Thinking through artistic research: evolving compositional practice pt. 2

Daily Practice and Seasonal Variations

This research project has emerged through a daily practice of listening. Listening with my ears certainly, but also with the entirety of my body, allowing mind and attention to wander freely at waters’ edge or while submerged in chilly Southern Tasmanian waters. This listening practice refuses the constraints of optimal conditions, embracing instead the full spectrum of seasonal and meteorological variations that shape embodied encounters.

Weather conditions become coparticipants in the methodological process rather than obstacles to overcome. On one particular morning at Kingston Beach, waves twice the size of my regular breaks demanded a complete recalibration of swimming technique. Where my strokes usually flowed with a predictable rhythm, these conditions required urgent adaptations. I gulped breaths in between the surges and altered my stroke cadence. My body negotiated with forces well beyond my control. The wind whipped sand directly into my numbed flesh as I struggled from water to shore, an unfamiliar stinging taking the place of the usual winter numbed flesh and imperceptible air temperature. Such moments reveal how weather doesn’t simply provide a backdrop for research but actively shapes the knowledge that emerges.

The communal dimension of this practice proves equally significant. Our swimming group maintains a ritual around shared thermoses of hot drinks, hot cheesy twists purchased from the nearby cafe, friendly loans of swimming gloves and booties and identical neoprene swim caps. Everyone understands that extended cold exposure can produce shaking, mild paralysis, or compromised decision-making capacity. No one drives immediately after swimming; we remain together, offering spare hand warmers, or plastic milk cartons filled with hot water as a makeshift hot shower, and we’re all vigilantly attentive to any sign that cold may have overwhelmed someone’s system. This collective care reveals how embodied research methodologies necessarily extend beyond individual experience into networks of mutual support and shared responsibility.

Certain environmental conditions demand methodological boundaries. If rainfall exceeds ten millimeters in any twenty four hour period, stormwater runoff transforms Kingston Beach’s typically clear blue water into murky brown channels. Even when not visible, this runoff may carry potentially harmful bacteria. This factor represents my singular non-negotiable constraint and is the one weather condition that overrides my commitment to daily practice. While some swimming companions find my rule overly cautious, it establishes necessary limits around acceptable risk within embodied research protocols.

Seasonal transitions create distinct methodological phases within the overall practice. General wisdom suggests limiting cold water immersion to minutes equivalent to water temperature (in degrees celsius), a guideline that has proven roughly accurate in my own practice. Yesterday’s dip in eight degree water was for roughly that duration, although summer sessions extend to thirty minutes or longer, sometimes leaving time for exploratory swims to nearby coves. These temporal variations aren’t simply practical adaptations but constitute different modes of embodied inquiry, each generating distinct forms of knowledge through the body’s negotiations with changing environmental conditions.

Acoustic properties of underwater listening with my naked ears remain consistent across seasons and regardless of temperature. Yet my body’s sensory apparatus transforms under extreme conditions and duration of encounter. Extreme cold creates heightened awareness, a sense of being fully present under stress, while the mildness of summer offers different pleasures of lingering warmth and unhurried emergence. These seasonal variations cultivate what might be understood as meteorological intimacy, a deep familiarity with place that emerges through sustained bodily engagement across a spectrum of environmental conditions. This practice of remaining present to water in all its seasonal manifestations becomes fundamental to understanding how embodied knowledge develops through sustained, weather-responsive attention to more-than-human environments.