Brief: Design an experience that explores planetary soil dependence
Teammates: Maria Carolina Seves, Max Hain, Qendresa Selimi
AEIOU
After a quick initial research, we decided to use the AEIOU research method to explore a rich variety of information while being immersed in soil. Maria Carolina, Max Hain and I went to Hyde Park and Kensington Garden in London. We noted down what we observed and arranged the information.
Figure 1: The Royal Garden volunteers were do cleaning, removing rubbish, roots etc. that were destroying the soil.
Figure 2: In the allotment, chicken were cleaning, bathing, looking for food on the soil.
Images by Maria Carolina
No dig policy
After walking around the Hyde park, I was very curious about biodiversity, how bacteria, animals and plants in the soil coexist in balance. So I went to the Walworth Garden near by Lcc to observe the relationship between the soil and creature. To my surprise, there is no literal gardener here, only one tutor was in the workshop. I consulted him on many soil-related matters, but sadly he refused to accept a photo with me. No dig police was the knowledge I''ve newly learned.
No-dig gardening is a method that aims for minimal disturbance of the soil, so that the natural processes can be preserved. This allows the natural organisms to thrive, increasing the soil’s overall health and therefore that of plants (Capitalgardens, 2017). In order to protect the health of the soil, people here do not interfere with the growth of organisms. They built a small nature in the city.
Speed Dating
Our team explored different aspects of how we can reconnect with soil, in an immediate, embodied experience, so we started to drew scenarios on Miro. After that, we invited people to give feedback of each story.
Storyboards drew by our team on Miro.
I was inspired by no-dig policy, Gibson (1977) suggested that the natural environment offers many ways of life, the affordances of the soil are what it offers the creature, either for good or ill. Humans interfere with the growth of the soil with their own ideas and destroy the original biodiversity due to own profit. I wanted to focus on how to reduce human damage to the soil and how to communicate our connection to and reliance on soil.
Presentation & Feedback
In this section, we presented our AEIOU results and the three most popular ideas chose from speed dating. Each one had a different aspect regarding soil:
Figure 4 (Soil experience): Making your own terrarium and completing it with things that would damage it, as a way to represent what our real actions are doing to our soil.
Figure 5 (Education): Soil is the main of the earth, what can we learn from each different place?
Figure 6 (Ritual): A new ritual to reconnect us to soil through eating it.
Figure 4 by Qendresa Figure 5 by Maira Figure 6 by Max
People were interested in the educational aspect. One suggestion stand out to me was the education is not only accessible to children, but also to adults
References
Capitalgardens. (2017). Is No-Dig Gardening a Better Way to Grow,7, July. Available at: https://www.capitalgardens.co.uk/blog/is-no-dig-gardening-a-better-way-to-grow/ (Accessed: 2 December 2020)
Gibson, J.J. (1977). The theory of affordances. Hilldale, USA, 1(2), pp.67-82.