residuals – Creative & dance journal

Part 2: Evaluating a literature review using AI (‘Artificial Intelligence’) – a case study – crop trials using charcoal/biochar and potatoes

In Part 1 of this series, I instructed AI machines from three different companies to create a literature review for the same subject/review title. In this second part, I evaluate the literature cited by the AI tools: does it exist and indeed, is it relevant. Surprisingly, some references don’t exist and some are not relevant!

Mass flow – a dance

Mass flow is a dance inspired by sea ice and its movement on the Baltic Sea this winter past. My experience of dancing contact improvisation in trios and the Skiing-on-Skin 2026 dance festival also added to my thoughts for it. Here I present an initial ‘score’ which guides the performance: it’s not a strict choreograph but guidelines and a direction of travel.

Journey across the Baltic Sea

I travelled overnight from Helsinki, Finland on Thursday 19 February 2026 to Stockholm, Sweden across the Baltic sea. It was my return journey from attending a dance festival. See photographs.

Part 1: Writing a literature review using AI (‘Artificial Intelligence’) – a case study – crop trials using charcoal/biochar and potatoes

If you write a paper for publication in an academic journal then you need a literature review. So I used AI tools from OpenAI (Chat GPT), Google (Gemini) and Anthropic (Claude) to create a review for a paper about crop trials using charcoal (biochar from wood) as a plant fertilizer. Here’s the results and how I used them.

Poster! ‘Integrate Your Practice’ for ECSA 2026 conference, Oulu, Finland

This poster for the European Citizen Science Association conference in Oulu, Finland (3-6 March) shows how the co-created art practice (‘Residuals’ series) was integrated with the science practice of co-created crop trials – both of which used charcoal/biochar. The A1 poster included an ontology of human and more-than-human-expression. See the poster (PDF 3 MBytes).

Situating an Integrated Research Practice: charcoal and expression as a mediating material and practice

I came across the idea of more-than-human-expression. To aid my understanding, I draw this diagram which seeks to reconcile the Residuals art series (drawing with charcoal) and crop trials of potato plants and charcoal (wood biochar) which I produced. The unifying concept of expression in human and non-human actors (potato plants) through charcoal, shows the material, practice and conceptual integration in an ontology.

Crop trials with biochar and the residuals art series

The residuals series of art works/performances used biochar granules that were re-purposed as artists charcoal for drawing. The series ran parallel to crop trials of potatoes with biochar – which acts as a plant fertiliser. The abstract for a scientific paper about these trials in 2024 is presented here which was developed with my collaborator Karl Wallendszus in 2025.

Suspending Residuals #7

Residuals #7 was the longest of the Residuals series: an 8 metre long charcoal drawing which was intended to be suspended upside down so that you could move underneath it and experience the sensation of ‘flying over its surface’. In spring and summer 2025, Theo Hopkins – who is a designer and wood craftsman, worked with me in designing a wooden hanging frame to suspend the Residuals #7 drawing.

Residuals #10 Light

In January 2025 – a year after starting the Residuals series, I used performance and long exposure photography to record light – its reflection from the surfaces of moving bodies, as a residual – including darkness and shadow too! Here are presented these ‘light graphs’ from the session at Goldsmiths CI at Goldsmiths, University of London on Saturday 18 January.

Residuals #9 Circle in the Hayslip

On 24 September 2024, I returned to Schumacher College, Dartington to harvest the potatoes from the crop trial which I started there in summer 2024. It was part of my Integrated Research Practice. After the performance, a circle of charcoal remained in the soil: an archaeological art work and residuals in my body as memory.