here is my first journal entry

VEIL (Victorian Eco Innovation Lab) hosted a design charette bringing designers and academics coming together to rapidly design ‘eco-accupuncture’ interventions for the City of Hume.

It began with a brief introduction to the two days we face as well as the projection for the outcomes of this workshop. We were then put into teams – our team as been set the topic of Information. Other topics are Water, Energy, Mobility and Food. We then went to Broadmeadows (City of Hume) for a tour and immersion.

I have been to Broadmeadows a few times before as part of this VEIL intervention. Initially for a visioning workshop with City of Hume, where we —–

And again later on in beginning developing studio briefs we returned to Broadmeadows for a briefing session with Hume Councillors and then tour of Broadmeadows (this was one of the incredibly hot days of early summer so we did not stay  long to get anymore than a general impression of the area and some Baclava from Olsen Place).

Today’s immersion was a lot of fun as we returned to these sites, and for me with very different eyes. Amazingly though we decended upon areas pouring out of a bus in a large crowd, we actually engaged with the sites and people and discovered some interesting things.

First we visited Dallas which actually features an inviting shopping centre – a cool oasis from the stark glare of harsh sunlight and sealed roads and car parks. We had lunch here but I missed out on looking at the smal mall properly as I was drawn to the Mobile Library parked nearby.

Hume Mobile Library

Wireless internet

Inside the library

Powering up - could solar be possible?

Driving through Dallas area there are actually a quite a number of fruit trees in people’s yards. I spotted a huge quince covered in large fruit, a thriving pomegranite (yum!) a few citrus and figs. But there are probably more cars in yards than fruit trees, with some places featuring three cars on the front lawn area.

Quince tree

Mobility independence or car dependency?

Another point of call was the grass lands, but Kate and I were drawn to the local pool which was closed down. We found a hole in the back fence and snuck in to the secret garden. It was much fun to explore it in an abandoned state with empty concrete basins. But dangerous if anyone were to fall into the diving pool as if the fall was not lethal there would be no way back out. It would be a wonderful space to be active again or could even be a garden of eden producing food and an aquaculture. There were beautiful sculptural iron bench seats that curled around into cozy framed spaces. And wonderful kiosk in the middle with the micro tiling almost completely intact. Apparently the closure is due to the pools leaking and costs too much to repair, much to the disappointment of the locals who once enjoyed the place. Unfortunately my camera battery had run down by this point so I did not get anymore photos from here on. (note to self – buy spare battery!)

Another point of call was Olsen place. Where we had visited previously. This time I explored a bit more. I decided to buy some nectarines in one of the fruit and veg shops and was surprised to see the owner negotiating a price on two boxes of figs. This looked very much like a local bringing in figs from his tree (presumably). When it was my turn I asked about this and it turns out that the shop will take much local produce in this way. Figs, lemons, pomegranites, what ever. We also talked about how amazingly good pomegranites are for your health – especially for women, and how under valued the fruit is in Australia. But also how figs are good – but make you fart (high in sugar). Here I had one of my assumptions completely blown open. There I was bringing my assumption that all the produce came from else where (most of it still would). In the back of my mind I had looking for opportunity to promote local food production and trade – and here is was already taking place. Next a few of us ducked in for a cup of tea in the coffee shop. This was initially intimidating as it was completely occupied by men playing cards and a complex tile game that at a glance looked similar to Mah Jong. But we were assured that ladies were welcome. And finally I stopped in to the Baclava shop to get a and school bottle of coke imported from saudi arabia.

BOTTLE

The last point of call was the Global Learning Centre. But I decided to do a walk through of the shopping centre (not quite a dérive as I could only conduct a circuit without much deviation or lingering). And while definitely not a place I would want to go to it is light and cool and gives kids and place to mill about after school.

Returning somewhat late to the Photographic Studies College we went through an intensive brainstorming session to think through points of intervention on our themes. We  were allocated a location to explore and then worked through each of the themes beginning with our own. By the end of 1.5 hours we had 4 (one more than requested!) ideas for development on saturday.

More tomorrow!

read on!