FIELD NOTES FOR THE FUTURE

A growing community archive of paying attention.

What happens when artists, scientists, and communities begin paying attention to the same place – together?

Field Notes for the Future is an ongoing initiative that brings together artists, ecologists, community members, museums, and researchers to document changing landscapes, biodiversity, and our relationships with the places we call home.

Developed as part of SCALE-LeSAUT’s Art & Ecology Field Lab in collaboration with The Meadow Mosaic Lab at uOttawa’s faculty of Science and the Fallow Art Farm in rural Ottawa, the project invites participants to create Community Field Notes through workshops, field visits, artistic practice, and everyday encounters with the more-than-human world.

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ARTISTS

Artists help us notice the world differently.

Bring your creative practice into the field.

Collaborate with ecologists.

Experiment with materials.

Lead workshops.

Contribute observations.

Develop new work through the Art & Ecology Field Lab.

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Bring your Art Practice into the Field

Inside a large wooden barn at Fallow Art Farm, a group of participants sit and stand among chairs, field equipment and recording gear during an art and ecology workshop. Lines of colourful handmade fabric bunting hang overhead, while sunlight enters through the open barn doors and gaps in the wooden walls.

ECOLOGISTS & RESEARCHERS

Science tells us what is changing.

Artists help us ask why it matters.

We work with ecologists, climate researchers, conservation organisations, students, and educators interested in collaborative approaches to ecological observation, public engagement, and place-based research.

Bring your research into conversation with artists and communities.

 

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Collaborate with the Field Lab

A presenter speaks in front of a large digital display during a hybrid symposium or workshop. The screen shows an online presentation titled “Sci-Fi Repository of Nature Inspired Ecosystem Services Technology,” alongside video participants and live captions.

COMMUNITIES

You don’t need to be an artist or scientist.

If you walk these fields. Garden. Farm. Watch birds. Photograph wildflowers. Fish. Volunteer. Raise children here.

You already have valuable knowledge.

Field Notes welcomes observations, memories, sketches, maps, photographs, and stories from everyone.

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Your observations matter!

Bright orange, grey, and pale green lichens spread across an exposed rock alongside white reindeer lichen and small shrubs, revealing an intricate living community where many species share the same surface.