In 2006 Tim Collins and Reiko Goto emigrated to the UK to work within academia. They initiated Plein Air in (2008) with funding from universities. They moved to Scotland in 2010 where Goto would finish her PhD, Collins would support the development of work for an exhibition at Peacock Gallery in Aberdeen. Concurrently they were involved in exhibitions in Taiwan, New York and Pittsburgh; they would also publish one report and seven articles a new website. They were invited to seminars and in Asia, Ireland, the UK and the US. Residencies included the Headlands Center for the Arts in California (2008); Collins was invited to the Institute for the Advanced Humanities, University of Edinburgh (IASH) (2010). Collaborators included plant physiologists, hardware and software experts, musicians and philosophers.

In 2012 they left academia and the studio in Glasgow was established. In 2013 they received funding from Creative Scotland, the Landscape Research Group and the Forestry Commission enabled eighteen months of work on the topic of the Black Wood of Rannoch. Funding from Creative Carbon Scotland supported the development of work for CO2 Edinburgh during the Edinburgh Art Festival. 2014-15 they had exhibitions at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery, the Tent Gallery (twice) and Summerhall Edinburgh (for the science festival), and an exhibition in Cologne Germany. They published one book and sixteen articles during this time. They were invited to interdisciplinary seminars and conferences in Australia Italy, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Taiwan and the UK. Goto accepted fellowship at IASH (2012). Current collaborators include a social scientist and hardware and software experts.

Prior to living in the UK, Tim Collins and Reiko Goto gained international recognition for work in the Studio for Creative Inquiry, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. In San Francisco they were recognized for early work with exhibitions, fellowships, residencies and major commissions.

All of this work requires collaboration with experts in many fields. Our longest collaborator is Noel Hefele an artist and philosopher with technical skills in social media. Over the past two years we have worked closely with Chris Malcolm who is an amazing programmer able to innovate and improvise with code, ‘jamming” his way to solutions with us to terrific effect. We have also been in extensive dialogue and collaboration with David Edwards a social scientist at Forest Research on a range of publications. We also work with Anne Benson as we respond to the Black Wood. Recent translations into Scottish Gaelic were done with the help of Beathag Mhoireasdan. Video editing with the support of artist Kate V Robertson.

During the early development stages of this effort we worked with Michael Baldock, Dr. Carola Boehm, Dr. Matthew Dalgleish, Prof Anne Douglas, Dr Pauline Phemister and Prof Trevor Hocking.