A tidalectic reading of landscapes: Multispecies peripatetic ethnography as a method for knowing landscapes.

This study explores multispecies interactions and human-nonhuman synergies in intertidal zones through a novel autoethnographic approach. Multispecies ethnography and posthumanist thinking challenge human-centered perspectives, highlighting the need to embrace diverse temporalities and ways of knowing in ecological research. However, current methods often fail to adequately capture these complex interrelations and the lived experiences within such environments. Shifting rhythmically between land and water, we use the intertidal contact zone to unveil the delicate synergy between humans and animals that populate the salt marsh of the Tagus delta. Our findings underscore the potential of field-based, participatory methods to model multispecies interactions and experimental drawing methods with a spatiotemporal structure that allows thinking beyond the traditional representational techniques of landscape architecture - what we call tidalectic portraits. While our work does not offer immediate solutions to ecological crises, it emphasizes the importance of slowing down and engaging with landscape rhythms to cultivate embodied, situated knowledge.