Research Statement

Experiencing the Filmpoem: A Film-Phenomenological Inquiry

My interest in exploring the production of the filmpoem developed through experiencing Margaret Tait’s work, specifically her films that depict natural elements and the Scottish landscape. Tait, a self-proclaimed filmpoet from Orkney made over 30 films from the 1950s until her death in 1999. Studying at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome from 1950-52, Tait’s work was inspired by the Italian neo-realism movement, which she adopted in her own experimental style of filmmaking (Neely, 2017 pp. 9-10). Her work included film portraits, filmpoems, hand-painted animations, experimental films, plus the feature length film, Blue Black Permanent (1992).

The inspiration for my approach came from watching Aerial (Tait, 1974), a sensorial filmpoem, which is emotionally and philosophically charged. In Aerial, Tait presents a non-narrative reflection on the relationship between formal structure, the natural elements and human nature. The experience of watching Aerial left a lasting impression on me. In turn, this prompted me to question the different ways in which the filmpoem, as an art form, can engage in philosophical thinking.

Sarah Neely’s (2017, p. 110) assertion stating that filmpoems ‘can be meditations on reality, on what we see and how we look’ directed me towards how I could use film-philosophy in my work. Pursuing this avenue, I thought that film-phenomenology would be a good way into developing the potential of the filmpoem further. Moreover, the style of Tait’s filmpoem, a contemplative approach using semi-abstract images and rhythmical editing to evoke emotion, suggested to me that Aerial was inspired by a desire to connect the viewer intersubjectively. From this, I started to question to what extent does film-phenomenology inform, and impact the production and exhibition of the filmpoem?

Considering the nature of this question, I began to explore theories posited by Laura U. Marks (2000) and Jennifer Barker (2009) regarding the haptic and tactile image. As Marks suggests, the haptic image is a blurred image that invokes a form of looking analogous to touch (2000, p. xi). Barker’s theory of cinematic tactility relates to a reciprocal relationship between the viewer and screen, ‘a tactile mode of being in the world’, one that evokes bodily sensations and responses (2009, p. 29). Determined through my own intersubjective position, a perspective already inscribed in the real world, my approach uses the haptic and tactile image to emphasise my own sensorial experiences and perceptions. My creative practice transposes deep-seated ideas regarding my relationship with myself and the natural world through film form, e.g., camera movement, slow-motion, lens manipulation and editing. Insight is provided through this relationship to produce a reciprocal experience for the viewer.

In terms of exhibiting the filmpoem, I had a desire to question the different viewing conditions to understand how the filmpoem can be experienced.

Historically, the filmpoem has been viewed through traditional screenings, for example film festivals, small community venues, or as part of larger experimental film programmes. Viewing filmpoetry in these contexts preserves the integrity of the format (and filmmaker) through unique one off screenings; however, the ephemeral nature of these viewing conditions means that access to the work is limited after the event. Currently, a new wave of filmpoetry exists on the Internet; therefore, I began to explore the advantages and disadvantages of an online presence for the filmpoem?

Extracting aspects of Erika Balsom’s (2017, p. 81) suggestion regarding the legitimacy of web-based artist-led platforms, the advantage of an online presence for the filmpoem allows for curation, preservation and access to resources for learning and research. Following in the tradition of artists’ moving image websites, such as lightcone.org, circuit.org.nz and LUX.org.uk, which offers sales and distribution options also, dedicated filmpoetry websites, such as movingpoems.com, filmpoem.com and poetryfilmlive.com, provide instant access to films and filmmakers biographies. In broad terms, positive viewing conditions such as these minimise the disadvantages of work being screened without permission from the filmmaker. In terms of Experiencing the Filmpoem, instant access provides potential experiential opportunities and responses for the online audience, the advantage of which is articulated through the structure of the project, for instance, my work can be viewed as a whole project or as individual films.

In addition to questioning these modalities, I decided to produce filmpoems as moving image installations, again to advance ideas surrounding the viewing conditions. In terms of the phenomenological experience of viewing filmpoetry in an art gallery context, for example, I used Chrissie Iles’ concept regarding the inclusion of the projected image into a gallery space (2001, p. 33). Fostered by 1960s Minimalist art criticism, Iles recognised that for the viewer, an exhibition space became sculpturally and phenomenologically transformational when an object such as a film projector was integrated (2000, p. 252). To understand this further, I have interpreted Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s idea of the reflexive body, a phenomenological response to perceiving and experiencing modern art, to include moving images (1964, p. 124).

