arts of attentiveness’ (van Dooren et al., 2016) to our environments? In seeking to answer these questions, the day’s activities will include presentations from academics and local and international artists, and plenty of time for brainstorming and generating new ideas.

The workshop forms part of the AHRC-funded research project Reimagining the Pacific (PI Dr Paul Merchant). The event will be held online via Zoom. The workshop may lead to a co-authored publication or other output (format to be discussed at the event).

Closing date for registration 10th September.

Please direct any queries to the Reimagining the Pacific administrative assistant, Aurora Moxon (am17691@bristol.ac.uk)

Schedule (all times BST)

11:15-11:30 Welcome and Introduction

11:30-13:00 Session 1: Creative collaboration in theory and in practice

The Silent Orchid Festival and Summer School

Camilo Uribe Botta (University of Warwick) and Matt Westbrook

Creative practice ethnography, just transitions, and the heart of Blyth.

Clifton Evers (presenter), Maia Almeida-Amir, Anthony Zito, Mark Ireland, Greg Mutch (Newcastle University)

Can visual culture protect the Pacific?

Hadas Marcus

Ecocritical cinema, place and ecologies

Szabina Orosz (University of Bristol)

13:00-13:45 Lunch

13:45-15:00 Session 2: Developing principles for art-research collaborations

A collaborative activity for attendees.

15:00-15:30 Break

15:30-16:45 Session 3: Mapping digital environments

Navigating the ontological multiplicity of the páramos around Bogotá through “agro-ecological sounds” and “multi-sensorial maps.”

Hanne Cottyn (University of York), Santiago Martínez (Instituto Humboldt), Ana María Garrido (Instituto Humboldt)

Map from Coast 2 Coast

Emi Koch, Nicolás Landa Tami and Rosemarie Lerner (Coast 2 Coast)

Live Streams: Connecting Rivers through digital collaborations

Lisa Blackmore, Emilio Chapela and Diego Chocano (University of Essex)

16:45-17:15 Break

17:15-18:45 Session 4: Reimagining the ocean. Four intermedial proposals

A new video essay on the ocean in Chilean cinema

Catherine Grant and Paul Merchant

Waste away coral

Ana Parrodi

Liquid Noise

Dan Pollard

[whalesong]

Xavier Velastín

18:45-19:00 Closing session and future directions