Archives
♦
May 2019
31.05
Friday
Day w Dorota only...
♦ While the rest of the group is away. We interview Jesus about the project, and he comes up with so many ideas I now have to buy another notebook.
♦ Back in the days, IciMarseille was in need of a design for their outdoor spaces - a parking lot - which heats up the space like hell during the summmer period. I think of that space as a cool area to investigate. Art pieces can be tested there without fearing vandalism or delay in resource consent from local council, green pieces of ecosystem are required. I send a bottle in the water to see what will come out of it.
30.05
Thursday
Off
♦ breathing out. Heading to Aix for a walk, getting some fresh ideas, such as : can we present the concept as a labelled approach (the way "voyage immobile" is offering experiences with the same backstory)?
♦ I find an old, ready for hack vintage radio.
rien
29.05
Wednesday
Ecosystem Day 2
♦ We brainstorm about the activities, pricing and type of persona who could be potentially interested in a co-living experience here. We go from focusing on the villa to focusing on the overall experience at thecamp.
rien
28.05
Tuesday
Everything has already been done
♦ Waiting for feedback from emails sent yesterday, We get together with Amanda and Bidisha, smash the final questions about the TranSpecies Radio. Bidisha has done extensive research about the technical aspect of the project, Amanda and I status on a repurposed vintage radio (and its features) as analog object to scroll through all channels available, we discuss workshops to run so groups of people can populate the livestream ecosystem. And as we are about to fix a planning on paper until the proof of concept on the 11th of June, an email from Eric comes in (5pm). Following his feedback from Friday, Amanda looks up the name provided lands on a project that is.... EXACTLY what we intended to do. The technical details, the back-end, the overall visual design... everything is in it. See for yourself here .
♦ Best of it all, one art project that uses this system is a vintage radio in second life , pushing the contradiction to the max (keeping in mind that the idea behind the TranSpecies Radio is to connect people with their real ecosystem). We giggle, and order at least a couple to set the mood to fun-time. In the midst of this announced hellist time to re-design our goal within the tight deadline, we can hang on to one excellent news : the TranSpecies Radio is a project that others judged good enough already to spend excessive amount of time on it.
Last thing : this project was developed 10 years ago right here, in Aix. It is in the air... video.
27.05
Monday
A short week getting started
♦ I research the opportunity framed yesterday with Lily, grasped the complexity of re-creating an ecosystem, even imperfect or relying on human intervention to survive. I end up asking the question around, emailing some people with a specialisation in urbanism - I suspect it belongs to the realm of landscape gardening. Wait and see.
♦ We present the evolution of the project again. TranSpecies Radio with an side-exploration. I still mention I am looking for direct environmental impact, but now it sound a little old and doubtful.
In the meantime the compost in the green house dooes feels really good under the scorching sun, and has been invaded by a new specie of much smaller but voracious larvae, providing 40 grams of feed per day to the future fishy fish fish.
26.05
Sunday
Lazy Rainy day with a bump of inspiration
♦ Wake up and extended breakfast with Lily, sharing with me some of her work as a environmental law intern in the urbanism realm. She points out that, while patching together her proposal about retrofitting an area of Marseille with more Tram, more green space and less cars, the only technical sheets available for "vegetalising" the area are about plant separated from their ecosystem. This approach result in green, but dead space, where wildlife is not represented, where the magic of natural ecosystem falls into oblivion, and so it will stay in the eye of the city-dweller. Nature is at best a green patch to sit on, offering not interesting features that she/he can be drawn to, interact with, and are worth fighting for. I cannot help asking : what if technical ecosystem sheets would be fitted in urban retrofitting proposal, would it change the face of cities?
And so I plant a bunch of salad in the veggie garden.
25.05
Saturday
Outdoor Brain Cleaning
♦ Big update of the green house, adding a reproduction space for the future flies. Big adjustment, lots of connections made between the now distinct 3 spaces : plants, flies and "larvae factory".
And then out in Aix to catch up with friends.
