nATURE

The Nature Library was created in 2019 as a reference library and reading space with the aim of connecting people to land, sky and sea. Rather than being an escape from the “real world”, the acts of both spending time in nature and reading a book are in fact the opposite. They demand our attention; a conscious choice to take the route into the world rather than escaping from it. Whether by painting dazzling scenes, captivating us with stories of flourishing flora and intelligent fauna, or exploring our own place amidst a changing climate, the books in The Nature Library turn our eyes to the complexities of the natural world one word at a time. 

Katherine Fay Allan is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher and creative facilitator based in Edinburgh. Her practice aims to encourage discussions around the human condition in conjunction with nature and technology; through emotive, honest works inspired by lived events. 

Themes that are regularly present are embodiment, ecology, organic materials and therapeutic practices. Katherine produces predominantly installations composed of sculptural pieces, performance and sound works. She is interested in the cross roads between art, life sciences and philosophy. Bringing these areas of research together allows her to produce works that discuss health and illness subjectively while exploring potential outputs that provide cathartic experiences. 

The Bureau of Linguistical Reality is a participatory artwork by artists Alicia Escott and Heidi Quante that collaborates with the public to create new words to describe the emotions and experiences our species is having around climate change and other Anthropogenic events.  The Bureau facilitates conversations and cross pollination between diverse disciplines to identify feelings, experiences and phenomena for which no words yet exist and together coin neologisms to name and begin to collectively discuss these experiences. The Bureau sees the words created in this process as points of connectivity to further understanding, dialogue and conversations in the world about the greater climate change phenomena these words seek to codify.  

Simone Kenyon is an artist, choreographer and movement practitioner. For over 20 years she has worked across theatre, performance and dance that embraces the complex interrelationships of movement, people and place. 

Her approach explores ideas of expanded choreographies; encompassing dance, ecology, cultural geographies and walking arts to create events for both urban and rural contexts. Working with modes of attention, embodied knowledge and somatic sensitivity to frame audience experiences, is a key aspect within this multi lensed approach to performance making and encounters. 

Her recent project Into the Mountain explored over six years the physical, cultural, social and more-than-human entanglements to mountainous environments. With a year- long programme of curated events, workshops and culminating in a site related performance experience within the Cairngorms Mountains in Northeast Scotland.