Autumn Allotment

Once it’s November best thing to do is prepare soil. Some people add manure , then cardboard , then mulsh. By doing this you can incourage good soil for next season. I have just bought a special electronic tester. It turns out my soil is a bit acid based which means veg doesn’t grow well and in fact only small veg will grow. This season I have only grown runner beans , french beans, peas and broad beans. Also grew potatoes, they where small.

I have researched and need to put a fertiliser that will reduce the acid level. I need to put this on with the compost.

Chapter III Green Design : The Future

                                                                                                                

                                                                                                        8   

   Chapter III : Green Design: The Future

”Analogy:Climate Change the New Gravity”.

The Narrative is explained by Ingold as "To tell a story then, is to relate, in narrative, the occurrences of the past, retracing a path through the world that others,recursively picking up threads of past lives, can follow in the process of spinning out their own.But rather as in looping or knitting, the tread being spun now and the thread picked up from the past are both of the same yarn. There is no point at which the story ends and life begins."(Ingold 2007:90)


  

"The importance of major progress in designing for sustainability and resilience is indisputable, and the arguments are highly commendable. However do they go far enough?" Are we still focused on our backyards rather than the needs of our fellow human beings worldwide? Have we yet grasped the level of adaptability that is required not only to protect us in the present, but to future-proof the built environment for generations to come? And what must governments, professional bodies and indeed individuals do to bring the total paradigm shift that is so urgently needed."

(http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.proxy.library.lincoln.ac.uk/doi/10.1002/ad.2268/abstract-byline)

I have taken this quote from an article on line called Aim High:Pressing for radical and global Approach to sustainable design by Nastasi. John.
Environmental social and economic delicate global systems need to be addressed. New solutions of a need for ever increasing green issues for sustainable outcomes are necessary today and for the future. Identifying other drivers of consumerism i.e beauty, morality, humanity and well being. Finding a wider spirit of human endeavour which reaches the masses, in order to make environmental changes in problem based waste ie single use plastics, throw away fashion. Fashion consumables are using up aprox 10% of all global emissions.
"The new and innovative sits within a continuum of practices and ideas. Through them it becomes evident how design relies not only on methods and techniques, but also on fundamental ways of conceptualising and bringing about change and improvement in the world; this applies, or should apply, to textiles as it does to any other area of design. New approaches to textile design are predicted therefore not only on the 'how' and the 'what' of design , but also on the 'why'. It must acknowledge and integrate technology, while also attending to issues of excess and waste in the face of dwindling resources and growing populations, and of inequality and exploitation across the globe. For textiles , this creating new possibilities and collaborations that are bringing together previously disparate practices and interests, such as sciences, technology, biology, health and well-being, as well as the social sciences and a range of creative practices. It is also leading to the re-invigoration of textile crafts and traditions, not only to instil new design aesthetics, but also to add to the cultural value of cloth by expanding and enhancing it's meanings and relationships with people's lives on a variety of levels.(Jefferies J.Wood Conroy.D.Clarke.H(2018.17).

Processes of design are intertwining within different art and design practices and within different processes modern and traditional.Finding a connection with the driving force within sustainability and the need to draw down carbon emissions us a key design factor within today's designs and those of the future.

” There is also a new era of mass innovation and creative collaboration that has been made possible by Web 2.0 and to a future in which the identities of the professional and consumer producer are becoming increasingly blurred”(Jefferies.J.2018.4)

                                                                                                             Conclusion

Through my research I have learnt from this project that there is an embodied relationship between making and thinking connected to psychoanalysis within different types of art and design parameters. As it is written in the Chapter Making Known with the book ‘The hand book of Textile Culture”This is sometimes described as ‘tacit knowledge’ or ‘skill’ in which the neural pathways of kinaesthetic memory serve as pathways for unconscious thought, fantasy and meaning.It is the work of ‘praxis’ to authorise and acknowledge this silent,’tacit’ knowledge, which can otherwise atrophy like soft logic under the deformation of the more conventional hard logic of authored discourse.”

The need for designers to be interdisciplinary and collaborative is clear throughout my project I have not only looked at the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ but more about the ‘why’ in connection to our need to be sustainable within our lives and within are working practices.

                                        Recycling

up cycled old pennies.

Up-cycled leather tags made on laser cutter

Leather swing tickets made from up cycled leather from an old sample book.

“Take, make, waste-the modus operandi of the industrial era. Take the resources needed, make them into things, discard the by-product and, eventually, consign the used goods to waste. Today, a new circular way of thinking is beginning to replace that logic. In nature, cycles abound. Water and nutrients move in closed loops, and there is no waste.

