Paper short abstract:

This paper is a reflection on forms of care emerging in collaborative research practices that begin with the breath. It describes elements of workshop/residency, the welcome presence of our families, and the care work and commitments that shaped the atmosphere of our collaboration.

Paper long abstract:

"Weathering the Forest: Boundaries, Atmosphere, Breath" is a reflection on forms of care emerging in collaborative research practice and artworks that begin with the breath. Conceptualising weather/ing and transcorporeality through the breath, as ways into collaborative processes with the more-than-human world, and each other, it seeks to animate perceptual experiences and perspectives of ecological transition(s); attempts to encompass and 'hold space' for care-full, caring, diverse perspectives, collective relationships. It describes research workshops with the same name, conducted in 2022 and 2023 - in the context of debates about and interventions into energy transition, de-, re-, and afforestation, and landscape 'futures' in Scotland, taking place in forested and farmed landscapes. From a feminist perspective, the paper describes elements of workshop/residency, including the welcome presence of our families, children, and the care work and commitments that shaped the atmosphere of our collaborations and experience. This multimodal presentation weaves together text, imagery, and sounds, the complexities of human-more-than-human atmospheres, central to which are the concepts of transcorporeality and 'weathering'. It offers an accompanying moving image work (in progress!) exploring these ecological imaginaries, and an expanded, multisensory understanding of human-environment relations that begin with breath. The paper contextualises these examples through discussion of embodied and performative methodologies that aim to foster closer, more empathetic connections with living landscapes.