(an adhoc extention to the parenzana residency notes)

A year on from the residency at Parenzana in Istria, we are digging deeper with the research on both Weather Lore and Future Forecasting. In keeping with the form and structure of the first residency, we are again contextualising the project as a family in residence. Over four days our family, Matt, Miranda (5yrs), Florence (1yr) and myself will inhabit the foyer of the Waterside Workers Hall home of Vitalstatistix Theatre Company in Port Adelaide. Nik and Maya will contribute via a remote presence through these notes and participate through a skype presence in an artist talk on Future Forecasting on Monday the 9th June.

Speculative Culture/ Weather Lore is a project exploring future forecasting and sustainable living in a time of rapid climate change. It is a family-based project exploring weather lore and future forecasting through a series of cultural strategies.

History is full of rhymes, anecdotes, and proverbs meant to guide the uncertain in determining whether the next day will bring fair or foul weather. Farmers watched the sky colour to know when to sow and reap. Mariners noted wind and waves for signs of change. Contemporary weather lore often manifests from people’s anxiety about a future of floods, famine and fires. The question is how does the superstitious or curious imagination make sense of all this?

The project is utilising a future forecasting methodology which encourages people to investigate living in a range of possible futures, designed as artistic experiments. The methodology takes uncertainty as a creative challenge, a call for cultural work in which visions of everyday life in the time ahead become tangible and discussable.

The Neville-Thomas family subscribe to a sustainable, resilient way of life where they grow their own food, fish locally, raise chickens and work closely with local natural resources. At Adhocracy we will explore speculative cli-fi scenarios, document dialogues with farmers and fishers, develop digital stories and sound scores, conduct pop-up future forecasting and other cultural interventions within the Adhocracy event, cook, tend to plants, look after their children and conduct artist talks about the diverse facets of this cultural endeavour.

Subsequently we are continuing to collect Weather Lore proverbs both via the internet and in discussion with Fishers and Farmers.

• Additions to various_aphorisms

Further research has foccussed on media depictions of Global Warming and Future Forecasts.

• http://www.mappingvulnerabilityindex.com/home/adelaidevi
• http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-02/city-designs-must-change-in-face-of-deadlier-heatwaves-experts/5494124

Studies on Foresight and Future Forecasting has centred around the work of Stuart Candy as well as a dedicated following of the Future Fabulators research and activities http://lib.fo.am/future_fabulators/about

Over the last five months, Sarah has spoken to a variety of experts who live in Adelaide;

• Modern Psychic Rebecca Dettman http://rebeccadettman.com/
• Futurist Kristin Alford http://bridge8.wordpress.com/category/people/
• Organic Farmer Nick Kentish http://nickentish.com.au/
• Futurist and Trend Forecaster Kristina Dryza http://www.kristinadryza.com/

Summaries of these chats will be documented during the Adhocracy residency.

Today we are preparing to bump in our scenario world to the Waterside Workers Hall in Port Adelaide tomorrow. Matt is preparing the herbs and vegetables growing in our glass house, fermenting ginger beer and kombucha, pickling tomato relish and packing up quince paste and pickled tuna. Sarah is packing up things to kit out the domestic interior incuding Miranda's paints and Florence's toys. Whilst Miranda has made an arguement to take the broody hen with her seven new chicks with us.

At this point in time we have sketched out activities for us to do with the children and with visitors over the four days. We realise that this residency will be foccussed on being in the scenario and doing things, as having the children with us means any computer based research or long adult discussions would be very difficult. This is our opportunity to see how things play out in practice.

Bump in done. More plants and food to come in tomorrow. Everything went well and to time with the Vitals team being very helpful. There are obvious concerns about the plants not getting enough sun so we might swap them around from home each day.

My main concern at the moment is not only remembering to give artist talks and to have activities on the go for people to enter the space but managing family life as is is. I am feeling quite pensive about managing 5 year old melt downs, toddler tears and the pressures of family concerns in public. However I am sure Matt and I will go about things as we do and this will simply reflect the true nature of things.

