iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

101 plastic nurdles and 1 polystyrene ball collected, to the sound of geese migrating south for winter.

A black plastic sieve covered in sand and containing white plastic nurdles, above a larger wood frame sieve and bedside a black plastic bin labelled 'nurdle bin'.

Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"Without nuance or empathy, heritage can be mobilised in dangerous and divisive ways." My interview for the latest issue of @archaeologyuk.bsky.social British Archaeology magazine is with David Farrell-Banks on far-right extremism and the contemporary politics of presenting archaeological sites.

A double page magazine spread of text and images titled 'My Archaeology - David Farrell-Banks'.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

0 collected, too too many spotted. After the short-lived optimism of last week, countless more plastic nurdles have washed ashore again at North Shields. The vacuums are back out but it's going to be a mammoth effort to clean up - and likely the first of many more winter deposits.

A close up image of seaweed, driftwood and seagull feathers on the seashore, covered in small white plastic nurdles.

A sandy beach in the foreground with sweeps of seaweed and white plastic nurdles deposited. In the hazy background is a vegetated bank with buildings.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

14. Good news - the official clear up team say they're finding far fewer nurdles. Bad news - they wonder if winter storms will bring more to shore over the coming months.

A palm holding white plastic nurdles blurred in the foreground. A grey cloudy sky over a still grey sea, and a sandy shore in the background.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

62 today. Photo taken before the final count.

A collection of small white plastic nurdles covered in sand lying on a palm with a beach in the background.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Initially, I naively believed the researcher's position is to be impartial but the more I learn, the more I appreciate that research is not neutral and that I have a responsibility to speak to power and have an opportunity to make change.

A close-up of an appliqued wall hanging showing a figure with a raised hand and a sign saying 'Private Land'.
Text reads: You can't be neutral on a moving train.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I will be undertaking participatory scenario planning to explore visions for future landscape change, but I've found myself applying a lot of the same principles to my personal life as I navigate a crossroads and start to envision alternative futures.

A wooden signpost stands in the middle of a burned peat landscape on an overcast day.
Text reads: Life is what happens to us while we're busy making plans.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I've always slid across the divides of different disciplines and practices, but fully immersing myself into an interdisciplinary project is proving complex, confusing, messy - but ultimately rewarding.

A table covered in paper collage materials.
Text reads: Embrace the messiness!

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I gravely underestimated the emotional toll of researching the effects of biodiversity loss and climate change in a hotly contested landscape burning up, drying out and eroding away.

In the foreground, an exposed burned peat landscape and a conifer plantation and green hills in the background.
Text reads: Moor love in a hot climate.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I've surprised myself by how much I've delved into futures literacy, exploring the parallels between the ambiguity, complexity and pluralism of evidence reconstructing the past and forecasting the future.

An abstract landscape oil painting with dark hills and a bright red-orange flash in the bottom left.
Text reads: Heritage is not the past, it's the future.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

One year on from starting my PhD research looking at how evidence of past landscape change informs and influences visions for the future of the North York Moors, how have my ideas changed? #moorviews

A woman wearing a purple knitted hat and a black anorak in the foreground. A moorland landscape on an overcast day in the background.
Text reads: One year on... How have my ideas about my PhD research changed?

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

6 - this morning's nurdle quota from a scan of the beach at North Shields. It's sad to see so many still washing up, but the local voluntary clean up effort continues.

A small round plastic nurdle in the centre of a palm in the foreground. Sunlight reflects off the sea in the background.

A palm holds 6 plastic nurdles in front of a bin drop off point for depositing the nurdles.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

'Most of Britain was covered with wild, sprawling forest' is a common misconception about the time of the Norman Conquest. Usborne history books were an important part of my early obsession with archaeology but it's disappointing to see such a huge inaccuracy still being published.

Flap in an illustrated children's book reading 'Most of Brian was covered with wild, sprawling forest.'

