SCRUB

SCRUB is an ongoing research project by Caroline Harris, formerly Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for the BA Publishing (Combined) at Bath Spa University (September 2013 to August 2019) and currently an interdisciplinary creative practice PhD student in the English department at Royal Holloway, University of London. SCRUB investigates, through poetic practice, the relationship between humans, language and ‘scrub’ plants and ecologies.

Scrub is defined as a habitat dominated by shrubs or bushes, either forming the margin between grassland or heath and woodland, or in coastal locations. It is now recognised as ecologically valuable, but is also viewed as a threat: scrub encroaches, and its species can be ‘invasive’. Scrub is temporary and transitional. In built environments, scrub marks the ever-moving edge between the human-made and the other-than-human.

The poetic practice takes a site-specific approach, with the creative research outputs in this e-portfolio relating primarily to a residency with Singing Apple Press.

This multi-component output collection represents a limited edition artist’s bookwork, a limited edition hand-bound pamphlet of the poems, two series of cyanotype prints made with plants and text, letterpressed poem cards, details of two exhibitions and associated readings, and a workshop for the Hypatia Trust. These are given context by a 300-word statement, a research timeline, and key research questions.