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DESIGN | HERITAGE | ENVIRONMENT
ISSUE 17
Sculpting Wool
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Recycling Mixed Textiles
Designing a Sensibility for Sustainable Clothing The Colour of Algae
Straw Hats and Wetland Plants 1
Open Source Citizen-Led Architecture
Tackling Oil Sponsorship in the Arts and Culture Making Ecocide Law
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Contents ARTISANS 8.
Lasting Bridalwear
12. The Colour of Algae 18. Sculpting Wool 24. Straw Hats and Wetland Plants 28. Shoes that Changed the World 30. The Gallery Wall “A Misremembered Childhood” 34. Creative Practice by Chance and Discovery in the Isle of Arran
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Sally Blake
40. Tutorial by Fiona Doubleday 42. Using Potential Space to Explore the Human/Nature Relationship BUSINESS 52. How Sustainable are Biomaterials? 54. Designing Sustainable Communities with Open Source Citizen-Led Architecture 56. Innovations for Recycling Mixed Plastics 58. Ecological Solutions Inspired by Tradition: The Soap 60. Tips for Sustainable Jewellery-Making and Buying 62. Step by Step: Hammered Ear Climbers SOCIETY 66. Breaking Silence and Isolation One Pocket at a Time
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Fiona Doubleday
70. Eternity Pocket Tutorial 72. Cultivating Dye... How a Passion for Vegetable Dye Grew into the Idea for a Multi-Location Dye Garden 76. Circular Systems: The Case of Rapanui 78. Designing a Sensibility for Sustainable Clothing 80. Fighting Climate Change During School Exams 82. Advocating for The Earth. The Law According to Polly Higgins 84. “Stolen Land, Stolen Culture, Stolen Climate”: Tackling Oil Sponsorship of the Arts and Culture 89. Learning about CO2 in School
BOOK REVIEWS, UPCOMING EVENTS & MORE 90. The Organic Painter Book Review 90. Upcoming Exhibitions Highlighting Environmental Precariousness and Species Extinction: Alison Brown’s Artistic Journey
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Barbara Melling
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Dear Readers,
Silvia Ronconi
Welcome to the 17th edition of No Serial Number Magazine! As you may notice, we have made a few changes in preparation for the relaunch in 2020. We have now simplified the format, so there are now only three sections: Artisan, Business, and Society. The artisan section looks at the sphere of the handmade. Here we seek to go back to how things are made and where materials come from and how sustainable they are. In the business section we explore business models that put people and planet first. In the society section we look at how arts and culture are key to achieving positive change and how activists are increasingly putting pressure on governments to act urgently on the environmental crisis we are facing. The cover has also changed. We decided that Design | Heritage | Environment better reflects what we are doing with the magazine. A couple of updates: from the next issue you’ll be able to become a sponsor of No Serial Number Magazine. Please send us an email or visit our website if you’d like more information about this. Also, we are planning to create an online map of places where you can read No Serial Number Magazine for free. If you know of any spaces open to the public (public libraries, arts colleges, open studios, receptions of organisations, museums, art galleries, arts cafes) where you think No Serial Number Magazine would be cherished and displayed permanently for the public to consult, we are giving a limited number of copies away (including free UK delivery) at our discretion. These spaces will be added to an online map on our website with information on how to get there and relevant web links. If you can help us with this project do get in touch. This programme is also open to readers from outside the UK, but please note the recipient will need to pay shipping costs.
Mia Sylvia
Let us know what you think of the changes.
