Artistic, sensory walk Listening for Meadow Times

What are our possibilities to sense and inhabit plant temporalities? What creative frictions might arise when we approach the limits of the temporal dimensions accessible to our bodies and imaginations? How might collectively attuning to more-than-human temporalities nourish the possibilities of re-imagining our relationships with the worlds that nourish us?
Guided by these questions, and generously supported by the Anthropocene (A)synchronicities network, we organized a sensory walk on September 8th, 2024, dedicated to connecting to plant time. The walk was offered as a part of the annual Utterslev marsh festival in Copenhagen, organized by the association Friends of Utterslev marsh and local residents.
Utterslev marsh is a series of shallow lakes in the Northwestern part of Copenhagen. It is the second largest designated nature area in the city, and home to many species of birds, plants and animals. At the same time, the marsh suffers from pollution. Spills of phosphorus and other chemicals led to the marsh being declared biologically dead in 1970. While the conditions have improved, untreated wastewater continues to be leaked in the marsh. The Friends of Utterslev marsh is an association fighting for better conditions for multispecies life in the marsh, and thus it was important for us to offer the sensory walk in collaboration with them.
When designing the walk, our approach was informed by Linda’s fieldwork movement practice with the marsh since 2020. In addition, we were drawing on our earlier work with voicing, movement and walking methodologies.