Adaptive Strategies For A Sensitive System

Publication date - 5th May 26

Adaptive Strategies for a Sensitive System is a lovingly disordered field guide for surviving a world that keeps turning up the brightness. Disguised in the respectable badge of a diagnostic title, this is in contrast a poetic log of being too sensitive in a society built for the perpetually unbothered.
From violent mornings to dreich late nights, Kate sifts through bedrooms, public transport, supermarkets, her Gran’s house, the surveillance-era optimism of mindfulness apps, and the wild terrain of her own mind- gathering softness, silliness, and unexpected wisdom along the way.

Kate Ireland is a Glasgow-born poet, artist, and performer. She’s performed across UK theatres and festivals, had poetry featured on BBC 6 Music and at Glastonbury, and makes spoken-word-driven music with DJs and electronic artists. Her debut album Self Regulating Behaviours came out in 2024, and in 2025 she premiered her one woman spoken word show Golden Time and other behavioural management strategies at the Pleasance Dome Edinburgh Fringe.

'Preludes for an anxious generation, adaptive strategies is the zen to your zeitgeist' -Graeme Armstrong