The research and orientation that has been done so far is observing some possibilities to work and cooperate with local people & communities, as well as natural & environment resources. The research will continue with a showcase of building a DIY Kitchen Laboratory called HE(AC)K. HE(AC)K is a pop up space and hack, a popular Indonesian portable food and restaurant trail (hek/angkringan) and a laboratory and common space for sharing knowledge and experiments using various local used or waste materials .
Sunday, 17 November 2019
Visiting Mt Observation: Nature and environment research
Result:
Cypress
Bayberry
Kangaroo Paw
Acacia Pycnantha
Banksia
The research will continue to explore the potential resources from nature and farms around the York area and focus on the relation between people and communities around York with their environment. The people in York live closely and relate with their local nature and environment, and it has inspired us to make a performance based on creating sounds from the plants and fruits around York, by building a DIY circuits.
Monday, 18 November 2019
Visiting the River Conservation Center. During our two week stay in York, we know that the people here are really engaged with the river which is behind the house where we are staying. Based on conversations with people in York, unfortunately the river here is polluted due to chemicals from agriculture and farming; we have come up with an idea to make a workshop: creating a simple device to test the water content from the river and compare it with water from other sources.
Wednesday, 20 November 2019.
Visited the school; this opened up the possibility to invite students to join our activities. After we visited the school we decided that the DIY water testing workshop is a good choice for the students. Since they will take care of their river and water in York for the future, it is important for them to know and understand how important water for their life.
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
It’s been a month since our arrival in York on 12 November 2019, we got to know several people and met several communities there. We met Jon from the River Conservation Centre, and from our conversation with several people at York, we acknowledge that the Avon River plays an important role and that historically it was a choice of why York was established. The river is the life for the people of York, unfortunately the river is polluted by the farming industry surrounding the town. We decided to research it, and planned to create a DIY simple water testing device. The purpose is to make the people of York, especially children, engage more with their local nature and take care of their future environment, especially water.
We spent most of our time researching and experimenting with Avon River’s water sample, and in our free time we got a chance to learn how to make pottery with Jason. He taught us in Jenny’backyard with his mobile equipment. We started from zero, making a simple pottery shape. We met Fiona Gavino, an artist who lives and works at Fremantle who had her exhibition at 152 Gallery, we joined her workshop and live art participatory performance in weaving rattan.
To apply our ideas on the water testing device, and get people involved with it, we visited York District High School. Jenny facilitated and connected us to the school where we gave a presentation to the students, and invited them to our workshops and events. We started to draft our ideas into several programs to get engaged with people and communities at York, including series of workshops, gatherings and a participatory performance, we called it YORKYAKARTA : Rural Utopias Mobile Laboratory. To make our program visible for the people of York, we did some publications online and offline. We did hand drawing posters, flyers and brochures and distributed them around the town, especially in public spaces such as the school, Town Hall, Community Centre and shops. We distributed our posters door to door, and it gave us a chance to talk and communicate with community members there, they were pretty welcoming and enthusiastic about our program. We distributed it through social media too, with Jenny was helping to share it to some online community groups of York.
We built our mobile laboratory and hack, based on the famous Yogyakarta’s mobile food cart (angkringan), we named our cart “he(ac)k”. We built it in Jenny’s backyard, using recycled and used material surrounding her house and and the neighbourhood. We build it from scratch and use used cot, banners, wood, can, etc.. to build our mobile laboratory. Our mobile laboratory can function as a place for cooking, a workshop space and as performance material.
At 7th December 2019, we had our first event. The gathering was successful, we had some local people and local artists. Haryo prepared the Indonesian lunch at our he(ac)k with special herbs and spices from Indonesia, while Irene did a presentation and talk about HONF’s previous and upcoming projects. The event took longer than we expected. We met some artists from York, like Tim Burns, Nada Murphy and Rob Pampling. We exchanged our knowledge and experiences. They told us about their practice and more stories about York and the environment around.
