Join us on this artist-led mini-residency where we will explore moss as a microcosm and tool for transformation, investigating ways of working with and learning from more-than-human species to create ecological art and speculative futures. An ideal experience for those who want to explore together how to be more creative in the natural world.
About moss
Evolving over 450 million years ago, some of the first green things on land, mosses have survived every extinction event. Mosses embody collaborative and regenerative ways of existing in Long Time, they are a living challenge to the systems of extractivism which are fuelling the climate crisis. Together we will explore how we can creatively learn from and work with this ancient embodied knowledge.
The programme
This mini-residency will explore questions around participatory ecological art, working site-specifically in and around Groundwork gallery. Beginning with a moss walk to learn from mosses in the immediate area, we’ll start shifting our perspectives to different scales and attuning ourselves to the environment, bridging the gap between inside and outside. We’ll introduce key ecological principles and concepts of moss logic through transdisciplinary practice including: embodied learning, sensory exploration, play, discussion, and a collaborative drawing session.
On the second day we’ll take what we’ve been exploring outside on a creative field trip and spend the day making site-specifically in collaboration with the environment. This will be a practical making day where participants can follow what inspired them from the day before and will include an outdoor collaborative creative writing session, making speculative fictions/futures around moss. Together we’ll re-imagine and prototype alternative ways of existing in possible moss worlds. Join us to time travel with mosses to learn from the past and create collaborative speculative futures where we thrive through our mossy interconnections.
Creative activities include:
- Moss walk: getting to know mosses in our local environment
- Embodied mosses exercise: creating our own microclimate
- Sensory meditation
- Time travel with mosses
- Collaborative speculative fiction creating possible moss worlds: working with science fiction, possible worlds theory, speculative moss logic and radical care, we ask how we can reimagine our more-than-relationships to create just and equitable futures where all species thrive?
- Collaborative drawing and collage in the gallery
- Site specific more-than-human art practice in nature
