Dark ecologies: creative research in multi-species water environments

Figures & data

Figure 1. Black-legged Kittiwake.jpg

Kittiwakes nesting on the old Custom House Building adjacent to the Tyne Bridge and above the Newcastle Quayside Sunday Market stalls

Figure 2. European Eel.jpg

Live eels for sale in a French fish market. Often mistaken for snakes, Anguilla is a diminutive of the Latin word ‘anguis’, which means snake

Table 1. Fascination Framework

Theme		Key concept	Creative response & Analytical theme
1.	Dark Ecology	Morton (2016) emphasises that value comes out of the realisation of coexistence between the interconnectedness of life and non-life; humans are not separate from ‘nature’. The need to develop ‘ecognosis’ (ecological awareness).	Provocative approach that reveals the strange, ugly and disturbing aspects of human/non-human relationships and natural processes.
2.	Liminality and fluidity	A state of immediacy and ambiguity which disorientates; this is seen by Victor Turner 1991 to generate myths, symbols, rituals, philosophical systems and works of art. These ‘cultural forms’ provide ‘a set of templates or models which are, at one level, periodical reclassifications of reality and man’s (sic) relationship to society, nature and culture’ (128). These incite action as well as thought. Turner’s work examines the transformative agency of liminal situations.	Using ambiguous cultural associations/meanings.
3.	Ostranenie	‘Making strange’ or defamiliarization/disorientation; forcing the viewer outside the usual patterns of perception by making the familiar strange or different; removing coherence (Shklovsky [1917] 1998).	A strategy involving a sense of the uncanny, and discomfort; making what seems familiar strange or incoherent by unsettling.
4.	Geopoetic	Conscious and subconscious exploration incorporating the weaving of rational and imaginary. Identification and creation of aesthetic (Eagleton 1990), sensory and creative cultural expressions (Lyons 2018).	Intertwining the scientific with the emotional and sensory. Revealing invisible threads connecting people to places through aesthetic encounters.
5.	Reflection and empathy	Exploring the idea of ‘perceptual acuity’ towards natural phenomena and human/non-human entanglement/relationships	Devising a process that uses place-based stories, narratives and representations that provide meaning; a place-based and listening/conversational approach. Listening, responding, reflecting.

Figure 3. Eels merchandise.jpg

Examples of T-shirt and Tea-towel focusing on the European Eel

Figure 4. Kittiwake merchandise.jpg

Examples of T-shirts focusing on the Kittiwake

Figure 5. Bristol Harbourside Market.jpg

Dark Ecology stall at Bristol Harbourside Market

Figure 6. Newcastle Quayside market.jpg

Dark Ecology stall at Newcastle Quayside Market

Morton, T. 2016. Dark Ecology. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.

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Turner, V. 1991. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. 1969. Chicago: Aldine Publishing.

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Shklovsky, V. 1998. “Literary Theory: An Anthology.” In Art as Technique, edited by J. Rivkin and M. Ryan, 15–21. 1917. Malden: Blackwell Publishing .

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Eagleton, T. 1990. The Ideology of the Aesthetic. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

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Lyons, A. 2018. “Sunless Waters of Forgetfulness (A Geopoetic Assemblage).” In Water, Creativity and Meaning; Multidisciplinary Understandings of Human-water Relationships, edited by L. Roberts and K. Phillips, 54–69. London: Routledge.

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