Why do people care for trees? 

What might trees tell us about their relationship to people?

From 2020 to 2022, the Upfield Train Line from Moreland Station to Coburg Station was raised to remove four train level crossings. Despite protests of local residents, many trees mature were lost in the construction phase.

Continuation of the Skyrail project has been confirmed and the train line will be elevated through the remainder of Brunswick from Royal Park to Anstey Station. This risks further loss of the urban forest planted and tended by members of the local community. What will be the impact of this development upon the the relationship of people to these urban forests? 

We will immerse ourselves in these spaces, observing, listening, drawing.

Our tasks is to explore the relationship of the community to these spaces and as reflexive researchers also understand our own relationship to place and ecology.

Through our creative documentation and exploration we will learn about, creatively respond to, and communicate the stories of community urban gardening of the Upfield Train Line.

This studio is an introduction to different types of creative and ethnographic research methods. We will explore a range of practices to engage with observation and documentation, as well as reflect upon our own relationship with place and nature. Please note that we are not here to solve problems or persuade an audience of any particular position. This is not a studio about advertising campaigns or persuasion. Instead our role is to document and communicate the rich and complex stories of people, nature, and their relationship to each other, through creative practice.

It is essential to maintain rich complexity of the stories of this context.

The outcome from this studio will be visual story telling through a mural or series of murals along the train line. The aim is to communicate the complexity of what we encounter and experience. We will work at many different scales and explore ways to visualise your final proposed mural in context. With your permission, your work might be included in a self published book documenting the visual explorations and stories of the urban forests.

As immersed researchers, our studio is embedded in the context of research: the urban forest of the upfield train line centring in Brunswick and a small part of of Coburg. 

We will spend many of our session in field work. 

Please be prepared to travel light, with a travelling artists kit.

We will sit and draw and talk. 

Be prepared for sunshine and rain and lots of walking.

This is an opportunity to slow down and tend to our senses.

There are three assessment tasks for this studio, the briefs are made up of a range of milestone deliverables that are interconnected and build upon each other. 

Brief 01: SKO

Brief 02: Exploring relationships to place 

Brief 03 part A: Developing your mural ideas

Brief 03 part B: Finalising and presenting your final project

Speaking of Nature: Finding language that affirms our kinship with the natural world, Robin Kimmerer, 2017.
https://orionmagazine.org/article/speaking-of-nature/

ATTENTION!

This studio involves intensive fieldwork, many classes will happen on location in Brunswick.

Please allow extra time to travel to and from the Wednesday session.