Merleau-Ponty’s notion suggests that the gallery-goer can embody the artwork through a dialogue between how their body experiences space, their heightened sense of perception and self-awareness (1964, p. 134). Responding to this Pontian perspective, the exhibition of The Essence of Place (2017), a nocturnal outdoor site-specific film installation, demonstrates the experiential impact of my work. For example, restructuring the Scottish landscape to include an exhibition format typically encountered in an art gallery context provided the itinerant viewer with an alternative way to view filmpoetry, in situ. The Essence of Place (2017) was commissioned by RSPB Loch Lomond to engage the public in wildlife and conservation issues in a creative way. Understanding the significance of place as a site for meaning resonates with Maeve Connolly’s (2009) work. In terms of viewing site-specific artworks, Connolly refers to place or the location of the work as prompting public memory (2009, p. 63). Therefore, artworks such as The Essence of Place can have the potential to impact on the social, environmental, conservational and historical awareness of the audience.

Context

Historically, artists synonymous with the Italian and Russian Futurist movements were some of the first to synthesise painting, sculpture and photography with film to create the cine-poem – an explicit experimental film (Rees 1999, pp. 33-34; Christie 1998, p. 449; O’ Pray 2003, pp. 8-9).

More recently, William C. Wees’ (1999, p. 1) distinction combining film and poetry takes a two-pronged approach. Wees distinguishes between the filmpoem and poetry-film stating that the former is metaphorical and includes a non-narrative perspective using semi-abstract images, rhythmic editing and little or no spoken word, while the latter incorporates on-screen text and spoken word together with images of an illustrative nature. Key examples of poetry-film include, Manhatta (Sheeler & Strand, 1921), L’etoile de mer (Man Ray, 1928) and Bells of Atlantis (Hugo, 1952), while Meshes of the Afternoon (Deren & Hammid, 1942) has become a classic example of a filmpoem, according to Wees. My creative practice aligns with the filmpoetry distinction. Following this formal structure allows me to express emotion philosophically more freely, perhaps in a way that ordinary language or text cannot.

During the mid-to-late twentieth century, experimental filmmakers such as Jonas Mekas, Marie Menken, Margaret Tait and Joanna Margaret Paul continued to develop this personal form of filmmaking. Aligning with contemporary artists’ moving image practices, a term that includes film work typically inspired from the static art traditions of painting or sculpture, my work also speaks to the film practices of Uta Aurand, Helga Fanderl, Roxana Vilk, James Edmonds, Peter Todd, Guy Sherwin and Alastair Cook.

In terms of presenting the work in the best possible way, dedicated filmpoetry festivals such as the Weimar Filmpoetry Festival, Zebra Filmpoetry Festival (both Germany), Festival Silêncio, Portugal and the Athens International Videopoetry Festival are strategic. Considering the filmpoem in these contexts allows for a greater understanding of this experimental work, particularly in a time when such work is increasingly marginalised from mainstream film contexts.

Methods

As a former Avid Media Composer editor for the television industry, exploring my own approach to filmpoetry meant that I could redefine my work from conventional filmmaking perspectives to experimental cinematic practices. Blurring the boundaries between formal constraints and creative practices, this development allowed me to become more artistically responsive towards my work. For instance, West of Dalabrog, Dislocation and The Essence of Place were shot on HD video and predominantly used formal techniques such as, composition that follows the rule of thirds and tripod-based camera movements. In contrast, Imprint and always carry a camera were shot on Super 8mm film and employed a hand-held approach to framing and movement. Moving from using HD video to Super 8mm film introduced my work to a tactile approach to filmmaking synonymous with Materialist film concepts (Gidal 1989). For instance, in Imprint (2018), I incorporated the sprocket holes, dirt and chemical residue on the filmstrip as content. Moreover, when combined with film-phenomenological concepts regarding the evocation of the senses through haptic and tactile images, this shift demonstrated how profound meaning could be produced beyond the subject matter.

