Does data need to be wetter? What would happen if policy walked itself into soily existence? Why is ‘love’ a dirty word in science? If we could sonify the evidence, whose voices might we hear clearer? What if the environmental department was an art studio?
The Department of Artecology is an artist-led experimental platform bringing together diverse practitioners to explore different approaches to ecological stewardship in England.
This is not a ‘speculative’ office but a functioning space for experimenting and sharing around live issues impacting the sector. Topics have included: Resonating with research, listening as a tactile event; Cooked data and being-walked as a form of research; Emotional geography and love in the time of research and KPIS.
Participants have included policymakers from DEFRA, queer ecologists from Cambridge’s CRASHH laboratory, independent farmers, feminist geographers, brand strategists working in the sustainability sector and arts curators.
We take part in thinking-doing experiments; bringing dry texts to life in tactile and sensory ways; engage with theorists to tickle the thinking and drawing on our rich reservoirs of lived, embodied experiences.
Upcoming club meetings
FAQ’s
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The DoA is conceived as a vibrant, peer-to-peer space for diverse practitioners of ecological care-taking for example - artists, activists, conservationists, grassroots group leaders, scientists, social scientists, policy makers. In some shape or form you’ll be able to draw on your own experience. It's for folk interested in interrogating the methods we are using and those who acknowledge the structures we are caught up in might not be serving us or at least have more potential…
If you are a critic, a commentator or simply curious - this might not be the space for you but I can make sure you are informed of documentation and public events.
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A richly programmed session to let your thoughts breathe - this is less a place to solve more a place to feel-through our ideas and ask more questions. A place to be free and judgement free and gather materials to take in your practice. A peer-to-peer space to meet other practitioners for ongoing conversations. Facilitated-collaboration that respects and makes the most of your time!
The sessions are not subject-specific and are designed to be interdisciplinary so if you are working in wastewater management - the session on edible reports is still for you, if you are working on broadening access to green space - the audio session is still for you!
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To enjoy yourself! To get stuck in and share your insights, experiences and reflections. To contribute to a non-judgemental space rooted in deep listening and respect. To note - you do not have to share anything you don’t want to, you can step out of any of the activities as you prefer and you do not have to be in any documentation.
You also don’t have to attend every session to be a part of the club ;)
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1. Confirmation of your attendance
I’ll get in touch to confirm your space - I want everyone who wants to be involved, to be involved. I’ll do my best to squeeze folk in and worse case, we may need to spread across sessions. Likewise, if this isn’t the best fit for you, I’ll ensure you can get involved in the public programme.
2. Ahead of the session
I’ll send you a short reading, perhaps a small task or provocation to think about and a list of fellow attendees. I’ll also share a consent form.
During the session there will be a segment for project sharing so if you are interested in sharing your work please let me know in your sign up form.
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London National Park City Visitor Hub
80 Mortimer Street, London W1W 7FE
Nearest tubes: Oxford Circus, Bond Street, Goodge Street, Tottenham Court Road
The main floor is wheelchair accessible but unfortunately the toilets are down a flight of stairs. However, we can make provisions with neighbouring partners.
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The sessions are scheduled at various times to accommodate varying schedules acknowledging that many people work full time during the week and are unable to participate mid-week during the day. In the registration you’ll have a chance to share your preferences.
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My intention is to create a ‘worksheet’ as a form of documentation from each session.
The Department of Artecology forms part of my PhD research so I may reflect on the experience within my thesis.
Register your interest
Details of #5 will be announced soon, for now if you are interested in joining a future session please register your interest here.
Session packs
#1 Resonating with research, listening as a tactile event
Thursday 7 November 2024
In ecology, there is no shortage of ‘data’ - we are drowning in it and are are constantly tasked to find more. How do we make that data (((move)))? How do we make that research more (((resonant)))?
In this session we’ll… explore sound as a material for making words, data and research more (((relational))) - listening is after all, something you feel through your whole body. It is (((touch at a distance))).
We’ll explore audio as a conceptual tool for illuminating the gaps, giving voice to the unheard and storytelling otherwise.
We’ll touch on novel formats like the (((sonic essay))), (((audio fiction))) and (((experimental radio))) and consider how we can create them from amateur perspectives.
We’ll think about how the information in our (((sonic surroundings))) could feed into our research and reporting to root them in memories and emotion.
#2 Cooked data and being walked as research
Wednesday 27 November 2024
Facts! Stats! Dates! Data! Evidence! In order to move and make decisions, ecological management hinges on gathering of raw objective, impartial, out-there data. In this session, we’ll explore how this ‘raw’ data is in fact…always cooked.
We will sieve through the ways we write ourselves into the research…and the research writes itself on us. How might your fieldwork be vegetalising you, crystalising you, pollinating you, soaking you and how might recognising that transform our work?
We will take inside and outside walks with our questions asking how, who, what is shaping them. We will attempt to catch data that might edited out, suppressed, overlooked and make them edible.
In the company of more-than-human and other-human companions we’ll simmer what would happen if paths forward walked themselves into soily existence?
#3 Emotional geography & love in the time of research
Tuesday 11 February 2025 7-9pm
If {emotions, intuition and feeling} are such an integral part of how we engage and make sense of the world - why are they so often repressed or discredited in our work of conservation and environmental management & policy making?
How we engage with nature individually and institutionally are often very different - we are expected to be objective and {dispassionate} but in doing so, what are we missing in the process? How might bringing those {felt} dimensions into the room shapeshift nature from a resource to be managed to a relationship to be cultivated? How might the addition of {heart} transform how nature is taken care of in England? When should/n’t we bring how we {feel] about the data into how we analyse and make decisions about it?
For our third Department of Artecology research club meeting we will get {emotional} engaging in recent scholarship on the subject and drawing on our own experiences mediated through breaking bread and shaping clay…
#4 KPIS
Friday 9th May 2025, 2-4pm @ London Performance Studios
It’s time for The Department of Artecology #4 and this time we are getting awkward and talking the numbers! We are unpicking that pesky techno-managerial acronym, the ‘KPI’ or ‘Key Performance Indicator’ looking at the performativity of data through…performance. Governments, local authorities, businesses, your line managers are looking for the ‘evidence’ in order to act but how much is enough and, do we really have an information gap or an action gap? What numbers do The Powers That Be need to see - figures towards economic growth or tree growth? Oh and by the way…how do we respond to the demand for impact with diminishing budgets £££? How do we handle the demand to ‘demonstrate impact’ when the real ROI we’re seeking is a cessation of climate breakdown and increase in biodiversity? How do we move beyond the timeframe of the financial year to accommodate the long-term, far-sighted work needed and devise new measures of success beyond quantified, measured (and often financial) units. Dancing around the data; pirouetting around powerpoint-less-ness; acting and taking-action around environmental acts, join me for an afternoon thinking through new shapes of impacting and evidencing. This session is specially programmed to coincide with my week long seeding space residence at @LondonPerformanceStudios.