Blog

  • Speculating… from my lockdown window

    Speculating… from my lockdown window

    During the first national lockdown, we were set a mini brief on the MA. The task was to create a single piece of work based on a view from a window in your home.

    I chose to reimagine the view from my lounge window as a large-scale urban forest garden. The diagram below shows a 7 acre space, some of it immediately visible from the window. There are many options as to how many people an acre of land could feed so I’ve simply written 4-400. There are many variables to consider such as the type of food grown, the climate, the weather, the technology used, the labour etc.

    I’m tempted to ask my neighbours if they’d be up for it!

  • Research Through Design – Data visualisations to support a commons-based future.

    Research Through Design – Data visualisations to support a commons-based future.

    This short paper was submitted to the Participatory Design Conference in 2020 and led to my attendance in a workshop called Commoning Design and Designing Commons. The workshop was designed to explore what participatory design researchers and practitioners can contribute to the commons, and how. It was an act of commoning in itself, a collaboration on the production of an open pluriversal card deck.

    As part of my wider investigation into practices of commoning my recent research has involved working within my local community (Hastings, East Sussex, UK) and Transition Town group to design a festival of sustainable ideas called Sustainability on Sea festival. An act of commoning, collectively building social capital alongside new shared knowledge, the festival also acts as a platform for other commoning practices. This research explores how design practices can support, amplify and expand commoning practices. A local climate action network, or infrastructure, begins to be revealed around existing groups, businesses and members of the Transition Town group.

    With a ‘research through design’ method the designer was embedded in the festival team for the duration of the project and designed data visualisations reflecting back on the collective practice. The visualisations here show mapping work to help reveal data patterns and identify leverage points.

    Mapping SOS events by participants

    Visualising the Bioregional themes and festival events has revealed what’s happening in the town – where the town is weak and where it is strong, as well as show opportunities for new possibilities. It has also led to mapping the town’s wider climate action ecosystem.

    Mapping SOS events by location and theme

    The visualisations helped to provide evidence of positive outcomes such as the level of collaboration, the amount of funds that stayed in the community, the positive emotional reactions to specific events and the dominant Bioregional themes. For a community that has high levels of deprivation it is not surprising that larger impact and highly funded projects are not so apparent. What is apparent is the strength of the community itself and the wide ranging activities already taking place, especially around local, sustainable food production, culture and land and nature.

    The project has demonstrated how a community can successfully deliver a programme of future-focused events to inspire local people to create changes in their daily lives. Additionally, it shows how a ‘research through design’ approach generates new insights into the concept of the festival as commons. A considerable number of local organisations were involved in planning, designing and running events. Assigning people tasks, working groups and specific roles generally lead to a strong commitment. Presenting the public with engaging activities can instil a sense of civic responsibility and potentially lead to further commoning acts. The designer can act as a connector and mediator of people and place and present strong data visualisations that allow for accessible dissemination of the commoning work. Design for commons and commoning needs a profound understanding of systems to be able to support a transition to a local carbon future.

  • Walking in search of the commons

    Walking in search of the commons

    My second MA project presents a model of sustainable design practice rooted in the commons and acts of commoning.

    Recent years have seen a proliferation of work on the commons as a field of ‘social study’1. The concept of reclaiming commons in order to own, use and protect our shared common resources collectively (referencing the history of common lands in feudal Britain, Enclosures, Tragedy of the Commons etc) has much to commend it, in the sense of removing boundaries (literal and metaphorical) to be able to responsibly manage and protect the planet.

    The marketization and direct theft of land over centuries have eroded the commons2 so that they are no longer available to everyone. With a present-day raised awareness of the climate crisis and the dangers faced if we no longer have what is seen as essentials to living: land, water, clean air, natural materials etc. the need for this work feels more urgent than ever.

    The commons, or commoning, has the potential to become a new social movement and, through new social practices, a route to a sustainable future on earth.

    This movement presents itself at the edge of or, even, outside of the existing social paradigm of western societies. It is counter to the widespread exploitation of our global natural resources by the neoliberal establishment and corporate businesses. In other words, the exploitation of the commons. Although most land today (including common land) is privately owned, and therefore, not always accessible to the public, the commons could, or more importantly, should belong to everyone. They are part of our natural inheritance.

    Can we begin to find ways to reclaim commons, with acts of commoning, in a time of increased ‘enclosure’ of public space? The urban commons (which I identify as shared urban public spaces) is the space the walk is principally engaged with. Public spaces, be they squares, civic amenities, footpaths and public access areas in towns and cities (where normally the state has control), can create active social spaces for cultural events, political action and meetings. They can be public or private, but can they be accessible to all?

    Walking is the dominant commons in this model. As Gros states “the true direction of walking is towards the edge of civilized worlds… walking is setting oneself apart: at the edge of those that work, at the edges of high-speed roads, at the edges of producers of profit and poverty, exploiters, labourers, and at the edge of those serious people who always have something better to do than receive the pale gentleness of a winter sun or the freshness of a spring breeze”.3

    Despite increased rights across the globe, women continue to experience life in a man’s world (Solnit, Criado-Perez). My aim with the model is to make women in a local community, creators in public space as well as potential designers of the future.

    The model consists of a walk for women, the objective of which is to identify common land, currently underutilised, in the public domain for the common good, perhaps as community gardening projects. Other aspects of the commons (e.g. water, raw materials) may also be identified.

    The walking model

    The walk involves participation, collaboration and information gathering. I want to observe how a group of women interact and ‘perform’ on the walk..

    This model aims to activate women in our social spaces, potentially creating change in the places where they live and work. A strong influence Lefebvre’s radical vision for a city in which “users manage urban space for themselves, beyond the control of both the state and capitalism”4. For Lefebvre, users have a “right to appropriate what is properly theirs”5.
    If space is for these commons of social relations, and walking and gardening are social acts and bodily movement, do these elements work well together in a single purpose?

    Can this model of ‘walking women designers’ be widely used to empower women to take ownership and responsibility for areas of public space, to create a support network and shine a light on the importance of land ownership and the commons in general?

    Interviews with participants can be heard here: https://vimeo.com/340197576

    Notes

    1. Ruivenkamp, Guido, and Andy Hilton. Perspectives on Commoning: Autonomist Principles and Practices. 1, London: Zed, 2017,
    2. Wall, Derek. Beyond Commons Feudalism and Platform Capitalism, STIR Magazine Issue 20, Winter 2018
    3. Gros, Frédéric, John Howe, and Clifford Harper. A Philosophy of Walking. 94. London: Verso, 2015.
    4. Purcell, Mark. 2014. “Possible Worlds: Henri Lefebvre and the Right to the City.” Journal of Urban Affairs 36 (1): 141
    5. Ibid., 149
  • Reclaiming the commons

    Reclaiming the commons

    On my Masters in Sustainable Design, I’ve started exploring ideas around the Commons, access to and use of public space, and how design models might influence behaviour and perhaps even promote responsible attitudes to our environment.

    My poster, currently exhibited in the university, pieces together components that feel important: access to natural resources such as water, the inclusion of nature, aspects of sharing/DIY/open source.

    Can we reclaim the urban commons for the public, rather than for private enterprise, and in doing so encourage participation across communities?

    What strategies can we use to reimagine urban communing for collaboration, sharing and collective ownership. Can it be scaled up to influence the workings of a municipality – particularly to tackle issues around sustainability?

    This work begins to explore the commons as space and also as process, and identify ways to foster a shared responsibility for its future. How can design practices contribute to a commons-based civic movement?