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Be inspired by witches, gods, giants, saints and beasts in a new exhibition on #folklore tales from North #Yorkshire by feminist artist collective H.A.G.S. at @northyorkmoors.org.uk 📍Danby Lodge Centre 📅 Open until 13 Sep 🖼️ Hag stones by Alice Grey

A wooden post hung with replica ceramic stones with holes through the middle and hung with string to the post. The hag stones are painted and marked, and are on display in an art gallery.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Check out my latest 'My Archaeology' interview with @lawrence-shaw.bsky.social to coincide with this year's #FestivalofArchaeology nature theme in the new issue of British Archaeology magazine 🌳 @forestryengland.bsky.social @timeteam.bsky.social

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

For #HillfortsWednesday the view from Garn Fadryn looking north towards the other Llŷn hillforts at Garn Boduan and Tre'r Ceiri. I was struck by how parched this usually wet and lush corner of Wales is looking. By contrast, the Iron Age climate was relatively cool and wet.

A hilltop landscape view with lines of stone through heather in the foreground, a patchwork of fields in the mid ground and the sea and cloud-covered mountains in the background.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Solstice crown of fronds Caress lapine cranium Mark the longest day 🐰💀🌿 Installation by the NYM Young Rangers.

A rabbit skull on top of a bracken frond.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

The @northyorkmoors.org.uk Young Rangers did a fab job clearing vegetation at Warren Moor Mine in the heat today. Better than the industrialists who built this stunning chimney and dug a 220ft mine shaft only to go bust before they recovered any ironstone.

Stone engine base covered in weeds in front of a stone and brick chimney stack.

Stone engine base with weeds removed in front of a stone and brick chimney stack.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

The @northyorkmoors.org.uk exhibition includes incredible archive material relating to the Kinder Scout Mass Trespass from the Working Class Movement Library, including this original invitation to the B.W.S.F. Rally @righttoroam.bsky.social

An original paper invitation to the B.W.S.F. mass trespass onto Kinder Scout.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

"The law locks up the man or woman Who steals the goose from off the common But leaves the greater villain loose Who steals the common from the goose." From a late 18th century poem about the enclosure of common land en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goo... 🖼️ Deborah Weymont www.deborahweymont.com

A red ceramic plate with a white goose print and text reading

"The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose."

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

A new exhibition on Right to Roam @righttoroam.bsky.social opened at @northyorkmoors.org.uk Danby Lodge today. Freely explore the history of public access to the countryside and find common ground among artists' responses. 🖼️ No Owner of Mountains by Izzie May izzie-may-illustration.sumupstore.com

A white sheet with large black text reading 'No owner of mountains' hangs in an art gallery.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Who gets to roam the countryside? Who gets to care for it? New exhibition about @righttoroam.bsky.social at Danby Lodge Visitor Centre @northyorkmoors.org.uk 📅 20 June - 26 July www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/things-to-do...

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

A big thanks to my co-facilitator Lindsey, the ever helpful @yorkfestofideas.bsky.social team and the lovely folk who spent the morning cutting, sticking and sharing with us this morning.

Two women holding paper collages in front of a whiteboard with post it notes.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

I was seriously impressed with the range of collaging themes and techniques. I think all the participants explored the past and the process on their own terms. 3/

A collage with Victorian and theatrical images.

A collage of bright graphics linked to York and Yorkshire.

A text based collage with a trail of highlighted words.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Before the workshop the past made us think of... daily lives, questions, family, the ground, vintage, heirlooms... Afterwards, we were thinking about wellbeing, texture, experience, present, creativity and thumbprints. 2/

Pink and yellow post it notes with words associated with the past - creativity, experience, memory, heirlooms, craftwork

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Inspiring levels of curiosity and creativity at today's Imag(e)ining the Past collaging workshop @yorkfestofideas.bsky.social @anthropocenebio.bsky.social 1/

A selection of paper collages on a table.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Check out my interview with Jeannette Plummer Sires in the latest British Archaeology magazine @archaeologyuk.bsky.social "There has to be an open acknowledgement that things haven't been done well in the past, and that legacy should not prevent us from doing them better now and in the future."

A close up of a magazine page titled 'My Archaeology'.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

All set for exploring the past and its relation to 'Place and Space' at this Sunday's @yorkfestofideas.bsky.social collaging workshop, Imag(e)ining the Past.

A collage on pink paper with the word 'place' at the centre surrounded by associated words and images cut from magazines. A haiku reads 'Past beneath my feet, Anchored in the present place, The future in reach.'

