Supported by the Critical Digital Practice Lab
‘Arts of Noticing’ is a one-day symposium where artists, researchers, technologists and organisers making and thinking with plants will come together to explore questions about nature, memory, and human connection through the senses. There will be a series of workshops and activities about embodiment and sensing with plants, followed by a creative activity in the afternoon where we will bring together all that we’ve learned in order to create a collaborative living collage.
Sijelo Collective in Leeds present: ‘Arts of noticing’
“Noticing is my way of opposing… it is trying to take those blinders off to look at the world around us, with special attention to the more-than-human world (the human plus non-human world).” – Anna Tsing
Schedule for the day
10.00–10.30: arrivals, teas and coffees (provided by the Barn Cafe)
10.30-11.00: Short intros from Sijelo and CDP Lab
11.00–12.00: the art of noticing things
Bo Olawoye of Sijelo will facilitate a walking* activity where we will spend some time wandering, looking and using our senses to explore the farm. You can decide what little things are worth noticing. These might be shapes, colours, shadows, light or textures.
*you are also welcome to sit or stand and notice
12.00–13.00: Plant Switching II
Joanne Armitage of CDP Lab will lead us in the digitisation of plant–human connections through the creation of simple soft-circuit switches. Using conductive materials and living plants, we will experiment with translating interspecies encounters into binary on/off signals. Together, we will reflect on how reducing these relationships to digital logic can flatten the complexity, reciprocity, and energies of plant–human interactions, while also considering how such systems might be extended, challenged, or reimagined.
13.00-13.30: COMMONING & [Co-]SENSINGTHOUGHT FORMS Pt I
How can we sense a shared language manifested in land, people and ephemera?
In this playful collaborative workshop with artist Kim Chin of Sijelo, we explore how we feel through natural forms and imagined symbolism, sharpen listening skills with pairwork and probing, and interpret what we “see-hear-feel” by markmaking with natural dyes. In addition to the creative activity, we will engage in a short mindfulness activity, light-touch introduction of visual forms of communication by communities-activists-artists and end with reflections to close the session.
13.30– 14.30: Lunch
Vegan lunch provided by the Barn Cafe (please email hello@kaajalmodi.com with any specific dietary requirements)
14.30– 15.30: COMMONING & [Co-]SENSINGTHOUGHT FORMS Pt II
Continuing our session from the morning exploring how we feel through natural forms and imagined symbolism with Kim Chin.
15.30–17.00: Sculpting with Nature
In this relaxed and experimental workshop facilitated by Tasnim Siddiqa Amin of Sijelo, you are invited to explore your relationship with land and power through a queer lens through material collaging. We’ll also consider how our bodies can be incorporated into the sculpture. We can work as a group or work on your own small piece and then add it a larger shared artwork.
Materials to collage with will be provided, including plants, sensors, and spices, and you can also bring with you images, words, textures, sounds and gestures that represent your relationship with Land and plants. If you have anything you would like printed please email it to hello@kaajalmodi.com by 13.00 on Wednesday 22nd July.
17.00: Finish
18.00: optional visit to PEST by Lucif Neave at Assembly House
Event/Booking link HERE
About the Facilitators:
Boseda Olawoye (known as Bo) is a freelance creative producer/consultant based in Nottingham who works nationally and beyond. She specialises in developing arts projects, programmes and cultural strategies with and for diverse communities, young people(13+), marginalised groups and artists.
Joanne Armitage is a digital media practitioner, researcher and artist. She is co-founder of the international maker-activist collective sus_NET (Sustainable Making for Feminist Action), which collaboratively explores issues of justice and equity through creative, technical and community practice. Her work centres on developing methods to unpack, critically engage with and rebuild technology alongside activist groups and within community contexts. Her approach emphasises slowness, play and the everyday to untangle issues of agency, power and expertise.
Kim Chin (they / she / we) makes art with others. Through experimental textiles, time-based media, installation and facilitating participatory activities, their work is an invitation to enjoy the process of creating, un/learning self-knowledge with others. We notice our breath, bones, mood and energy that we carry into physical and socio-political spaces – consciously and unconsciously. The alchemy of nature is Kim’s teacher; soil, seeds and creatures know no borders. When site-specific textile pieces are shaped by environmental elements and oils of human touch, they explore questions on labour, ownership and material intent.
Tasnim Siddiqa Amin (she/they) is a queer, working-class Bangladeshi-British artist, theatremaker and activist from East London. Her interdisciplinary practice spans theatre, performance art, visual art and community arts facilitation, grounded in anti-racism, postcolonialism and intersectional feminism.
Tasnim’s practice is trauma-informed and grounded in care-based methodologies, shaped by lived experience and a commitment to collective wellbeing. She designs and delivers participatory arts programmes that prioritise accessibility, co-creation, and long-term relationship-building using creativity as a means of connection, reflection and resistance.
Sijelo are a UK-based art collective of women and non-binary people organising, producing and making at the intersection of climate justice, land rights, migration and displacement. The collective came together through a series of residential events organised by Counterpoints from 2023–4, and now loosely collectivise around specific campaigns, events and issues that feel urgent to us https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/climate-displacement-part-ii-a-gathering-for-womxn-artists/
The event is funded by Leeds Critical Digital Practice Lab (CDPL), a new creative and critical experimentation space-based at the University of Leeds. The lab is a space where we play with accessible technologies and feminist and decolonial practices in order to develop critical digital methods in response to the emergent moment. Led by Kaajal Modi, Helen Thornham and Joanne Armitage.
‘Arts of Noticing’ is an independently organized symposium, officially recognized as part of a global conversation sparked by the If Trees Could Talk International Art Biennale. To learn more, visit https://www.iftreescouldtalk.art/conversations/sijelo
With special thanks to the EMPIRE LINES podcast, Meanwood Valley Urban Farm, Counterpoints Arts and University of Leeds.
Image: detail from a workshop series at The Showroom, London by Kim Chin.
