On the second Saturday in July, Those Who Possess Dirt and our artist in residence Hussein Mitha invited everyone to a listening and attunement workshop to open conversations with the green life in our local area, asking: How do we use attunement to pay closer attention to and create kinship between humans and more-than-humans? What does it look like to soften our bodies to attune, whilst being aware of our status as ‘guest’ or ‘trespasser’?
Together we made our own listening devices – think ear trumpets or megaphones – inspired by over-the-top microphones and historical listening and sound equipment. We were also considering our relationship to local landscapes and wildlife, imagining their stories, and becoming aware of how our bodies and voices can soften and quieten.
After we made our devices, we went on a short silent guided walk around Huntly, listening closely, paying attention to how sounds feel and what animals and plants we feel like. On our return from the walk we made time for writing, collaging, zine making and chatting about our experiences. During this time we showed a short film reel and montage of film snippets in which humans and plants communicate or interact, alongside some locally foraged food made by artist-chef Kawther Luay.
About Those Who Possess Dirt
Those Who Possess Dirt (TWPD) is a research collective formed in 2019, centering around themes of ecology, contagion and collaboration within an arts practice. The collective untangles the possibilities of multi-species kinship through cross-disciplinary dialogues, site-specific investigations and empathetic listening to more-than-human voices. We find joy in the confusion, leakiness and bountiful revelations these forays can provide, while imagining a future of coexistence. The group received Creative Scotland funding in 2021 to complete a residency and publication in central Glasgow exploring local flora alongside a Botanist from Glasgow Museums. TWPD is currently made up of the artists/curators Clarinda Tse, Shona Robin MacPherson and Ruby Eleftheriotis.
Those Who Possess Dirt (TWPD) is a research collective formed in 2019, centering around themes of ecology, contagion and collaboration within an arts practice. The collective untangles the possibilities of multi-species kinship through cross-disciplinary dialogues, site-specific investigations and empathetic listening to more-than-human voices. We find joy in the confusion, leakiness and bountiful revelations these forays can provide, while imagining a future of coexistence. The group received Creative Scotland funding in 2021 to complete a residency and publication in central Glasgow exploring local flora alongside a Botanist from Glasgow Museums. TWPD is currently made up of the artists/curators Clarinda Tse, Shona Robin MacPherson and Ruby Eleftheriotis.
About the project
This workshop was a part of The World is Ours, In Spite of All, a project with artist and educator Hussein Mitha. The project, made in collaboration with young people, explores how climate justice can repair our world, considering education and its challenges in a time of climate emergency with an aim to cultivate an ethos of inspiration, cooperation, connection and solidarity to rise to those challenges.
Index and header image credit: Those Who Possess Dirt