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Failure to include everyone diminishes us all - We need to be aware of inherited inequalities and the emotional charge of land decisions. Archaeologists can help acknowledge difficult stories and contradictions, and foster respectful and inclusive dialogue. 4/

A poster reads 'Failure to include everyone diminishes us all'.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Look left of field - We're working in unprecedented and uncertain times for nature and society. Experimentation, innovation and risk-taking are going to be necessary to adapt. 3/

Graffiti on a red stone building reads 'Look left'.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Window on heritage - Archaeologists have a unique view on landscape change but we need to be better at communicating with others, articulating our value and investing in our sector skillset. 2/

A glass window pane reads 'The Glasgow School of Art - Window on Heritage'.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

I was struggling to distil my thoughts from the Into the Wild conference, but then I started to see inspiration on the streets of Glasgow... People make places - People have always shaped ecological processes and to discount them from 'nature' restoration risks losing what we value about place. 1/

Bright pink box sign saying 'People make Glasgow' in front of a tree and line of buildings.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Finding my way Into the Wild in Glasgow's west end on the way to the conference this morning @fossilbeetle.bsky.social @hannahfluck.bsky.social @kimjward.bsky.social

A white woman with curly shoulder-length hair wearing a cream anorak and backpack stands in front of railings on a bridge over a river lined with trees, and a tower in the background.

A path to a river through a damp glade of trees.

An abandoned building covered rug graffiti and overgrown with plants.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

The new Tree of Hope grown from the felled Sycamore Gap tree, happily taking root at Danby Lodge in the North York Moors.

A staked sycamore tree sapling, planted in a lawn in front of a line of stone buildings.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Inspired and emboldened by last night's screening of This Land, I stepped beyond the bounds of my regular evening walk and took in this view from the other side of the fence @righttoroam.bsky.social @amyjanebeer.bsky.social

A field in late spring with cow parsley and long grass in the foreground and trees and blossoming hawthorn bushes in the background.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Oh Beltane heron Silent sentinel of spring Watch our May-rriment #HeronWatch

A heron stands in the distance by the edge of a large algae-covered pond in the spring sunshine. The pond is surrounded by trees and reeds.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Shout out to Betty for #WorldBookDay She was doing the rounds at Acomb Library when I visited earlier this week www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A black and white cat sits on the grey carpeted floor of a library in front of a bookcase.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Mind you, these Royal Golden Guernsey goats take their jobs as conservation grazers seriously. Here's a gorse bush they've nearly fully stripped.

A large gorse bush fully stripped off the bark, leaving bare pale stems. There is some dark green foliage at the very top of the bush, above head height.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

My colleagues at Sutton Bank today acting like kids.

A group of half a dozen golden-haired goats stand on and beside a footpath with a bench in the foreground and yes in the background.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

A bracing winter's site visit to wonder at trees both ancient and new.

A woman wearing black waterproofs stands in front of a leafless ancient tree on a grassy slope with a drystone wall in the background.

A staked tree sapling in a graze-proof metal mesh cage in the foreground. I'm the background there is a veteran tree by a drystone wall and a slope covered by plastic tree guards.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

This week, I leave my role as Community Participation Coordinator @camunivmuseums.bsky.social Thank you to my colleagues in the University and wider community working tirelessly across the town-gown web. I've been a Cambridge resident for 20 years and never felt more connected with my local area.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

This #BogDay seems apt to announce that I am starting a PhD @york.ac.uk in September with @anthropocenebio.bsky.social and the Department of Archaeology. I will be researching the past ecology of the North Yorks Moors and using this evidence to explore views about the future landscape #MoorViews 🪧

A footpath across a flat moor landscape with a grey cloudy sky. The text reads 'A new path #moorviews'

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

A mindful moment connecting with people past and present at tonight's @archaeologyuk.bsky.social #FestivalofArchaeology talk about bringing the prehistoric archaeology at Stanwick Lakes to life🏺

A hand holds a cup of tea in a cream mug on the left, with a laptop showing the opening slide of a 'This is Archaeology' talk on the right. In the middle is an open chocolate bar on a lap and in the distance is a lit candle in front of a log burner.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

