'Reading Writing with a Tree' is a mash-up of indoor and outdoor writings I made as part of my PhD in 'Reading and Writing with a Tree: Practising "Nature Writing" as Enquiry' (Falmouth, 2012).

I begin with a reading of the apple tree into which I wrote. Every apple on the tree was written into. The words scarred and grew, sometimes healing over entirely, lines warped becoming illegible. I read what I can. Walking around, reading these words, the curve of the apple and obfuscating leaves means that only part of the words are legible. The tree rewrites the words I wrote. The structure of the tree speaks in the partiality of these words.

The rest is composed of fragments of my PhD written thesis spliced with brief fragments of these apple tree words.

This apple tree work was created in the walled garden in Tremough Orchard, Falmouth University Campus, Cornwall. 

For images see 'Apple Tree Poetry': http://www.singingapplepress.com/installation/

Reading And Writing With A Tree

Dom Chambers (Somer Valley FM) interviews Camilla Nelson co-curator of The South West Poetry Tour (1st-7th August 2016) to hear what it's all about. For more info on the tour visit: http://www.singingapplepress.com/collaborative-poetics

The South West Poetry Tour (Somer Valley FM)

Introducing The South West Poetry Tour 1st-7th August 2016

Camilla Nelson performs a short excerpt of A Yarn Er Narrative (Contraband Books).

http://www.singingapplepress.com
https://www.contrabandbooks.co.uk

A Yarn Er Narrative - Excerpt

How to make A YARN ER NARRATIVE

STEP 1: Visit Yarner Wood on foot. Walk to locate particular sites of interest.

STEP 2: Photograph each chosen site.

STEP 3: Take material samples from each selected site e.g. plant matter, earth, fungus.

STEP 4: Once home, link photographs with material samples. Reduce number of sites to a manageable quantity. Research: etymology, biology, geography, history.

STEP 5: From this research, select text from which to form a site-specific poem for each site.

STEP 6: Mulch materials from each site with print outs of site-specific text to make a paper pulp. Make a new site-specific page from each set of site-specific materials.

STEP 7: Tear fragments from printed texts to overlay onto each remade page.

STEP 8: Return each site-specific text to the site from which it first emerged.

STEP 9: Photograph each page in place.

STEP 10: Leave pages on site for a week.

STEP 11: In a week’s time, return to photograph remaining text.

 STEP 12: Collect & store remaining text.

STEP 13: Create new poems from the mulch of remaining materials.

This ‘how to’ text is the central page of the final poetry collection published by Contraband Books (2019). One half of the book is composed of visual treatments of the text's compost. The other half presents the final poems in a more standardised print arrangement. My performance of A Yarn Er Narrative reads the process of decay (visualised in the images of composting texts) through the “finished poems”, in an attempt to stay faithful to the principle of non-priority between material and textual composition/publication set up by the format of the book. The result is an audible decay of the words and a celebration of the sonic materiality of these decaying fragments that may pass unnoticed when sewn succinctly into seamless pronunciation. Both visually and sonically this piece suggests that it is only when woods/words/worlds begin to fall apart that we realise quite what beautiful, complex and intricate constructions they really are.

A Yarn Er Narrative started life as ‘paper trail’ - a site specific installation of work that included approximately twenty pages and numerous paper fragments, arranged along a mapped trail through Yarner Wood (Dartmoor, Devon) for Karen Pearson’s outdoor exhibition Assemblage: Narratives in the Managed Landscape (2012), which she curated in association with Natural England. Remaining materials from this show were presented in Amy Cutler’s exhibition Time, the Deer, is in the Wood of Hallaig (2012) in St John’s Belfry, London, as ‘The Forest Writes Itself’.

A Yarn Er Narrative - in full (FAB 2020)

The first in a series of six, hour-long radio essays, commissioned by Soundart Radio, that weave poetry, nonfiction, theory, soundart and performance together in a shamanistic effort to become other (fungus, plant, insect, bird and animal) in order to better become our selves.

As government responses to coronavirus shuts human activity down, the rest of the world thrives. Unmown verges flower and seed, animals move into urban centres, air and water clears, bird and fish populations recover. Each episode suggests a more sustainable way of becoming human, inspired by what it means to be fungus, insect, plant, bird and animal, respectively. Might the incorporation of these other-than human strategies help us better work with rather than against the rest of life on earth and help mitigate climate crisis?

Contributors:

Merlin Sheldrake
Helen Moore            
Sharon Kivland            
angela rawlings
Rhys Trimble
Milena Popov-Nena
Camilla Nelson
Amy Cutler
Stephen Emmerson
Michael Prime
John Cage
A Blade of Grass: Jan Mun

Created by: Camilla Nelson

Commissioned by SoundArt Radio
First aired on Sunday 5th July 2020

http://www.soundartradio.org.uk/tomorrows-transmissions/becoming/
https://www.singingapplepress.com/becoming

Becoming Fungus

BECOMING PLANT is the second episode in a series of one hour radio essays commissioned by Soundart Radio as part of Tomorrow's Transmissions. This series weaves poetry, nonfiction, theory, soundart and performance together in a shamanistic effort to become other (fungus, plant, insect, bird and animal) in order to better become our selves.

