How is a greenhouse like a toolkit?
Blog by Lisa Hudson, Head of Reflective Practice
How do you create a toolkit for Utopias Bach, while acknowledging the reality that there is no single tool, no quick fix, one-size- fits-all process formula for Utopias Bach?
Utopias Bach partner, Julie Upmeyer, was tasked with this question and she has proposed a conceptual toolkit, housed in a physical space of the greenhouse at Plas Bodfa:
Click on the image to view/download the Toolkit
On a windy Monday in November, I went to the greenhouse to process people’s reflections of Geocache Bach/Trawsffurfiad, our event at Metamorffosis Festival in June 2021.
The greenhouse space is a fantastic thinking space. The way it is surrounded by growth and potential is really powerful, the longer I was in there the stronger the sense of sprouting, fruiting, spreading grew. The 'toolkit' space is clear, making it separate from the rest of the greenhouse, and it feels spacious, with the light coming from the whole roof, it is the epitome of 'headspace'.
My activity was a reflection exercise, using only Geocache Bach as my subject. I listened to the recording of the Trawsffurfiad and wrote down words that stood out, initially colour coded for non-humans, things, and ideas, but that kind of fell apart. I attached all these onto a coil of wire, with extra strands to show the unsaid, undocumented experience. I put it in a damp patch where little weeds were growing, near the water supply, because it felt like it had been a rich and nourishing experience to everyone involved.
Then I asked myself if it, in itself, was radical? Did it affect the root of things? I thought it had; by creating a space for empathy with the non-human; so I connected it to radical imagination, which is in the roof, because it is the goal and it needs light. I then asked myself if it had created radical change, another goal. Radical change is in the window because it too needs light, but it also needs to be terrestrial, so connected to the land too. I wasn't sure if it had reached that point, so the connection didn't continue from imagination.
Then I considered the activity we offered of making mini-utopias. I made a little house and put it in the most relevant spot, under the table in a lush meadow of mind-your-own-business. I asked myself how this connected to the Trawsffurfiad and wasn't sure that it did. I read over our reflections and also was unclear of any actual connectivity. I thought about my experience of the weekend, and the conversations I had about the mini utopias and felt that it was accessible and joyful but that it was also safe and quite self-contained, in danger of being cute or nostalgic. The making of mini-utopias stayed alone under the table, deprived of light, but in a thriving community of green.
I read the minutes of the Collaboratory and placed that centrally, with a pole, acting as the axis for all other activity. I wrote words on the vine leaves from the floor to make a circle, and then I represented us as lovely plump figs because that Collaboratory was fertile, and rich and joyful; ultimately satisfying.
Then I sat with it and considered it for ages, asking what, if anything, is a tool? I realised that we had created a different space that day at TOGYG, and that it was, at least, a heterotopia. The things that stood out most were time and interaction/conversation. The amount of time people spent there, and the quality of conversation was what stood out from the recording and the minutes of the Collaboratory. I hung them as central ideas, but on very fine string, and they move in the currents of air, constantly.
It was a very interesting thought process, but completely subjective. This is entirely my interpretation of both the toolkit and the Geocache Bach itself, even though I have tried to be informed by the reflections of others. I brought back my reflections from the greenhouse and combined them with the reflections of other participants in Geocache Bach and have tried to make a (very) short film that expresses a balance of all contributors.
I also now question my decision to put the thriving thing in the most fertile position. Maybe I should have put the mini- utopias there to nourish them and let them sprout?
As far as the question - How is a greenhouse like a toolkit? …. It’s better. We are not looking for tools, we are looking for conditions within which things can thrive, and that is much more suited to a greenhouse than a cold and closed toolbox.