Making Conversation: Surface Encounters and Material Exchange Between an Artist-Researcher and a Tree

Abstract The Art of Climbing a Tree is a body of collaborative artworks that investigates the ways in which the act of drawing can be seen as material engagement that facilitates interaction between human and plant. It responds to the growing concern over the disconnect between humans and nature and its implications for sustainability. By engaging a tree as a living, breathing entity in the act of drawing, the artist-researcher must navigate and negotiate their own movements and actions in response to the tree’s unique physical characteristics and natural rhythms. Through this process, the tree becomes an active participant in the creation of the drawing. This autoethnographic study reflects on the lived experience of the artist-researcher as part of a human–plant network with the aim of analysing the art making process and interactions with the ecology of the tree. Actor Network Theory further informs this reflective account of tracing the socio-material interactions in the network during art making. Tracing offers a descriptive approach for understanding the collaborative and relational nature of the network of drawing with non-human nature. This approach challenges traditional human–non-human boundaries, revealing their fluid and dynamic nature. This article responds to the question of how the act of drawing collaboratively with non-human nature as a network affects the artist-researcher experience of the non-human environment. The findings reveal that this methodology generates new perspectives on the interconnectedness of human and non-human actors. This practice fosters a heightened sensory awareness and deeper connection with the non-human environment, promoting more respectful interactions within the natural world.