The lab
A playground for bioregional innovation
The Lab is where we experiment, explore, and develop new ways to shape resilient actions in South Devon and beyond. It’s a space for collaboration, curiosity and creativity – where ideas take shape, partnerships flourish and solutions take root.
Art + ecology
The enquiry into the role of art + ecology within our work and within the bioregion, is filtering into our Creative Meet-ups and Sensing the Bioregion. a+e seems to have found a home there as a method for seeing differently and opening up possibilities. The original impetus for a+e came from the process that established The Saltmarsh Artist Collective - 6 artists working alongside 13 partners within The Saltmarsh Project.
Bioregional banquet
Evolving from a report researched and written by BLC Associate Samson Hart, we are bringing the concept of a Bioregional Banquet into The Lab to move it from planning to ideation to producing. More than just a celebratory meal, within it will be a process for discussion, connecting and planning ahead. We will facilitate it so a pathway to action and a network emerges. Our role will be to hold the network in partnership with others.
Bioregional governance
Effective governance is essential for bioregional health. This category explores innovative models of collaboration, participatory decision-making and policies that align human systems with ecological realities.
Bioregional health
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Ecosystem restoration
Restoring ecosystems is at the heart of creating a regenerative future. This category covers projects from saltmarsh restoration to urban green space regeneration, highlighting our efforts to repair and reconnect the vital natural systems that support biodiversity and community well-being.
Learning network
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Sensing the Bioregion
Sensing the Bioregion, is in The Lab! While we explore internally what this could entail from a BLC perspective, two strong tracks are emerging, 1) mapping in all its forms and 2) an enquiry: "How could the arts help to build a bioregional character/identity?" Sensing is a way to activate awareness and bridge to understanding, and has filtered into our Creative Meet-ups where it is already beginning to become a practice. The roots lie in our art+ecology research and experimentation.
South Devon strategies
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Storytelling
We have been unveiling facts, data, images and stories about the bioregion since BLC emerged back in 2017. It's how you reach people. Now, in The Lab, we are getting to know our bioregion better, starting by pooling all the ways we have envisioned or implemented to understand, explain, question, understand, sense or embody the bioregion.
Into the unknown with AI
Speculative Cartographies
https://criticalplayground.org/speculative-cartographies/
https://criticalplayground.org/speculative-cartographies/
Polyphenols (mg/kg) 429
Lead and Lies
From Rebecca Solnit's New Orleans Atlas; concentration of lead in the soil + political lies
From Rebecca Solnit's New Orleans Atlas; concentration of lead in the soil + political lies
Artist Beth Heaney explores the saltmarsh edge
The way Norway is advertised has changed drastically over the last 10 years. Now they show the rugged nature and the powerful weather, even though its rainy.
Norway's character
From Vestland North Sea Blueprints
From Vestland North Sea Blueprints
Bacteria at work
Oil or chemicals? It may not be what you think. Good bacteria is at work in the saltmarshes
Oil or chemicals? It may not be what you think. Good bacteria is at work in the saltmarshes
Window to the Tuscan valley
Window to a Tuscan bioregion
Window to a Tuscan bioregion
Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
Thomas Merton
- Thomas Merton
- Thomas Merton
Armada beacons
Map of fire beacons in case of invasion show 'lines of intervisibility'
Map of fire beacons in case of invasion show 'lines of intervisibility'
Imagining a Fellini film... 8 1/2?
Symbiosia
One tree in relationship with its environment: https://thijsbiersteker.com/symbiosia
One tree in relationship with its environment: https://thijsbiersteker.com/symbiosia
Emilio soil
Artist Emilio Mula is digging into sediment
Artist Emilio Mula is digging into sediment
The bioregion... not a new twist on a story, something we are in, living with, have been with for a long time
Mark Leahy Quote
- Mark Leahy, artist
- Mark Leahy, artist
It's a process of trust and value redefinition
a+e Zoom Feb 18
Exploring the relationship of art and ecology with a bioregional framing
Exploring the relationship of art and ecology with a bioregional framing
Listening to water
Hearing spring water emerge from the ground at the Leechwell
Hearing spring water emerge from the ground at the Leechwell
