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Clay Quadrants

Invited to develop a workshop for Fallowfield Secret Garden, artist Gregory Herbert created a number of handheld clay 'quadrants', small sculptural objects designed to be used as a tool for observing the more than human world of the community space. Using the 'quadrants' workshop participants explored the microscopic life framed within each window of the object - the lichen, insects, plants, mosses and fungi proliferating throughout the garden in autumn.

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Greg encouraged participants to undertake a sensory exploration of what they encountered in their quadrant, considering the textures, smells, patterns and shapes the objects framed.

Starting with one quadrant each, participants used lengths of string to join multiple quadrants together. Tangled across grass, bark, stones and clay, the string created bigger windows or webs of observation. Noting what was observed on simple maps of the garden space the groups conversations turned to the colours, shapes and scents of the space at a time of seeming decay. With fallen leaves and other decomposing organic matter came webs of new life - fungi, mini beasts, bacteria and molds.

Greg introduced and ended the workshop with short readings of the work of Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing and Donna Harraway. The quotes became moments for contemplation and conversation.

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Resurgence is the work of many organisms, negotiating across differences, to forge assemblages of many species liveability in the midst of disturbances

Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, A threat to holocene resurgence is a threat to Liveability. In: Brightman M, Lewis J (eds) The Anthropology of Sustainability. London: Palgrave, pp.51–65. 2017

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It matters what matters we use to think other matters with; it matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with; it matters what knots knot knots, what thoughts think thoughts, what descriptions describe descriptions, what ties tie ties. It matters what stories make worlds, what worlds make stories.

Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene,

Durham: Duke University Press, 2016.

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Some of the quadrants will remain where they were left in the garden and we will watch their slow colonisation by other lifeforms over the months to come.