Paper short abstract:

Join Bryony Ella, Research Artist in the Melting Metropolis project, to learn about her work "Drawing Heat". She will introduce her approach to collaborating with environmental historians to develop creative workshops that centre bodily experiences of climate through experimental mark-making.

Paper long abstract:

Community Engagement is woven throughout the Melting Metropolis project, which interrogates everyday experiences of urban heat as a feature of environment. Long-term collaboration with those who are directly affected by urban heat will shape and inform Melting Metropolis' research through oral histories, co-created creative projects, and public engagement. As the project's Research Artist, Bryony Ella is focusing specifically on the sensory experience of urban communities affected by rising temperatures. Her work integrates both lived experiences and academic research to develop new participatory public artworks, which can engage the wider public in conversations about the diverse and unequal effects of urban heat islands.

Following an introduction to Melting Metropolis' community and public engagement, Bryony Ella will share examples of Drawing Heat walkshops in New York this summer. Audiences will then be invited to step outside to experiment with their own drawing or creative writing responses to climate before returning to discuss reflections from an academic perspective with Drawing Heat co-designer and environmental historian Dr Kara Schlichting.