Seeding Auckland: Day One Indoor Workshop

In preparation for Seeding Auckland I planned a few 'small-scale' public events, located, initially creating a project hub in and around Ponsonby. The events offered over several days were devised to allow for  indoor/outdoor training/making sessions and information sharing sessions. Artist talks were given (at the gallery as a separate event, and combined with the indoor training session) to contextualise the project within jewellery and environmental concerns and to allow for discussion.

Not all jewellers enjoy talking about their work but in relation to this project I feel its an integral component of the project. Its the story telling aspect of it that i think is important for engaging curiosity and its another way to encourage participants that next step, get involved, skill up and potentially take the project on and create something similar or alternatively something else with it.

The  Seeding Auckland events began with an indoor workshop at Art Station, a community art space on Ponsonby Rd conveniently located opposite the Objectspace galleries.  Holding an indoor workshop might seem counter intuitive to the objectives I developed early on for this project, i.e that I gather the material and worked with it in the environment in which it was found.  However I have found offering an indoor option has the potential to attract those who are less aware or experienced in contemporary jewellery, or those who are less inclined to leap into making jewellery in public.  It also has the advantage of allowing enough time to complete a necklace, (which is something that doesn't tend to happen within a similar time frame on the walks I host) and interestingly for me attendees have gone on and continued the project in their own neighbourhoods - which was a key objective of the project!  Working indoors is also the most reliable or weather proof option and fortunately on this day it also suited my state of health.  I was recovering from a cold I had caught on the plane on my way over.

The room we worked in at Art Station was ideal, big tables, natural light from north facing windows (from which we could see the rain lightly falling), handy to toilets and a kitchen for hot drinks next door.  Bookings were light for this event, perhaps due its timing on a Friday and school holidays hadn't started, although interestingly those who did attend were all jewellers.
Most people are fingers and thumbs when beginning the process, no matter what their level of experience.  

Loving Sharon's inclusion of the spoon

 I enjoy giving instruction on my approach to the technique, especially relaying the finer details of what i have learnt from doing this process over and over.  I also love it when others are less concerned with how i do it and begin to innovate - find some expression of their own.

Also loving Cheryls zig-zag threading 

In fact what I notice is everyone manages to come up with some form of variation when they combine the fragments, beads and thread. It doesn't seem to matter how much experience the maker has everyone responds with their own interpretation when it comes to stringing things together - and they seem to find enjoyment in doing so!

Thank you Sharon, Cheryl and Ingrid for a great morning!

Seeding Auckland

Last week I packed Seeding the Cloud into my suitcase and headed over the Tasman to the city of Auckland.

This visit is my first venture in touring the project and working it in another city. I installed a hard copy (so to speak) in a gallery (object, instruction cards, and digital screening of process at Objectspace) along with working the process with the public, including small groups walking and working around the process around the city streets, parks beaches etc.

There was only so much I could prepare in advance of my visit.  I have trialled the process many times outdoors on my own, I've networked the project amongst friends and family, created events for small groups to experience the process outdoors and held an indoor workshop which suited those not so intrepid. However, these had occurred mostly (but not exclusively) in my own city.

My intention with touring the project and working the process in other cities is to promote the ideas behind it and to create opportunities for the public to engage with it. If the project is to work as a solution to the issue of waste plastic in the environment, (i.e. promoting plastic as a valuable resource and beautiful material) the concept has to reach a wider audience and the process has to be taken up by others than myself. The biggest question for me it what is the most effective means for this to happen.

In the weeks before I left I consulted with the very lovely and capable Laura Howard at Objectspace.  I decided to create a structure for the project based on my prior experience, the trick was to do this within the two week period which included school holidays, my daughters eighth birthday (oh, and did i mention getting sick!!) So in conjunction with Artstation (conveniently located opposite Objectspace) I planned some events; an indoor workshop, artist talk and a couple of walking/process events. There were bound to be hiccups, something unknown or unexpected to contend with (Auckland weather is known to be very wet and windy at this time of year), so I was more than a little anxious the weeks leading up to the launch!!

Fortunately there is plenty of good news to report!! The installation at Objectspace in Ponsonby Rd went really well (many thanks to the very supportive Objectspace staff!), and the project situated well in the street frontage gallery. The scrolling digital images were particularly effective in catching the attention of people passing by and while the headings of the instruction cards (not visible, but to the right of the image) are legible from the street, the finer details in black can be taken in by stepping in the gallery.

(Oh, and have I told you that my great, great grandfather was the architect of the building that houses Objectspace, he was responsible for a few banks and churches around Auckland)

Over the next few posts I will report on the many lovely people i have encountered during my visit and the overwhelmingly positive experience of presenting the project here. I got to catch up with some old friends from when i lived here many years ago, (half my life ago) and met many others who were new.

Either way many thanks, it was a enriching experience to walk/work and talk alongside you all!!

Cloud or Sea?

Seeding the Cloud coming to a neighbourhood near you!!

AT LAST!!!! Seeding the Cloud coming to a neighbourhood near you!! 

