Endangered Plants Index Degree Project

From the 4th February 2022 until the 1st March 2022, we had our interim exhibition Interim in The Hold foyer. This was our first in person, public exhibition since starting the course, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and therefore, the process of creating and curating the exhibition was all new too. Overall however, I found the experience a very interesting and enjoyable one, and it has given me more confidence for when we curate our Degree Show, which is the next public exhibition that we will be doing.

The process of creating the exhibition started months in advance (before Christmas), when we got together and examined the space, and thought about the kind of work that we would want to show there, and how each of our individual works fitted together into one exhibition. This was a really interesting process to go through, as many people in the group wanted to curate the exhibition with one set theme, which we would all work towards. However, this didn’t fit in with my degree project at all, as my project is one continuous one, which leaves no time for creating new, different work, and I didn’t want to change my focus. Fortunately, due to other time constraints, this idea was pretty quickly abandoned, and we instead turned our minds to other elements, such as the name, social media presence, what we might want to exhibit and each of our roles for the exhibition.

I made a group onedrive, so that we were able to work on the project together, and have access to everything that everyone else did – as it makes working and organising so much easier when its from a shared workspace.

As you can see from the screenshot of the onedrive above, it gave us the space to work as a group – with each individual part of the project having its own space on the drive. This meant that when Melisa designed our brilliant logo, we were all able to see the different designs and have an input on how we felt it should look, as well as having access to the final design to create additional elements such as the Private View invite, or to make the GIF to share on Instagram.

Novotná, M. (2022) Interim Logo. [Digital Design]

Having this shared work environment aided our organisation and curation of the logistic elements of the exhibition, as well as Trish’s curation of the Virtual Exhibition, however, there were still many elements which required being there, in the space in person, in order to understand the relationship between the works and the works and the space. Although I was very flexible about the space my work would be displayed in (it didn’t have any particular requirements, and it didn’t need a lot of space, as it consisted of only two drawings), others weren’t and it was very interesting to take our works into the space before hanging them, in order to try them on the different board settings. The works were very influenced by the space itself – much more so than I expected, and the situation of some works in one location just felt wrong in some cases, but completely intuitive and right in others. This time wasn’t without its contentions though, and there were some tense moments of disagreement between some members of the group due to differing ideas of placement. But we got through them, and it has helped me to understand and appreciate the value of conversation and collaboration much more – as although things didn’t always go to plan or as we wanted, generally, when we spoke about it after a while and had time to calm down a little, things weren’t as bad as they seemed, and we were always able to reach a suitable outcome.

I was really happy with the placement of my work, and the relationship between it and the two works on either side of it – particularly the relationship my work had with Charlotte’s, as both works were quite minimalistic, and grounded in nature and the natural world – thus creating a perfect and very ‘natural’ progression between the two works. There was also a lovely relationship between mine and Trish’s works, which were opposite mine on the other side of the space; both were drawn in some way, and the general feeling of the two works seemed to work together – I think it was the reflective feeling of them – they both seemed quite calming and meditative – something which was also reflected in Charlotte’s work. Overall, the placements of all of the works were, I feel, really successful, and allowed each of them to be admired and examined to their full potential. They worked in harmony with the space and each other, and created a really successful exhibition.

I’M BACK!!

I’ve had to take time away from my Degree Project and (therefore) blog to focus and hand it my dissertation – but that’s all done now, so I’ll be posting a lot more blogs to bring you up to speed on what has been happening over the past month and a bit!

Update: 08/06/22: I ended up raising 10% of my target (£100), which was really valuable in helping me to complete all of my drawings and get the installation up and complete for the Degree Show and assessment.

My Crowdfunder page has been live for ten days now, and so I thought I would make a little update on how it is going.

As you can see from the image above, I have now raised £60 in support of my project, which although not being a huge amount, is enough to cover any materials I need to finish the illustrations, as well as some extra to put towards the rewilding, or to create editions of work. I have been working on sharing my crowdfunder and project further today, as have my friends and family, so I hope that in the next few days, I will get a few more donations – as well as more signatures on my petition.

Although it has been growing slowly, I am nonetheless pleased with the progress that I have made with it and the amount that I have raised so far. Hopefully, it will continue to grow, and I will be able to achieve or come closer to my fundraising goal!

Over the past few weeks, I have had a few calls (and another set up for tomorrow) with a variety of people, in order to try and get the Rewilding project moving properly. Although they didn’t all take quite the form that I thought they would, they were nonetheless extremely valuable, and have given me a lot to think about.

The first call was extremely helpful in beginning to open doors and opportunities to get the project on the ground, as they were able to set me up with a contact in the local council. Additionally, they were able to shed some light on the situation of land ownership – in terms of the grass verges – how I might get to plant in them, and who to speak to about this. As such, I have emailed the relevent authorities, and am waiting for them to get back to me. I was also given the idea of proposing a pilot project for my rewilding project, which would make the council more likely to back and say yes to my project, as I would be able to support my pitch with actual evidence, such as how the verges will be maintained, the funding necessary, etc.

The second call was also very useful, although I had thought that it might be more about pitching my idea to the council than just chatting about my project and getting advice. In spite of this, I did gain a lot of advice and insight – particularly in the realm of bureaucracy and public opinion. The image below shows the advice that I was given:

From this, I have had the idea of making a survey or questionnaire, which I could give to the local residents in order to gauge their thoughts and feelings on the project, as well as how they feel about the biodiversity levels and plant cover here, which will give me an idea on how the rewilding effort is likely to be taken. This will be a vital resource in my project’s progression, as public feeling is vital to the success of a project such as this, where the work we do will have a lasting impact on the community. It is also important to remember that not everyone will feel and think as I do, and will probably be concerned only with the now, rather than the future of the planet, and creating a system change in order to create a lovable future for all. Over the next few days, I will begin creating this questionnaire, and will test it out on a few test subjects before releasing it to the public, in order to make sure that it is objective and fair.

Overall, I am pleased with how these calls went – they have undoubtedly helped me to plan my project more – and to progress it further towards fruition too. I am looking forward to my next call, where I will hopefully be able to get my project one step closer to action!

Last month, I asked Frances Fox, founder of Climate Live (CL), for advice on starting my project, and a few weeks ago, she answered my questions. The image below shows the notes that I made from her advice:

Her answers were extremely valuable to me, as they gave the confidence that I was going about my project planning in the right way, as well as providing useful insight into her decision making and organising process.

One of the most beneficial pieces of advice she gave me, was the fact that she had started a crowdfunder for CL as well, and that is a very worthwhile thing to do. This helped to give me the confidence I needed in order to start my own crowdfunder page (which you can see more about on a previous blog post). Additionally, the way in which she got people involved was encouraging, as it is very similar to what I am currently trying to achieve – although the scales of our projects (at the moment) are quite different – mine being local based to start with, while CL was global from the start.

Additionally the organisational advice she gave me was invaluable – for instance, making sure that I break everything down into really clear sections and roles when I am asking people to help, and have no problem with delegating to prevent overwhelm. I also have kept the fact that Telegram is the best platform for organising on – as it is most accessible – but my issue is that a lot of non-Fridays For Future people don’t use it, nor have they heard of it, which makes it more difficult to use. However, it will still be my preferred platform to organising.