- UNFOLDING LAKELAND FLORA -

This project begins with the 1885 Journal of Botany.
Researchers from the Ensemble Project at Lancaster University unlocked data from within its pages to help ecologists and conservationists understand changes in the flora of the Lake District.

Inspired by the data produced, Victorian scientific pop-up books, and some of the wonderful names for rare Lakeland plants, I created my own pop up artworks – unfolding layers of pictures and information tell the story of the plants, how their environment is changing and the impact this has on the ecosystem.

After speaking with Vatsala and the Ensemble team I began to think about all the different pieces of information that are gathered in botany – photographs, drawings, common and scientific names, records, the data sourced in the historic journal. Every piece of information is really just a representation of the real plant itself, so I imagined them as interconnected layers. This reminded me of Victorian scientific pop-up books and led to the idea of creating both a real and digital version for some of the plant species found in the Lake District – I choose plants that capture these ideas in their stories. Thank you to Vatsala, Claire and Liz for their support with this work.

See more on the making process here:

This work also included a printable activity ‘Draw Your Own Botanical Book’ with a free template that people could use to make their own.