Resonating with Helga Fanderl’s tactile approach to observing the natural world through her Super 8mm camera, my approach to filmmaking using my analogue camera differs from my approach to using an HD video camera. For example, Fanderl intimates the importance of how her body moves with her camera; how she perceives and expresses through the camera lens (Fanderl 2010, p. 18). Advancing this notion informed by film-phenomenological concepts, I use my Super 8mm camera to embody the landscape, simultaneously as I move and breathe within it. Immediately, as I perceive, I experience emotions to which I respond by actioning my Super 8mm camera. Movement, the use of lens manipulation and in-camera editing are formal aspects that I employ when responding to an emotion. Filming in this manner, I can express, in as much purity as possible, the natural landscape that surrounds me, a landscape that is always explicitly personal to me. This contrasts with digital filmmaking, where I typically held the camera at a distance, viewing the image through the LCD screen appendage, a perspective that separated me from the subject matter. Crucially, therefore, the tactile way in which I engage with my Super 8mm film camera emphasises the intersubjective nature of the project.

Outcomes

Experiencing the Filmpoem explores the filmpoem format as an art form; as a poetic composition that interweaves experimental film practices with film-phenomenological concepts and creative self-expression. Key points of discussion concern how my approach to the production and exhibition of this format can connect to the sensorial memories and emotions of the viewer. Emerging from this discussion, an intersubjective relationship between the haptic and tactile image, the viewer and myself is engendered. Therefore, access to understanding emotional and sensorial embodied responses to film form and the subject matter is foregrounded for practitioners and academics. Moreover, in contrast to Jennifer Barker’s (2009) work regarding cinematic tactility, which typically refers to narrative cinema and how the body physically responds to a film when experiencing a heightened state of emotion, my work focuses on the subtlety of tactile responses. Echoing the reflective nature of the filmpoem, my approach invites a sense of caesura: an opportunity for empathic reciprocity between the viewer and myself, subtly oscillating between motion and stillness, inner and outer worlds, inhaling and exhaling breath.

For instance, this intended viewer reciprocity was foregrounded during the Screenworks review process for Experiencing the Filmpoem. Dr. Claire Henry, who agreed to be identified here, responded with a series of short poems to accompany her evaluation of the submission which sparked further dialogue, as she explained in email correspondence:

• Lines of the poems were prompted by the films as I viewed them and came in fragments, which were then pieced together analogous to the way I edit video (more than the way I edit academic writing). It just seemed appropriate that the call and response of the submission and review be in similar languages of cine/poetry – taken further, I might have responded in the medium of video. However, the format of written poetry seemed most appropriate for the kind of articulation, translation, and critique involved in reviewing this submission, while building off poetic and rhythmic responses that came naturally in reply to the work.

While Henry makes no claims at being a poet, these full responses are included alongside her review below.

In addition to Margaret Tait’s style of filmpoetry, the formal elements of my work are inspired by Peter Todd’s contemplative approach to filmmaking. Todd’s work utilises the quite observation of everyday objects found in the filmmaker’s immediate surroundings. In many ways my work speaks to Todd’s lingering, hand-held camerawork in Three Films Form the Room (2009), for example. This style of filmmaking offers a sense of tactile response for the viewer, emotions borne from the familiarity of objects. Echoing Todd’s momentary reflections that mirror the tradition of still life painting, contemporary filmmaker James Edmonds’ formal approach in Movement and Stillness (2015), for example, resonates with my approach to framing semi-abstract imagery in both Imprint and always carry a camera (both 2018). Extending these ideas for further discussion, I have drawn on traditions that invoke my creative inspiration, i.e., stills photography, the analogue film format and experimental cinema to observe the Scottish landscape. My filmpoems present a dialogue between hapticity and tactileness, rhythmic movement and asynchronous sound to invoke metaphorical connotations and emotional responses. In contrast to perhaps Tait’s and Todd’s style, my camerawork, editing and aesthetic approach in my later work is more in harmony with Edmonds’ fluidity and emotional responses to landscapes, as seen in his triptych Fleeting Landscapes (2007/2016).

Dissemination

The scholarship for my research was a doctoral training partnership funded by the AHRC and SGSAH (Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities). Throughout my doctoral process, I have secured further funding from the University of Stirling at a faculty and departmental level for organising exhibitions and events to disseminate my work.

My work has been screened in a variety of contexts. For additional information please visit my website: www.susannahramsay.co.uk.

