THE ART
OF TRACKING
Science, art, story-telling & nature connection.
For tens of thousands of years, tracking animals was part of our natural connection with the more-than-human beings around us and it can help us re-connect once more.
Rediscover this ancient human skill, a skill that can be traced back to the very origins of art and story-telling, and in the development of scientific thinking.
We will follow a path from the origins of tracking, exploring on the way how tracking helps us observe and stimulates our curiosity, and will end up with a look at the artistry and creativity in animal tracks and tracking.
All sessions are recorded and made available for a week following the course. This also includes times for any feedback questions.
David Wege is a tracker – a reader of the stories that are written in the tracks and signs left behind by the more-than-human beings as they go about their lives. David teaches tracking and has authored and illustrated two animal track books (Mammal Tracks of Europe, and Bird Tracks). In illustrating animal tracks, David has discovered a path of artistry and creativity that’s woven into the fabric of our environment – a path that was well known to our hunter-gatherer ancestors who tracked, painted, carved, and told stories about the other beings around them. David brings a wealth of nature knowledge and passion into his teaching as he invites us to join him on a journey of curiosity, creativity and connection.
During this workshop, you will open up to noticing details around you – details that tell stories of the creatures around us.
We will learn how to read these stories, and by the end of the workshop your relationship with mud, snow or dust and sand will have changed – curiosity will compel you to see who walked there and to read their stories. We will discover that:
Animals are everywhere – and even if we don’t see them, we can see and read the tracks and signs that they leave behind. We will learn what to look for to help us identify some common animal tracks. And we will look at the sorts of signs that we are likely to come across, who was responsible for them and how to interpret them.
Tracking balances knowledge and intuition – it is a way of thinking and seeing/ experiencing the world around us and we will investigate how we can bring this into our lives.
Tracking is an ancient art that still has relevance in enhancing the way we experience and interact with nature around us. We will explore what tracking teaches us and what it can be used for.
Tracking stimulates our creativity in terms of story-telling, imagination and art. We will look at different ways to “capture” tracks (through drawing, inky footprints and plaster casts), and also how to find the stories in tracks and signs.
IN A 2 HOUR LIVE SESSION:
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What to prepare
When you’re next wandering in a natural area, start looking for signs of the more-than-human beings who might have been there before you. Can you see any tracks? What do they look like? Can you draw or describe them? Where was the animal going? Do you notice anything else – a feather perhaps, some signs of animals feeding, nests, holes or burrows? Just start noticing and pondering on who, what, where, when and why.
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What to bring to the session
Please just bring your curiosity and perhaps any photos of tracks and signs you’ve found that you might like to share to see if we can read the stories in them. Maybe you have questions about things you’ve noticed while wandering, or maybe you have pieced together the story from tracks and signs you’ve found. Come with all of these things and we will see what we can share and answer. Come prepared to make notes and draw.
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