’You are leaving home. You don’t know if you will ever return. You are part of an exodus into an unknown future. Pack a small, portable box or suitcase.
Choose 7 things that you think will be essential, or precious to you. You may choose intimate things that tell your story, that remind you of who you are. You may choose things without which your life would be unbearable.
Think quickly: you don’t have much time. Pack lightly, you are a nomad now. We are leaving...’
Sue will talk about WildWorks and ‘The Beautiful Journey’ in the Foundation Building, then we would unpack people’s boxes/suitcases and hear the stories of their choices. In the afternoon there will be a workshop with this material – visualising in 2D or 3D the kind of worlds we seem to be imagining. This could happen at Eden or, weather permitting, in nearby landscape."
This was the brief, so on Tuesday of last week a group of eight MA students ventured off on a gigantic bus that took us to the Eden Project. I was looking forward to falling asleep and then waking up about five minutes from Eden as the bus came to a stop, but this was not meant to be and instead, we ended up talking about the American election, which was due to happen the next day so very significant, (would be polite to fall asleep at this point) and how we all hoped Obama would win …thankfully he did, and as a result America has a much brighter future to look forward to.
I was glad that I did not fall asleep because when we reached St Austell, I suddenly became aware of my surroundings, and began to see the kind of impact the mining industry has had on the local landscape.
China Clay Pits near St Austell, Cornwall© English Heritage.NMR.Aerofilms Collection
Reference Number: Aerofilms/AC281617,
http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk
These visible traces may be immediately apparent when looking, but you can be sure that the evidence that you or I see is only minute representation of a much larger scale operation that has caused on one hand great wealth, by providing income for not only the miners but also the countries economy, with the money generated from tin/china clay mining and all the subsidiary trades that existed as a result of the mining. And then on the other added largely to the economic downturn of Cornwall as a whole.
“However it was in the 19th century that mining reached its zenith, before foreign competition depressed the price of copper and later tin, to a level that made Cornish ore unprofitable. At its height, the Cornish Tin Mining Industry had around 600 steam engines working to pump out the mines. Adventurers put up the capital, and the mine would hopefully return them a profit. During the 20th century various ores became briefly profitable, and mines were reopened, but today none remain. The collapse of the world tin cartel in 1986 being the last nail in the coffin of tin mining”
Extract taken from; ‘Cornish Mines and Mining History in Cornwall’, http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/mines.htm
One sight that immediately struck me was that of a mini mountain of earth that has got wild grass growing all over it, obviously a slagheap from the quarries. (photo) It looked just like the ‘mash potato mountain’ out of ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, the bit where he goes into a trance like state and starts to sculpt his vision out of mashed potato at the dinner table (has to be one of the best movie moments of all time).
http://movies.infinitecoolness.com/Anyway I’m digressing, it does have that same kind of impact. You know it is anomalous within the landscape and that it shouldn’t really be there, but all the same it is so you have to accept it.
On arrival at Eden, we were met by Sue, and after some very quick introductions she sent us off to have a look around Eden, recommending that we walk around the outside of the grounds before entering the biomes.
The first thing you recognise is the bowl shape of the site, and immediately the connection to the quarry becomes apparent. Eden was once a quarry for China Clay, one of Cornwall’s natural resources, nearby St Austell being one of the main locations where the china clay is still mined.
The site is planted with dark autumnal plants that produce banks of colour up and down the slopes, dotted throughout is a mixture of art and educational material all of which add to the overall experience of Eden.
Stepping into the entrance corridor of the biomes is like walking into any other building with air conditioning but, when you look to the left you are presented with the rain forest and then to the right you have the dry cold of a winter of the mediterranean.
The sight of the hexagonal windows in the background brings back the fact that you are in a biome and not walking lazily through the rainforests of northern Peru. It is a great thing to do, you really have to pinch yourself - after you have stripped away the three in one anorak. The sights and sounds are like no other, once in the mediterranean biome you are taken back to that moment in time where you could smell the orange trees and rosemary, and you can see the aloe growing in the sand.
For the Wildworks project Sue asked us to bring in objects that we wanted to carry with us into the future. This left us with a relatively open brief, so we were free to choose what we wanted. People brought objects with sentimental value and also practical use. People then described what they had chosen and why it was important for the future.
People chose to interpret the brief how they wanted, some make which had multi functions, people were much more literal with their choices, including myself.
Candle stick holder of my dads - self explanatory.- Diary with spare pages - memories and future ones.
- Pencil to write with - self explanatory.
- Masi beads - to remind me of elsewhere, and (as pointed out to me) a possible trading object.
- Photo album - self explanatory.
- Heart shaped stone representing love.
- A clay sphere which I made some years ago to remind me to be resourceful.
After this point we listen to Sue talking about different aspects of society, mostly focussing on global warming and the chaos that this is creating. She asked us to get into groups and make our vision of this future, a world which may exist after a disaster.
We all had different ideas about what the world would be like, and each of us tried to portray these aspects within our own world vision (handmade box).
There are lots of elements to the design:
- The tent is made of the most hi-tec and durable material available. Acting as not only a place to sleep but big enough to hold a small community.
- The flame which comes from an oil well represents hope; and also it is a saleable commodity but with an added message of caution because of the trail of destruction that has been left in it's wake.
- A well to provide clean water.
- A city scape in the background and mountain range suggesting life elsewhere.
- Araura Baurialis, a magic like phenomena, my idea to suggest a kind of god.
- Flying taxi's, because I'm certain these will exist to all of us in the future.
- A dog, because they can survive most things.
