research
Ecological artists can help to fuel change and open up new ways of seeing through versatile, collaborative practices that embrace uncertainty and act towards systemic cultural change. As cross-culture, cross-discipline, and cross-sector practitioners, we form communities of practice to develop ecological and societal connectedness. Research into creative engagement practices that work across ecological, social and cultural realms expands understanding of how artists help to inspire critical thinking and performative actions. Creative approaches can transform societal behaviours, unlock thinking, and forge new perspectives, helping to build alliances that deliver collective impact and bridge societal knowledge gaps.
To address the environmental crisis, we need to learn about the consequences that have been unleashed and find ways to live more sustainably. Yet awareness of this situation does not necessarily translate into action to change our ways. My approach supports societal transformation within the structure of everyday life by engaging citizens’ practical capabilities, integrated social networks, and inherent nature-relatedness. I seek to change mindsets by working with communities to strategically reposition their local knowledges by linking them to climate change knowledge to create the conditions for generating community action. Through creative workshops and projects, this approach uses existing mutual linkages (intergenerational and societal bonds, rootedness in a particular place, practical capacities and skills) as nodes of engagement to develop knowledge, capacity, and motivation towards active engagement with low carbon citizenship. This multi-disciplinary approach engenders connection between human and nonhuman communities to engage and inform eco-mindfulness, mutuality, and kinship.
Memberships
Land2 https://land2.leeds.co.uk/people/laura-donkers/
PlaceInternational https://www.placeinternational.co.uk/post/dr-laura-donkers
Climate Cultures https://climatecultures.net/members-directory/5030/laura-donkers/
Scottish Artists Union Climate+Sustainability SubGroup https://www.artistsunion.scot/lauradonkers
Society of Scottish Artists https://www.s-s-a.org/our-members/lauradonkers/
Publications
2023: "Arousing Public Attention on Sea Level Rise in New Zealand through Art-Science Collaboration"
In Epule, T. (Ed.) (2023) Climate Change - Recent Observations ISBN 978-1-80355-499-0 InTech DOI:10.5772/intechopen.108329
2022:"Revitalising embodied community knowledges as leverage for climate change engagement" . In Climatic Change volume 171, Article number: 2 (2022) Springer Nature
2022: "(Re)connecting Community to the Awataha Stream" (co-written with Charmaine Bailie). In Open Rivers e-journal | Rethinking water, place & community. Issue 20 Rivers and Meaning
2020: “Collaborative Artistic Co-Creative Methods That Promote Eco-Social Regeneration” Chapter 4 in Using the visual and performing arts to encourage pro-environmental behaviour, edited by David Curtis. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
2020:"Deploying collaborative artistic co-creative methods to strategically promote eco-social regeneration for small island communities" PhD Thesis in Contemporary Art Practice
2014: How I found my way to the written word through visual art. IAWIS/AIERTI 2014, published Philosophy Study, Vol. 4, No. 7, 2014, David Publishing, New York
Record of Research Presentations
2024: Ecological Art-Science Curation: working with difference in the gallery space Art-Science: Methodologies and Collaborations - Chair: Sofia Greaves. Degrowth European Society for Ecological Economics Conference 2024, 18-21 June Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain
2024: The Hokianga Community Drawing Project Home and the Imagination – Chair: Greig Burgoyne. Drawing Conversations 5: What and Where is Home? University of the Creative Arts, Farnham, England
2023: Arousing Public Attention on Sea Level Rise in New Zealand Using Art-Science Collaboration Living with Climate Change CONFERENCE 8-9 May 2023, University of Bergen, Norway
2023: The Trauma of Eco-Being in Aotearoa New Zealand Art and Social Practice With People Who Have Experienced Trauma, UHI Virtual Symposium, 30 March 2023, UHI Shetland, Scotland
2022: Blue Radius, Submerging Art and Science in Accordance with Custodianship #APARN2022, Artistic Research for the Planet, November 25, 2022 1000-1500 (Yogyakarta) 1400-1900 (Melbourne)
2022: From Barbados to Uist: Immersive Storytelling in 'Hands Across the Atlantic'. Once Upon a Time in the Future PHIVE Heritage in Virtual Environments Conference, Reykjavik, Iceland, June 16 2022
2022: Decolonising collaboration: re-learning how to listen to the silenced. AMASS Conference, University of Lapland, Feb 16-17 2022
2022: Changes to Climate, Changes to Environment. New relationships through art practice.
