Today we are excited to announce a new Sensing Nature venture, which aims to place social inclusion at the heart of landscape decision-making.
Called ‘Re-Storying Landscape for Social Inclusion’, the new project will promote more holistic landscape planning; not just for biodiversity (a widely recognised priority) but also for human diversity.
Supported by funding from the Economic and Social Research Council’s Impact Acceleration Account, Re-Storying Landscapes is a collaboration between Sensing Nature, Dr Clare Hickman, Dr Becca Lovell, Andy Shipley of Natural Inclusion, Holly Booker of Nature for Life, Westonbirt Arboretum, Art Shape, Zoe Partington of Dis/Ordinary Architecture, Joanna Grace of the Sensory Projects, Sense, and Access Lizard Adventure.
The project hopes to develop, share and inspire creative practice that prioritises social inclusion in landscape decision-making. We hope to inform interpretation, access and management decisions that respect the diverse ways in which landscapes are felt, valued and negotiated by different individuals and groups over time.
Building on our earlier Nature Narratives project and complementing our Unlocking Landscapes Network, the Re-Storying Landscapes project will involve four overlapping strands of work:
Strand 1: Anticipating landscape through sensory stories
Working with Joanna Grace, Sense and Access Lizard Adventure, Strand 1 will explore the potential to use sensory stories to help support safe and rewarding water-based experiences amongst people with complex disabilities. In sensory stories, each sentence is partnered with a rich sensory experience.
Joanna Grace will lead the team in creating a sensory kayaking story, capturing both the sensations of kayaking and the multisensory encounters that unfold across a peaceful lakeside setting in Cornwall. Prior to site orientation visits and 1:1 guided kayaking experiences with Access Lizard Adventure, the story will be performed to ease anxieties that may hinder engagement with watery landscapes in pleasurable, more-than-visual ways.
Strand 2: Re-storying landscape through disability arts
Drawing on the experience of contemporary artist, creative consultant and disability advocate, Zoe Partington, Strand 2 will be developing disability arts and creative engagement practices to broaden understandings of woodland experiences. Zoe will be working with Art Shape to organise three creative workshops at Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire. Art Shape is a charitable organisation passionate about supporting and enabling artists facing disabling barriers to realise their creative potential.
The creative sessions will work with disabled artists to design new forms of landscape interpretation on site, moving beyond the traditional emphasis on the visual to capture more subtle sensory qualities of landscape experience. The artwork created during the sessions will be used to curate an in situ exhibition, inspiring visitors to explore Westonbirt Arboretum – and woodlands more broadly – in new and exciting ways.
Strand 3. Sensing History
Instigated by our Nature Narratives and Unlocking Landscapes Network partners, Andy Shipley and Holly Booker, Strand 3 will develop new ways of conveying the diverse sensory histories of Westonbirt Arboretum. It will engage people with sight impairment in the design and delivery of site interpretation, inspiring visitors’ imagination about the sensory history of the Arboretum, while challenging preconceived ideas about visual impairment as a deficit.
Through a series of interactive site visits and training, the Sensing History team will work with a group of sight impaired volunteers, site staff and ‘Living Symphonies’ artist, James Bulley, to co-design and craft a storied ‘Sensing History’ event that will take visitors on a tour of the auditory, tactile and olfactory sensations of direct relevance to the site’s history.
Strand 4. Sharing best practice
To capture and share project learning more widely, we will be producing a series of written materials that can be adapted and tailored to the varied nature-based landscapes that people may be keen to visit around the country.
While most of these activities are currently on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are busy planning and excited to get started in the coming months.
When available, these resources will be shared at an interactive full-day policy workshop in London in early 2022. We’ll also make materials available online, so stay tuned for updates on both social media and our partners’ websites.
We’re always happy to hear about great work in this field so do get in touch if you have examples to share and/or if you would like to hear more about any of the proposed activities.
