Projects

Art & Ecology

Art & Ecology aims to change public understanding of today's ecological crisis through the art and visual cultures of the past. The project reconnects art and science, moving towards curiosity and active engagement as part of a more meaningful and sustainable solution.

At the heart of the project are a suite of open access educational resources that show how objects and images from UK museums can be used as the starting point for conversations about different aspects of the ecological crisis. To date, we have produced three 15 min documentaries (Landscapes of Change, Hunting for Feathers and The Polar Bears of Perth) in collaboration with collections in Glasgow and Perth. These are supported by wraparound educational resources, including online articles, lesson plans and family workshops. To find out more – and to watch the videos – please visit our website.

Led by Samuel Shaw and Carla Benzan

The Environmental Impact of Filmmaking

The project, which supports the UK screen industries in adopting more sustainable practices across a range of activities, aims to:

• Lower the environmental impact of filmmaking
• Respond to skills and knowledge gaps in the screen sector and interest among filmmakers in sustainability
• Discuss global inequalities brought about by the extraction and export of raw materials, fossil fuel use, and labour practices
• Create an archive of interviews with Star Wars and other industry practitioners, as well as people with experience of location shoots, so that people can learn more about both life on set and changing attitudes toward sustainability.

Dr Rebecca Harrison , project lead said, "Having started the research back in October 2022 we’re excited to be sharing details of our first case study and initial findings with everyone. The project aims to support environmentally sustainable working practices in the screen industries, with a focus on prop and costume making." More information is available at the project website.

Led by Rebecca Harrison and Siti Syuhaida Mohamed Yunus

Supporting Indigenous voices at COP26

In preparation for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow this 2021, Graham Harvey (Professor of Religious Studies ) partnered with Border Crossings' ORIGINS Festival to promote the important message of TOTEM LATAMAT – a 4.5m tall totem from Mexico.

Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions at the time, Indigenous people had limited opportunities to participate in COP26, meaning the journey of TOTEM LATAMAT, carved from a single tree in Mexico and transported across the Atlantic Ocean is hugely significant. The totem, which has close links to Professor Harvey’s long-term research into animism, had travelled 9,000km to the UK, where it was hosted by iconic locations across the country for people to visit. It toured from London to Glasgow for the opening of COP26 on Monday 1 November 2021.

Professor Harvey said: “TOTEM LATAMAT brings a message from Indigenous people to COP26 – and to everyone who encounters it – that celebrating and living responsibly among Earth's life is the best reason for urgent action in the face of climate change’.

Led by Graham Harvey

Animal-Computer Interaction Lab

The Animal-Computer Interaction Laboratory (ACI Lab) was founded in 2011 on a mission to advance the art and science of designing animal-centred interactive systems fit for a participatory multi species society.

The ACI Lab are interested in the design, methodological, and ethical research challenges and innovation opportunities that arise in extending the boundaries of interaction design beyond human animals. The ACI Lab are committed to demonstrating this emerging discipline’s potential to contribute to human and animal well-being, social inclusion, interspecies cooperation, and environmental restoration.

Led by Clara Mancini

Weston Open Living Lab

The OU’s Open Societal Challenges programme and the Garfield Weston Foundation are supporting the Weston Open Living Lab project. Led by Dr Kadmiel Maseyk, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Sciences and Open Ecologies member. The project will plant 2,000 native trees and shrubs, regenerating habitat and biodiversity across a two-hectare area floodplain, next to the River Ouzel on the OU’s Milton Keynes campus. They will install state-of-the-art sensors to monitor how the area’s carbon capture capacity, habitat and biodiversity develop as it transfers from grassland to woodland, together with vital environmental, soil and water quality measurements. The researchers will use this data in their research and teaching with OU students, share it with the broader research community, and create online education resources. They will also invite local communities and school pupils to visit to learn about nature recovery and biodiversity and participate in citizen science projects.

Led by Kadmiel Maseyk

Eco-creativity Conference

An annual cross-faculty event hosted by The Open University exploring the interface between culture, environment, social change, and political activism.

Led by Maria Nita

Wild Life: Creative Encounters with Urban Nature

This project builds on an interdisciplinary panel ‘Encountering Urban Wildlife’ at IF: Milton Keynes International Festival 2021. The event brought together local birders, prominent activists, creative educators, and environmentally-engaged academics to reflect on the kinds of relationships we have with urban nature. Moving forward ‘Wild Life’ aims to bring environmentally-engaged research across OU faculties to under-represented secondary school students and schools. The aim is to foster new kinds of relationships with the urban wilds through skills-based creative workshops integrated with citizen science projects.

Led by Carla Benzan and Robert Wallis

Sounding Coastal Change

Sounding Coastal Change as a group of three research projects about social and environmental change in North Norfolk. Sound, music and different kinds of listening are used to explore the ways in which the coast is changing and how people's lives are changing with it. The projects investigate the role of participatory creative practice and co-creation using sound, music and film for bringing a range different voices and alternative forms of evidence to bare in public decision-making concerning coastal change. Participants included: residents, young people, local interest and community groups, institutional stakeholders, public representatives, and visitors to the area. The research teams include geographers, musician/composers and sound artists, and an art/documentary film-maker.

Read an article about how sound and landscape connect, written by Open Ecology co-convenor George Revill

Led by George Revill

Treezilla

Treezilla is a an ambitious project to map all of Britain's trees and record vital data about tree disease and the environmental benefits that trees provide. It is a platform for a wide range of enquiry-led scientific investigations using real data from trees.

To find out more, log onto the Treezilla website - you may also be interested in the guided activities that we have available for Treezilla in The OpenScience Laboratory.

Led by Phillp Wheeler

Branching Out

Branching Out is a new project led by Loughborough University and other institutions, including Open Ecology members. Combining biophysical data and storytelling to capture trees' social and cultural values. Most studies on urban trees neglect wider social and cultural values that cannot easily be valued. Consequently, we do not meaningfully account for treescapes symbolic, heritage, spiritual, social, and cultural values. Local authorities need a vision of future societal needs and the forms of future trees and urban forests that might work. This project is developing new ways of mapping, predicting, and communicating social and cultural values of trees to support robust, evidence-based decision-making and management.

Led by Philip Wheeler and Kadmiel Maseyk