The art department of the school has moved in with their work and are now taking over from public works

The art department moves into St Angela's secret garden

The dye garden which aimed to start the beginnings of a flower garden to make dye for the art department is now up and running. We made 3 pots of dye from beetroot, leaves of sweet peas and marigolds with saffron.

The science department want to collaborate with the art department through the garden, as science students learn about dyes from flowers.

The picture above shows the launch of the garden to the wider school, the management and the governors.

Posted July 7, 2010 12:46 by Torange Khonsari

We re running a three day ad hoc production stall called "shred exchange" on Reuters Plaza/Canary Wharf, as part of the London Festival of Architecture 2010.

Local material: shredded paper from some of the large corporations (extremely fine stuff!).

Tool: a handpress on a mobile stall.

To do what: to compress shredded paper and anything else from your pockets into balls.

It s less about function but about fun.

The brand new Abbey Gardens Honesty Stall will accompany us, with a bag full of compost and seeds to compress seed-bombs in exchange.

Fri 25th - Sun 27th July, daily from 11.00 - 17.00.

With Emmett Walsh and Millie Harvey

Posted June 24, 2010 10:57 by Kathrin Böhm

Location map of the Folkestonomy project by public works

Coffee drinking customs in north and south Nicosia

public works has been invited to run a workshop on cultural mapping in Nikosia as part of the Euromed Heritage programme an EU funded programme which contributes to mutual understanding and dialogue between cultures through the Mediterranean region.

The workshop will take place from the 17th to the 19th of June. You can read more about the workshop in the Euromed Heritage press release.

We have been invited via Dr Julie Scott, Senior Research Fellow for Tourism, Culture and Development from London Metropolitan Business School. Julie and our path have crossed on many different projects which dealt with aspects cultural mapping (e.g. Folkestonomy) and tangible or intangible history (e.g. Folk Float)

We are also currently collaborating with Julie and Jonathan on an EU funded project in India adventurously entitled Ethnomagic which is lead by Banglanatak a very energetic NGO based in Kolkata, India.

Posted June 17, 2010 22:34 by Andreas Lang

public works created a new informal space - a dye garden in a left over space in St Angela Ursuline Catholic school in Forest Gate, London - as part of a year long residency for the Whitechapel Gallery's 'Contested Spaces' programme.

The project opens at the Whitechapel Gallery on 16th June 4pm-6pm, please come and join us.

There will be an open talk about the project on 17th June at 6:30pm at the Whitechapel Gallery. The project questions the role of artist residencies in schools and demonstrates the spatial potentials it can create.

Posted June 14, 2010 21:37 by Torange Khonsari

Kunst Station Triemli

Decken Projekt by public works on the brand new Kunst Station

public works is currently working on a three part commission for the Triemli Hospital in Zürich, Switzerland. The City of Zürich has initiated an ambitious 10 year long public art programme which will take place inside the Hospital. The programme "Kunststation Triemli" is curated by Karin Frei Bernasconi together with Sabine Schaschl and Barnaby Drabble and will be launched on the 8th of July 2010.

public works are involved in designing and setting up the mobile space to house and implement the art programme on site, as well as running a six months long ad hoc production workshop in the hospital. Additionally we have designed the website for the programme which will go live with the launch.

www.kunststationtriemli.ch

Posted June 14, 2010 01:00 by Andreas Lang

New trugs for the stall

Mobile honesty stall - photo by Nina Pope

Honesty stall in fence with Trugs

Trugs secured into the stall

public works designed the Honesty Stall for "What Will the Harvest Be? , a community garden project by Somewhere at Abbey Gardens in Stratford, East London.

The stall was launched on Saturday the 12th of June 2010 as part of the Abbey Gardens Summer Fair. The Abbey Garden Honesty Stall will become part of the International Village Shop initiative which links local production across a network of rural and urban places.

Posted June 9, 2010 11:21 by Kathrin Böhm

The shop will be open for the evening.

This time at Tate Britain as part of Grizedale's curation of "Late at Tate" on

Friday 4th June from 18.00.

Posted June 2, 2010 09:05 by Kathrin Böhm

Local clay production/Feminine Rural Production

24 - 26 May 2010 in the village of Höfen, Southern Germany

We are running a three day workshop in the village of Höfen in Southern Germany, which is organised as part of RHYZOM and in collaboration with Celine Condorelli and her current involvement with a42.org. The workshop is also a continuation of the "Höfer Goods" which was started by Kathrin in 2006 and is part of the our villages series of myvillages.org.

About

Kathrin Böhm from public works/myvillages.org started in 2006 to work with the women in her home village Höfen on a long-term project called "Höfer Goods". The "goods" are results from collective brainstorm and workshop sessions with the women from Höfen and at times external contributors. They reflect on specific local narratives, skills and materials associated. Items so far include a butterspoonstamp, doyllee bags, jar lamps - you can watch short documentaries that show the producers and production online. (www.toadball.tv/works/village.produce.films)

The project is addressing how women in the village see and define their forms of production, and is trying to collectively explore narratives and techniques that can be used to create new outputs. The project is part of the International Village Shop, and initiative to network local producers and goods across an informal network of rural and urban places.

