Early work
Voices of the Dart
A river-long exploration combining local knowledge, climate science, data and the arts. Communities up and down the River Dart are figuring out effective ways to keep the river clean, and to save water, either in collaboration or by holding to account, or a version of both. A systems perspective moves beyond addressing isolated water problems (like drought or pollution) and instead focuses on the broader context and interconnectedness of the water system.
If the 15,000km of sewers and pipework in Devon were laid end to end you could get from Devon to Delhi and back. Sounds long, but if you laid the blood vessels in the human body end-to-end it would stretch ten times further.
These workshops in Dartmouth, Totnes, Buckfastleigh and Ashburton in 2022 gave local communities access to global, national and local water-related data and showed how that data can be made more understandable. Attendees were introduced to the citizen science programme from Westcountry Rivers Trust. Today, Friends of the River Dart actively measure water quality and advocate for the River Dart. Voices of the Dart was produced in collaboration with Dr. Sally Sutton, with artists Ione Maria Rojas and Anne-Marie Culhane.
“I am shocked that the UK is in the global future drought scenario map.”
Funded by South West Water, the project also focused on actions we could all take together to reduce water use from 148 litres to 110 litres per person per day. BLC aims to build climate resilience by bringing together policymakers, statutory bodies, government, NGOs, utility companies and communities to talk and design actions together.
“It gave me confidence in the work that this group is doing—people power—we are in this together.”
