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Paper short abstract

This performance-based contribution draws on a collaboration between a political theorist (Kurki) and arts practitioner (Whall). It explores dimensions of performative work When Peat Speaks: A Boggy Gassy Bubbly Ensemble and manifold data generated from and interpreted at a Welsh peat bog.

Paper long abstract

This performance-based contribution is a collaboration between an arts practitioner and a political theorist. In previous collaborations, referring to the When Earth Speaks art research project, 2022 -24, we have explored three main inter-related themes at the intersection of art and politics: interpretation and translation of human and non-human meanings through data of various media; data extraction, inaction and the politics of science; and questions around ownership, borders and the modern political order.

This session draws on the next phase of this collaboration. It will evolve through the exploration of a new performance When Peat Speaks: A Boggy Gassy Bubbly Ensemble, 2026. Based on an engagement with a Welsh peat bog, manifold sensor data generated and extracted from it, and engagements with data and the place through multiple media. This session will explore peat data as a metaphor for planetary thinking. Themes explored will include: living/non-living/semiliving; transience/suspension/instability; infrastructures/ architectures/place; inhabitability/sponginess/stillness.

We will develop the content for this presentation based on the development of the performance over 3 days in May 2026, the performance itself, and related further engagements with the bog, peat turves, data, sensors, ‘marking’ architecture (inflatable bubbles) and the artists. The contribution will be communicated as a performance presentation involving live data, film, art, sound and text.

Miranda Whall is an artist working at the intersection of art and science, through expanded drawing, sculpture, film and performance.

Milja Kurki works in the field of politics and international relations and currently works on a project on planetary multispecies politics.