Placemaking and Landscape: Explorations & Articulations of Scottish Highland landscapes through artistic and poetic forms of practice, in and from the field​

This output comprises a body of artistic and poetic forms of practice (2014 – 2020), made in and from the field, located in the geographical context of the Scottish Highlands & Islands. A Scots Dictionary of Nature (Saraband Press 2018, and 2019) acts as a fulcrum in positioning the artistic research, which demonstrates the possibilities of language as a nexus of relations, to understand landscape differently, providing an alternative ‘lens’ to view past-connections and multi-layered ways of being in and of the land. Thomson’s research foregrounds questions of complex and interwoven narratives: through the slow ‘unfolding’ of observation, paying attention to multi-sensorial engagement(s) between creative arts practice and the nuances of a particular place e.g. the remnant pinewoods of Abernethy Forest in the Highlands of Scotland. The body of work investigates place-making and landscape and is presented in a variety of forms (book; journal article; book chapter; artefacts; video), which together articulate a deep sense of place. The research demonstrates the ways place changes over time, weaving together different registers of knowing - visually and textually - in relation to natural and social histories, which contribute to the multi-sensorial ‘fabric’ of place. This body of work incorporates a range of methods including site-specific fieldwork and site-writing; photographic and video documentation where site-specific activity relates to time spent in the studio and writing desk thus negotiating the spatial and temporal context within and without the field. The research explores the interface between encounters in the field, knowledge and artistic forms. It proposes a transdisciplinary way of working that contributes to new ways of visualising, writing and contextualising the landscapes of Scotland to demonstrate its unique complexities and how new understandings can emerge through the slow creative methods of observing and recording landscapes revealing new relationships, ways of seeing and understanding place