Rosa Beesley

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Photovoice: Week 2

Resistant to dwell in the headspace where I am searching and seeking out moments of oppression, this week I set out to document the opposite of oppression which for me, is liberation.  

Visiting the 100 First Women Portraits at Brighton museum I was invigorated to see a gallery full of giant, proud and powerful images of figures that have been pioneers in their fields.

One of the most poignant portraits was that of Edith Kent; the first woman to receive equal pay in 1943. (picture above) 

Some thoughts:

A lot of the conversation I overheard was incredibly critical and focused largely on the appearance of the women and the aesthetics of the images, rather than on their achievements. 

I couldn't help but feel that all these achievements were brilliant but still in the shadow of their male counterparts, and honestly, it was pretty dismal to see how some of the First Women awards were in such recent history. 

The awards were often pioneering, ‘success’ driven achievements framed through the patriarchal lens that favours traits beneficial to men.

https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/brighton/exhibitions-displays/coming-soon/anita-corbin-100-first-women-portraits/

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Photovoice week 1: The oppression within us and around us 

My first thoughts about oppression- the way we have marginalised and suppressed nature into the most convenient form for humans. I then stumbled across this quote from Marilyn Frye’s 1983 work that looks at oppression and the use of the definition. I often find the etymology of words a revealing place to start when tackling large and contested topics. 

Channelisation of rivers

Reduction of hedgerows

Compartmentalization of green corridors

While out photographing, I was shouted at by two people that believed I was taking a picture of them, and that I needed their consent. Another that was curious about why I was taking a picture of an overbearing marketing billboard. Perhaps it’s an unusual sight to be taking photos under a murky fly-over or of billboards, all the same intriguing that it was met with such defensiveness. 

Musing over this I was initially saddened by the thought that anything other than walking, head down, hand in pockets towards a destination, will provoke hostility in people. Although, if seeing someone taking photos of mundane environments makes people look up and be critical about what they are surrounded by, it can only be a good thing, right?

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Edventure Frome

A school for community enterprise

Currently in my second week of the Start-Up course  We have been set the challenge to re-think the SHARE shop concept established to encourage the sharing economy in Frome. This week is all about research gathering, empathy mapping and connecting with the community in order to establish some insights before ideation and planning

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Fair Frome

An organisation working with local people from all backgrounds to promote greater equality Fair Frome champions greater financial, educational, social and health equality for people living i…

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The mission of The World Café Foundation is to transform the world for the benefit of all Life through convening and supporting collaborative conversation world-wide.

Using seven design principles and a simple method, the World Café is a powerful social technology for engaging people in conversations that matter, offering an effective antidote to the fast-paced fragmentation and lack of connection in today’s world

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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

Magaret Mead 

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What were you thinking about before someone said you have to earn a living

Unknown 

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Planting notes

Smoking pests out of seeds starts off with a strong 

Growing

TREES Willow Grows easily from a clipping. Requires lots of water and nutrients but is excellent for planting around waste sites e.g. compost loos Also good for riverbank regeneration. A rooting hormone can be made from the bark if you mush it up and apply around  plant clippings  Asprin originated from willow

Elder Immune boosting Fly repellant  Releases cyanide when burnt- old Folk law around warning from witches

Hazel Water divining. Folk laws around connections with under worlds 

VEG Tomatoes Pigeon poo is great for the tomato plant

GRAIN Chickpeas ‘only needs to see water three times in its life; once when you plant it, second a fortnight later and third when you cook it’ 

Identification & Uses

Mallow Similar uses to spinach

Sticky weed Good detox plant, clears 

Clover Soaks nitrogen into soil

Plantain Mashing plantain with vinegar- Bite & sting relief, good for bruises also Ribwort plantain-fill a jar with seed heads&honey to make a cough syrup

Dock leaves Love compacted soil

Hawthorn A beautiful hardwood, the leaves are edible and the berries are a powerful heartbeat regulator

Comfry Also called knit-bone, has the ability to quicken the healing of broken bones

Yarrow Stops bleeding 

Daisy Has a calming effect, good for shock relief 

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Energy

We are using ancient energy that has been locked with our earth for thousands of years, taking energy from past, present, and future. How can we capture and store energy?

