Earth Echoes Using imagination to reconnect with nature

The problem

Our natural creativity is being stifled by the demands of modern life, such as a tendency to overwork and a culture that prioritises productivity.

Our connection to nature, which often fuels our imagination, is weakening. We need imagination to connect with our deepest longings for the future, so we can sustain the energy needed to bring those visions to life.

The Challenge

Could creating a multisensory experience of the natural world help people care more about it? And would feeling more connected to nature make them want to take action to protect it? What if…we could work with artists and use our senses to unleash our collective imagination?

What we did…We worked with artist and experience designer, Adah Parris, to use immersive sound art to support residents of Greenwich in London to forge a closer relationship with nature and place.

What we learned

Adah brought residents of Creekside, Greenwich together for a series of ‘wisdom walks’, which guided the creation of a shared sound art piece. We found that the process had a transformational effect - people alienated from nature and living in an urban environment became awake to its possibilities and wanted to engage more with it.

Earth Echoes

The Earth Echoes project, led by Adah and part funded by the Joseph Rowntree Collective Imaginations fund, records the journey of local participants on vision quests in familiar streets. It helps people connect with themselves and the nature already present in their neighbourhood. By sharing an immersive soundscape that amplifies nature's often unnoticed sounds with others, Earth Echoes aims to strengthen our capacity for collective imagination and nurture a sense of environmental responsibility.

What’s next

We want to learn more about how collective imagination can support people on a journey to reconnect with nature, deepening this work in urban neighbourhoods and collaborating with researchers to build an evidence base.

Our Labs and workshops weave together collective imagination practices, including visualisations, movement and sound. We are currently investigating how AI visualisation can help communities imagine new futures together.