Creative & dance journal

Mass flow – a dance

Mass flow is a dance inspired by sea ice and its movement on the Baltic Sea this winter past. My experience of dancing contact improvisation in trios and the Skiing-on-Skin 2026 dance festival also added to my thoughts for it. Here I present an initial ‘score’ which guides the performance: it’s not a strict choreograph but guidelines and a direction of travel.

Journey across the Baltic Sea

I travelled overnight from Helsinki, Finland on Thursday 19 February 2026 to Stockholm, Sweden across the Baltic sea. It was my return journey from attending a dance festival. See photographs.

Part 1: Writing a literature review using AI (‘Artificial Intelligence’) – a case study – crop trials using charcoal/biochar and potatoes

If you write a paper for publication in an academic journal then you need a literature review. So I used AI tools from OpenAI (Chat GPT), Google (Gemini) and Anthropic (Claude) to create a review for a paper about crop trials using charcoal (biochar from wood) as a plant fertilizer. Here’s the results and how I used them.

Sea ice and mass flow

I travelled overnight from Stockholm to Helsinki on February 5 across the Baltic sea by ship to the Skiing on Skin 2026 dance festival. This year is much colder than last year, and the sea ice is more extensive. This mass flow of ice on sea, makes me think of movement and dance. Here’s photographs and thoughts.

Poster! ‘Integrate Your Practice’ for ECSA 2026 conference, Oulu, Finland

This poster for the European Citizen Science Association conference in Oulu, Finland (3-6 March) shows how the co-created art practice (‘Residuals’ series) was integrated with the science practice of co-created crop trials – both of which used charcoal/biochar. The A1 poster included an ontology of human and more-than-human-expression. See the poster (PDF 3 MBytes).

Situating an Integrated Research Practice: charcoal and expression as a mediating material and practice

I came across the idea of more-than-human-expression. To aid my understanding, I draw this diagram which seeks to reconcile the Residuals art series (drawing with charcoal) and crop trials of potato plants and charcoal (wood biochar) which I produced. The unifying concept of expression in human and non-human actors (potato plants) through charcoal, shows the material, practice and conceptual integration in an ontology.

Feeling and Sensation Diptychs Studley Woods

In December 2025, I photographed a set of trees at Studley Woods near Oxford – which is actually a copse. These trees are set beside a ditch in a hedgerow, creating a boundary. They are various ages but some are older – perhaps being repeatedly coppiced. Coppice – often Hazel, might be cut and harvested after 14 years, and the stump allowed to regrow, to be repeatedly harvested again. One use of coppiced wood is to make charcoal – biochar from wood.