Paper as process: exploring the role of paper to facilitate transformational learning for sustainability

This paper explores how the material qualities of paper can support transformational sustainability. Drawing from my practice-based PhD research which investigates illustration as a tool for inclusive community participation in climate discussions. I examine the role of paper beyond a surface as a process of active tactile reflection.

Focusing on a series of past participatory illustration projects, including Creatures of Change my PhD research with LGBTQ+ participants, I reflect on how working with paper through tactile, collaborative methods fosters reflection, imagination, and agency. These paper-based processes, using recycled, reclaimed, or biodegradable materials, invite participants to externalise complex emotions such as eco-anxiety or anger, and transform them into something hopeful and future-facing.

I argue that paper’s accessibility and responsiveness make it particularly well-suited for sustainability education. As a material that carries traces through creases, folds and overlapping images, it reflects the messy, at times fragile, and collective nature of social change in the context of the climate crisis. Using paper for illustrative processes allows for a deep engagement in these complex problem in quiet, personal, and slow ways that contrast the often overwhelming pace of digital media.

This talk positions paper as a co-facilitator of learning, rather than a passive medium, to materialise ideas and support the kind of affective, experiential engagement that is essential for meaningful sustainable transformation.