“Thinking about the story into the soil.”
– quote from workshop participant

What does non‑performative environmental sustainability look like in the arts? And what can a conversation between artistic practice and anthropological thinking contribute to an environmentally sustainable ethnographic practice?

Practicing art and/or anthropology sustainably is a continuous process, not an endpoint. With that spirit in mind, this toolkit opens a dialogue, starting with our own, as an interdisciplinary artist and educator (Anna) and an artist‑anthropologist (Nora). Rather than jumping to solutions, we consider what questions need to be asked. With this toolkit we offer a reorientation of what we are encouraged to pay attention to and the stories that emerge. Anthropology in conversation with art and art practices foregrounds materiality, from fieldwork, travel, and transport to data management, and much more in between. This blog post offers an entry point to thinking about sustainability in anthropological practice, and a toolkit that can be used to think through sustainability in ethnography with students. 

The aim of the toolkit is to bring environmental sustainability into dialogue with artistic expression and equality, diversity, and inclusion, core values of Deptford  X, an arts organization in southeast London that hosts the city’s longest‑running arts festival. Presented as a zine, the toolkit invites reflection and action rooted in care rather than metrics. Inspired by the Deptford X Parade, a biannual participatory event produced by an artist with local schools as a centerpiece of the festival, we started by considering how we are touching the ground. This question, grounding our practice in context and community, is also a vital one for anthropologists as we craft our fields.

In true anthropological fashion, we paused to consider: What questions should we ask before choosing acrylic over oil paint, hemp over cotton, or sending instant messages instead of emails? In the climate crisis, artists can act as witness, interpreter, or provocateur; the choice is deeply personal, as it is for students of anthropology. We invited users of the toolkit to reflect on what it means to create in a climate emergency, how we care for the environment in our process, and how our practice might become part of the solution, not merely a reaction.

Rather than offering formulaic answers, this toolkit provides prompts to inspire thinking about where we place value using a material decision tree, information on the impact of travel, guidance on data usage and storage, and suggestions for more sustainable curatorial practices. The physical zine includes blank pages that interrupt the flow of text, offering space for personal reflection and to work through ideas practically. These translations of “acting anthropologically” (Cornwall 2018) into the materiality of the zine are also reflected in its design. Anna “composted” images from a previous project, recycling existing material and data points to create a fertile ground for new ideas.

We chose the zine format to signal openness and ongoing development. Alongside it, we provide an open document that gathers local resources, materials, and knowledge, encouraging each community that adopts the toolkit to create its own version. The bibliography is also open‑ended; rather than imposing a fixed reading list, we invite everyone to contribute and expand the conversation. The printed zine is accompanied by workshops, turning its ideas into practice, offering spaces for discussion and iteration, and allowing feedback to shape future versions. 

While art has been a longstanding subject matter and at times output in anthropology, here we shift that frame and treat art in an epistemological mode: a way of thinking and knowing. We draw on artistic sensibilities working with materials (media) to attend to the material conditions of anthropological practice. By transposing into pedagogy questions developed through conversations between artist and anthropologist, we foreground the medium through which ethnographic work happens, not just its outcomes. In this toolkit, art becomes both lens and material: It shapes how we ask questions about environmental sustainability, and it reminds us that our materials, from paints to digital infrastructures, matter ethically.

The workshops are structured around the zine (available here) itself. They begin with introductions (“Who is in the room”) and an explanation of the zine’s ethos. The first activity draws on the reflective space on pages four and five of the zine. Participants contemplate their practice through four guiding questions:

• Where am I touching the earth with my practice?
• How am I touching the earth?
• What is the legacy I am leaving behind?
• Can it be made kinder?

These questions have been inspired by anthropological texts that consider ways of knowing and being with the world, such Davi Kopenawa’s The Falling Sky (2013), and conversations between art and anthropology, as presented in Between Matter and Method: Encounters in Anthropology and Art, edited by Gretchen Bakke and Marina Peterson. Here Natasha Myers writes: “Art-making practices help throw into relief the moral economies of goods and bads we take as given” (in Bakke and Peterson 2020, xiii).

How to Use This Toolkit in an Anthropology Classroom

This toolkit derived from thinking anthropologically, drawing on the ethnographic craft in its careful consideration of and rootedness in a specific context through the open-ended questions above, and the attention to the knowledge that is produced through the invitations this toolkit extends. First and foremost, the toolkit builds on insights established by anthropologists of climate change, that environmental sustainability is not a technological challenge, but rather a relational and experiential one. During workshops, discussions initially veered toward transport, something also much discussed in academic spaces, such as the conferences and research meetings we fly to that contribute to our carbon footprint as social science scholars. However, what we found hiding behind discussions of transport was time. Artists noted that tight deadlines push for faster, less sustainable choices, such as driving by car instead of using public transport or opting for the quickest available material rather than the most eco-friendly one. This surfaced structural questions around funding and project cycles, pointing to the responsibility and possibility of active engagement with sustainability through organizational policies and funding practices. Environmental sustainability is not only personal, but needs to be and can be fostered by funders and organizations (for example, by elongating funding and projects cycles and by removing time pressure).

With another group of participants (one participant returned from the first workshop), the conversation shifted to data and energy use, reflecting broader concerns about artificial intelligence and its energy demand. Moving‑image and sound artists discussed storage and data center locations, prompting Nora to include insights on power dynamics around data and data sovereignty in a next version of the toolkit. As anthropologists we know well of the materiality and aliveness of data (see for example Taylor 2021). The discussion highlighted that environmental sustainability is not confined to obviously material practices.  

In a third workshop with a new group of artists this autumn, the question of ownership and authorship emerged. Artists discussed how copyright regimes and requirements for a single owner or author hinder collaborative practices. Although collaboration and the sharing of resources are often more sustainable than individualized approaches, they can be rendered prohibitively complicated by what may be understood as colonial logics of ownership.

