Flyways Portfolio

BACKGROUND: Ali Smith and Nicole Walker are key influences on the research methods and creative modes of this portfolio, which applies their innovative use of braiding and text-based experimentation to flash forms to explore environmental concerns. These pieces also enact a response to Hollen Singleton’s creative practice research, longlisted in national and international awards, regarding the redeployment of punctuation to communicate and complicate relations to Country. My research asks: how might fragmented forms capture, or encourage, conversations about climate catastrophe? CONTRIBUTION: The issues raised in these pieces are of ongoing relevance to ecological studies. I undertook research into newspaper and library archives, scientific and observational fieldwork, and used the different modes of a weather report, love letter and field notes to interrupt received notions of observation and reportage. Each of these contributions was unique in satisfying and challenging genre conventions, building a folio of science-based non/fiction. Together they extended my speculative creative writing across platforms and publications, from a performance, to a chapter in artist’s book, and international online publication. SIGNIFICANCE: The first two inclusions were commissioned by Melbourne Knowledge Week (2019) and Roseanne Bartley (2024). Both were collaborations with artist peers, participating in public conversations and interdisciplinary collaborations. ‘Flyway’ (2024) was accepted by the high-profile international journal Speculative Nonfiction, of which Nicole Walker was a founding member. This portfolio, completed over a period of five years, led to the unique text-based play that has been made much of it reviews for my major creative work Else.