It has been a challenge to describe what took place during the All My Relations two-day workshop in a way as captivating and profound as the experiences themselves, so we have arrived at the conclusion that they simply need to be had by the reader. Here we share with you what we did and invite you to try these out for yourselves.  

❊ In a group of 5-7 people, take a 50 minute walk in the dark of the night through a valley. Walk in a line. Unless help is needed by one or more members at any point, do this walk in absolute silence. Rely on all your other senses to give you cues, or observe the person ahead of you.  

❊ Choose a more-than-human life in your vicinity, embody them, begin to think and feel like them. Ask if you can represent them. Regroup with the others and begin a council where you speak as them. 1 

❊ Make a drawing of a place that brings back beautiful memories. On a separate page, draw a memory of a place that brings up difficult memories. Take both sheets of paper and overlap them, raise them against the sun. Observe the spaces that are formed where the images intersect, try to find another place. Write about this place. 

❊ Begin by massaging the other person’s hands, they can close their eyes if they want to. Then, while their eyes are still closed, place an object in their hands, ask them to feel it. Then choose another object, be playful but careful with your choices.  

❊ Deeply consider the evolution through time of a single-cell organism to a human. Try to picture it in your mind, and if you want to, start moving like the being of each evolutionary state.2  

❊ Meditate on the various macro/micro scales. Find a being or entity, sit with them. Write a letter addressed to them.  

❊ In a group, Write a story chosen shared experience based on and explored through the five levels of storytelling – the sensual; factual; connectivity/systemic/the outside world; future – what ifs and summary and retell to the facilitator.3  

❊ Consider the needs of each member of your group (4–5 people), create an experience for each of you that responds to each of your physical, mental, spiritual needs.  

❊ Reflect on the most recent instance where you took care of a more-than-human and human that you didn’t know of.  

❊ In pairs of two, sit across a table, with a pencil and paper on hand. Begin to draw a portrait of each other simultaneously without looking at the page. Do not draw what you see, focus instead on drawing the inside in all its complexity.  

❊ In pairs of two, one will lie on the ground while the other kneels beside them. The person lying should relinquish the weight of their body to gravity and their trust to their companion. The companion, firmly yet gently, will begin the process of folding the creases (joints) of the body while supporting the full weight of each limb as they move from one extremity to the next. Toes, heels, knees, hips, elbows, shoulders, fingers, neck. Swap roles once the whole body has been folded.4 

❊ In pairs of two stand facing one another. Connect through one fingertip, it’s usually easier using the index finger. One of you will keep your eyes open and will lead through space, while the other will keep them closed and follow. This single point of touch should not be broken while you move. Do this for a few minutes. Then, both of you close your eyes. If in a group, try to do it altogether and begin by forming a line joined only through your fingertips. Do this with your eyes open.  

❊ Assemble a teapot and cups as well as some tea drinkers. Beforehand gather a herb of your choice and make a pot of herbal tea, leave it to infuse. It’s preferable to sit outdoors in the elements for the exercise. In silence pour tea for each person and ask them to first smell the tea, preferably with their eyes closed. Ask what the smell reminds or awakens for them. Then repeat but taste the tea this time. Do not reveal what herb it is until the end, at this point you may bring out some fresh herb for each person to feel, smell and touch using the other senses. During this tea ceremony you could also discuss how wild plants and herbs relate to health and daily life and how we relate to one another. 

Footnotes
1. Taken from the work of Joanna Macy, Council of All Beings
2. For guidance read Thinking like a mountain
3. For guidance refer to Collective Storytelling
4. Inspired by the work of Ula Sickle.

Keywords
scores, movement, multispecies, collective, play, trust, senses, touch, embodiment, drawing, vulnerability, care, attentive, listening, practice

About the author
Denise Araouzou Following studies in History of Art, over the years, my interests have expanded into research-based practices that explore and work through critical pedagogies, blue humanities, ethnoecology, post-growth and deep ecology. Based on my experience thus far, time-based media, socio-politically engaged practices, and collaborations best describe my work as a curator, researcher, and aspiring gardener. Recently, I concluded a post-master course titled Collective Practices: Symbiotic Organisations which instigated an action-based research project focused on the intersection of ecopedagogies and artistic collective practices that will continue until 2025. This fall, I am also entering the second and last year of my MA studies in Education for Sustainable Development, taught online by the University of Gothenburg.