Introduction to "Thinking with More-Than-Human Subsurfaces"

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25071/2292-4736/40462

Abstract

As part of an interdisciplinary research team called “Thinking Deep,” which looks at “novel creative approaches to the subsurface” (Royal Holloway, University of London, n.d.), we registered a growing interest in the more-than-human subsurface across art, geography and beyond. As such, we put together a call for papers for the 2023 American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, inviting papers that give thought to the environments below our feet—environments which have been “decentred from our imagination” (Hawkins, 2020, p. 4). In response, we received a wide range of interdisciplinary presentations that were willing to think-with cave-, marine- and soil-dwelling creatures; microbial networks and other elements of the subsurface. We ran two sessions and heard from academics and artists whose research centres the theme of the more-than-human within the subsurface, and who explore the ways in which our disciplines can best engage with these underground beings, habitats, and imaginaries. [...]

Author Biographies

Una Helle, Royal Holloway, University of London

Una Hamilton Helle (NO/UK) is a multidisciplinary artist, curator and researcher currently undertaking a practice-based PhD in the Geography Department at Royal Holloway, University of London, with the working title Spirits of place: Thinking through subterranean subjectivities. In addition to a written thesis, the outcome of the research will conclude with a number of creative responses realised as exhibitions, sound works, and artist publications. The first instalment of this was Beneath Clouded Hills, an exhibition at Bloc Projects, Sheffield, 18 May – 17 June 2023. http://www.unahamiltonhelle.co.uk

Flora Parrott, Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London

Flora Parrott is a practice-based researcher working primarily in sculpture and textiles. The work looks at notions of the subterranean, experiences of darkness and the restructuring of the senses. Based in the Geography Department at Royal Holloway since 2016, initially as Leverhulme artist in Residence and then as a Techne PhD student, the artistic practice is informed by contemporary thinking in geography and the geohumanities. Parrott trained in Printmaking at Glasgow School of art and the Royal College of Art, the practice is still rooted in the techniques and approaches of printmaking workshops; using materials and processes as a way-in to making.

References

Hawkins, H. (2020). Underground imaginations, environmental crisis and subterranean cultural geographies. cultural geographies, 27(1), 3–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474474019886832 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1474474019886832

Royal Holloway, University of London. (n.d.). Thinking deep: Novel creative approaches to the subsurface. https://royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and-teaching/departments-and-schools/geography/research/explore-our-research/thinking-deep/

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Published

2025-02-24

How to Cite

Helle, U., & Parrott, F. (2025). Introduction to "Thinking with More-Than-Human Subsurfaces". UnderCurrents: Journal of Critical Environmental Studies, 22, 96–98. https://doi.org/10.25071/2292-4736/40462

Issue

Vol. 22 (2025): Below

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Conference Transcripts

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Copyright (c) 2025 Una Helle, Flora Parrott

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