A bird’s-eye view: Industrial technology in eco-writing research
Journal Publication ResearchOnline@JCUAbstract
Creative writers exploring environmental issues and human relationships with the more-than-human often employ methods for immersion in nature such as critical walking and ‘forest bathing’ or may seek to mirror what anthropologist Deborah Bird Rose describes as the ‘footwalk epistemology’ inherent in Aboriginal Australian worldviews. This article offers a new method of using industrial technology, in the form of a canopy crane, for eco-writing. Canopy cranes are typically used for scientific research. This article details my use of James Cook University's canopy crane in applied phenomenological research in comparison with walking on the Madja Boardwalk and with ‘forest bathing’. All these methods were employed in lowland rainforest at Cape Tribulation, Australia, which is within the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area. This highly biodiverse Area covers only 0.12 per cent of the Australian land area yet is home to 30 per cent of Australia’s marsupials, 58 per cent of bats, 60 per cent of butterflies, and over 5000 species of plants. The JCU canopy crane is one of only fifteen worldwide and therefore offers a rare opportunity to use this technology for creative writing research. In this article, I also present an extract of eco-fiction written as part of this project.
Journal
New Writing
Publication Name
New Writing
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ISBN/ISSN
1943-3107
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Pages Count
12
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
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EISSN
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DOI
10.1080/14790726.2025.2471747