Strange Kin

This is an art film exploring the relationships within and between communities of soils and people within the catchment of River Eden in Fife, Scotland. For the best experience put your setting to HD. There is also a book to accompany the film (email office@arc-architects.com) This film ‘Strange Kin: a parliament of soils of River Eden’ was made by Tom Morton, Becky Little and Matthew Robinson, and developed under the Creative Collaborative Placements programme of the LUNZ (Land Use for Net Zero, Nature and People) Hub (https://lunzhub.com), a UK-wide consortium set up to help drive the transformation of UK land use that’s needed to achieve net zero by 2050. The programme was part of the LUNZ Hub’s ‘Creative Methods Lab’ led by Rob Fraser from the PLACE Collective. There were four Creative Collaborative Placements, one in each of the four nations, giving a framework for artists to be in dialogue with specialists from research, practice and policy, and to develop work in response to a specified topic in the context of land use change during November 2025 - April 2026. Scotland’s Placement Focus was The Earth Beneath Our Feet: understanding, regenerating, connecting in association with the James Hutton Institute (https://www.hutton.ac.uk) which hosts the National Soil Archive for Scotland and has a team of researchers with interests in soil, peat and agroecology. The placement was an invitation to delve into the realm of soil: how we understand soil health, approaches to building healthy soils, and forging a deeper and stronger sense of connection to soil. We would like to thank the many individuals who have helped in making this possible, including: Rob & Harriet Fraser of the Place Collective, Bill Wardlaw of Newmill Farm, Dr. Katy Roucoux of University of St Andrews, Peter Cuthbert of the Angle Park Sand & Gravel Co. Ltd., Dr. Helena Simmons of University of St Andrews, Sarah Davidson of Sustainable Cupar, Joe Fitzpatrick of Falkland Stewardship Trust, Rory MacPhee of Lindor Forest and Michael Farrell of Eden Angling Association and Lee-Ann Sutherland of the James Hutton Institute.