They day after Jenny suggested to bring our he(ac)k outside, so it would be more visible to more people. We brought it into the street, it attracted people, they raised questions and wanted to know more about it. Kids stopped by and joined the workshops. The device attracted boys more than girls. It is a “cool” device for them; they were proud if they could build and make some sounds out of the water from various water samples of the Avon river. Some local artists and people of York always drop by and say hello to us at Jenny’s backyard almost every day. Tim Burns is one, and he asked us to visit his studio at Gwambygine. We went to visit it. It is a very interesting place, where the Aboriginal sacred stones, Gwambygine, lay there. He told us many stories about the history there. His studio is enormous and massive, we spent a great time there. It was a great two weeks, times flies, we enjoy our time at York, and appreciate the friendship and openness that the people of York offer us.
Yorkyakarta Meeting and Gathering
We prepared our second Yorkyakarta meeting and gathering. We invited friends and communities around York. One musician from York, Red, promised to come and he would invite other musicians from York.
It was a hot sunny day, when we had the second Yorkyakarta Program and we postponed the workshop for children, since the heat and temperature was too hot. We still had the Yorkyakarta gathering party, some neighbours came to help the preparation. Red and some of his musician friends came and jammed with us, we served Indonesian traditional food and beverages, such as chicken satay, getuk, fried banana and jamu beras kencur.
After the lunch party, we joined Red and another artist gathering at Beverley, a town near York. We met an artist community there, as well as other artists from York and Perth. We spent our evening at Beverly Art Gallery to talk, exchange knowledge, and jam with people and communities there.
We continued the research about Avon River and the water conditions there. Before European settlement the river has been described as mostly fresh and teeming with animal and bird life. The river was a prime food source and a profound spiritual resource and remains part of a significant song line for the Ballardong people. The river is now in a very different condition, degraded by the cumulative impacts of settlement and efforts to engineer the flow and flood pattern with the River Training Scheme when the riverbed and banks were bulldozed. There has also been an inflow of salt and sediment from agricultural practices.
We came out with an idea to develop a work that combines a sustainable solution and present it artistically. We will construct a prototype of an artificial wetland.
Constructed wetlands have most commonly been used in wastewater treatment to control organic matter (biota), nitrogen, and phosphorus. The wetland process is also used for controlling trace metals and other toxic materials in groundwater. Wetlands are often described as “filtering out” pollutants from water, acting as “nature’s kidneys.” Wetlands are able to remove nitrogen and phosphorus through a combination of physical, chemical, and biological processes. These naturally occurring processes adsorb/absorb, transform, sequester, and remove nutrients and other chemicals as water slowly flows through the wetland.
We used the leftover coffee grounds from Jenny’s coffee shop as a base to function as a water filter and purifier. We designed a wetland that can be self-sustaining, reduce water pollution and take care of the biota of the Avon River, and can function as a floating gallery along the Avon River.
For our deeper research and observation, John Hughes and his wife, Maryanne from River Conservation Centre, took us to see other wetlands around York. They are very happy and enthusiastic about this project and will spread the information to the River Conservation community and collaborate with us to realize the project.
We both are excited about the constructed wetland project, and hope it can bring a positive impact to reduce water pollution for the Avon River, and can be implemented and adapt at other places that have the same problem.
Unforgettable York
Following our research with River Conservation Centre ee started to build a prototype of our wetland (floating garden), making several mini wetlands using coffee ground water filter pottery as the base. We had difficulties to make strong and water resistant water filter from coffee grounds, Jason gave us a lot of advice and after trial and error we found some methods.
We assembled the mini wetland using some local plants then put some DIY electronic circuits to generate the microbiome, acid from plants and water conductivity in to sound and visual through open source software and hardware.
It was a hot sunny day, when our last presentation “Botanicalia Orchestra”. The performance was in front 152 Gallery, York. After the performance, we continued with prepositions and discussion in a cozy room inside the Botanicalia Cafe. It was an interesting discussion going on after the presentation and we got a lot of good critical questions and input.
We wrapped up our project, and spent some quiet couple days at York. We had an early Christmas celebration, with Tim Burns and Jason, and got a surprise visit from Murray, an artist from Beverly. It was a sad moment, when we had to leave York. It was an amazing time, amazing nature and amazing people we found and met. We are looking forward to going back to York.
