Sensing the Seasons

Join us for a workshop about seasons and the senses, led by a folklorist and a historian.

Together, we will attend to the garden at Forgan Arts to interrogate the seasons and seasonality through discussion and artistry. The trees around the garden will be the focus as we question how we know the seasons, how we know they are changing and why.

Historically, almanacs helped people document and predict the cycles of the year, so each participant will be provided with their own notebook in which to draw their own interpretation of seasons and work with specimens from the garden.

The images and stories we produce will contribute to a collective publication, creating a new document of the garden in collaboration with researchers working around Scotland.

This workshop is part of a public engagement project in partnership with University College London, which explores how to set up collaborations between universities and external sectors.

About the workshop leaders

Charlotte Holmes is an independent researcher of medicine in everyday early modern Scottish life. She studies domestic papers and folklore to understand how medicine was carried out in the home and by whom. Recently, she has been exploring the interconnection between food and medicine in Scotland, and thinking further about the role of disability in domestic care.

Willow G. Mullins is a lecturer at University of Edinburgh who specializes in folklore, the study of vernacular culture, with a special interest in material culture, foodways, and death. Her recent research and co-edited volume examines weatherlore, a concept that describes the folk beliefs and traditions about the weather that are passed down casually among groups of people.