This three-day course will immerse participants in a range of film, sound and poetry practices, using the beautiful and rich CAT site as source material.

Through material engagement, deep listening, and the art of attentiveness, you will explore a variety of practices including direct-on-film image-making with plants and flowers, recording the sounds of objects and materials with a range of home-made contact mics and hydrophones, and responding to the environment through poetic reflection.

What you’ll learn

The course will introduce you to a range of innovative and artistic engagements with nature that require no prior knowledge and minimal technical resources.

Over the weekend, you’ll learn how to identify a range of plants and flowers whilst discovering their photographic properties through hands-on filmmaking practice.

You’ll discover how to create images directly on 16mm film using the cameraless ‘phytography’ technique.

You’ll have the unique opportunity to work with a range of listening techniques and devices, investigating the sonic properties of diverse materials, including listening from alternative perspectives to discover sounds out of human hearing ranges.

Learn how to construct your own contact mics with low cost materials.

Key information

• Duration: three days
• Start and finish times: starts at 3pm on Friday 21st July and ends 3pm on Monday 24th July.
• Fees: £350 per person
• Includes: tuition, all materials, full board shared accommodation for 3 nights (single accommodation is available for an additional fee of £20pppn)
• What to bring: All course materials will be provided but participants are invited to bring any art materials they wish. Waterproof clothing is also recommended.
• Terms and Conditions:
  • you must be 18 years or over to attend our courses.
  • For full list of terms and conditions click here

Workshop leaders

Karel Doing is an independent artist, filmmaker and researcher from the Netherlands who relocated to the UK in 2013 to start a research project focused on ecology and cinema. This  project has culminated in an ongoing engagement with plants and photochemical emulsion, investigating the relationship between culture and nature by means of analogue and organic process, experimentation and co-creation.

Kathy Hinde is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice embraces open methods and evolving processes. Through installations, performances and site specific experiences, she aims to nurture a deeper and more embodied connection to other species and the earth’s systems. Kathy frequently works in collaboration with other practitioners and scientists and often actively involves the audience in the creative process.

Aim King is an ecologist, filmmaker, and poet, currently undertaking a practice-based PhD at Aberystwyth University. Their work is inherently interdisciplinary and centres on walking with rivers and their wider ecologies as a means to bring non-binary thinking into environmental communication.

Kim Knowles is an academic, curator and events facilitator based at Aberystwyth University. Her research centres on the intersection of film and ecology, particularly within a multispecies context. Her most recent book Experimental Film and Photochemical Practices (2020) explores the continuation of 16mm film practice in a digital era.

Supported by The Worlds We Want research hub at Aberystwyth University