Land Water Research Group

Addressing climate change challenges
Prosperous Mountain Still Image Heidi Morstang
We address climate change challenges through considering our relationships between the natural world and the role of environmental change.
The Land Water Research Group is a collective of international academic researchers specialising in art, design, architecture, and built environment practices. We adopt interdisciplinary methods to explore diverse creative and critical practices. The research group serves as a platform for dialogue and exchange of ideas concerning nature, culture, aesthetics, and the representation of land, landscape, and place.
It aims to foster critical engagement and reflection on environmental issues and climate change. We aim to develop future projects, such as exhibitions, publications, and collaborative research proposals. Postgraduate students are encouraged to participate in all research activities.
Research in Art, Design and Architecture has a unique ability to offer valuable insights into contemporary environmental challenges. The research group is dedicated to exploring how these specialist fields can deepen our understanding of shared environment.
The research group runs a series of research seminars, workshops and symposia with the aim to bring together our international community of researchers and postgraduate students to share common research interests and develop new projects.
The research group is based at the University of Plymouth, UK, and organises research events on campus and online.
 

Research areas

  • ?Environmental change

  • ?Sustainability

  • ?Landscape

  • ?Climate change

  • ?Arctic

  • ?Marine environment

  • ?Rural communities

  • ?Artistic practice as research methodologies

  • ?Research informed practice

  • ?Participatory arts practice

  • ?Intertidal environments and performance

  • ?Contemporary photography research practices

  • ?Observational documentary practices

 

Explore our research projects

SOAK LAB: Support Our Artist Kin: Live Art Base
Funded by the Arts Council England, the SOAK LAB is a space for interdisciplinary performance research and creative experimentation led by Dr Sarah Blissett . SOAK LAB runs in connection with SOAK Live Art, a platform that showcases experimental performance work by South West artists.
SOAK LAB
Landscapes for Deep Time Heidi Morstang

Mediating climate change: Intuitive interventions as defining strategies in visual arts

Other Side of Now 02

The Other Side of Now

Still from Heidi Morstang’s film Pseudotachylyte

Pseudotachylyte

Polish family- Anthology of rural life

Anthology of Rural Life: Farmers of the Lizard

Tamar Valley

Lost and Found

Upcoming event

Research Seminar: Marlene Creates

Monday 12 May 2025, 14:00–15:30
The Levinsky Room, Roland Levinsky Building
We are pleased to welcome environmental artist Marlene Creates to a talk about her lifetime art practice. An in-conversation between Marlene Creates and Professor Emeritus Liz Wells will take place at the end of the talk. This event is hosted by the Land Water Research Group and The Bridge .
All are welcome!
Research seminar: Marlene Creates

Recognition of excellence

Dr Heidi Morstang's film 47˚c won the Jury Prize for Best Short Documentary Film in the Moving Creatures Award, Mimesis Documentary Festival, Colorado, USA.
The film was specifically created to communicate climate change science and has also been shown at exhibitions and events across Portugal, including the major international photography festival Imago Lisboa.
Heidi Morstang, still from 47c 
 

Our researchers

The International Environmental Arts Research Network

In 2019, we created an online forum for international researchers to share ideas, methodologies and concerns within environmental arts practice in order to critically engage and reflect in response to environmental concerns and climate change. Conversations and discussions may result in future projects, such as exhibitions, publications and jointly funded research bids.
Kevin Miles, Genoa #2, 2020, unique silver gelatine photogram, 45 x 60cm

Network members/collaborators
Rachael Allain – PhD; Above and Below the Horizon: a Practice-led Investigation into the Liminal Thresholds of the Ocean
Wayne Barrar – Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
Dr Lula Buzz – PhD; The States and Status of Clay: Material, Metamorphic and Metaphorical Values
Chris Cook
Fedra Dekeyser – PhD; Unearth: Visual Strategies to Reveal and Regenerate Hidden Histories
Kate Isherwood
Professor Tyrone Martinsson – HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Caroline McQuarrie – Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
Liz Nicol
Professor Anne Noble – Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
Dr Luca Nostri – PhD; Place and identity in Italian photography through a study of the town of Lugo
Mary Pearson – PhD
Dr Claudia Pilsl – PhD; Digital Porosity and its Impact on the Mediation of Networked Images
Dr Yan Preston – PhD; Yangtze The Mother River: Photography, Myth and Deep-Mapping
Dr Sally Waterman – PhD; Visualising The Waste Land: Exploring Processes of Self-Representation
Dr David Wyatt – PhD; Landscape of Legislation: A Photographic Investigation of the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
 
Postgraduate Research

Current doctoral students
  • Yue Hu (with Director of Studies: Dr Heidi Morstang / 2nd supervisor: Dr Simon Standing)
  • Rachael Allain (with Director of Studies: Dr Kayla Parker / 2nd supervisor Dr Heidi Morstang)
    Title: Above and Below the Horizon: A Practice-Led Investigation into Liminal Thresholds of Bodies of Water
    Research synopsis: This practice-led research is conducted through a thorough investigation and embodied phenomenological exploration of various coastal and riverine locations, often using artist residencies as a methodology.
  • Sally Hall (with Director of Studies: Professor Katharine Willis, 2nd supervisor: Dr Kayla Parker
    Title: Exploring urbanisation through ambulation, passengering and ride-along
    Research synopsis: A critical arts intervention into city/town staging which proposes that we see more through a passive, back seat lens than an active one with an aim to reframe, narrate and reinvent the city by making on the move.
  • Linda Ward (with Director of Studies: Dr Kayla Parker / 2nd supervisor Dr Heidi Morstang)
  • Emanuel Bras
  • Fedra Dekeyser

Research environment

Explore the facilities supporting our research

Jem Southam: 'Birds, Rocks, River and Islands', The Levinsky Gallery, University of Plymouth, Jan–Mar 2019
Media Hub
 
rlb night view

Research in the School of Art, Design and Architecture

Our researchers work across the arts and humanities fields, from fine arts to game design to architecture and environmental engineering. We have particular strengths in interdisciplinary collaboration from a local to a global scale to advance knowledge and catalyse change. The focus of research in the School is on addressing global and societal challenges, and researchers are actively engaged with stakeholders outside the University context to contribute to meaningful and tangible impact for people, the environment, and communities.
Four Tet performs in the midst of a Squidsoup light installation in 2019 (courtesy: Rikard Osterlund/Squidsoup)

SHAPE disciplines address global challenges associated with marine, health and sustainability through the lens of place

Through five place-based research themes, we investigate the intricate relationships between communities, the natural world, and technology.
Locally, we co-create sustainable solutions to complex problems in order to build resilient and thriving neighbourhoods, cities, and regions. This work transcends geographical, social and political boundaries to become applicable on a global level.
place-based research
SHAPE – Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts for People and the Economy