Nature's Canvas: Exploring Landscape through Cyanotype Assemblage Art

Description

A paper presented at The HCII 2024 Conference, S099: Connecting Creative Cultures: Fostering Cross-Disciplinary Design Dialogues among Analogue, Digital, and Mixed Media.

The diverse manifestations of nature exhibit their own generative activities, inter-twined with yet independent of human cultures. These challenges conventional narratives portray nature as merely a passive resource for human use. Through an experiential methodology integrating field research and artistic practices, this interdisciplinary project aims to articulate nature's agentic voices. The field explorations enable first-hand experiential observations of the landscapes around Tai Lake in Suzhou, China. Cyanotype photography and assemblage techniques are then used to capture and reinterpret the environment’s traces through subjective aesthetic impressions. The resulting images reflect philosophical perspectives from Adorno, Benjamin, and Chinese Shanshui's painting on unveiling nature’s affective essence through creative practices. This paper outlines the integrated process and presents preliminary artistic samples. It proposes that creative interdisciplinary research can move us beyond human-centered narratives toward more inclusive ecological co-creation and co-narration. Through artistic experimentation and open listening, the project facilitates deeper empathetic awareness of our embeddedness within lively, agentic nature.The diverse manifestations of nature exhibit their own generative activities, inter-twined with yet independent of human cultures. These challenges conventional narra-tives portraying nature as merely a passive resource for human use. Through an expe-riential methodology integrating field research and artistic practices, this interdiscipli-nary project aims to articulate nature's agentic voices. The field explorations enable first-hand experiential observations of the landscapes around Tai Lake in Suzhou, China. Cyanotype photography and assemblage techniques are then used to capture and reinterpret the environment’s traces through subjective aesthetic impressions. The resulting images reflect philosophical perspectives from Adorno, Benjamin, and Chi-nese Shanshui painting on unveiling nature’s affective essence through creative prac-tices. This paper outlines the integrated process and presents preliminary artistic sam-ples. It proposes that creative interdisciplinary research can move us beyond human-centred narratives toward more inclusive ecological co-creation and co-narration. Through artistic experimentation and open listening, the project facilitates deeper empathetic awareness of our embeddedness within lively, agentic nature.The diverse manifestations of nature exhibit their own generative activities, inter-twined with yet independent of human cultures. These challenges conventional narra-tives portraying nature as merely a passive resource for human use. Through an expe-riential methodology integrating field research and artistic practices, this interdiscipli-nary project aims to articulate nature's agentic voices. The field explorations enable first-hand experiential observations of the landscapes around Tai Lake in Suzhou, China. Cyanotype photography and assemblage techniques are then used to capture and reinterpret the environment’s traces through subjective aesthetic impressions. The resulting images reflect philosophical perspectives from Adorno, Benjamin, and Chi-nese Shanshui painting on unveiling nature’s affective essence through creative prac-tices. This paper outlines the integrated process and presents preliminary artistic sam-ples. It proposes that creative interdisciplinary research can move us beyond human-centred narratives toward more inclusive ecological co-creation and co-narration. Through artistic experimentation and open listening, the project facilitates deeper empathetic awareness of our embeddedness within lively, agentic nature.

Period	1 Jul 2024
Event title	16th International Conference on Cross-Cultural Design, CCD 2024, held as part of the 26th HCI International Conference, HCII 2024
Event type	Conference
Location	Washington, United StatesShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International