BECOMING PLANT features work by James Coghill, Timothy Morton, Alex Metcalf, Camilla Nelson, Julie Andreyev, Tom Ingate, Reiko Goto, Tim Collins, Chris Malcolm, Jez Riley French, Susanne Eules, Harriet Tarlo, Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, Erin Robinsong and Cosmo Sheldrake. 

As government responses to coronavirus shuts human activity down, the rest of the world thrives. Unmown verges flower and seed, animals move into urban centres, air and water clears, bird and fish populations recover. Each episode suggests a more sustainable way of becoming human, inspired by what it means to be fungus, insect, plant, bird and animal, respectively. Might the incorporation of these other-than human strategies help us better work with rather than against the rest of life on earth and help mitigate climate crisis?

First aired on Soundart Radio, Sunday 26th July 2020

http://www.soundartradio.org.uk/tomorrows-transmissions/becoming/
https://www.singingapplepress.com/becoming

Becoming

Becoming Plant

The third in a series of six, one hour radio essays originally commissioned by Soundart Radio as part of Tomorrow's Transmissions. This series weaves poetry, nonfiction, theory, soundart and performance together in a shamanistic effort to become other (fungus, plant, insect, bird and animal) in order to better become our selves.

As government responses to coronavirus shuts human activity down, the rest of the world thrives. Unmown verges flower and seed, animals move into urban centres, air and water clears, bird and fish populations recover. Each episode suggests a more sustainable way of becoming human, inspired by what it means to be fungus, insect, plant, bird and animal, respectively. Might the incorporation of these other-than human strategies help us better work with rather than against the rest of life on earth and help mitigate climate crisis?

Becoming Insect includes contributions by The Insect Librarian / Linus Slug, Fiona Benson, Mair Bosworth, Phil Rushworth, Sarah-Lee McCall, Christina Turley & Eliza Lomas, Pheobe Law, Lily Hunter Green, Tom Moore, Dr Eyal Maori, Dr Luigi Aloia & Karun Matharu, Susie David, Mandy Haggith, Dr Luke Thompson, Jez Riley French, Heloise Tunstall-Behrens & Auclair, Victoria Gill // Dr Martin Benscik, Helen Frosi, Dr Rebecca Varley-Winter.

First aired on Soundart Radio, Sunday 30th August 2020

For full info visit: https://www.singingapplepress.com/becoming or https://www.soundartradio.org.uk/tomorrows-transmissions/becoming/

Becoming Insect

BECOMING BIRD is the fourth episode in a series of six, hour-long radio essays commissioned by Soundart Radio for Tomorrow's Transmissions. This series weaves poetry, nonfiction, theory, soundart and performance together in a shamanistic effort to become other (fungus, plant, insect, bird and animal) in order to better become our selves.

As government responses to coronavirus shuts human activity down, the rest of the world thrives. Unmown verges flower and seed, animals move into urban centres, air and water clears, bird and fish populations recover. Each episode suggests a more sustainable way of becoming human, inspired by what it means to be fungus, insect, plant, bird and animal, respectively. Might the incorporation of these other-than human strategies help us better work with rather than against the rest of life on earth and help mitigate climate crisis?

With contributions from J. Drew Lanham, Cosmo Sheldrake, Maggie O'Sullivan, Jonathan Skinner, Sally Ann McIntyre, Baz Nichols & Kerri ni Dochartaigh, Sara Evelyn, Catherine Clover, Jane Pitt, Fintan O'Brien, Ian Davidson, Julia Schauerman and Hanna Tuulikki.

First aired on Soundart Radio, Sunday 27th September 2020

For full info visit: https://www.singingapplepress.com/becoming or https://www.soundartradio.org.uk/tomorrows-transmissions/becoming/

Becoming Bird

BECOMING ANIMAL is the fifth in a series of six, hour-long radio essays commissioned by Soundart Radio as part of a feature funded by Arts Council England, called Tomorrow's Transmissions. The series weaves poetry, nonfiction, theory, soundart and performance together in a shamanistic effort to become other (fungus, plant, insect, bird and animal) in order to better become our selves.

As government responses to coronavirus shuts human activity down, the rest of the world thrives. Unmown verges flower and seed, animals move into urban centres, air and water clears, bird and fish populations recover. Each episode suggests a more sustainable way of becoming human, inspired by what it means to be fungus, insect, plant, bird and animal, respectively. Might the incorporation of these other-than human strategies help us better work with rather than against the rest of life on earth and help mitigate climate crisis?

BECOMING ANIMAL features contributions from Minja Mertanen (Other Spaces), Caroline Harris, Susan Richardson, Naho Iguchi, no.9, Christian Passeri, Asato Sakamoto, Shin Yu Pai, Oana Avasilichioaei, Alexi Francis & Scott Thurston. And references to: David Abram; Thomas Nagel. #becominganimal

First aired on Soundart Radio, Sunday 25th October 2020

For full info visit: https://www.singingapplepress.com/becoming or https://www.soundartradio.org.uk/tomorrows-transmissions/becoming/

Becoming Animal

Camilla Nelson is a British language artist, small press publisher, creative programmer and freelance academic.  She has a PhD in Performance Writing from Falmouth University/Dartington College of Arts (2012). Her work explores the materiality of language in page-based poetry, soundwork, installation and performance. 

www.camillanelson.co.uk

Camilla Nelson

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