24.05
Friday
...and Thursday ends.
♦ In a great mood only sleepless nights with friends provide, morning flies by.
♦ The whole solar kit is now plugged onto the green house - no more irriguation required. While I fool around outside, my mushy brain in reboot mode, Eric mentions a friend of his who has developped an apparently very similar project to the TransSpecies Radio...
And beauty sleep!
23.05
Thursday
Thursday begins...
♦ I wake up with the insane idea to turn the whole team into a bunch of fake interns that bump into a time capsule while taking a walk in the forest behind the camp. Slowly unfolding the mystery behind all the broken objects, plans, and side-notes left behind. We would all share it on social media, using our own personal account, and letting our crowd in the darkness about the truth. It would be incredibly fun. It is mentionned here so I can forget about it all immediately.
♦ Looking into the tech-side of the TranSpecies Radio, we break down the live-streaming pipeline with Tobi, helping us select the right option between Server-based IOT and LoRa wireless. The Fablab has been pillaged recently and finding a multimeter to adjust a step-down module for the proto become a hardcore side-quest.
"Tactical Urbanism" is self-proclaimed best book of the week.
rien
22.05
Wednesday
Necklace
♦ We make a proto necklace that hosts a seed. It tells a story with many ingredients : it is hand-made, nurtures life, is personal to its owner. I could add : it is a compelling future held close to the heart.
Apart from that I speak a lot with a lot of people.
rien
21.05
Tuesday
collective intelligence is f**king hard
♦ Morning games led by Djeff that proves nothing more than without organisation, collective intelligence is chaotic and inefficient. His workshop stops at the failing stage at this impact the participants' motivation negatively. What is the point?
♦ Afternoon project definition where I am reminded that telling a story is as important as acting upon it! I lay out the tasks without setting up the background story again, and it seems suddenly tasteless and unintersting to the team - lesson learned! The idea of frugal innovation workshop towards Drawdown needs a lighthouse.
And so I cover my board with pretty pictures of space exploration posters and solarpunk designs :)
rien
20.05
Monday
Continuation of Friday's brainstorming
♦ With Dian and Blue added to the team, brainstorming are more lively - in a excellent way. We acknowledge the open-source video are of no interest (Youtube and instructable were born years ago). Are left the 1/ready-to-assemble kits and 2/workshops. While Bidisha has a feeling of deja-vu - seems like a variation of what she usually does back home - Blue focuses on delivering the message right - and to who. How to bring this concept to people like... Blue basically? As I scribble on the whiteboard, between two drawings : "a new door to a community of doers, in sync with their ecosystem, sharing simple solutions to big problems."
♦ Some questions arising : Don’t see anything new / How does it survive / How much energy does it take from us to keep it alive after the hive / What are the final deliverables / How do you build trust within the community to start the project / Can it live in an institution / In a city or outdoors? It seems this concept is way beyond the comfort zone of many. Damn.
♦ Quick calculation : only 36 days of project development between Beginning of June and end of August.
♦ Britta Riley disappeared after crowdfunding 250000$ for the windowgarden project. The community website also disappeared. Wow.
Our Monday evenings will be stolen by Game of Thrones no longer.
rien
18.05
Saturday
Arles / Luma, day 1
♦ Heading to Arles with Dora, Amanda, Stef, Dian, Blue, Myroslava and Flo. Visit, food and drinks.
♦ Visit of Luma exhibition, day 1.
17.05
Friday
Protoyping / change of direction
♦ With Blue and Dian : prototyping of a bin that gives you feedback when you throw your plastic bottle.
♦ Brainstorming about another concept for our group project, focused on frugal innovation applied to solution for carbon emissions based on the drawdown website.
rien
16.05
Thursday
Protoyping : Interspecies Radio
♦ Yesterday as I was protootyping the IA plant the rest of the team came up with a concept, so we prototype it. Prototyping of an interspecies radio. The general idea is to have live natural sound that the user can mix. We keep this project as a backup final project.
rien
15.05
Wednesday
Protoyping : Voicing Feedback plant
♦ Selection of Camp Ecosystem Project. I go for the Co-Living and Vegeduc project.
