Ecological tracing

One of the practises inherent to ecological enquiry is ecological tracing.

Ecological tracing is a way of exploring a subject through the wide range of information and intelligence that we human creatures have available to us at any time.

The practise rests on the recognition that we human creatures are inherently relational, with our thoughts, ideas, and beliefs entangled within cultural norms and stories, ancestral lines, personal and collective memory, community, stories and myths, worldviews and cosmologies, biology and ecology, matter and physics, possible futures, place, neighbourhoods, the mystical, the more-than-human, this Earth, and cultural, family, and ecological histories (and more).

To practise ecological tracing, we trace an idea, experience, or enquiry by noticing, following, and naming the images, memories, and knowledge that arises when we pay attention.

Below is an example of ecological tracing in response to being asked what elders look and feel like for Alexandra. In response, Alexandra notices, follows, and names images that arise, her memories, her knowledge of the etymological meaning of the word elder, and wisdom carried by folk tales. Through this tracing, Alexandra forms a proposition about what elders are and how she recognises them. The below image shows a dialogue exchange where Alexandra utilises ecological tracing to explore what elders look and feel like to her. Click on the image to enlarge it.