Phenological perspectives: Creating observation protocols for sensing more-than-human lifeways

​Join "Phenological Perspectives" workshop by Keili Koppel, from the University of Edinburgh

​Life in a multispecies world depends on temporal coordination, or as anthropologist Anna Tsing reminds us, “each living thing remakes the world through seasonal pulses” (Tsing, 2015). Changing climatic and environmental conditions are reshaping these pulses, as plants, animals, insects, and fungi adjust their behaviours in response to shifting cues that often remain unnoticed.

​This 1.5h workshop takes phenology as a way of paying attention to these timings. It invites participants to attune to more-than-human temporalities in order to support more responsive and caring forms of cohabitation. Participants will be introduced to phenological ways of creating knowledge and will be able to develop observation protocols for non-human subjects outdoors. These will be shared, tested by others, and assembled into a shared repository of methods, alongside a reference observation from the day. By creating and exchanging observation methods, the workshop supports participants in bringing more-than-human temporal perspectives into their own work.

​Bio: Keili Koppel is a design researcher with a master’s degree in Design Innovation and Environmental Design from the Glasgow School of Art. She is currently a doctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh exploring phenology through design and environmental humanities approaches, and is visiting the department of Design at Aalto University during January.