♦ prototyping of an feedback plant : plant you buy from an NGO provides you with weekly updates from... the plant that is being planted for reforestation purpose. Just listen to that lovely voice here, thanks to Stef.
♦ While prototyping, the rest of the group comes up with another idea. Sylvain comes to the hive to provide us with feedback.
rien
14.05
Tuesday
Cross-design
♦ Today we work on another team's project. Our team works on "Blank", a project from the Ihab/Florian/Stef team. One day to bring them a new perspective on their project and bring the Hive back together. We propose a system where clothing prices are including environmental externalities. We use a puppet theater as a way to fake the mobile phone screen.
♦ Coincidentally, they end up working on ours, and come up with a similar idea than the "augmented reality and plant in public space" idea.
♦ Group photo. Yep.
13.05
Monday
research
♦ How to respond to carbon emissions, and become carbon negative? Drawdown offers ranked solution.
12.05
Sunday
visit nice
♦ Catch up with Grandma and buy a pair of locally made "espadrilles".
rien
11.05
Saturday
relax and Relocate
♦ The plants and larvae are now outside, in a tiny greenhouse just designed right for them.
10.05
Friday
Presentation of our project.
♦ Additional slides to the original ones - Dorota/Amanda/Bidisha prepare them. Stef leaves our team to rightfully focus on another project more data-scientist-demanding. I mention that I am still looking for a way to generate direct environmental impact through that project - otherwise it is just wishful art.
♦ Visit from Chris, who is into rewildering.
08.05
Wednesday
Day approximately off
♦ Fly net bought to put the larvae house in the green house - without spreading flies everywhere.
♦ final Retake of the platform for solarpunk cities. Fun, however judged too much work for 4 months, dependant on the decision of local councils, and not easy to bring back home or put on a CV. It might also be very system-thinking/video gam-y for the group. The data-to-art project wins the vote. Because the project is a little less personal to me, pressure is down a notch.
♦ Quick beebuzz prep, and watching "Guava Island" for a splash of color.
rien
07.05
Tuesday
Dropping down the # of projects...
♦ ... from 9 to 3.5. Following bits and pieces of the "sprint" recipe, we map each projects, biggest challenges underlined for each of them. The 5 Why's are answered. Then Dorota has the genius to dumb down the names of each projects : very revealing :)
♦ I step into the facilitator's role a few times, but by doing so I lose my place as a participant - I did not travel 20000 km to facilitate other people's work. Something is wrong here...
♦ OMG : first larvae to make it out of the Larvae house!
rien
06.05
Monday
Project definition week.
♦ Methodology from Amanda : we all drop as many ideas as possible for the project within an hour. Outline the best ones. Gather them together. Outline the trends. Prepare for asking 5 why's (methodology from Bidisha).
05.05
Sunday
Recovery
♦ Back from Marseille slowly. Patch together the greenhouse, blown away by the wind. Put together a Larvae house - this is a inter-specie right. Crash :)
04.05
Saturday
Boosting through - shopping and partying
♦ Good chat with Horst, stuffing breakfast in my face.
♦ Quick swing by Decathlon to be able to go camping hammocking soon, followed by...
♦ ... a night out at the cite de l agriculture for the 48 hours of the urban agriculture. Full of fun folk music then crash at Nanaui's place :)
Drop off of a little analog message to Coco Velten. See below...
rien
03.05
Friday
Presentation...
♦ ... of our good time spent in nature, and our next approach. Check out the slides :) It is super vague, it is very hard to nail down a project with 4 people in and no facilitator.
rien
02.05
Thursday
Prototyping
♦ Putting together a fake lab to take outdoor, picking up samples and place them on the map. Lovely afternoon - we FINALLY DO something.
rien
01.05
Wednesday
Offfffff
♦ Recovery day.