Flim screening: Film in Focus, Orkney Film Festival, 2019.

Film exhibition: An Lanntair Arts Centre, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, 2018.

Film screening: Athens International Filmpoetry Festival 2018.

Film screening: filmpoetry event, including guests Guy Sherwin, Jen Hadfield and Jennifer R. Wicks, Macrobert Arts Centre, University of Stirling, 2017.

Film installation: Single-channel, outdoor, site-specific installation, RSPB Loch Lomond, 2017. For a review: https://theartsofslowcinema.com/2017/10/26/the-essence-of-place-susannah-ramsay-2017/

Official selection best international filmpoem, West of Dalabrog: Festival silêncio, Portugal 2017.

Best doctoral research nominee West of Dalabrog, AHRC Research in Film Awards 2016.

Film screening and presentation: Taigh Chearsabhagh Arts Centre, Isle of Uist as part of film artist Shona Illingworth’s Lesions in the Landscape exhibition, 2016.

Film screening and presentation: John Schueler art, poetry and film event, University of Stirling, 2016.

Film screening: Outside-in/Inside-out Poetry Festival, Glasgow, 2016.

West of Dalabrog and Dislocation screened on movingpoems.com, 2018.

Other screening contexts:

Assistant Teaching: Filmpoetry lecture and seminar, University of Stirling, 2019.

Assistant Teaching: Artists’ Moving Image Exhibition Practices, lecture and seminar, University of Stirling, 2019.

Film-Philosophy Conference, University of Brighton, 2019. Film screening and Presentation.

Film-Philosophy Conference, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, 2018. Film screening and Presentation.

MeCCSA Conference, London Southbank University, 2018. Film screening and presentation.

Practice-Based Research Conference, Film City, Glasgow, 2018. Film screening and presentation.

Film-Philosophy Conference, Lancaster University, 2017. Film Screening and Presentation.

Impact

Two key incidences have demonstrated the impact that my practice-based research has had beyond contributions to academia.

In 2017, during the event commissioned by RSPB Loch Lomond, evidence that multi-sensorial experiences and memories had been evoked were informally translated to me after the audience had experienced The Essence of Place. As the visitors engaged in a mini-pilgrimage on a pathway through a subtly illuminated woodland area to the audio-visual experience, they intimated that their minds quietened and their senses became sharper. Through the intertwining of a sense of place with the external forces such as darkness and the late-October weather, it was apparent that the visitors’ inner worlds and perceptions could be challenged. For example, people familiar to the area suggested afterwards that the nocturnal setting became a rich palette of sensorial experiences that were previously unavailable to them. This arts-based event, therefore, was impactful through connecting with wildlife and nature conservation, which, in turn, resonates with perhaps the interaction we should be engaging with to highlight the current environmental issues.

A review of the experience can be viewed here: https://theartsofslowcinema.com/2017/10/26/the-essence-of-place-susannah-ramsay-2017/

The second incident happened at the exhibition of my work at An Lanntair Arts Centre, 2018. On the final night of the exhibition a man with learning difficulties was so overcome with emotion and excitement at seeing a deer jump in The Essence of Place, that he proceeded to name all the landmarks synonymous with the Isle of Lewis and Harris, which I had incorporated in my three-channel installation always carry a camera. According to the information I received, this animated expression of emotion was very much out of character for this person. The incident can be viewed on my blog page: https://www.susannahramsay.co.uk/single-post/2018/11/27/Exhibition-Experiencing-the-Filmpoem-at-An-Lanntair-Arts-Centre-Stornoway-Isle-of-Lewis-2018

Both occurrences carry impact beyond academia particularly the latter, which proved critical in understanding how my practice can contribute to the health and wellbeing of the audience. Focusing on the arts in health sector, I am investigating how the reflective qualities of the filmpoem can have further impact. Through working with Tayside Arts and Health Trust as a lead artist, I have facilitated a filmpoetry workshop for adults with aphasia (varying degrees of communication problems as a result of brain injury or stroke). Following the evaluation report, I will be looking to re-write this workshop for other groups.

References

Balsom, E. (2017) After Uniqueness. A History of Film and Video Art in Circulation. New York: Columbia University Press.

