Welcome. In this collaborative project, 8 people from different walks of life work together to build a public conversation about their individual aspirations for a desirable future.
We introduce our ideas that formed part of the Power of 8 final exhibition, by taking you on a journey to Acres Green:
“The Eight met at Acres Green by a variety of routes. For some it was an arduous odyssey in which they had to dispense with every uncertainty – yet knew there would be more; for others the journey was spontaneous in the belief that current imperfections would be blown away like a dandelion clock by the power of a new and vibrant reality. Others fell out of the sky via Google Earth. For those of us who actually caught a train, it was a like holding our breath for hours, such was the mounting excitement and frustration as we changed from main line to suburban, then to branch line, getting slower and slower, until finally a relic of the steam age – a tank engine pulling a single carriage – squealed to a halt at an overgrown country siding and let out a long gasp of steam.
A heavy silence hung about us, such as you find in the country on a hot afternoon. Yet there was a smell of damp earth and the bushes gleamed with recent rain. The hard stony soil of the track crackled beneath our feet. Our impression was that this was an interlude between showers.
As we advanced and dwellings became more densely clustered we found that our footsteps were leading us along some predetermined route away from the centre, along more circuitous back lanes. We said nothing; we had seen faces pop up briefly at windows and heads turn in our direction only to turn away again as if we were beneath attention.
Those winding back lanes at least allowed us to get Acres Green into some perspective. It was immediately obvious that it was not a new settlement. There were a couple of rotting post-war tower blocks in the distance and, peering between the trees away to our right, the crumbling façade of a former dog track with its rusted turnstiles. A side wall at the end of a terrace bore in faded outline a list of accoutrements available for Victorian servants.
But the new had gained the upper hand, and it was not the utilitarian, dehumanised newness of where we had come from – new things everywhere suggested a type of consciousness in which developments and innovations were created by and for ‘us’, meaning everyone. They weren’t just technical things either – strange plants abounded, producing different fruits and even growing in different directions. And they were everywhere – in walls, on roofs, even inside the glass pods of the great wheel that arced over the high street.
Unlike the plants, the weather was not everywhere. Sun, rain and mist prevailed at one and the same time in different parts of the village. We were to discover that it was startlingly well controlled. Standing at the edge of a large permaculture plot we were stunned to see a small low black cloud moving among the different crops spraying them according to their needs before spiralling into a seeming nothingness. Then it reappeared directly above our heads. We pulled up our collars and shrank inside.
A playful episode certainly, and apparently meant in a good spirit. But there was tension there, and we weren’t sure how much it had to do with our arrival. Were there different factions representing different philosophies? Or perhaps we had divided opinion about the wisdom of allowing us to visit?”
(What do we find inside Acres Green? How do people live and what do they do? We explain in the posts below, so continue reading…)
Rolling orchards stretched beyond us as we wandered through the edible gardens of Acres Green. Spots of colour peppered the greenery and branches hung low with the weight of ripening produce.
As we looked closer we saw that each tree was actually growing different varieties of fruit. What we originally understood as a tangle of different trunks was actually an intricate technological graft. On parting the leaves we found strange flesh-like prosthesis that seemed to bind limbs from different species together. We realised that to maximise harvests the communities of Acres Green were experimenting with augmented orchards and designing strange new natures.
A prototype showing some of the extreme grafting techniques used in Acres Green to grow different fruits on one tree.
We walked over to pick fruit with a group of locals. It was ‘Harvest Wednesday’ and everyone was out in the orange light gathering their food for the week.
Posters advertising local food-related services found in different neighbourhoods. Locals using feral fruits to make juice and cider.
Under a pregnant tree the apple presses of Murgatroyd Cider creaked and groaned, as they spat cloudy juice into waiting buckets.
The Murgatroyd family started one of the many local businesses around food: A pan-city feral cider business.
Within such extraordinary edible gardens and food orchards, we could not help but wonder what kept this ecosystem so fertile, considering that the so many of our pollinators, including the honey bees, had nearly all disappeared. Then, gazing out across the fields of flowers in the distance we saw tiny glowing creates swarming from plant to plant. We moved on to investigate….
Continuing our journey in Acres Green, from the post above…
The hypnotic dance patterns of small, glowing insects against the warm colours of the dark sky left us in awe, and we wanted to know more. We stopped two people dressed in large netted clothing walking down the street. They introduced themselves as ‘hivers’ and told us the story behind these mysterious creatures:
These glowing creatures were the Beamer Bees or Beamer Signum Apis Melifera, formulated by a community of biologists and hired bio-hackers to service under-pollinated trees, plants and vegetables due to the disappearance of honey bees.
Evolution of the Beamer Bees:
The Beamer Bees are guided by radiowaves to crops requiring pollination. They are produced in a limited number each year, and their interactions with the bumble bees and other creatures are tightly monitored. Here’s a video we were shown, about the making of the Beamer Bees and their interactions with our electromagnetic landscape.
It seems that the Acres Green residents can buy licenses to call the bees. License holders use the bugles or other personal mobile devices which transmits radiowaves that the bees can detect. The bees follow the waves to their source.
We realised how the Beamer Bees had became central to the Acres Green ecosystem and people seemed to be able to live in harmony with them. The photographs below show us a glimpse of one family’s everyday interactions with the new creatures.
Left: Practical, yet stylish netted fashion ensured comfort on the way to a party.
Right: Gardeners who missed out on licenses opportunistically used wifi routers to attract bees to their plants.
Left: Discovering new cross-pollinated flowers became a new hobby.
Right: The daughter was allowed to keep a glowing bee as a bedside pet.
The Beamer honey syrup, with its unique medicinal qualities is prescribed by GPs for allergies.
Within such extraordinary creatures, we wondered what other delights had made their home here. We went further to investigate…
[*Beamer Bees Project Update (March 2010): With a focus on this new kind of 'communication' between humans and animals/insects, we are developing the Beamer Bees project furtheranddesigning more elaborate, poetic visualisations of the interactions between people and these new creatures. We are also looking into the best possible way of illustrating the beautiful swarm-like patterns of the bees' movements, and how they might be controlled by our device.
Regarding the Colony Collapse Disorder, Anab meet bee health expert Dr. Dave Chandler last week, who will be advising us further.]
[Background context for the design of the Beamer Bees: The mysterious disappearance of bees have remained a source of concern for a long time now. Experts have tried to pin down several reasons which include exposure to genetically modified crops, pesticide poisoning, invasive parasites, malnutrition from pollinating vast tracts of crops with little nourishment, and the stress of being moved long distances. Some even suggest that the growing electromagnetic radiation could be a reason that should not be overlooked, as they radiowaves ‘confuse’ the bees’ radar and they don’t return back to their hives. Besides the honey bees, many other pollinating creatures including the native bees, butterflies, other insects, bats, and hummingbirds are in grave danger too.
During our discussions, it became apparent that we were interested to find ways of saving the bees, but our responses could be varied - from direct impact to more critical. This particular idea for the creation of Beamer Bees is critical, and a technique to further the debate, imagine new possibilities around emerging technologies, and also visualise sensual, emotional interactions.]