The toolkit shows that environmental sustainability is more than materials and transport. The impact of time, data, and structures of ownership on environmentally sustainable practices is also important for the practice of anthropology; we generate vast amounts of data, and, like artists, we are often trapped in unsustainable—both socially and environmentally—funding cycles while navigating collaboration and questions of authorship and ownership. 

Therefore, the questions this toolkit raises, worked through individually with the zine or as group in a workshop (see below), are equally useful for anthropology students embarking on fieldwork and scholars planning projects or reflecting on their practices as researchers. For example, with slight adaptations, the “Material Decision Tree” can be used for a range of decisions from length and transport of fieldwork trips and meetings to choices about data management and storage. Asking ourselves: “What will your work leave behind and why?” is equally relevant for all of us. 

Artists have already begun using the practical tips in Sections #3 and #4 as well as the open resource library in Section #6 as a non-performative baseline for funding applications that demand sustainability statements. In the context of anthropological pedagogy, the toolkit opens possibilities for different forms of engagement and expansion. It could offer a guide for doctoral candidates who are in the process of crafting their field sites. In PhD seminars, the zine could provide writing prompts or guide a workshop (as described below). Another use might be as an alternative assessment in applied anthropology modules and for ethnographic research methods. Instead of an essay, students could submit a completed and revised zine, physically or digitally “working the zine” by adding, subtracting, and writing short reflections in its pages. Further applications include the collective creation of an (open and digital) annotated bibliography and library of resources, as the toolkit suggests in Section #6. 

WORKSHOP OUTLINE

Overview

This interactive workshop invites participants to examine sustainability within their practice while collaboratively shaping the DX Environmental Sustainability Toolkit. Participants work through the toolkit, discuss the questions it raises, and reshape its content through a process of collective “composting.” The resulting resource will be grounded in the lived experience of artists and will directly inform future versions of the toolkit. 

Introduction

The session opens with a brief five-minute segment that establishes a nurturing space for ideas, reiterating that this is about a conversation rather than a test. Participants then spend fifteen minutes introducing themselves and sharing their practice, while the facilitator(s) record brief bios on a large “Who is in the room?” Post-it. This creates a sense of community and makes visible the diverse range of approaches present.

A short five‑minute introduction to the toolkit itself follows, walking participants through the zine’s sections, its guiding ethos, and the overall workshop agenda. Facilitators also explain how today’s contributions will shape future iterations of the toolkit. 

Reflective Questions 

Next, participants engage with the reflective‑question portion of the zine for ten minutes. Using supplied collage materials, they begin drafting personal responses that will later be incorporated into the toolkit. In subsequent workshops we will draw inspiration from artist Jenny Pope’s “Climate Crisis Survival Kit.” Pope offers a rich library of found and collected objects that participants can repurpose into sculptures. By providing a material library, we can give participants tangible resources to explore the four reflective questions physically and through embodied thinking. 

A fifteen‑minute open conversation allows the group to discuss how the questions relate to their own practice. Participants share what works, identify gaps, critique language, and surface any challenges they encounter. Insights are captured be the facilitator(s) on Post-its for later synthesis.

Group Work Along Main Themes

After a brief five‑minute transition, the workshop moves into focused group work. Four breakout groups each tackle a specific section of the toolkit for ten minutes: Material, Transport & Travel, Energy & Digital, and Curatorial Practices. Each group adds, trims, or reimagines content, collaging new ideas directly onto the corresponding zine pages. Resources and references are posted on the wall alongside QR codes that link to a live Google document, encouraging ongoing collaboration.

A second fifteen‑minute conversation brings the groups back together to share reflections, highlight remaining gaps, discuss terminology, and propose additional questions for future iterations of the toolkit. All feedback is again logged on large Post-its, ensuring a clear record of collective input.

Concluding Remarks

The session concludes with a ten‑minute discussion that synthesizes the themes emerging from the earlier rounds and returns to the opening question of what our work leaves behind and why. 

Workshop Materials & Logistics

• A mailing‑list sign‑up sheet to keep participants connected after the workshop and reference their contributions in future iterations of the zine. 
• QR codes that link to the digital zine and the collaborative document for resource sharing. 
• Individual sheets for participant introductions, references and resources, feedback, and general discussion notes.
• Large Post-its for brainstorming, documentation, and visual mapping of ideas.
• Collage supplies (paper, scissors, glue, markers, small Post-its) for hands‑on editing of the toolkit pages.
• After the workshop we set up a Padlet to document the “moves.” (Email Nora Wuttke at nw32@soas.ac.uk if you would like to see our workshop’s Padlet.)

Conclusion

The depth of the climate crisis is real and daunting, yet artists engaging with the toolkit felt inspired rather than overwhelmed. Viewing their work through the toolkit led them to discover new layers in their practices that they had not anticipated. Its open-endedness made space for hope through practical action.

This hopeful quality translates well into the anthropology classroom. Studying anthropology today can feel heavy, especially in the context of compounding environmental emergencies, where there seems to be little room to maneuver. By offering students ways to think of environmental sustainability as a generative practice, this toolkit highlights concrete pathways for engagement. It invites an experimental, “can-do” attitude, one that encourages the same discovery about their own practice as experienced by the artists.

We invite users of the DX Environmental Sustainability Toolkit for Artists (Rev 1) to conduct their own workshops, add to the bibliography, and develop their own open resource libraries. As we develop the second iteration of the zine, we are open to revisions and new contributions from practitioners, artists, and anthropologists who have engaged with the toolkit.  

Acknowledgments 

We thank all workshop participants and helping hands during the workshops, as well as Deptford X’s director Kwong Lee and its board members for their input and trust in the process.