a niche of my own

Elsa-land is a personally adapted place that calls me into connection with it, in ways that affirm what I need, to be able to understand, work and sustain. It has the bare necessities like water, shelter, insulation and sanitation, but no unnecessary frameworks that interfere with the soft search for unknown unknowns. Here I am held by frequencies generated by living systems and rhythms that ground like rain on the roof, wind through branches, baltic waves when standing on an ocean floor. Rythms that encourage sensorimotor engagement. The heather bumblebees made me start humming and chanting. Realizing the impact of this led me to discover vocal traditions such as ohm chants, joik, and the work of Pauline Oliveros. The pill bug taught me to curl up into a ball from time to time. Its effect made me realize it was important. When I looked into it further, I learned about the neuromuscular workings of spine and pelvis. The wind and trees initiated swaying and rubbing movements; I rediscovered stimming practices and was led to the autistic community.

At this secluded place I do not need to carry gaze. The latrine compost has contributed to the thickening of bushes and trees, providing additional protection from view. Here the voice of societal expectations and organisational bureocracies fade. Here, I can gradually become un-discusted and un-ashamed with the ecological aspects of my body. My un-showered skin smelling from saltwater and vitamin A. The smell of feces and urin, decaying food waste. I have come to think about it in terms of "structured niche".

Species's niche

Biological environments are shaped by conditions (like temperature or pH) and resources (like nutrients or water). Conditions affect organisms but aren't used up, while resources are consumed. Organisms can change their environment, and different species can share space by using resources in different ways. These interactions help explain species diversity. The set of conditions and resources affecting an organism represents its “niche”. when organisms change their environment in ways that affect themselves and others, influencing evolution, its called "niche construction" (McCormack, J 2009). This can create feedback loops that shape how species evolve, passing on not just genes but also modified environments.

Artist's niche

The neurodivergent hyperconnected mind that constantly deals with large amounts of sensory impressions are more dependent on a stable, structured niche to be able to organise thought and agency (Constant,2018).

In “Precise Worlds for Certain Minds - An Ecological Perspective on the Relational Self in Autism” the authors connect this tendency to rely on externalizing cognition, to a type of mind who has a minimal sense of self. Instead of a strong sense of self as an isolated entity, their sense of self is extended to their environment, a sense of self that is closely intertwined with their environment.

By customizing the work environment to accommodate their specific affordances and creative processes, the neurodivergent artists can offload some aspects of creative thinking and action onto their surroundings (Saarinen, 2022). The environment becomes an extension of their person and vice versa.

Outside niche (Work in progress)

The importance of the artists studio has been recognized an mythologized. ...Virginia Wolfs room room of ones own emphazised the importance for any marginalized group to gain control of a space to gain control of ones life. ...Though access to a personal space of ones own is a rare priviledge, especially to members of maginalized groups. 

fetishization of place

Place not as individual realization - but species realization - back up to before some societal structures to connect with others through needs that has been rendered invisible in current .

creaturely, biological needs and cognitive, creative needs are intertwined. Combining the studio and the home into one environment supports a thinking and making that doesn't impose artificial separations between life and art, but instead allows them to inform each other.

• Group play compositions
• Daily routine compositions
• Joint cycles (composting, hair-birdnests)
• Home building - Painting with tar to sustain the wood panel that sustain the insulation layer, that sustain the heated air that sustains my body temperature, that sustains my life. Bare essentials, creaturely needs for shelter and sustenance. Learning by doing, electricity, plumbing.
  
• Soil cultivation
• forest cultivation
• insect relations
• growing together

the improvised journey towards this place:  

• a longing away, grafik stugan
• 30 years of collective puzzlement
• making space for childhoods
• solitary knowledge finds
• co2 experiments
• reductions - shrinkings
• hoarding materials - building a studio

Saarinen, J. A., & Krueger, J. (2022). Making Space for Creativity : Niche Construction and the Artist’s Studio. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 80(3), 322-332. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaac/kpac021

Constant, A., Bervoets, J., Hens, K., & Van de Cruys, S. (2018). Precise worlds for certain minds: An ecological perspective on the relational self in autism. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-018-0121-8

McCormack, J., Bown, O. (2009). Life’s What You Make: Niche Construction and Evolutionary Art. In: Giacobini, M., et al. Applications of Evolutionary Computing. EvoWorkshops 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5484. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01129-0_59

 2012–2018
Slowly starting to renovate the run down hut: replaced roofs, panels, and windowsills. Added a second door to create airflow. Rebuilt the composting system and drainage. Tested and enriched the soil while learning about the existing perennials, herbs, and native flora. Began foraging along the coastline and in the forest. Getting to know the season shifts.

2012 & 2017

When each of my children were born, I also found new pine shoots in my forest. I began to tend them, watering and fertilizing. Especially during the weeks when the children weren’t with me. In spring, I started pinching the shoots, and in late summer, pruning them. In this way, the pines developed branches at shorter intervals. They became smaller and bushier. I thought I wanted to recreate the stunted, barren pines of my childhood environment. It also meant that they followed my children’s growth curves, and we began calling them their tree twins. But the interest in branching, rhizomatic mind maps, and root systems permeates all my artistic work. I have come to see this fascination with such forms as a reflection of my inner processes; the hyperconnected state  when one’s synapses have retained their branching structure.

2018–2025
Moved into the hut in March when I suddenly found myself without an apartment. Living without heating was a new experience. I fixed the broken well pump. Continued experimenting with gardening and foraging together with Nedine. Started collecting discarded building materials and began planning a winter-insulated extension: a multifunctional room for all year living that could also serve as a studio, gathering place, and workshop space. Drafted blueprints for a construction that I could both calculate and construct myself, continuously adapting the design to the materials I managed to source. Modelled the space in 3D and simulated the different activities that I needed the space to afford. 3D scanned the surrounding environment and placed the model in it, to adapt windows and doors to correspond with the movement of the sun, certain trees and wind directions. Built the extension in stages, whenever I could afford the necessary help. I needed insulated walls to protect me from heat and cold. I needed a facade to protect the insulation, I needed tar to protect the facade.

Finding a builder that accepted and appreciated my attempt to build from recycled and second hand materials was a challenge, but I was lucky to find Klas and Olga. Installed the most efficient air pump available, along with a high-performance wood stove for emergencies and special occasions.

Every year my head of research give me her surplus seedlings. I learn by planting, observing, testing, tasting. I take care of them to the extent I am able. I plant them in the soil I have available, I water it irregularly because I am away, and I learn about the unpredictables of the rain. I learn about my capacity to sustain it, which crops survive these conditions and how I can integrate those crops in this life and environment.