There Are No Firm Rules - Platform Residency - Wheat

Visit to Toby Hayam's allotment in the Park Hill area. Toby is growing various kinds of non commercial wheat, barley and other cereals. He aims to produce 30-40 kg of grain with which to make bread. He also has oats, which already taste great. He toured us through his project and the local vicinity and we discussed the difficulties of producing wheat in this way; it is very sensitive to the environment, must be harvested at the right time etc. We also discussed the differences in wheat now to the wheat of prehistoric times.




Afterwards we went to Toby and Kim's house on the edge of the park where they have built a community cob oven on the edge of the park land. We ate pizzas made in the oven with dough Kim had prepared, it was brilliant to sea the oven in action, temperatures reached more than 450 degrees!

We were also in the company of Linda, Dave, Tom, Katie and Carlo from the Sheaf community group, Friends of Sheaf Valley. The group organises community and environmental events, litter picking missions and other local focus stuff.

There Are No Firm Rules - Platform Residency - Reboot

There Are No Firm Rules - Platform Residency - Survey Area Response

We are in the process of interpreting the results of our 'Survey' activity.

Some images from Survey area...

Of The Day #10 - Plant - Beech Tree

Plant of the Day 

The Beech Tree

The European beech (Fagus sylvatica) is the most commonly cultivated of the beeches.

The leaves are entire or sparsely toothed, from 5–15 cm long and 4–10 cm broad and are edible.

Beeches bear both male and female flowers on the same plant.

The small flowers are unisexual, the female flowers borne in pairs, the male flowers wind-pollinating catkins.

They are produced in spring shortly after the new leaves appear.

The bark is smooth and light grey.

The fruit is a small, sharply three–angled nut 10–15 mm long, borne singly or in pairs in soft-spined husks 1.5–2.5 cm long, known as cupules.

The nuts are edible, though bitter (though not nearly as bitter as acorns) with a high tannin content, and are called beechnuts or beechmast.

Beech nuts can be roasted, ground and milled - or pressed for oil. In Food For Free Richard Mabey says 500g of beechnuts produces 85ml of oil, which "is rich in fat and proteins" and can be used for frying.

There Are No Firm Rules - Platform Residency - Park Hill - A Separation

Park Hill (this wikipedia page is excellent) is a council housing estate built between 1957 and 1961, and in 1998 was given Grade II* listed building status.

The estate is being renovated by developers Urban Splash.

We walked around and through and up and in and UP to the roof.

There are two parts

1. The failed

A beautiful emptied relic

I marvelled at the plan. I wondered at the space. I was enthralled at the architecture.

The fail here maybe isn't the plan, nor the architecture, but maybe the fail here is the care.


2. The rejuvenated

the look may split opinion
but the triumph here is that an investment of care has replaced a mindless and automatic demolition.

The Separation? Well. The unfinished zones seem to stand as an anti-flag - a representation of failure, cordoned from the newtopia of the regenerated. This failure may be a convenient myth.

Of The Day #9 - Object - Needle, Flint, Thread, Leather

Contemporary example of ancient processes.

The needle source is deer antler, sharpened with found flint and put to the test on deer hide with spun flax.

There Are No Firm Rules - Platform Residency - Survey.

SURVEY

Location: Brownfield site, off Pomona Street.

A group of 12 met outside the Kwik Fit on the corner of Ecclesall Road and Pomona Street, Sheffield, S11 8JE at 2pm

For 3 hours on a sunny afternoon, we addressed questions of potential human and natural disconnects, exploried the constituents of a landscape and the relationships involved. We attempted to perform a comprehensive land survey exercise, undertaking tasks including; recording the diversity and amount of plants, the sound and feelscapes, the amount of manmade matter, soil-tests and more.

As a starter, author J.D. Taylor will joined us to walk around the site , asking us use our imaginations to consider what the land may have been used for in the past. Drawing attention to specific features, he looked at how landscape and place can shape experiences individually and collectively, and asked the key questions – what is life like here? what could life be like? what can be done with the weight of the past to liberate the future?

We made a bespoke Kit Box for the event to carry our kitlist which comprised:

 

Kit Box x 1 - 820mm x 710mm x 820mm

Books - Assorted identification x 10

Litter Grabbers x4

Refuse Bags - heavy duty, black x 40

Rubble Bags - heavy duty, blue x 10

Safety Gloves - one size - green, red, blue x 12

Specimen Jars x 18

Secateurs x 2

Magnifying Glasses x 2

Binoculars x 1

Tape Measures x 4

Single Use 35mm Cameras x 4

Clipboards x 12

Sketch Pads x 12

Flower Press Books x 2

Watercolours

Elastic Bands - heavy duty x 1 pack

Record Cards - 125mm x 75 mm / 80mm x 60mm - assorted colours x 150

Circular classification Stickers - Assorted Colours - x 2 packs

Specimen bags x 60

Specimen envelopes x 50

Pens & pencils - biros, permanent markers.

Rope, blue x 20 metres

Water

Cups

Thermos flasks

Fruit

Survey finds

What follows will be a week long interpretation of the findings to be displayed at Site Gallery and a land report which we will print and return to the Brownfield site.