A collaboration with the European Forest Institute exploring how arts- and humanities-based digital methods can be used to understand forest issues and to explore engagement around reforestation. Undertaken as part of the SUPERB project on upscaling forest restoration.
This is an ongoing research project and materials will be listed here when they are available.
A collaboration with the European Forest Institute to explore forest governance and the changing role of forests in society according to web and social media data.
The project explores how the 2019 Amazon forest fires were addressed and accounted for through a series of analyses using online data from digital platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Google, Instagram, and Youtube. For further details see:
- Out of the Flames – project website and report with the European Forest Institute
- Colombo, G., Bounegru, L., & Gray, J. (2023). Visual Models for Social Media Image Analysis: Groupings, Engagement, Trends, and Rankings. International Journal Of Communication, 17, 28. Retrieved from https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/18971
- Gray, J. W. Y., Bounegru, L., & Colombo, G. (forthcoming). #AmazonFires and the online composition of forest politics. In J. Turnbull, A. Searle, H. Anderson-Elliot, & E. H. Giraud (Eds.), Digital Ecologies: Mediating More-Than-Human Worlds. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
How can we sense and make sense of forests with devices, techniques and our bodies? How might we cultivate an interdisciplinary “arts of noticing” (Tsing) for attending to forests and their role in critical zones?
Engaging with themes in the Critical Zones exhibition and catalogue curated by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel, this project explores different ways of listening to forests, drawing on different traditions, techniques, methods, media and approaches – from “Shinrin Yoku” (forest bathing) to sensing devices, data sonification to sound walks and storytelling.
The project includes a public workshop with ZKM as part of the Critical Zones exhibition to explore and compare different approaches and the possibilities and limits of forest experiences under current sensing conditions between immediacy and mediation.
For more on the use of digital data and devices to cultivate sensibilities towards trees and forests, see the Critical Zones field book and catalogue, including this chapter on “The Datafication of Forests”.
Image: Sound Sketch – Forest Rain – Liz K. Miller