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All the best,
Alessandra & NSN Team
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ARTISANS
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Lasting Bridalwear
Words by Paige Perillat-Piratoine Photography by MiaSylvia Here I am pictured in my absolute element, styling at a photoshoot and creating a bespoke backdrop for the ceremony. All fabrics are hand dyed by yours truly. Camilla Andrea Photography
Y
ou’ll most likely find Mia at a scrapyard sourcing odds and sods of discarded metal to make the rust colour you can see on some of her hand-dyed garments. She now has a big collection of rusty metal, a steampunk palette for natural-dye experiments. And Mia dyes the most sacred of garments - she mostly works on wedding dresses. Weddings are an important day in our lives, a rite of passage that marks the start of a new micro-era, and the preparation that goes into them is immense. Many spend countless hours planning for one splendid event, but it has a finite point in time, and all the beauty that has been gathered and arranged tends to
turn into one gorgeous pile of waste. Indeed, weddings tend not to be the most eco-conscious industry, perhaps understandably so. The market has not provided the easiest platform to plan consciously, and the stress involved in gathering families together can be overwhelming enough to bypass that priority. But Mia saw that it could be otherwise, and chose to offer an alternative to bridal customers. She makes it so that a dress that sparked so much joy on one day doesn’t have to spend the rest of its life in the cupboard. Mia repurposes vintage dresses and enhances them with natural pigment, creating something bespoke that can be worn time and time again. This eco-conscious attitude can be traced back to her childhood, which featured an abundance of time spent in charity shops, hunting upcycled furniture, and a make-andmend ethos. Outdoor trails and foraging for food have also long been a passion and have now translated into a study of plants for some of their other qualities: natural dyes. Mia studied art and developed a special interest in textiles - she specialised in embroidery and bead-works at first, but soon turned to natural dyes when she grew frustrated by the huge gap in education regarding sustainability in textiles. Thankfully, the university library provided books on African Shibori techniques and vast amounts of knowledge around the use of natural pigments. Eventually she took a placement with a local weaver, Aviva Leigh studios, who teaches these techniques. She studied with them intensively for two years, immersed in the joys of natural pigments and creating natural pastes for screen printing. She trialled and tested furiously, to the point that her methods were called “disturbingly obsessive”. But the insanity gave her a treasure: a vast catalogue of natural colours, and methods to achieve them. The idea of applying these methods to bridalwear came in a Eureka moment one night, a suggestion from a housemate. The idea clung to her skin and determined every project in her degree from then on. She is particularly influenced by the Victorian language of flowers, and its unique way of assigning symbolism to plants in order to narrate a garment. Her pieces each hide a secret Victorian poetry mixed with inspiration from pre-Raphaelite paintings. The common theme is romance and its hidden language of imagery.
Hand foraged flowers and plants from countryside walks. Scattered across organic cotton muslin, ready to be dyed Left image: A bundle dye. Pictured is turmeric, black turtle beans, dried hibiscus, red cabbage, onion skins and soda ash. Soda ash is an alkaline which reacts to the pH in red cabbage, turning the pigments green.
The process too is very romantic, and very emotional. At the start of a piece you’ll find Mia buried deep in a vintage shop, burrowing for the dresses that make her heart beat. 9
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Linen fibre dyed with microalgae. Porphyridium Purpureum (pink) Spirulina, Chlorella (green, green-blue), Nannochloropsis (yellow) 12
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Q&A: The Colour of ALgae Photography by Nost.algae and Jimimoku
Recently we came across the delicate colour range of Nost. algae. The images captured us immediately. We entered the site. We decoded the name. ‘Algae’ is a household name: it is Latin but also English. It is one of those Latin names merged directly into scientific language and, therefore, beyond linguistic boundaries. Nost.algae - a sort of crasis of the Latin expression ‘nostrae algae’ (our algae) - is particularly clever. Now we would like to know a little bit more because we feel that your work is close to us and our readers at No Serial Number Magazine. Destined for incredible developments in all fields (fashion, painting, and all activities that make use of colours), this is a “colourful” project which is extremely relevant today. Born just three years ago as part of a Masters in Textile Design at Chelsea College of Arts, the project has already led to the production of a first capsule collection and colour prototypes for different uses. We try to learn more from the protagonist of this adventure, Luisa Balaban.
When did you become interested in natural dyeing? I became interested in natural dyeing during my MA at Chelsea College of Arts. I was studying in London and my part time job was in Crussh, a natural juice bar in Nothing Hill - this is when I first came into contact with spirulina powder. I was very curious what was the actual origin of spirulina and I started reading and getting documentation about blue-
green algae. It absolutely blew my mind - there is such variety in terms of types of algae out there! There are green algae and red algae and blue-green and brown, yellow. I thought algae must be capable of offering this all-natural, renewable pigment. It soon became my main focus and obsession. I started experimenting with spirulina powder but it wasn’t as good as if I was working with the freshly harvested product. It took me another six months to get in contact with a variety of research labs across the country and abroad and to find Dr. Claudio Fuentes Grunewald from Department of Biosciences, College of Science, Swansea University/Prifysgol Abertawe, and to be able to experiment with different algae grown in the lab. How did you get the idea of investigating the possibility of extracting colour from microalgae? I was very intrigued by the blue-green colour of spirulina when in contact with water, and as I was already looking for something natural to work with on textiles I thought I should see what that blue pigment is all about. As you might know, the pigments are water-soluble and it might be difficult to maintain colour for a very long time. I am very interested to work with other strains of microalgae that might originate from more extreme environments, and therefore might be more performant in terms of pigment as well as other parameters. Tell us about your journey and your trials and errors. How were your first results and how did the process change as you experimented? Well, I first started with ten grams of spirulina taken from the shop I was working in. I was printing with that and the method changed during my experiments. Then I started working with commercial spirulina and after some months of endlessly and unsuccessfully looking for a very specific red algae called ‘haematococcus pluvialis’, or Asthaxantin, in all the aquaculture shops in London (thanks to my partner, James, who supported me during that time of failure and learning), I have reached the conclusion that my project can only advance if I collaborate with someone who works in a lab
Bulk fabric (pre production) Avocado shell and stone dyed 13
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Straw hats and wetland plants Words by Rosa Rossi Photography by Elia Palange
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he chance to visit a milliner’s workshop is a great opportunity to learn more about the world of hats. And the world of hats really is a melting pot of materials, techniques, and skills. Not only that, it is also an excellent excuse to think about craft production, from cultivating and harvesting primary materials to processing them into threads and textiles. And then there is the crossover between different technical skills, the tension between artisanal and mass production techniques, and changes to the way we dress that - in roughly seventy years - have reduced the hat to a museum piece.
