Soil Your Undies forms part of my long term Creative Scotland supported project called “If Place Mirrors Who We Are, What Does It Reflect?”

The wider project explores how different approaches to land use and land management, across both urban and rural contexts, shape the ecological and cultural health of place, including the experiences of all who depend on it – human and non-human alike. Through photography, field research, and participatory engagement, the project seeks to make visible the often-unseen consequences of land management decisions, and to encourage constructive, solutions-based conversations about more resilient and equitable futures.

Within this project, Soil Your Undies asks a simple but provocative question – could soil act as a single metric through which the ecological health of different land management approaches might be understood and compared? The pilot examines a range of improved and unimproved agricultural land alongside forestry systems (conifer plantation and native), using scientific, sensory, and cultural lenses. Methods include laboratory soil tests (including pH, conductivity, and carbon), aerial and ground-based photography, earthworm counts, soil pigmentation and the “Soil Your Undies” test.

The thinking behind burying cotton underpants was based on the conventional thinking and advice, that the more they decompose over the 2 month period (that each pair was buried for), the healthier the soil/habitat is.  Similar thinking existed for the earthworms counts I undertook at the same time, namely that the more earthworms that are present, the healthier the soil/habitat.

The final conclusions and outcomes will be presented as a Spring Fling event at our studio here in Dumfries and Galloway in May 2026.  Until then the project continues, with initial outcomes being exhibited at the galleries noted above. 

But here’s a spoiler alert for you.  My preliminary observations appear to challenge conventional understandings.  Namely

1. the most decomposed underpants were not dug up in what I would understand to be the most ecologically healthy soils and habitats
2. the largest numbers of earthworms were not found in what I would consider to be the healthiest soils/habitats.

So is conventional thinking on soil health, and thus the health of a habitat, incorrect?  To find out more, including a fascinating AI conversation I had on my findings, click on the link above and below.  The project continues…

Further information supporting the exhibits.