Estraven Lupino-Smith: Landscape Literacy: Weaving as Practice-Based Research

In the fall of 2022, University of Stavanger is welcoming 12 guest researchers and artists from across the world to engage with each other and the UiS community in a semester-long exploration of the meanings of green transitions.

In this Greenhouse Green Transitions Lecture, Estraven Lupino-Smith presents the project they are working on during this fellowship in Stavanger.

I am an artist, researcher, and educator whose work is informed by my curiosity and critical engagements with human interactions in their environments: natural, cultural, and constructed. My interdisciplinary practice draws from the fields of political ecology, geohumanities, critical human geography, and queer theory, while primarily working with fibres, textiles, sound, and installation. 

Using an arts and practice-based research method, this project investigates the use of natural materials as they relate to climate justice and connection to land-base. Specifically, I connect my work as an artist to environmental awareness through the practice of weaving. Weavers once held knowledge about natural cycles and seasons, knowing when to gather fibres and how to intervene in their environments to increase yields and protect plants from over-harvesting. This gave them a deep land-based knowledge that also demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of biology, ecology, and technologies. Situating weaving as a form of land-based research, I suggest that ancient skills and cultural practices have the potential to provide models for green transitions through developing what I have termed a landscape literacy.

The lecture will be live streamed on Zoom. Register via Zoom to receive a link. A recording of the lecture with captioning will be available afterwards.