Thank you to volunteer Ian for the tour and to everyone at Flag Fen for the care you show for this living history. I wonder just how many generations of soay sheep have grazed here since I last visited! 🧵4/

Brown horned sheep, with self-moulting fleece graze dried grass under willow trees, with a reconstructed Bronze Age turfed wooden roundhouse in the far distance, the inner side of a walkway across a lush vegetated drainage dyke.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

I last saw the Must Farm log boats in situ on an open day in 2011 when their future seemed uncertain so it was great to finally see them undergoing conservation. The journey from discovery to exhibition is long, complex and expensive, and I think it's valuable to showcase all steps along the way 🧵4/

A window onto 'the biggest archaeological chiller unit in the country' showing yellow tanks with scaffolding poles holding Bronze Age log boats submerged in polyethylene glycol. To the right is an interpretation board titled 'Discovery' with an image of a boat being lifted onto a truck.

A wooden boat hand carved from one long tree timber. The boat lies in clayey silt with sand bags to support its weight as it is excavated from the ground. The boat is wet and surrounded by the legs of people taking photographs and listening to a guide.

An archaeologist wearing a yellow hard hat and hi-vis vest applies water using a pump spray to a long wooden boat supported by a row of sand bags. They are on the slope of a clay quarry pit with a windmill in the far distance against a bright blue sky. There are long shadows of a line of visitors overlooking the scene.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

More archaeological sites should take note of the approach to interpretation at Flag Fen. I think it's incredibly important to present a range of hypotheses, the evidence informing them and to recognise that 'we will never know' 🙌 🧵3/

A museum display case in the corner of a room titled 'The Flag Fen Wheel' displays fragments of wood. A black interpretation board with white writing to the right is riddled 'A Watery Mystery'. It sets out three hypotheses about the missing transom boards of the Must Farm log boats, a set of clues to inform these ideas and concludes with the answer: 'We will never know all of the facts and any hypothesis could be correct.'

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

The reconstructed causeway and accompanying mural are inspired additions to Flag Fen but following the second warmest June recorded in the UK and below average rainfall, it was a struggle to see this arid flatland as a dynamic waterscape.🧵 2/

A walkway of rough hewn upright timber posts starting to the left of the image leads to a long brick-built building with a mural of the prehistoric Fenland landscape. The building and walkway are set in a flat area with dried trodden grass, and a cloudy overcast sky.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

Yesterday I returned to Flag Fen for the first time in over two decades. Seeing how much of the causeway timbers have decayed and disappeared in the intervening years was both a poignant reminder of the passage of time and the critical threat to the diminishing archaeological record of the Fens.🧵1/

A lined sunken tank of water with fragments of timber posts poking out. There is an overhead sprinkler system and the tank is surrounded by a fenced off walkway and enclosed in a building. The walls around the tank are painted with a reconstruction of the prehistoric Fenland landscape and the Bronze Age timber causeway preserved in the tank.

A photo taken in low light levels of the same in situ Bronze Age causeway timbers captured over twenty years ago. The image shows an assortment of wet ancient timber planks and posts at different angles and lying collapsed on top of one another.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

I've seen some wonderful heritage sites in and around #Cambridge this week but I always gravitate to this graffiti palimpsest when I think about archaeology on my doorstep - 🍆 and all!

A wall of graffiti on the right side of a pedestrian underpass. In the background is the word 'PAST' in large pink letters, which have been graffitied over by other tags and messages in different colours and directions on top of each other.

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Clemency Cooper @clemencycooper.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

I've loved wearing my archaeology goggles bringing the past into focus for @archaeologyuk.bsky.social #OutAndAboutArchaeology this week. Strolling down the #Cambridge backs this afternoon, there was this stone mounting block which I must have passed countless times before but I've only now seen.

To the right is a well worn set of three stone steps, surrounded by bare stony ground. It is set back a couple of metres away from a paved footpath to the right, in amongst a wooded area.

A woman wearing sunglasses and a bright yellow top stands to the left, with grassy meadows and trees behind her. There is the end of a spired chapel with a large window in the distance, next to a lower white building with lots of smaller windows.

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