Future proofing

In our culture, we have the time, space and money to capture skills share knowledge and learn, this is the most important form of ‘future-proofing’. To be in a community where each individual knows how to repair buildings, grow food, capture energy, this is infinitely more powerful and useful than buying a car and building stronger walls.

Transition movement

Centre for Alternative Technology- 0 Carbon Plan

Embodied energy- the history of each material element e.g. the Energy, water, travel required for a wood&metal table

Entropy- energy moves from a very stable to an increasingly less stable state. There will always be energy loss to heat Coal---->Power station---->Grid---->Electric heater (Highest value/most stable)------(lowest, most diluted and inefficient state)

Extraction, production, distribution, consumption, disposal

How do we use less energy? Washing, cooking, gardening, heat/light, transport, at work

-Haybox cooking -Any water left over from the kettle fill up a thermos with rice -Two terracotta pots with sand in between, soak sand with water and the evaporation process keeps internal space cool -Tinyhouse movement -Jean Pain thermal compost solution -Sun Ray Kelly -Cob building

Placement

Zoning-efficient movement. What needs your attention the most? Influence and frequency. Zone 1: herbs, kitchen garden. Visit most frequently Zone 2: allotment veg, chickens, Zone 3: field scale, coppice, nuts, orchard, harvest day Zone 4: woodland, grazing Zone 5: Wild things. Do Not influence. The most important zone

Limiting factors- Soil quality, light, pests, water access, tenure, time, wind, skills, climate

Elevation-exposure, drainage,

Relationships- water collection-->veg patch

Network- People/energy flow between different points

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Permaculture Principles

1. Observe & interact Observe your space for a whole year before acting, notice frost pockets, wind direction, drainage etc. 

2. Catch & store energy How can we harvest whats already there? 

3. Obtain a yield A radish plant you can eat root, leaf, flower and sprout. Changing idea of ‘yield’ Planting parsnip and radish alternatively allows you to keep track of the slow growing parsnip plant Peasant Evolution

4. Apply self regulation & accept feedback  Consider how much space I have and what can I use, then design the system to fit the input. Do not make land input fit the output demand 

5. Use & value renewable resources & services  £10 spent locally £8 will stay within the local economy. £10 spent in Tesco £8 leaves to international capital immediately  Model Farm 

6. Produce no waste  Theres no such place as ‘away’

7. Design from patterns to details  A study presented an image and asked people from the east what can you see? they described the river, the trees, the sun and the tiger in the grass, the western group just noticed the tiger. Our western culture encourages individualism and squashes our ability to see connections.

‘The best fertiliser is a gardeners shadow’ Consider your movement around the space, logistics and labour efficiency. Design with people's abilities and needs in mind

8. Integrate rather than segregate  One element is removed and the whole system suffers

9. Use small & slow solutions Seed swapping builds local genetic resilience  Smallest input for biggest output-lazy gardening 

10. Use & value diversity  Diversity through seasons and space. Think of your space three dimensionally, using different underground depths and plant height Sustainability centre- Hampshire

11. Use edges & value the marginal  Often the most dynamic of places.  Walls absorb and radiate heat-good for fruit trees 

12. Creatively use & respond to change Embrace the change! PLan for resilience, deal with shocks and change. The more we know and share the stronger our capacity for dealing with environmental change becomes. Leave a place better than you found it! 

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Permaculture Design

Defining Permaculture

Permanent Agriculture Applied ecology Revolution dressed up as gardening Learning from nature's closed systems to improve human communities, can be applied to communication, energy, how we build, move and use resources. Observe nature thoughtfully, rather than labour thoughtlessly  Yield is only limited by our understanding and imagination Modern life thrives off our innate fear of rejection and isolation. Permaculture aims to re-nit community and planet

How do we impact our corner of influence? Turn problems into solutions 

Ethics

EARTHCARE-longterm stewardship, duty to leave wilderness PEOPLECARE- cooperation not competition  FAIRSHARE- ‘theres enough for everyone to need but not enough for everyone to greed’ Gandhi

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Discovering a new city..

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Trip to Devon

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91Ways - Somalian Supper club fundraiser

‘We know that the choices we make about how we eat have a direct impact on our quality of life and our environment.  91 Ways will allow people to share their stories, personal food journeys, recipes, and passions, to build understanding between communities’

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I am running a series of creative workshops for the womens group at Dhek Bhal; a charity based at Barton Hill community settlement that supports the elderly south Asian population in Bristol.