by Sally Fildes-Moss
The invitation
‘On Saturday 4 October, The
Everyman will be transformed into a magical Fun
Palace … We want your imagination, ideas & input.’
On encountering this invitation online, I was intrigued.
Some background: the Everyman is a Liverpool theatre known for producing work that is often politically daring, and for fostering talents such as Julie Walters and Pete Postlethwaite.
It recently
celebrated its 50th birthday in a new building, opened
earlier this year on the original site (a building which, by the way,
features beehives on the roof and has been rated as environmentally ‘Excellent’ under the BREEAM scheme,
as well as having just won the RIBA Stirling Prize 2014).
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| The New Everyman Building, Liverpool |
Shiny new premises notwithstanding, it
was surely the Everyman spirit of old that prompted the theatre to
throw open its doors to become a Fun Palace. And what exactly is
one of those…?
Fun Palaces
According to www.funpalaces.co.uk,
back in 1961 theatre director Joan Littlewood and architect Cedric
Price thought up the idea of a Fun Palace as a ‘laboratory of fun’,
‘a university of the streets’, intended to provide ‘a temporary
and movable home to the arts and sciences that would welcome children
and adults alike’.
The idea finally came to fruition on
October 4th 2014, when over 130 such places sprang up
nationwide – in ‘theatres, gardens, tents, woodlands, shops, car
parks, schools, libraries, swimming pools, public squares and town
halls’.
In Fun Palaces, ‘Everyone [is] an artist, everyone a scientist’. The organisers claim, ‘This is not just an event, it is a movement, putting cultural participation and public engagement at the heart.’
Reading all this, I began to understand
that this was a cross-disciplinary undertaking that everyone could
get involved in, which was designed to build collaboration while
emphasising personal satisfaction. And, naturally, I came to the
conclusion that this sounded a lot like permaculture. ‘Everyone a
designer’, right? Or potentially so…
Bringing permaculture on board
The Everyman had already lined up
attractions including spoken word, a synaesthesia presentation, gong
baths, and people icing their heads while reciting Shakespeare. I
proposed adding a ‘Permaculture Surgery’ – an informal and
irreverent corner where people could ponder some key elements from
permaculture philosophy.
Assistant Artistic Director Nick
Bagnall was orchestrating the event and fielded my initial email,
which I sent with only a week or so to go. ‘Yes,’ he replied.
‘Please do that.’ I paraphrase, but it was largely that easy.
In the week that followed, I called in
favours, scavenged for materials and painted a banner (swearing all
the while during that last one – ‘Everyone an artist’, my
backside…).
Most of all, I wondered how best to
communicate about permaculture on the day with a wide variety of
adults and children … What is permaculture truly about? Whose words
should I borrow for my signage? What resources and activities would
draw people in, and reflect the aim of bringing the arts and sciences
together? And how could it be FUN?
Getting it together
Various local and not-so-local
permaculture contacts helped me out with feedback and suggestions.
Also, I owe a particular debt to Hannah Gardiner and Nala Walla for
their inspiring work to date in bringing the arts and permaculture
closer together – in my preparations, I made use of the Facebook discussion group Hannah has initiated on ‘The manifesto of art in permaculture’ and Nala’s
article ‘The Embodied Activist: Where Permaculture Meets the Arts'.
Also, great thanks go to my friend and
local activist Stephanie Rooney, who made some brilliant suggestions
and contributed many of the resources we used for the event.
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| Stephanie Rooney |
The points I eventually chose to
highlight were –
- We can transform ourselves from consumers to producers – whether we produce food, new fuels, social connections, or anything else permanent culture needs from us.
- Doing this meets our true needs better than consumer capitalism does. Also, it’s a world away from simply struggling on with our existing, misdesigned lives while ever more environmental anxieties pile up.
- To become producers who can innovate and persist as necessary, we need to 1) play lots, so as to exercise our creative muscles and relieve tension, and 2) develop arts which are inclusive and which examine the real challenges of the age.
- Plus, there is huge potential to increase our sanity and effectiveness by learning to observe before we do anything else!
To present these ideas, I made plenty
of signs. Some of these featured quotes from permaculture pioneers,
while others invited people to suggest ways they felt they were
already living the principles, or would like to, or to record their
thoughts on bringing the arts and ecology closer together.
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| Signs waiting to be hung up |
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| Don't sweat the small stuff |
Also offered on the stall were: a range
of leaflets; summaries of the principles in various renderings;
copies of Nala’s article; some key
permaculture texts and books on upcycling; a pack of permaculture
playing cards; some tactile objects from nature and crafts; and, in
case all the above failed us, some monkey and parrot glove puppets
(nothing to do with anything, but they do bridge a lull at social
gatherings).
