Artist, writer and artworker based in Angus, Scotland.
alisonjessicascott [at] gmail [dot] com
ABOUT & CV
WRITING
Artist, writer and artworker based in Angus, Scotland.
alisonjessicascott [at] gmail [dot] com
ABOUT & CV
WRITING
Under-story observations: commoning and weathering in Scotland’s forests through artist moving image
Creative Approaches to Treescapes is a funded studentship at Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University. Supervision from Dr Jen Clarke (primary) and Dr Chris Fremantle (secondary). The project is the work is informed and supported by supervisory projects related to ‘The Future of UK Treescapes’, a UK wide, UKRI funded interdisciplinary research programme that aims to improve environmental, socio-economic and cultural understandings of Treescapes.
RELEVANT ACADEMIC INFO
Training and events
- RGU Teaching & Demonstrating module 2025
- PG Cert Researcher Development, RGU 2025
- Teaching on level 3 Contemporary Art: Critical Contextual Studies and guest sessions for MA seminars , Gray’s School of Art 2025/6
- Member of SGSAH Doctoral Researcher Committee (DRC), Rep for Citizenship, Culture & Ethics Knowledge Exchange Hub. 2025-6
- As part of DRC role, co-led ‘Speaking Up!’ with Harriet Crisp and Mhairi Ferrier: a workshop on student advocacy and activism with speakers Fred Carter and Emma Crawley + union reps. Read blog post here.
- With Cicely Farrer and Bex Sik, co-led ‘Creative Citizenship in the Archives’, a workshop with NLS Sound Archive and CCE KE HUB. Read blog post here.
- SGSAH EARTH Scholars Cohort Development Programme, 2025
Previous education:
BAHons Art, Philosophy & Contemporary Practices, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee, 2014
Mlitt Art Writing, Glasgow School of Art, 2019
As a practice-based researcher, my project uses ecocritical artwriting and lens-based media mainly in site-specific situations to explore ideas of ‘weathering’ (Neimanis & Walker 2014) and ‘commoning’ (Baldauf, Hille & Krauss 2018) in relation to art and forestry.
My project asks what new understandings of forest environments (their inhabitants, their management, and their histories) can be elicited through artistic production. Sites for artistic research focus on places where experiments in forestry have happened in the past, such as former Forest Research sites and arboretums, which evidence historic planting decisions, management shifts and which often now are neglected or exhibit a change in use towards leisure activities and conservation. Attending to ‘weathering’ and the sensorial draws out how climate change is embodied in various ways in these sites.
Within this process, I am considering what artistic registers of observation and lens based methods might make historic, current, human and more-than-human struggles, differences and negotiations legible, within the context of forests. My research therefore aims to address how art, and particularly artist’s film, might allow new forms of ‘commons’ to emerge.