Umgebungen: A Sustainable Journey into the Umwelt of Peatland Life began as part of my MA Art in Science research. What follows is a brief outline of the project proposal.
Peatlands are living archives, holding stories of the past while shaping the future. They store carbon, nurture biodiversity, and carry traces of memory in their layers of soil and moss. Yet much of their importance is hidden from view, making them fragile, overlooked, and often misunderstood. My practice explores ways of making these unseen processes more tangible, translating the slow work of restoration into experiences that people can feel as well as understand.
Working between art and science, I experiment with photography, sound, moving image, and materials such as handmade paper from garden waste and felt from raw fleece. I have also been growing cotton grass in geotextiles, allowing the plants to co-create texture and form. These processes root my practice in the material realities of peatlands, while also opening up space for imaginative and immersive encounters.
I draw inspiration from artists and researchers who reveal ecological processes through different forms of engagement, but my focus is on collaborating with the living systems themselves. By working alongside moss, fungi, soil, and plants, I aim to develop artworks that embody restoration rather than only represent it.
Ultimately, my work is about rethinking how we connect with the land. Peatlands are not empty or desolate, but places of resilience, memory, and more-than-human life. Through immersive and transdisciplinary practice, I want to invite others into these environments, offering moments of encounter that might shift how we see, listen, and relate to the world around us.