Instead, discards become resources. Drawing on nature’s wisdom, circular business models look at old goods and scrap materials as valuable resources for new products. They begin to redirect the linear flows that start with raw materials and end at landfills and incinerators, making the industrial system function more like an ecosystem instead.” (Hawkin.P2017.160)

“Recycling products via the companies customers when they have finished with them is a new emerging concept. “Patagonia collects ‘worn wear’ for repair, if too far gone, for recycling. But voluntarily taking such responsibility is unusual. Formalising it encourages companies to think now about what will happen then and make their products longer lasting, easier to fix, and as recyclable as possible. In other words, while recycling happens at end of life, it is best considered from the beginning”(Hawkin.P2017.161)

There are numerous quadrium’s of different solutions to negotiate through when making decisions about the best green issues to respond to which through my experimental project briefs I found different features within each process some better than others, some in development fazes that may become more sustainable in the future.(Appendix VX)

Through my research and in particular when developing my questionnaire for a small qualitative survey(Appendix XIII) I  noted how reluctant most people were about filling in a form that most were unsure of what was the best answers where or where unsure what conclusions to make. The main verbal feedback I have found from this project within green issues is that the solutions for many people are distinguishable however most people explain how difficult it is to avoid single use plastics. Whether it is due to the amount that is still actually circulating in the market place or that unwrapped is usually handmade and more expensive.

Using their own fabric carriers was something most people are wishing to achieve on a regular basis if not sometimes or more often, than not.

What I have found that individuals can do is become a movement.” As Mc Kibben writes:’ Movements are what take five or ten percent of people and make them decisive- because in a world where apathy rules, five or ten percent is an enormous number’ Movements change how we think and how we see the world, creating more evolved social norms.(Hawkin.P 2017.216)

Online distribution of ideas, solutions,  designs and movements are changing the way we think and interact.  “A potential effect of online distribution is the blurring of artistic boundaries, in some cases, between producer and consumer; in others, between amateur and professional. More over, the relative ease of digital creation and online distribution and feedback may lead to production by the masses that rivals production for the masses. The outcome of these developments may be that we are entering a new era for all the arts.(Jafferies.J 2018.4

Future and emerging trends within sustainable design include the following ideas(Appendix XVII)

The future of campaigning and action without relaying on governments is fundamentally important for the future of our natural environment.(https://www.facebook.com/aokfanpage/accessed 25.08.2019)

While researching ethics and philosophy I found an extract from a academic paper helps explains ethical social behaviour

. "Combining notions of ecological virtue and citizen science, being at one develops an eco-praxis that sees human beings as active members/partners in a creative, participatory universe in which human and planetary flourishing are co-existent and based upon recognition of the facts of social and natural existence. The value-centred eco-philosophy acknowledges that human beings exist in a dialectical interplay of dependence, independence and interdependence. "( Peter Critchley Being and Place http://pcritchley2.wix.com/beingandplace)(www.academia.edu/.com accessed 25.08.2019.11.45pm)

                

Screen Printing with Natural Dyes Part Two

What do I want to find out from my project?

I am going to be looking at green eco conscious processes and also add knowledge about conservation biology to inform the viewer.

 Firstly how I can make my own natural dyes/inks using traditional processes.

·         Researching ancient recipes from the middle ages in order to include ways to create art within eco conscious values (incorporating environmental needs to reduce global warming).

·          This will include developing my own dyes with added natural thickener to create screen printing inks for printing. This clip shows how you can easily create small screens to work from home. The demonstrator is also using home made inks.

      The reasoning behind this is to reduce my carbon footprint by not using chemical dyes and also I will be reducing my package consumerism. Every time someone buys something from a shop it is packaged usually by single use plastic, foam etc which is usually single use plastics. How can the world population change this process for the better care of our planet. Confronting these issues of climate change, ozone wholes in the sky is to act individually. If we consider how charities work and how they are funded, we can see a connection. Every penny counts and in the same way it works for climate change or the draw down effect. Pulling back our global emissions to create a zero emission level.


Sketchbook showing research into natural printing

·      

News Paper Article by Ann Murphy

  Up Cycle Philosophy

I was reading the newspaper the other day and I found this interesting article on fashion direction that interests me in regard to it's up cycled theme and approach to designer lead fashion styling. The look is being approached by a number of key designer lead brands including Gucci and Coach. The concepts are based on vintage clothing along side thrift shopping. I way of giving not just their consumers a collection to follow, but to add value to fashion people who can still look similar without the need to spend so much money. What came first the chicken or the egg, is it street fashion imergying through designer lead collections or is it a new look at ecology, saving the planet by promoting up cycling by creating this key look. What ever the order it's something I love creating myself and believe this approach of adding vintage to new contemporary design is a  psychological look at sustainability making clothes that have longevity and showing how clothes already made can still be worn within new fashion fields

Newspaper article by Anna Murphy