The Digital Forest

Artist Commission Award Winner - Jessica El Mal

After an amazing response to the call out for the Digital Forest digital arts commission, artist Jessica El Mal was selected by the panel to deliver the commission.

Workshops with the artist have now begun, bringing together participants from across Barrow-in-furness, Ambleside and Windermere. The group are exploring how non-western narratives and perspectives on nature can help improve our relationship to it.

The first socially distanced workshop took place in Grizedale Forest in late November. Participants were asked to walk individually through the forest and record the sights, smells and sounds of the woodland. Since the first workshop, the group have continued to meet on Zoom to discuss what they recorded and share their memories of forests. During future online workshops, the group will continue to collect these explorations and collaborate to make a digital artwork which can be used by the public to feel the benefits of the forest without having to travel there.

Jessica El Mal is a British-Moroccan artist from Manchester who likes to explore the positive effects of nature on our lives, as well as critiquing the role of botany in the history of colonialism and now the climate crisis.

This opportunity has been made possible by the kind support from Art Fund.

Jessica El Mal