Update 2016: some of the proceedings from the More-than-human-participatory research group’ sessions are to be published by Routledge in a new text called Participatory Research in More-Than-Human Worlds

Image above: recently a small robin has sought to move inside our house in Hollywood – we’ve been enjoying flying antics and stunning arias from this tiny being.

Today I will be joining in excess of 1,800 delegates from more than 50 countries taking part in more than 400 sessions at the International Royal Geography Society society conference ‘Geographies of co-production’. Co-production involves academics working with non-academic partners to create new knowledge’, at its buildings and at the Imperial College London between Tuesday 26 and Friday 29 August, 2014.

Conference Chair Professor Wendy Larner of the University of Bristol developed the conference theme ‘Geographies of co-production’. Co-production involves academics working with non-academic partners to create new knowledge. This involves working together from the very outset of the research, so that the research partners play a role in setting the research agenda. Wendy opens the conference with a panel session asking ‘what are the opportunities and challenges for geographers working in more engaged ways?’ Many of the conference sessions also focus on how co-production relates to a particular aspect of geography, and Wendy has been delighted by the response so far.

“This does seem to be a theme that has struck a chord among the research community. I am flabbergasted by the diversity of things that can be co-produced!”

At the conference I’ll be talking about my eco-aesthetic work in transforming a small conifer plantation into a forest and the diverse outcomes it has produced in art, science and political domains. I’ll be presenting at the ‘More-than-human-participatory research group’ sessions and also attending the ‘Geoaesthetics’ sessions on Thursday (my practice supervisor Dr Iain Biggs will be present during this session). So its exciting to share the story of Hollywood, a tiny forest in South Carlow Ireland to new people and I’m hoping my eco art methodologies will be of interest.

I’ve recently begun to show a short clip of the forest before I start speaking – it seems only right to preface the work by some of  the community I work with and who we often little consider in industrial forestry. It starts with a voice of a small bird, like the one above, who is also adapting to a forest-in-the making that is becoming ever more beautiful, song-filled and resilient.

I’m also hoping to make some ‘tweets’ of my own during the event via twitter @ecoartnotes, please feel welcome to join the conversation! Cheep (the robin) wishes he was coming!