Microforest V - Spring 2023

Between February and March 2023 the Microforest project focused on biodiversity. Over the course of four sessions students of Blakestown Community College participated in a series of activities led by artists Gareth Kennedy and Eileen Hutton and members of the NovelEco research group in Trinity College Dublin.

Seanchaí Microforest is a micro forest on the grounds of Blakestown Community School created by Gareth Kennedy and the members of the transition year art class along with their teacher Mary Quinn.

In this cycle of the Microforest, artist Gareth Kennedy introduced the visiting members of the NovelEco programme at Trinity College Dublin as well as the NCAD 3rd level Critical Ecologies course students to the group of transition year students at Blakestown Community School. Each visiting member was assigned to a different group of students for the outdoors activities. Each team had a camera or a phone to take images of plants to be used for species identification at a later stage.

Together with the NovelEco team, students explored their perceptions of urban nature and how they felt about different types of informal wild spaces. They engaged in discussions around the topics of: What are the challenges of caring for these spaces? Are these spaces important and why? How do your ideas relate to future careers? Each team walked the school grounds to map the location of different informal wild spaces at different scales, taking photographs and drawing using paper and charcoal made on the Microforest grounds.

Working in groups, students identified different plant species in 2 or 3 random quadrants and recorded them on a template. Then using acetate as an overlay, they created a plan for how they would like to rewild the space and protect it over the next 10 to 20 years. Following this task, students spent time looking for different materials to use to create their plan for rewilding the school. Each team worked on a plan for a specific part of the school. They were encouraged to make notes, drawings, think about how they would use the materials they collected and how they could involve different members of the community.

At the end students transferred their envisioning work and drawings to a large communal map/group collage plan using charcoal drawings, old and new photographs and other materials. This gave an overall representation of how students envisioned caring for the Microforest and other wild spaces across the school or their community. The activity was followed by a group reflection exercises and feedback gathering. 

In March, during the closing two sessions of the cycle, Eileen Hutton made Soil Chromographs with the group. This technique is a way to make a kin of photograph from soil to assess and analyse the health of soil. The group used soil from their homes or close surrounding areas to prepare a sample in advance of their first session, following 3 simple steps listed below.

How to collect soil samples:

  • Brush aside any surface debris (such as plant material) and the first centimetre of topsoil before inserting either a sharp spade/long knife or trowel into the earth.

  • Take a core sample or slice, about 12 cm deep, from the area you want to collect. Break up any lumps, removing all stones, critters or other material that is not soil.

  • Place a small amount of your sample into a clean glass jar (5 -10 grams of soil). Place the jar, lid off, in a warm location to dry out (radiator or sunny windowsill).

Participating Artists & Researchers:

  • Gareth Kennedy / Lead Artist

  • Dr. Marcus Collier / NovelEco

  • Dr. Melissa Pineda Pinto / NovelEco

  • Dr. Clair Cooper / NovelEco

  • Mairéad O’Donnell / NovelEco

  • Natalia R. Castañeda / NovelEco

  • Art & Ecology Students / NCAD

  • Eileen Hutton / Artist

Gareth Kennedy is a visual artist whose work explores the social agency of the handcrafted in the 21st century and generates 'communities of interest' around the production and performance of experimental material cultures. Informed by an anthropological approach these works draw on the layered histories of a location. His projects are embedded, evolve over time, and enacted by diverse publics and individuals. His practice to date includes public art commissions, workshops, education projects, exhibitions, residencies and collaborations. In 2009, he co-represented Ireland at the 53rd Venice Biennale alongside artist Sarah Browne and their collaborative practice, Kennedy Browne. In 2015 he was long listed for the prestigious VISIBLE Award for Die Unbequeme Wissenschaft (‘The Uncomfortable Science’). He is currently undertaking commissions for the National Children's Hospital and Fingal County Council in Dublin. He teaches Sculpture and Expanded Practice and is lead on the Studio+ FIELD module at NCAD, Dublin which explores experimental and experiential pedagogies in response to a derelict brownfield site beside the college.

The NovelEco project team consists of a core research team at Trinity College Dublin, School of Natural Sciences and the SFI ADAPT Centre. Currently they have a Principal Investigator (PI), Professor Marcus Collier, two Postdoctoral Researchers, two PhD candidates, an MSc Researcher and a Research Assistant, as well as out Research Team Manager. They also have visiting researchers and external experts from our High Level Advisory Board, as well as undergraduate and taught MSc students completing their dissertations on novel ecosystems, urban ecology, rewilding and the social-ecological interface.

Eileen Hutton’s practice aims to generate a reciprocal relationship with the natural environment. Specifically, she is interested in the critical role that honeybees and birds play within ecosystems and have built various artificial habitats in order to support them and surrounding biodiversity. Within the nesting boxes and beehives, she then creates sculptures in collaboration with these priority species. She sees this practice crossing the boundaries between ecological and artistic intervention, creating new ways of understanding the relationship between humans, animal species and the natural environment. Her practice involves traditional artistic methods such as small-scale construction, installation, fibre techniques, photography, and community-based workshops. Her process also involves scientifically appropriated methods such as the collection, microscopic analysis and museological display of various organic and inorganic specimens.

Art & Ecology at NCAD is a course exploring the intersections of contemporary art with ecology. This module introduces learners to fundamental principles, working methods, skills, and theories relating to the intersections of contemporary art with ecology. A special emphasis is placed on ‘learning through doing’ in a series of workshops and situated environmental learning. The programme works directly with an urban embedded novel ecology of the NCAD FIELD site, which acts as an outdoor classroom, a site for nature connection, commoning, and a testing site for multi-species futures. By connecting to the site and its seasonal activity, learners can explore and enact nature/culture connections, expanding their research, creative making, and critical thinking skills in meaningful and liveable ways. The course also explores the social, political, economic, and historical issues that frame the ecology of the surroundings. Practitioners will expand, develop, and question their practices using the NCAD FIELD as a testing site and shared learning space.

Thank you to Mary Quinn, teacher at Blakestown Community School and our partners and supporters for the project, Fingal County Council Arts Office, Blakestown Community School and The Arts Council Ireland. Video by Arcade Film.