Welly Walks
Welly Walks invites people to engage with, and reimagine their relationship with the British weather through a pair of weather-sensing audio wellies that sing eco-poetry.
Responding to changing weather conditions, each pair of wellies is equipped with a speaker, Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller, and a barometric atmospheric pressure sensor that detects the weather and plays pre-recorded poems linked to the specific conditions. The project aims to spark new narratives about rain and inspire a deeper connection with the natural world.
Showcased as part of the Inside Out Dorset festival, produced by Activate Performing Arts in September 2023, the project invited participants to slow down and engage with their surroundings at Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Wild Woodbury site in Bere Regis — England’s first community rewilding project. Inside Out Dorset 2023 welcomed over 33,000 visitors across five festival sites, including Moors Valley Country Park, Bere Regis, Poole and Weymouth.
Participants were invited to experience weather in new ways — and to discover how technology might help them see the familiar landscape differently.
Designer-Researcher
Alice Stevens
Year
2023
Funding Supported by HEIF through AUB Innovation Studio
“The inclusion of Welly Walks in our festival brings a richness and invaluable quality to our aim with land steward partners to explore human’s deep connection to landscape and nature. Embedding artistic practice into academic research enabled the audience experience to be really enjoyable and the deployment of new technology was also fascinating for both adults and children – rather magical.”
— Kate Wood, Co-Artistic Director of Inside Out Dorset
Experiencing Weather Differently
At Inside Out Dorset, 57 participants tried the weather-sensing wellies on guided walks through Wild Woodbury. Many described noticing details of the weather and landscape they might otherwise have overlooked. The experience was widely seen as joyful, thought-provoking, and engaging — sparking moments of wonder and reflection that encouraged a renewed sense of connection with the living world around them.
Drawing on Ron Wakkary’s concept of more-than-human design (2021), informed by Donna Haraway’s work on breaking down human–nature binaries (2016), the project explores how technology can support more interconnected relationships between humans, non-humans and the environment. By framing the wellies as companions rather than tools, the design sought to inspire curiosity, encourage pro-environmental behaviours and support wellbeing through deeper engagement with the living world.
Designing for Connection
Bridging technology, experience and the natural world
Created in collaboration with creative technologist Mark Benson, the project evolved through an iterative process of testing, prototyping and refinement. I set Mark the challenge of creating “magic wellies” that would work seamlessly with the changing weather, needing no user setup and operating invisibly. Because they would be used on muddy, waterlogged countryside walks with little or no internet access, they also needed to be small, low-power, and fully self-contained while remaining robust and weatherproof.
In response, Mark designed and built the wearable lo-tech system, embedding a temperature, humidity and barometeric pressure sensor, microcontroller, amplifier and speakers into the boots to detect changing atmospheric conditions and play specific poems in response. He developed and refined an algorithm that categorised weather conditions from sensor data, testing it over several weeks to ensure predictions closely matched real conditions.
Listen
Welcome to Wild Woodbury
Welcome to Wild Woodbury is the first in a series of 17 spoken poems created for the weather-sensing audio wellies. Developed from my walks at Wild Woodbury with Dorset Wildlife Trust rangers, the piece was written and voiced by Dr Zakiya McKenzie with music composed by Laura Reid.
This opening track invites listeners to step into a place where nature takes the lead, setting the tone for an immersive journey through a rewilding landscape. Other poems in the series, including Dorset Rain and Grey Sky are also included on the SoundCloud playlist, and encourage attention to shifting weather and a deeper appreciation of the site’s changing environment. Additional poetry was contributed by creative writing graduate Ben Whittall and each weather strand of audio concludes with a song from renowned Yorkshire folk artist Kate Rusby.
Connecting with Nature
How immersive experiences support wellbeing
Research shows that enhancing nature connectedness can significantly improve wellbeing (Capaldi et al., 2015) and encourage pro-environmental behaviours (Natural England, 2020). Regular engagement with natural environments builds a sense of belonging and supports healthier, more sustainable relationships with the natural world. By embedding poetic content within shifting weather conditions, the weather-sensing wellies transform walking into an immersive, reflective experience — encouraging curiosity, appreciation of nature, and enjoyment of a broader range of weather.
Wild Woodbury
A rewilding landscape where nature takes the lead
Part of Inside Out Dorset — an international outdoor arts festival celebrating Dorset’s landscape and sense of place — the events at Wild Woodbury ran over five days. Wild Woodbury, acquired by Dorset Wildlife Trust in 2021, is England’s first community rewilding project, created to support a wilder Dorset where wildlife and local residents can thrive together. The site at Bere Regis has been opened up as community-access land, supported by Dorset Council as a strategic SANG (Suitable Alternative Natural Green Space).
Translating Ideas into Practice
The creative process behind the weather-sensing wellies
Through journaling and drawing, I develop ideas through a critically reflective, visual, and iterative process. As part of my practice, I have developed Rainworlding, a method for engaging with rain in new and attentive ways. The selected images below, drawn from several sketchbooks, capture examples of collaboration, ideas, and creative thinking that are typical of my process in developing the weather-sensing audio wellies.
Sharing Welly Walks
Talks, workshops, exhibitions, and publications
Welly Walks has reached diverse audiences through talks, workshops, exhibitions, and publications. I have presented the project as part of the Met Office Fresh Perspectives speaker series in Exeter (2025), at Design Hopes research showcase symposium in Glasgow (2025), University of Plymouth SHAPE conference (2025), and at Not Yet Invented (2024, 2025). It has also been featured in exhibitions such as the AUB Innovation Studio showcase (2024), and discussed on the For the Love of Weather podcast (2025). I have also run workshops with creative writing students (2023–2025), and a case study is featured on the Health Foundation Innovation Hub hosted by NHS Dorset. The report can be found here.
Listen
For the Love of Weather podcast
Hosted by meteorologists Gemma and Aisling, For the Love of Weather is a podcast for anyone who wants to join in their weather conversations. I was invited to discuss my research and practice in an episode titled Blissful Rain and the Welly Walk, where I discussed connecting people to British rain in a changing climate.