not really hats either. They are, Silvia tells us, berets designed and created by Stefan Lochner (Feine Hüte, Berlin). They are made from recycled sacks originating from different places and the designs make skilful use of the creative and very colourful writing all over them. Indeed, a workshop located in a small town favoured by mostly northern European tourists needs to have a diverse product range. This allows it to attract customers with tasteful, new offerings. Another peculiarity of this place that strikes you immediately is that materials and moulds waiting to be turned into completed hats sit alongside natural materials for stuffing chairs. Because in this workshop, the same skills can be used for very different purposes.
Our visit to Silvia Ronconi’s workshop allowed us to reflect on these questions. We also had the chance to touch the hats, study them from every angle, and - why not? - try them on. Being June, it was also a seasonal visit. The workshop is located in Bolsena, a delicious town on the shore of the lake of the same name, on the border between Lazio and Tuscany. Inevitably, it was the straw hats that drew our attention.
Because of this, our gallery concentrates on a narrow but very wide range of hats which encompasses the assortment of materials and processes this craft uses. When it comes to summer hats, straw is king. We already know that. But did you know that straw is a generic name conventionally used to refer to a huge variety of natural fibres ranging from grasses to leaves (sisal and raffia) and fruit (coconut)? As well as grasses, fibres are also made from wetland plants. These are mostly used for baskets and other
When we arrived at Silvia’s workshop, it was a struggle to not get lost in the incredible variety of hats on show. Many of the huge variety of hats are made from straw. But there are many more made from different materials. Some of them, neatly displayed on a shelf, are not made of straw and are
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BUSINESS
society
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“Stolen land, stolen culture, stolen climate”: tackling oil sponsorship of the arts and culture Article based on an interview with Danny Chivers, BP or not BP? Photography by BP or not BP?
On 10th June 2019, BP or not BP? organised an action at the BP Portrait Awards, an internationally famous portrait prize and the main event that BP sponsors at the National Portrait Gallery in the UK. This sponsorship puts artists in a really difficult position because portrait artists don’t have many high-profile opportunities. If you’re an artist and you have any concerns about the fossil-fuel industry, you have to leave your ethics at the door in order to take part in the awards. It’s really problematic. This year, the day before the awards, one of the judges of the awards spoke out against the BP sponsorship, which is unprecedented. On the night of the awards party, BP or not BP? blockaded all the pedestrian entrances into the portrait gallery. There were people sitting in doorways, attached to gates with bicycle locks, so that the guests had to wait outside. While they were waiting, some portrait artists and a cartoonist were creating live artwork outside the gallery in front of them. The main focus of the artwork was the portraits of frontline defenders from around the world, people from communities who are fighting back against BP and climate change. They were bringing their faces, and their voices, and their stories into that space. After half an hour the gallery decided they had had enough of the disruption. They figured out that they could get the guests in if they put down some plastic steps and invited them to climb over a wall. So, all the VIPs, in their smart evening outfits, were clambering over this wall, past the artists and into the gallery. The whole spectacle was completely bizarre. At the event senior executives from BP were presiding with horror on their faces. We also gave out fake awards programs that we’d made to look like the real thing, but containing the portraits of the frontline environmental activists and the senior BP executives who were in the room that night. There were photos of them with information about BP. We didn’t want to stop the event from happening but we wanted to cause some disruption to show the other side of the story. Why BP or not BP? exists: facing the climate emergency The story begins in 2012, when BP sponsored the London Olympics as the official Sustainability Partner (yes, really). They also sponsored the Cultural Olympiad, which involves many cultural events in the UK, including the World Shakespeare Festival. In 2012, for the first time that we know of, Shakespeare plays were being sponsored by an oil company. A group of us who were friends in Oxford, people who were concerned about climate change but also theatre lovers, saw this happening and thought that this needed to be challenged. One of the major reasons that society hasn’t tackled climate change yet is because of the power of the fuel industry: their 84
