Notes: The work arising within the Open Space Laboratory has a long-lasting character, with various groups of people and more-than-humans being able to enter it. It has the character of an open workshop – an event – testing (non)knowledge. The OSL framework represents an open process of embodied learning.

*All the works are produced in a small group together with our children (Váva 7. years & Elza 3. years) within the SWA curriculum.

These works are very important to us because it’s about how we are able to tell different kinds of stories. Stories that are stored and still messy in (dark) matter. We turn our attention to places and learn to notice that the world is not just about people or created by people.

Putting unpredictable encounters at the center of the action also allows us to notice messy landscapes, multiple time periods and variable groupings of people and more-than-human. These encounters teach us to realize that we are always surrounded by relationships that we don’t know about or don’t yet know how to notice. This requires a very open approach.

Together, we say that we can only come close to understanding the vitality and complexity of the relationships between man, weather and matter if we have the opportunity to deal with place, weather and interact with multispecies lives and worlds in a sensory and affective way and act as a counter to indifference. This means that these activities can (not only) offer children the opportunity to know their own share of connectivity, reciprocity, and diversity in all forms.

Children are getting involved and connecting with their multi-species companions.

photo Sea-Water Amplification (SWA) Atlantic Ocean Azores 2025