I am feeling grateful about having spoken to Futurist Kristina Dryza www.kristinadryza.com on the eve of this residency. She spoke about going with the flow and letting things happen. The metaphore she used to describe being at one with the rythm of life was about the person waiting to enter a skipping rope held by two others. If the one about to jump wasn't in the rythm of the rope before they entered they would crash. So as we start this family in residence I need to remind myself that we are already in the rythm of family life and this rythm will cary the project forward and is a wonderful thing worth sharing.

More thoughts and ideas from Kristina;

• Look at Shell scenario methods
• Biomimicry is the imitation of the models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems.Living organisms have evolved well-adapted structures and materials over geological time through natural selection. Biomimetics has given rise to new technologies inspired by biological solutions at macro and nanoscales. Humans have looked at nature for answers to problems throughout our existence. Nature has solved engineering problems such as self-healing abilities, environmental exposure tolerance and resistance, hydrophobicity, self-assembly, and harnessing solar energy. (see biomimetics and/or biomimicry )
• Kristina spoke about patterns vrs change in nature, rythm and fate vrs free will.
• The future does not exist but we can actively build a bridge to our future.
• Trends happen in food first because it takes less than an hour to make a meal but in contrast it takes years to design produce buildings, cars, clothes ect. I would also say it takes years to put on a show, a performance, create a new work.
• She spoke about being sensitive to the seasons; food, clothing and mood. She questioned whether people in Adelaide knew how to hibernate and withdraw in winter.
• She questioned whether it was necessary to be so interested in the future or the past and emphasised the importance of the present, which then leads to a better understanding of the way things are moving towards the future.
• Kristina emphasised the importance in asking the right question rather than focussing to quickly on possible outcomes.

• Today I cooked cauliflower and leak soup, which the children enjoyed and later was finished by visitors to late night Adhocracy events.

• I placed proverbs around the space where they might provoke discussion amongst visitors.

• We 'secured' our plants, to protect them from toddlers. One of our questions for our scenario is:

How would we secure our food in 2100.

• We received a warm response to our artist talk which was a summary of the first residency with foam and gave an overview of what we hoped to achieve at this residency. It was apparent due to the interruptions by the children during the talk, that by framing the project as a family in residence the concept would be developed and grow at the speed family life would allow. The level of uncertainty in respect to the demands of the children is the driver in respect to the rate of progress.
• Wonderfully, we were approached after the talk by people who wanted to share anecdotes about the weather.

Today I felt like we had an open house full of visitors and the trick was managing to speak to people, cook and keep focus on the project whilst keeping the children busy and most importantly happy. In every respect it was a day full of the stuff of everyday life.

Interesting comments coming after the artist talk about Weather Lore included:

• Memories of life events and emotions connected to specific weather.
• How romantic is 'self sustainability'? Is Economic Collapse, Post Climate Chaos becoming a new trope for the beginning of any future scenario?
• Discussion about lifestyle choice, practicality and necessity.
• Comments about story telling, educating and informing through hard hitting messages in the tone of the 1980's Grim Reaper TV ads warning about Aids.

In reflection of the talk about Weather Lore I was very pleased in principle that there was a very open flow of people entering and leaving the space. Simultaneous to the talk I served soup and fed children. I chatted with visitors whilst presenting a planned talk and ultimately the final minutes were interrupted and the formal talk was finished by the baby having a melt down. To wind up, a friend helped me clear the kitchen whilst updating me on the status of her vegetable garden and fruit trees. I could not have scripted things better to frame our future scenario enactment.

However, I came away a little unsettled that the talk was not in focus by either myself or those around me. Multi-tasking exhausted me and softened the impact of the important points I wanted to make. The soup sipping, children playing around us and the flow of people through the space punctuated the time in ways I was not prepared for. So, things were as I had hoped and at the same time not what I had wanted.

This residency is an opportunity to experiment with formats, frames and structures as well as ideas and from yesterdays artist talk I learnt a lot about my expectations and assumptions.I am very pleased that we had the opportunity to prehearse this presentation within our family in residence scenario.

Transcript of Maja's talk about FoAM's work with foresight and futures

• http://futurepresentresidency.blogspot.com.au/