The Rhyzom workshop

The workshop brings together three groups, and aims to result in concrete ideas and prototypes for new "Höfer Goods", which will be launched and traded locally but also across the network of the International Village Shop. The workshop will focus on clay as a local material resource, the history of clay in the village and its traditions of manufacturing and usage. The idea is to brainstorm and develop either new tools or goods which make use of the material and/or refer to its different aspects in regards to female forms of production. The workshop will take place in the village, and the programme will include presentations on the history of clay and local particularities, conversations and mapping, clay digging, ad hoc prototyping and presentations. The group of women is organised very informally, and involves around 15 women between 40 and 80. The village itself has 200 residents.

Mon 24th

10.30 - 12.30 Introduction to RHYZOM and Höfer Waren as part of the International Village Shop.

Issues of local cultural production, collective production and trans-local distribution.

14.30 - 16.30 "Clay Reading" with Alexandra Gaba van Dongen.

Coffee and Cake drop in session, with the invitation to the women of Höfen to bring clay or clay related items/stories/photos. Alexandra is the curator of the ceramics collection at Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, and can read items within their historic cultural and design context. This session will lead to a first survey of local goods and knowledge in context.

17.00 - 18.00 Wrapping up and outlining first themes for new products.

Tues 25th

09.00 - 12.00 Clay digging and processing. Michael Back who is a clay specialist and runs the historic Brick Factory at the open-air Museum in Bad Windsheim will join us to dig clay locally and process it for first product prototypes. He will bring tools and equipment to process the clay into first products and prototypes.

Lunch

Group session to assess product ideas and themes so far.

Break out groups, developing articulate briefs for new products.

Sketching, 3D model making, filming or photo diary, etc.

19.00 Public event with

Thomas Gunzelmann, local historian, on the history of the village within the region.

Alexandra Gaba van Dongen, on findings and observations from the clay reading and the workshop so far.

Wed 27th

9.00 - 12.00 Conclusion day one and two.

Refining product ideas and prototypes.

Lunch

Group presentation and discussion on the economy of production and the different value systems involved in their production and distribution.

14.00 Preparing workshop material and outcomes for and informal public exhibition

15.00 Public presentation

16.00 End

Posted May 11, 2010 12:01 by Kathrin Böhm

We're giving a brief presentation on why we think it's important to have community led regeneration.

To see the full programme click here.

Posted May 3, 2010 21:47 by Kathrin Böhm

RHYZOMFieldtrip

Three Eco Villages: local productions and rural cooperative traditions

Organised by public works and Ispara

The trip is visiting three "eco-villages" and one Berlin based cooperative which represent very different aspects and scales of ecological living and production. All initiatives started during the 90ies in areas of the former GDR and have developed their own specific forms of economical and social structures.

Brodowin

Large scale organic farming and nature conservation.

Brodowin is a privately owned commercial enterprise which was founded in 1991 by bringing together two former GDR cooperatives. The business employs 60 local staff, many who have been members of the former GDR cooperative. The Demeter Farm produces organic food (veg, dairy, meet) for local and regional distribution - mainly Berlin. It is involved in creating sustainable local and regional employment, organic food production and nature conservation. A current research project looks into the development of economically viable concepts for integrating conservation objectives into modern organic farming, and to test them in practice ("Conservation Farm").

Gut Stolzenhagen

The former estate was also used as a LPG cooperative during the GDR, but became abandoned and started to decay after 1989. Since 1994 different groups and initiatives have tried to inhabit and develop the estate for communcal living and activities. In 1999 it became the association Gut Stolzenhagen/Oder e.V and in 2004 it was transformed into a coop which also introduced consensus as the governing rule (instead of decisions by majority). The coop is organised in neighbourhoods which are self-organised and are involved in numerous forms of production. One of renowned cultural initiatives is the annual "Tanzland Festivals" organised by ponderosa dance.

Siebenlinden

Siebenlinden started in 1989 as a collective initiative to create a self-efficient ecological village. Since 1997 it has settled "on the green fields" outside the village of Poppau and is in a continiuos process of constructing a village with its various social and physical aspects (sustainable building, permaculture, culture)

It's structured in three organisational strands, a settler's cooperative whch owns the land (82 members), Friends of Siebelinden who run the cultural and educational activities and a Housing cooperative (78 members), and is organised in five neighbourghoods.

Siebenlinden is going to be Germany's Centre of "straw bale constructions" (in German "Deutsches Strohballenzentrum") and the founder of its national professional association, plus already showcasing numerous constructions in the village.

Posted April 16, 2010 11:01 by Kathrin Böhm