Today I found two crabs hiding in the pool of the Urchin tile. One Hermit crab and one that looked like a shore crab which I also got a photo of. Can you spot it?
Day two of the test trial
Here are some photos from two days after installing the test tiles on Hannafore beach. Got some good reactions from people on the beach who seems curious to know more about the project. 
Hannafore tests
If you’ve visited Hannafore beach recently you may have noticed the appearance of strange-looking concrete tiles on the outfall pipe leading from the beach.
The tiles have been designed to provide habitat for marine species on man-made concrete structures as part of my PhD project at Falmouth university. We are currently testing a few tiles on the outfall pipe on Hannafore to see if they do what we expect of them.
Using dance to learn about limpet and barnacle behaviour
Paper presented at the CI for Critical Response conference 1st April 2014
*Studio Photos by Carolyn Arnold
It was never my plan to use Contact Improvisation, or any other movement practice for that matter, in my research. The weekly CI jams were the place I would go to to clear my mind and get away from the academic work.
Back from Lund
I just got back from Lund (Sweden) where I gave a talk to the Pufendorf Institute and held a workshop with students of the Industrial design Master course on designing for wild animals.
Strange objects taking shape in my garage
In the last few weeks I have been completely immersed in production of the models and moulds for the concrete tiles.
And though I have left aside the theoretical aspects of the project, I feel I am starting to gain a better understanding of what it actually means to design with non-human species in mind.
Final model for wave tile
I’ve spent the past week in the new Makernow lab at Uni cutting the final model for my concrete tiles.
The tiles incorporate habitat for molluscs (in the side grooves) and a surface designed to attract barnacle growth.
The facets were originally created in a software glitch passing from Rhino to Mayka but I decided to adopt them as I kinda liked them.
Limpet grazing power
BBC Four’s “The Secret Life of Rock Pools” is full of fascinating facts regarding the lives and behaviour of intertidal species. Beadlet anemones fencing each other over the best spot in the rockpool, a limpet fighting off a starfish by clamping down on its sticky tube feet, muscles pooling their threads together in cooperation to lockdown and starve a predator dogwelk… Amongst the drama, Professor Stephen Hawkins of The University of Southampton shows the findings of an experiment designed to demonstrate the grazing power of limpets.
Micro-reservation – ‘Wave’ tile
The philosophy behind biodiversity conservation based on reservation is one of separation: Creating a physical barrier between natural and human habitats and minimizing human activity within the reserves.
Hannafore Project – ‘Urchin’ tile
I am currently working on setting out some tests on an outfall pipe on Hannafore beach in West Looe.
The aim of the project is to test out new designs for surfaces that integrate habitat for marine species onto artificial structures used as walkways in the intertidal zone.
Inspiration
I took some pictures at St. Agnes beach yesterday that I am hoping to use as inspiration for some textures.
Concrete patterns
Concrete is quite a culturally charged material. For many it is one of the ultimate symbols of modern architecture with the new forms it enabled. Others contest it for it’s “greyness” and industrial quality.
Ecological resilience and the raising power of “small”
This is an abstract from a presentation I gave to introduce my research at the Research & Sustainability Symposium that took place January 30th.
It outlines my main understanding of the terms sustainability and resilience and why I believe it is important to talk about diversity as anobjective in the context of sustainable development.
It outlines my main understanding of the terms sustainability and resilience and why I believe it is important to talk about diversity as anobjective in the context of sustainable development.
What I learnt from drawing barnacles
Gemma Anderson is a fellow PhD student a UCF. Her work evolves around drawing as a tool for learning about nature. Gemma advocates for the use of drawing when studying other species and relationships between them as scientists used to do for centuries in the past.
Context
This is a diagram placing my project in the larger context with the proposed outcomes and areas to expand on.
Animals as clients 2: understanding the Umwelt
“This little monograph does not claim to point the way to a new science. Perhaps it should be called a stroll into unfamiliar worlds; worlds strange to us but known to other creatures, manifold and caries as the animals themselves. The best time to set out on such an adventure is on a sunny day. The place, a flower-strewn meadow, humming with insects, fluttering with butterflies. Here we may glimpse the worlds of the lowly dwellers of the meadow. To do so, we must first blow, in fancy, a soap bubble around each creature to represent its own world, filled with the perceptions, which it alone knows. When we ourselves then step into one of these bubbles, the familiar meadow is transformed. Many of its colorful features disappear, other no longer belong together but appear in new relationships. A new world comes into being. Through the bubble we see the world of the burrowing worm, of the butterfly, or of the field mouse; the world as it appears to the animals themselves, not as it appears to us. This we may call the phenomenal world or the self-world of the animal.” Continue reading
Animals as clients
One of the key changes that should take place in order to redesign our human habitats in a way that is more welcoming for other species is for architects, designers and planers to learn how to look at other species as their clients.
In many cases this would involve someone that could interpret the needs and wishes of these animals to the person creating the project, this is why I believe “reconciliation design” is by definition an interdisciplinary effort.
In many cases this would involve someone that could interpret the needs and wishes of these animals to the person creating the project, this is why I believe “reconciliation design” is by definition an interdisciplinary effort.
behaviours
Photo from:http://www.archipelagos.co/
An important role of designers in society is in imagining future scenarios, interesting applications of new technology, new ways of interacting with other people, with our cities and with the environment. This is extremely important when trying to change an existing unsustainable situation that would involve changes in peoples behaviours or attitude. I believe any new idea should be imagined into a wider context, a vision if you will, where it exists together with other new and old ideas. These visions tell people a story about what their lives will look like with the new idea in place.
