Read about past and present projects based in the Centre for Art and Ecology.
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Seeding the Garden
Seeding the Garden (2022) by Dr Anna Colin initiated research into how the Art Research Garden is situated within a network of green spaces across Lewisham and art research gardens internationally. It included the commissioning of a functional artwork in the Art Research Garden by Harun Morrison and Paul Granjon.
Artists Harun Morrison and Paul Granjon were commissioned to design a composting system that they conceived as a Singing Compost, embedded with microphones and microbial batteries to translate the sounds of the decomposition of garden waste into soil.
Seeding the Garden culminated in a report compiled with research assistance by Fatima Alaiwat, Olivia Middelboe and Borbála Soós that surveyed a range of research garden models and study practical considerations for the implementation of an accessible garden and facility through interviews with local authority officials, artistic directors, horticulturalists and community gardeners.
Sensing Soil (2021-22) was led by Dr Ros Gray in partnership with soil scientist Dr Jacqueline Hannam, artist Harun Morrison and the Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network. It explored different methods for sensing soil and understanding its capacities to support life and capture carbon through sight, touch, smell and listening.
Sensing Soil was a year-long artistic and citizen science project involving participants from Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network and students from the MA Art & Ecology through a series of workshops that included learning sensory techniques to make embodied analysis of soil, site visits, and practical gardening and composting activities.
The processes and methods were shared at an Open Day in the Art Research Garden in July 2022 through soil sensing stations, invited speakers, a listening station and sampling of botanical cordials. A fold-out poster publication included texts, diagrams, testimonies and documentations relating to the workshops.
CHASE Research Methods Series What Can a Garden Be?
What Can a Garden Be? (2020-21) was public lecture and doctoral research methods workshop series organised by Dr Ros Gray and supported by the CHASE consortium to develop ideas and critical thinking about setting up a garden within Goldsmiths to support ecological artistic research, knowledge exchange and public engagement.
Taking place primarily online during the pandemic, the What Can a Garden Be? series included presentations and workshops by international speakers including Nida Sinnokrot, Yasmine Ostendorf, Fiona MacDonald (Feral Practice), Mojisola Adebayo and Nicole Wolf, Harun Morrison, Daniella Valz Gen and a final in-situ research methods workshop in the Art Research Garden by Rehana Zaman and Priya Jay on themes including mycelium as methodology, feral practices, permaculture and theatre of the oppressed methodologies for climate justice work, queer migrant methods for embodying liminality, and somatic and mystic botanical knowledges.