a conversation with Laura Donkers and Reiko Goto. CEAC Glasgow UK
2021: Working with Communities|Ecological Arts Practice GAP (Greening Arts Practice), Visiting Artist Talk, Chrysalis Arts, North Yorkshire UK
2021: Engaging with the Real LAU Visiting Professionals Talk - Leeds Arts University, Leeds UK
2021: Collaboration as a Tool of Resistance, Panelist in No Borders Art Festival, Ottowa, CANADA
2021: Getting Out into Nature Artist Talk Programme, An Lanntair, Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides UK
2021: To Engage with the Real|Drawing Outside, 'Co-Natural Makers' On-line Research Symposium, Plymouth College of Art, Plymouth UK
2020: Meeting Ground. Land2 - Members’ and Associates’ Day. School of Design, University of Leeds
2019: Listening to the Community: How co-creative listening approaches can help to develop strategic, eco-social regeneration. AAANZ Conference Ngā Tūtaki: Encounter/s at University of Auckland, Aotearoa NZ
2019: The Embodied Co-Creative Process of Drawing. AAANZ Conference Ngā Tūtaki: Encounter/s at University of Auckland, Aotearoa NZ
2019: Eco-social Practice: Advancing collaborative artistic co-creative methods to promote eco-social regeneration. EcoArts Australis 3rd National Conference, Wollongong, NSW, Australia
2019: Counteracting the Cult of Self: Eco-Socially Engaged Art Practice. Arts in Society 14th International Conference, Lisbon, Portugal
2019: Community Embodied Knowledge as a Leverage Point. Leverage Points 2019 Conference, Leuphana University, Luneburg, Germany
2018: Drawing: Knowledge as Process.The Embodied Experience of Drawing One-Day Symposium 13th April 2018, Ocean Studios, Plymouth UK
2018: The Monument Game TRANS CULTURAL EXCHANGE International Conference on Opportunities in the Arts: Exploring New Horizons, Quebec City, Canada
2017: Locating Place Through Local Knowledge. Contemporary Visual Art in Lorne, Oban, Scotland
2017: Drawing Rooted in the Terrain. New Perspectives on Landscape, St Andrews University, Scotland
2017: Drawing Without Representation. LangEnact II Meaning without representation: grounding language in Sensorimotor coordination, Southern Denmark University, Odense, Denmark
2017: The Mutable Book: Intra-Leaving & Sewing Wildflowers. ASLE-UKI & Land2 Conference 2017: Cross Multi Inter Trans. Biennial Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (UK and Ireland), University of Sheffield Hallam, Sheffield, UK
2016: The Monument Game. Memory, Identity and Landscape – Geographical Perspectives, DCU, Dublin, Republic of Ireland, and Re-Writing History, True North Conference, Timespan, Helmsdale, Scotland
2016: Being in Place. PG Researchers Conference with Land2, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art And Design, University of Dundee, Scotland
2015: Wall-Paper-Plant: Putting Agential Realism into Practice. ‘Matter Matters’ Symposium, Leeds University/Land2, University of Leeds, Leeds UK
2014: How I found my way to the written word through visual art. IAWIS/AIERTI 2014 Riddles of Form: Exploration and Discovery in Word and Image Tenth International IAWIS/AIERTI Conference and Twenty-First Annual Scottish Word and Image Group Conference University of Dundee, Scotland
Contact Me
UK | +44 7562980287 NZ | +64 2041730885