Clare Nattress

This study challenges traditional representationalism, (the idea that the human is a distinct individual outside the world as an observer), when investigating, revealing, and disseminating the threat of air pollution. Scientific methods have historically neglected the embodied and sensory experience of human bodies to which I demonstrate how an interdisciplinary, inclusive, and aesthetic understanding has revealed new insights. Feminist theorist and physicist, Karen Barad posits a performative approach as an alternative, where the body is entangled in the world and its tools, and the researcher is conceived as entangled in phenomena (2003, 2007). While scientific approaches have value, by adopting performative cycling as a methodology, the research positions the body at the forefront of knowledge production whilst also recognising new materialist agencies. Cycling is fundamental in order to amplify embodied attunement and to access interconnectivity with the non-human world.

This research is in part a collaboration with atmospheric chemist Dr Daniel Bryant from the Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories (WACL), University of York. This arts-science collaboration has called attention to, and advocated for a more holistic approach to scientific research that considers aesthetic, embodied and qualitative research methods. This has included aspects of lived experiences that artistic methods can successfully engineer, as well as the significance of embodiment and sensory perception in shaping our understanding of non-human matter and attuning to the environment.