Barker, J.M. (2009) The Tactile Eye. Touch and the Cinematic Experience. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Christie, I. (1998) ‘The Avant-Gardes and European Cinema before 1930’. In John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson, (eds.), The Oxford Guide to Film Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 449-454.

Connolly, M. (2009) The Place of Artists’ Cinema. Space Site and Screen. Intellect Books: Bristol, UK/Chicago, USA.

Fanderl, H. (2010) ‘Film Live’, Sequence, Issue 1. Available at: http://helgafanderl.com/text/ (Date Accessed 7th March 2018).

Gidal, P. (1989) Materialist Film. London and New York: Routledge.

Iles, C. (2000) ‘Video and Film Space’. In: E. Suderburg (ed.), Space, Site, Intervention. Situating Installation Art. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 252-262.

Iles, C. (2001) ‘Between the Still and Moving Image’. In: Chrissie Iles, (ed.), Into the Light: The Projected Image in American Art 1964-1977. New York: Whitney Museum, pp. 33-70.

Marks, L. U. (2000) The Skin of the Film. Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1964) ‘Part II. Philosophy of Art. Chapter 5. ‘Eye and Mind’. In: The Primacy of Perception. And Other Essays on Phenomenological Psychology, the Philosophy of Art, History and Politics, J. M. Edie (ed.). Northwestern University Press, pp. 121-149.

Neely, S. (2017) Between Categories. The Films of Margaret Tait: Portraits, Poetry, Sound and Place. Bern: Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers.

O’ Pray, M. (2003) Avant-garde Film. Forms, Themes and Passions. London and New York: Wallflower Press, pp. 8-9.

Rees, A. L. (1999) A History of Experimental Film and Video. From the Canonical Avant-Garde to Contemporary British Practice. London: BFI Publishing, pp. 33-34.

Wees, W.C. (1999) ‘Poetry-Films and Film Poems’. In Peter Todd (ed.), Film Poems – Programme Notes. Arts Council of England, pp. 1-2.

Filmography
Manhatta (Sheeler & Strand, 1921, USA)

L’etoile de mer (Man Ray, 1928, France)

Bells of Atlantis (Hugo, 1952, USA)

Meshes of the Afternoon (Deren and Hammid, 1942, USA)

West of Dalabrog (Ramsay, 2016, UK/Scotland)

Dislocation (Ramsay, 2016, UK/Scotland)

The Essence of Place (Ramsay, 2017, UK/Scotland)

Imprint (Ramsay, 2018, UK/Scotland)

always carry a camera (Ramsay, 2018, UK/Scotland)

Aerial (Tait, 1974, UK/Scotland)

Blue Black Permanent (Tait, 1992, UK/Scotland)

Three Films Form the Room (Todd, 2009, UK)

Fleeting Landscapes (Edmonds, 2007/2016, UK)

Movement and Stillness (Edmonds, 2015, UK)

Online resources
www.circuit.org.nz

http://filmpoem.com

https://lightcone.org/en

https://lux.org.uk

www.movingpoems.com

http://poetryfilmlive.com

https://www.susannahramsay.co.uk

Peer Reviews

All reviews refer to original research statements which have been edited in response to what follows:

Review 1: Accept submission subject to minor revisions.
The wash of Susannah’s cinepoems sparked a syndochic image of the city I live in: a collection of shells, driftwood, pebbles, and tumbled glass gathered like a memorial near the doorstep of my old place in a central suburb of Wellington. The capital of New Zealand is wrapped in coastline and these gathered objects (or rather, the image of them in my memory) collect the beach strolls, the friends I went with, the times of day, and the seasons that wrap around the memory of the time I spent living in that place.

Just as these imaged souvenirs anchor a past to a place, Ramsay’s filmpoems draw attention to the materiality of place-based memory and their images, and play with the way that specific places are sensorially embedded in the flicker of our memory. She works with these ideas through montages of haptic images strongly evocative of specific places (that are yet reminiscent for those who have never been there). As a viewer so geographically distant from the places Ramsay depicts and remembers, the form enables intersubjective experiences and provokes sensory memories of similar landscapes of my own. The immediacy of voices and choices in the filmpoem hook the viewer into what Ramsey describes as the ‘personal affect and intimacy with the subject matter’ central to the essence of a filmpoem. The elegance of filmpoetry reveals to us how to touch and to hold what is far away in terms of both space and place, time and memory.

