The Almanac Projects: Seasons Experienced through the Material World

At the Australian Bureau of Meteorology weather statistics “are only calculated where it makes sense to do so” (BOM). This “sense” is directly related to human affairs and activities such as agriculture, fishery and recreation. This paper asks: are there other elements we can incorporate into the ways we think about weather, climates and seasons? What other possibilities exist if we consider weather and seasons that include non-human perspectives? What are the implications of these ways of thinking? In what follows, I draw upon Jane Bennett’s “vital materialism” to consider weather, climates and seasons as human and non-human assemblages of activity (Bennett). From this basis I put forward the notion that almanacs provide a medium for such practices to be realised.