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| The stall |
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| Read or investigate our objects tray, choice is yours |
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| Further information |
I also prominently displayed our
banner, which declared to everyone ‘YOU HAVE BEEN SPECIALLY
SELECTED TO DESIGN YOUR OWN LIFE’. This was intended to subvert the
type of promotional blurb that assures you of your special status
while ripping you off and letting you down in a thoroughly
standardised way. Permaculture, on the other hand, says that, if you
customise right, you will always obtain a yield.
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| Sally Fildes-Moss during set-up |
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| Portrait wall with banner |
I hoped that all these tasters would
pique people’s interest in permaculture design.
On the day
As well as helping with the
preparation, Stephanie Rooney joined me on the day, and a
photographer friend Jona (Jona @ Tona Photography) kindly took
pictures of what went on.
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| Photographer Jona in the frame, but resisting |
When people approached the Surgery I
tried to focus on hearing from them, first of all – if indeed they
wanted to speak rather than browse. I wanted to avoid jumping in with
information and directions. This allowed some very genuine exchanges,
and I found I was more likely to be able to point people to resources
or activities that would fully engage them if I did things that way
round (the power of observation at work again).
Most small children needed nothing but
a clear view of the table, with its tray of tactile natural and craft
objects, and shiny books, to launch themselves straight in. They
tended naturally to lead our conversations; even the shyer children
opened up if asked with enthusiasm about food, travel, fun –
anything that was important to them (and permaculture tends not to
bother with things that aren’t important to people!). With children
even more than adults, it was crucial for them to have some
activities to get stuck into throughout their time with us.
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| One of many families we had the pleasure of meeting |
Once people were engaged, their further options included: collecting information to digest at their leisure later on; playing cards; browsing the mini-library; and recording their thoughts in the following ways…
We asked visitors to contribute ideas
about what they do (or would like to do) in daily life that is
tantamount to revolution. Most of us are aware of the saying that
permaculture is revolution disguised as gardening, and our visitors
agreed with me that revolution comes in many forms – suggestions
included foraging, singing, taking a moment to breathe, passing on
unwanted possessions, and riding a scooter. One young revolutionary
boldly promised ‘to be kind’. (Another child, no relation, had
obviously been quick to absorb the importance of small, slow
solutions, and, instead, promised only ‘to be kind to my brother’.)
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| We invite your ideas for revolution |
A debate about how we might bring the
arts and ecology closer together took place in the exercise book we
provided. Here’s a flavour of the responses: ‘include
improvisation in the school arts curriculum’; ‘implement the
designs into ways of learning in educational establishments,
encourage people to take control of their own learning’; ‘have a
spontaneous life … make a story, live that story, tell that story’;
‘be aware of beauty in the natural world and how we need to
preserve it’; and ‘reach out to people on the margins to enrich
my life’.
Vincent Killen, Liverpool Everyman &
Playhouse Theatres Trustee, was among the visitors to the
Permaculture Surgery, and he also spent a while at the Permaculture
Card Table. He commented that he found our contribution ‘extremely
interesting, thought-provoking and loads of fun. The interaction
between the participants was well managed and extremely lively, and
although the theatre setting was slightly unusual, it actually seemed
entirely appropriate.’
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| Everyman Trustee Vincent Killen at the card table |
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| Deal your hand |
By the end of the day, Steph and I had
talked and listened to scores of people of a variety of backgrounds
and just about all ages. We learned a lot about them, about
ourselves, and about ways to talk about permaculture, as well as
identifying room for improvement in any future Surgeries.
As you’d expect, everyone we met had
something insightful to say about life design and their own cherished
aspirations. I felt that it had been a worthwhile thing to do to
prompt this exchange of views, which readily turned into a
celebration of potential.
For the future
I would love to run similar
‘Permaculture Surgeries’ in future, and see others do the same.
After putting this pilot together superfast, in order to make the Fun
Palaces date, I look forward to backtracking to a more substantial
observation period, and refining from there!
I think there is huge potential in
giving games, design activities and performance a bigger role, based
on my own preference and on observation of what engaged
people most on the day. Plus, it would be fantastic to explore a
variety of sites for delivery, such as smallholdings, shopping
streets, bike shops, orchards, skateparks, stately homes…
Of course, developing these
possibilities fully will take time and resources, and I personally
need to obtain a financial yield from an outside source to be able to
do this. Perhaps the option of using the Crowdfunder site, which has
partnered with the Permaculture Association, will be a way to do
this, and other suggestions are also welcome, as are opportunities
for collaboration so that the Surgeries grow to be as inclusive as
possible. Also, Permaculture Surgeries, in whatever form, could be
delivered at future Fun Palaces, since the plan is for the event to
be annual.
Overall, my objective would be to
spread the idea that we are ALL specially selected to design our own
lives, and our lives can be considerably more creative, resilient and
sustainable than a traditional design approach would have us believe.
Watch the film:
Watch the film:
- Sally Fildes-Moss
Photos - Jona @ Tona Photography