NO SERIAL NUMBER political influence, their lobbying, their push to extract more and more fuels we can’t afford to burn. One of the ways in which they get away with these activities is by sponsoring arts and culture. It gives them this veneer of legitimacy, this social licence that allows them to present themselves as an acceptable industry. They shape a narrative that says, ‘Look, we’re an important part of society, look at all the art we support’. By challenging this narrative, we could actually remove a really important part of the fossil fuel industry’s power and loosen its grip on our culture, our public policy and our public spaces. This is incredibly important at this moment of climate crisis. BP or not BP? was initially inspired by a group called Liberate Tate, which formed in 2010. They were creating art without permission in Tate galleries because Tate was sponsored by BP. If they’re using art to challenge sponsorship of an art gallery, we thought, then we could use theatre to challenge oil sponsorship of a theatre. We then thought: Let’s buy tickets to some of these oil-sponsored plays. Let’s go along as though we’re normal members of the audience and five minutes before the start of the play, let’s jump on stage without permission and create our own little performance in Shakespearean style, using Shakespearean language and costume, referring to the play, but being all about oil, climate change, pollution, and human rights. What would happen? Would we get thrown off, would we get booed? What would be the response? And so we started doing this and we got a fantastic response, with laughter and applause from the audience. Before too long, actors, playwrights, directors, people in the theatre world, came out in support of what we were doing. We were getting lots of media coverage, especially in the theatre press. By the end of that season of BP-sponsored plays, suddenly the BP sponsorship of the Royal Shakespeare Company was significantly downgraded. So we started creating performances in other oil-sponsored museums and galleries, and our group grew and grew. From small numbers of people jumping onto a stage we now have these enormous flash-mob performances of hundreds of people taking over the British Museum. We also had other types of actions. Once we had a performance where we had a map of cities around the world that suffer from rising sea levels from climate change. We had visitors from around the world in the museum finding their own homes on that map and talking to us about what it meant for them to be at risk and what they felt about BP sponsoring the museum. That was incredibly powerful. BP doesn’t want to interact with the public, except on its own terms. It’s spending all this money on sponsorship and advertising so it can put its message out there and not be challenged. These arts and cultural institutions become something that BP can then hide behind. When there’s criticism of these sponsorship deals, BP rarely responds itself. Instead, we have the discomfiting sight of directors of art galleries, museums, and theatres defending the oil industry, which is not what these overwhelmingly publicly-funded institutions should be doing. Meanwhile, BP has been talking about renewables for 30 years and yet, at this moment in time, in the middle of this horrific climate crisis, only 3% of its investments are in renewables. 97% are still in oil and gas. It is fundamentally an oil and gas company that is not going to change voluntarily.
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A mAGAZINE ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRAFT MOVEMENT Why the name “No Serial Number”? Because nature and craft share a common characteristic, they are not made in series. They are both the result of an organic, slow process of growth and development. Not one leaf is the same, nor is a handmade creation. Crafts remind us that our hands and minds can work in tune with our natural environment to make things that are useful, or simply beautiful. As a society, we are in urgent need to slow down and preserve our collective environmental and artisanal heritages from unsustainable production practices and corporate greed. No Serial Number Magazine is a humble attempt to explore how creativity, nature, activism and business intersect in contemporary society. Who is it for? artists, artisans, casual makers, craftivists, and conscious citizens Topics textile arts • natural colours • traditional trades and crafts • creative upcycling and salvaging • slow fashion • zero-waste lifestyle • biodiversity • grassroots environmental movements INDEPENDENTLY PUBLISHED BY NO SERIAL NUMBER ISSN 2516-1776 (Print) ISSN 2516-1784 (Online)
No Serial Number Magazine www.noserialnumber.org info@noserialnumber.org Fb: www.facebook.com/noserialnumbermagazine Twitter: @N0serialnumberM Use #NoSerialNumber Pinterest: noserialnumber Instagram: @noserialnumber.com_magazine
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