Over three days in June 2019 we held an international gathering at Dartington Hall, a coming together of artists, scientists, arborealists, philosophers, historians, and more. The event was co-convened by art.earth, Royal Forestry Society and Timber Strategies. This was Evolving the Forest.
2019 was the centenary of the founding of the Forestry Commission and was a time to come together to look back as well as forward. Since then, the world has found itself in the grip of change and challenge, with public spaces closed, gatherings of people banned, and with disease come to threaten us just as it has threatened numerous tree species over recent decades.
We are now inviting you to submit your words and images for potential inclusion in a book to be published late 2020, to be reviewed by our editorial panel.
Your proposed submission can be a direct reflection on our 2019 gathering; we are however also inviting anyone to share thoughts about Forestry today, in 2020 and in a world in the grip of pandemic. What has changed in how we view and interact with the world and with our trees and forests? A brief respite in carbon emission has already resulted in environmental gains: is there something we can learn here about trees and forests in the context of a changing climate?
We invite proposals in many shapes and sizes, from poetry and experimental narrative to scientific article to essay / polemic. We welcome academic texts as much as we welcome non-academic texts. We welcome images and can link to online media such as video and audio. This will be a printed book, 210cm x 210cm printed in colour (following the format of other art.earth publications.
You can revisit the 2019 event at https://evolvingtheforest.uk and read more about this new publication.
We are asking you to submit a proposal / abstract of no more than 300 words by Sunday, July 19 at 2300h BST. We will let everyone know by Friday, August 7 if we are inviting you to send a full text. We will need a complete draft of that text by Sunday, September 27 and thereafter will work with you to complete. To submit go to https://art-earth.org.uk/evolving-the-forest-publication-submission-form/. We will notify everyone about the outcome, so if you have not heard from us by August 9 please get in touch at events@art-earth.org.uk.
If you have previously submitted something for publication you do not need to submit again. However if you’d like to revise or replace your previous submission simply send us a new submission and add a note to say that you are withdrawing your previous proposal.
If you would like to discuss a possible submission please get in touch with jez@timberstrategies.com or simon.lloyd@rfs.org.uk