(Un)Earthing ~ Plant Knowledge And Dreams

“An ambient dream journey; recalling memories and personal stories of healing with plants. A lot of the once common knowledge around medicinal plants has been lost through the violent processes of capitalism, church and colonialism, disproportionately affecting women. Therefore, remembering, reclaiming and sharing this knowledge is a personal as well as a political act. By meeting and using local, widely available plants, often labelled as ‘weeds’, we can take control over our own health, as well as the health of society and the environment in order to heal and re-enchant the world.”

– Louise Boer

Biographies

Commissioned as part of Ecopoetics, a year-long programme engaging Scottish young people with nature and greenspace. Ecopoetics is created in partnership with the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine and aims to increase access to knowledge about local plants, producers and their health benefits and inspire young people to take charge of their own food conception for the benefit of the environment and health.

Louise Boer is a filmmaker and visual anthropologist teaching at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her film work spans documentary and experimental film but revolves mostly around music; creating visuals as well as live and produced music videos. Louise's work has a distinctive personal, poetic, experimental and dreamlike aesthetic, characterised by creative and intuitive editing, hand-held camera work, ethereal light play and a strong focus on natural elements and textures. Her recent film work and research focuses on ecology, plant medicine, feminism, dance and experiments with analogue techniques.
Over the past ten years Louise has been collaborating extensively with internationally renowned artists such as Squarepusher’s Shobaleader One, Philip Gropper's Philm, Oli Steidle & the Killing Popes, Strobes, Dave De Rose’s Agile Experiments, Vula Viel, Y-Otis and Snowpoet/Lauren Kinsella. Louise is part of Free Movements; a collective, event series and upcoming label in SE London.

The Scottish School of Herbal Medicine (SSHM) was established in 1992. Externally validated by the University of Wales to maintain autonomy, the School’s reputation is further enhanced by our insisting that all our teachers have to be practitioners in their own field to bring direct relevance to experiential practice. We also place an emphasis on energetic Traditional systems such as Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Humoral medicine as well as the Traditional shamanic worldview. Our commitment to the Goethean Contemplative approach to plant and person study along with our unique teaching approach using the pharmacology of taste for direct experiential learning means that our professional training and post graduate herbal programmes are rated as the best in the country and indeed, further a field judging from the number of international students we have worked with over the years.