Poetic expressions of a relationship to place also highlight its nature as illusive and elusive. One can collect shells on a beach, and arrange them on a porch or windowsill at home, but while such a display presents both a material and haptic relationship to the beach, and evokes memories of a particular coastal place and time, it also highlights the ever ‘elsewhereness’ of these places. The dislocation is captured in the shells’ metonymic role to the beach, a place that in itself is a dislocated and multifaceted symbol with meanings at once deeply personal and commonly shared. Just as poetry in text offers lines to emotion and memory, Ramsay’s poetry in texture offers condensed articulation of sensory memory, and their arrangement (in montage and split screens) highlight connections and loss, location and dislocation. You’ve seen this before, and yet you haven’t; you’ve never been here before, and yet you dream to return.

always carry a camera (2018)
Driving a windy coast
With the window half down
The thuddering wind takes me back.
The ocean laps over the microphone
My senses bounce between vistas.
Coherence and dislocation
A tension between eyes.

Imprint (2018)
I am centred between sprocket holes.
The viewer bracketed
Between left and right eye.
You surface a superimposition
To my left,
Shield a lens flare
From my right.
Holding me in dual perception.

The Essence of Place (2017)
The birds elegiac above the landscape.
My muscles are connected to bones,
Yet I vibrate on leaves, land, and water.
Flutters and ripples,
Tickle and separate.

I am a surface tremour on this land.
Blink between and brush past,
A setting sun and a speckled leaf.
Frame inside and cut between,
Lapping waves and flocking birds.

West of Dalabrog (2016)
Memories tug like a rip.
Our eyes crawl over sand to follow focus.
You take me to a place I cannot take in
All at once.
You choose how close I am to the textures
Of your memory.
Still I know how warm the gritty sand is,
And how fast the returning wave sucks the sand
From under my feet.

Dislocation (2016)
The rocks held my eye
As the beach grass touched my face.
Our islands dislocated
And all I have is the next shot
The next sound
You offer
To piece together
The place you cast
Your camera next.

Review 2: Accept submission subject to minor revisions.
Your supporting research statement is clearly written, topical and well researched but can be improved by inserting some more specifics. First of all, you have not given your statement a title. A more evocative title, instead of ‘supporting research statement’ can help to draw the reader into your world right from the start.

Furthermore, in the first section; ‘research questions’ you have included a good choice of authors as references but it would be helpful to demonstrate the proposed relationships more clearly. This could be done by including one or two succinct citations referring to what you call ‘the haptic and tactile image’. Such citation could help the reader to understand what this exactly entails. Secondly, to state that your research ‘seeks to distance itself’ from the context of film festivals and the internet seems both not entirely honest and unnecessarily negative. The reader of this journal will experience your work through an internet connection and you have shown your work on festivals. You could simply replace ‘distance’ with ‘expand’ but you might also find it interesting to review this statement and explore the advantages/disadvantageous of the different platforms in some more depth.

In the second section, you are referring to avant-garde works made on 16mm film. Please correct the spelling of Man Ray’s L’etoile de mer. It is also important to mention that there are many other contemporary filmmakers who are working in this form besides Peter Todd. Important examples could include Ana Vaz and James Edmonds but there are numerous others.

In the third section, ‘methods’ you again mention phenomenology but it is not entirely clear how this concept is being used. You also mention the use of HD video in contrast to HD video. It would be interesting to explore some of the differences and specificities of these formats, especially in the light of your earlier references that are exclusively shot and edited on 16mm film.

In the final section, Impact, you evocatively describe the experience of visitors to your exhibition. This is a strong section, underpinning your earlier statements concerning your desire to exhibit your film-poems in a new context. It would be useful to introduce this in one of the earlier sections, describing in some more detail how you have integrated the specifics of place with the projected image. What is particularly interesting here is how you are combining exterior with interior worlds; the landscape around the gallery, the shooting location, cinematic space and the experience of the audience. This also seems apt in regard of the renewed attention for nature that has grown out of the climate crisis and a shift from the urban to the rural driven by austerity and gentrification. Placing your research and practice in such a broader perspective could also be productive.

This is a thoughtful and strong project that deserves to be presented in the best possible way.

All reviews refer to original research statements which have been edited in response.