By Matthew Lear
This September (5-6), Edinburgh Environmental Humanities Network hosted the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, UK and Ireland (ASLE-UKI) Biennial PGR/ECR Conference.
The conference was organised by members of the EEHN PhD Lab. Since 2022, the PhD Lab has brought together doctoral researchers from a range of disciplines and institutions to investigate ideas of ‘Attention’ and ‘Noticing’. Collaborative online meetings with researchers at the universities of St Andrews, Utrecht, and Bristol framed our points of interest, while more recently, workshops run by the Lab at Cromarty Arts Trust helped us to think about applying theory to practical spaces. The focus of the conference — entitled ‘Arts of Noticing: Attention and the Environment’ — carried forward our curiosity and encouraged 100+ researchers from around the world to engage with this theme.
In particular, the conference was interested in challenging and better defining issues of attention. Topics included asking if, in an era of constant distraction and shrinking attention spans, what role does attentiveness truly play? And, crucially, what comes (or needs to come) after attention?
The first day began with a keynote on ‘Skin Memories’ from poet Dr Alycia Pirmohamed, chaired by Professor David Farrier, prompting discussion about how close attentiveness to the natural world ties into memory and our understanding of ourselves, our identity and transformations.
After a day of exciting panel sessions, Grace Garland led an attention-orientated trip to Holyrood Park.
Parallel panel sessions continued on the second day, followed by a keynote address from Dr Eva Haifa Giraud chaired by Dr Michelle Bastian. This outlined that what comes after attention is not necessarily always expanded upon and sparked further conversations throughout the day. After a successful, packed two-day schedule, closing remarks and thanks were given by the EEHN PhD Lab.
The conference was held at Summerhall, and the organising committee was made up of EEHN PhD Lab members: Matthew Lear, Rowan Hawitt, Annie Gallagher, Felix Clarke, Eszter Erdosi, Keili Koppel, and Ciara Bolton.
The Lab plans to publish the findings from the conference as a journal special issue. The conference programme can be found here: https://asle.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/ASLE-2024-Final-Programme.pdf
