Otolith Readings: Archipelago Research Institute (University of Turku), FI.

A conversation and practical workshop about how scientists read climate data from the nonhuman world. Matterlurgy in collaboration with scientist Katja Mäkinen shared methods across art and science for listening with and reading information in the ear bone (otolith) of the Baltic Herring – a fish whose changing physiology has been linked to climate change and the shifting conditions of the Baltic Sea. Commissioned by Contemporary Art in the Archipelago (CCA) in collaboration with New Performance Turku.

This series of interdisciplinary workshops is part of Matterlurgy’s ongoing project Field Casting. You can read an interview about this project on published on the CCA website.

River Studio: Whitechapel Gallery & Arts Catalyst, River Thames, London, UK.

Situated along a strip of east London Thames beach at low tide, River Studio invited artists and researchers from all disciplines to consider the material, political and imaginary ecologies of water. The workshop explored how humans and nonhumans co-compose water and considered the cultural, spectral and chemical impacts that form, inform and are formed by the river. This collaborative workshop incorporated environmental science and art to reimagine how rivers are examined, understood and interpreted.

This workshop formed part of Matterlurgy’s online project sensitives.stream commissioned by Arts Catalyst. Read more about the workshop in A Report from the Foreshore published on the Whitechapel Gallery website.

Air Morphologies: Delfina Foundation, London, UK.

Matterlurgy ran a series of workshops, conversations and work-in-progress sharings bringing different disciplines together to share methods and approaches to air pollution as part of their UK Artist Associate residency at Delfina Foundation on the Science Technology Society programme. These collaborative events included aerosol scientists, social scientists, media theorists, geographers, digital makers, curators and anthropologists.

This informed the development of Air Morphologies, a VR artwork and panoramic film that has been shown at Tate, Gazelli Art House and The Wellcome Collection. Watch an interview with Matterlurgy that is published on the Delfina Foundation website.

Sensitives Stream: Arts Catalyst, River Porter, Sheffield, UK.

This workshop was created in collaboration with river ecologist Prof. Philip Warren from the University of Sheffield. Taking the simple question: what is in the water? as a starting point, the workshop explored how rivers form communities of humans and nonhumans. Participants were invited to try out river sampling techniques from the field of biology and took part in listening and creative writing exercises. Around this, discussions about local and global ecologies were shared.

This workshop formed part of Sensitives Stream, an online artwork that shares research and practice from Matterlurgy’s residency and commission with Arts Catalyst as part of the Test Sites programme.

Experimental Laboratory: Goldsmiths University, Deptford Creek, Creekside Discovery Centre, London, UK.

Matterlurgy ran a series of experimental laboratories with students on the MA Art and Ecology Course at Goldsmiths University working in partnership with Creekside Discovery Centre. The workshops focussed on the Creek’s unique ecology and biodiversity, its connections to the moon, and how it is composed of three bodies of water. Field-based listening and writing methods engaged with flora and fauna along the banks, histories of transport, colonisation, industry, trade and flooding along the foreshore, and the organisms that live in the water and mud. Matterlurgy worked in collaboration with conservationists at the discovery centre to facilitate the workshops.

Geofictions: MIMA, South Gare, Teesside Steelworks, UK.

A series of site-based workshops that examined the material histories, politics and imaginaries of South Gare, an area on the southern side of the River Tees, which was once a key hub for industry. The workshop explored the relationship between nature, industry and technology excavating the entangled geo-industrial identities of the area and its ecologies of obsolescence and waste. Through creative activities that blended geology, art and writing, participants ‘read’ the Gare’s landscape, debris and discarded media as part of a new geological stratum: one that evidences materials such as electronics and plastic as part of the future fossil record.

This workshop was part of Geofictions a solo exhibition in Tania Bruguera’s Office of Useful Art at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA). Geofictions was exhibited in the group show Liquid Crystal Display at MIMA and has since been acquired as part of the gallery’s permanent collections.

Water Ecologies: MIMA, River Tees, Teesside, UK.

This workshop took place on a boat (Rivershack) that travelled along the River Tees from Yarm to Stockton. Participants included people living along the river, environmental scientists, artists and specialists working with river ecologies and river health. The workshop included discussion, sharing experiences and knowledge about the river including flooding, pollution and past/present industry along the river banks. Samples of water were collected and collectively read and interpreted drawing on methods of listening, creative writing and environmental science.

The workshop was part of the Liquid Crystal Display a group show at MIMA where Matterlurgy showed their work Geofictions.