I am about to kick off the next phase of this project by touring Seeding the Cloud to other* cities. 
The idea being that through installation, workshops, artist talks, social networking, informal gatherings, and so on I will gather together a group of collaborators who are interested in working the project concept/process in their own neighbourhood, amoungst family, friends and or strangers. Later in the week there will be opportunities for collaborators to participate in trialling a range of tactics to mobilize the project. The exploration will allow for alternate interpretations, forms and means of distribution to arise. Can't wait!!  
This adventurous next step will be sited in and around Object Space and Artstation in Auckland New Zealand from 28th September to 14th November. I will be in Auckland for the first two weeks and if you are interested in be involved more, think you might like to learn the process and or want to become a collaborator read the information below listing the initial contact events for the project. 
Oh and by the way spread the word!!

(P.S. All skill levels welcome in the workshops!!)

*not quite a world tour thus far but happy to make it one....

The Sea Chair

Check out this fantastic project by Royal College of Art graduates Alexander Groves, Azusa Murakami and Kieran Jones. Inspirational!

http://www.dezeen.com/2011/08/18/the-sea-chair-by-alexander-groves-azusa-murakami-and-kieren-jones/#more-148240

Seeding the Cloud Treasury Gardens Melbourne

I recently presented Seeding The Cloud at CraftVictoria (as part of their Craft Cubed exhibition Material http://craftvic.org.au/craft-cubed/exhibitions/material) and extended an invitation for the public to participate in learning the process. We went out for a walk and ended up finding an incredible resource of plastic fragments in Treasury Gardens. It came as quite a surprise as the park appearsto be well maintained, however in amongst the mulch we found heaps. It would appear that

plastic is mixed in with the material that is put through the mulcher, such a pity, a bit of preliminary sorting could prevent this form of pollution from happening.

Anyhow, we managed to have a lovely time

walking, collecting, sorting and drilling in the park and mov

ed on to a cafe to thread the fragments together while having coffee and cake.

Plastic the next Geological layer!

Geologists press for recognition of Earth-changing 'human epoch'

Experts want the human imprint in the geological record to be acknowledged as a new epoch, the Anthropocene

These are epoch-making times. Literally. There is now "compelling evidence", according to an influential group of geologists, that humans have had such an impact on the planet that we are entering a new phase of geological time: the Anthropocene.

Millions of years from now, they say, alien geologists would be able to make out a human-influenced stripe in the accumulated layers of rock, in the same way that we can see the imprint of dinosaurs in the Jurassic, or the explosion of life that marks the Cambrian. Now the scientists are pushing for the new epoch to be officially recognised.

"We don't know what is going to happen in the Anthropocene," says geographer Professor Erle Ellis of the University of Maryland. "But we need to think differently and globally, to take ownership of the planet."

Anthropocene, a term conceived in 2002 by Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen, means "the Age of Man", recognising our species' ascent to a geophysical force on a par with Earth-shattering asteroids and planet-cloaking volcanoes. Geologists predict that our geological footprint will be visible, for example, in radioactive material from the atomic bomb tests, plastic pollution, increased carbon dioxide levels and human-induced mass extinction.

"Geologists and ecologists are already using the term 'Anthropocene', so it makes sense to have an accepted definition," says geologist Dr Jan Zalasiewicz of the University of Leicester. "But, in this unusual case, formal recognition of the epoch could have wider significance beyond the geology community. By officially accepting that human actions are having an effect on the makeup of the Earth, it may have an impact on, say, the law of the sea or on people's behaviour."

In the past, geological changes on a scale big enough to merit a new epoch have been the result of events such as the eruption of a supervolcano or a catastrophic meteor strike – things a lawyer might describe as acts of God. Now, instead of being just another one of the millions of species on our planet, humans have become the determining factor – the guiding, controlling species – and many of our changes will leave a permanent mark in the rocks.

The Anthropocene Working Group of the International Commission on Stratigraphy, which is the body charged with formally designating geological time periods, met at Burlington House, London, last month, to discuss evidence for the planet having crossed into a new geological epoch.

The geological signal will be clear from industrial-scale mining, damming, deforestation and agriculture, as well as the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere and nitrates in the oceans. Even the presence of the first human-produced chemicals like PCBs, radioactive fallout and the humble plastic bag could be measured millions of years hence.

Putting humans at the centre of our planet's activity represents a paradigm shift in the way geologists usually think of our species – as a mere blip on the long timescale of Earth.

There have been seven epochs since the dinosaurs died out around 65m years ago. The last time we passed a geological boundary, entering the Holocene around 12,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age, we were an insignificant species, just one of a couple of hominids struggling to survive in a world where so many of our cousins, like Homo erectus, had failed to make it.

Now our effect on the climate and our fellow species is having a global impact. "The fossil record will reveal a massive loss of plant and animal species, and also the scale of invasive species – how we've distributed animals and plants across the globe," Zalasiewicz says.

The working group still has some more evidence to gather before it presents its findings to the stratigraphy committee, "and then the real battle will commence", says Zalasiewicz. "These are slow, nit-picky debates, fraught with acrimony and issues of nationalism. Some members are very cautious and think it's premature to define the Anthropocene, because the Holocene has only been around for a short period in geological terms. Other epochs have lasted millions of years."

Others feel that the new epoch is upon us and we should come to terms with its implications for the planet. "We broke it, we bought it, we own it," Ellis says. "Now we've got to take responsibility for it."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jun/03/geologists-human-epoch-anthropocene