COP26 Report

V1.1 2021

The Glasgow School of Art and COP26

Acknowledgements Cover Image: flannery o'kafka (Fine Art Photography 2018)

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Introduction The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, was held in Glasgow, Scotland from 31 October to 13 November 2021. Working with a range of external partners and collaboratively, we designed and delivered a range of digital and in-person activities in response to COP26, open to internal and external audiences, hosted two dinners which included launching our partnership with the Eden Projects, incorporated specific projects into the curriculum and attended a host of events being held in the City during the two weeks of COP26.

Specific branding was developed (see https://vimeo.com/641558127) working with one of our Glasgow based creative agencies D8 (see the creative marque development here via Issuu). This marque will be used across the year’s COP-related Close of Play activity and events.

Events Close Of Play: Climate Emergency and Creative Action The GSA’s year long series of online public talks and events delivered by GSA Exhibitions, explores the ways in which creative actions and multi-disciplinary practice can address climate emergency, sustainability, and climate justice. There have been 13 events and exhibitions to date – 8 online events, 2 workshops, 3 exhibitions - with over 600 online viewers, 60 workshop participants and 400 in person visits. Where speakers have given permission, recordings will be edited, captioned and uploaded over the next months to Planet e-Stream and the GSA Vimeo channel.

Each invited speaker for Close Of Play is hosted by a different part of the GSA, which to date has included Sculpture and Environmental Art, First Year Experience, GSA Archives, MFA, MSA and Art Writing. The events also have had student and graduate presenters working alongside hosting staff.

The Close of Play programme has worked across the disciplines, involving 60 GSA students and 26 staff members as direct participants in exhibitions and events. This is the first GSA public talks programme that is Cross-School, with an ability to showcase different areas of GSA and often link in with their work around sustainability themes. Semester 2 and 3 are open to other courses, student group and student societies developing online public events. Partners have included University of the Arts, London (UAL, Climate Emergency Network), Glasgow Art Club and Glasgow Women’s Library (GWL).

‘Art of the Possible’, three exhibitions at Glasgow Art Club running 29 Oct – 4 Dec 2021

'Art of the Possible’ is a collaboration between The Glasgow School of Art and Glasgow Art Club (GAC). This in-person exhibition of three parts, taking place at GAC, coincided with the COP26. 20 GSA students and staff responded to an open call for work relating to climate change and sustainability. Their work is shown alongside GAC members in The Main Gallery at Glasgow Art Club 29 Oct – 4 Nov 2021. On the first floor of Glasgow Art Club, there is a focus on sustainable making processes through two exhibitions: ‘Silver Narratives Worth Celebrating’ by silversmith and GSA alumna Karen Westland and ‘In-Process’, in the Billiard room, by the new FIX Photography Collective. FIX Photography Collective has been founded by GSA staff member Christina McBride and MFA alumna Jess Holdengarde.

‘Walking Forest’, hosted

by Sculpture and Environmental Art

The first ‘Close Of Play’ online event was hosted by Sculpture and Environmental Art and was in association with Climate Emergency Network (University of The Arts London). Walking Forest is a 10-year interdisciplinary project culminating in 2028 the planting of an intentional woodland to honour women Earth defenders, inspired by Batheaston’s Suffragette Arboretum planted in the early 20th century and led by artists Lucy Neal, Anne-Marie Culhane, Ruth Ben-Tovim and Shelley Castle. This talk linked in with wider activity SEA was engaged in with Walking Forest. SEA students were able to elect to participate in making work for Walking Forest’s action at COP26.

‘Roots, hands’, Walking Forest 2019

'Being Human' keynote: Professor Lucy Orta and Professor Ramia Mazé, hosted by First Year Experience.

This keynote was part of First Year Experience’s Co-Lab 1, ‘Being Human and the Anthropocene’ and was in association with Climate Emergency Network (UAL). Professor Ramia Mazé (Professor in Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability at London College of Communication, University of the Arts) presented on an expanding range of ways to engage creatively with ecology and with transitions to more just and sustainable ways of living. She discussed some examples of critical and participatory design approaches.

Professor Lucy Orta (Chair of Art and the Environment, University of the Arts London) gave her keynote on examples of her visual arts practice that investigated the interrelations between the individual body and community structures. 50 GSA students answered an open call to participate in customising suits as part of Orta’s ‘Nexus Architecture’ project, with workshops in Reid Gallery. Their brief was to respond to the question ‘What would the earth have us do?’ The costumes were then sent to Chelsea School of Art & Design, for their students to work on. The costumes were then worn by Chelsea students as part of climate action parade ‘Carnival of Crisis’. This was referenced in an article in Vogue (‘Decolonise, Decarbonise! Solutions not Pollution’, 12.11.21, Vogue online).

Climate Emergency Roundtable: Culture as Cornerstone

A two-part online roundtable event in response to the COP26 Climate Summit. Guests from across the Higher Education and Cultural sectors as well as guests from other fields discussed four topics, responding to questions and prompts submitted by members of the UAL and GSA communities. This event was co-devised by GSA and UAL Climate Emergency Network.

DAY 1 Convened by Professor Penny Macbeth, Director, GSA, James Purnell, President and Vice-Chancellor, UAL, and Allan Atlee, Deputy Director, GSA. Curriculum Transformation in the Age of Emergency – exploring how educators and students can work together to embed climate and ecological justice within the curriculum and in everything we do.

• • • • • • • • •

Dr Nicky Ryan, Dean of Design, London College of Communication, UAL David Cross, Reader in Fine Art, Chelsea, Camberwell and Wimbledon Colleges, UAL Professor Becky Earley, UAL Chair of Sustainable Fashion Textile Design & Co-Director, Centre for Circular Design, UAL Alyssa Gilbert, Director of Policy and Translation at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College London / COP26 Universities Network Maria Hansen, Executive Director, ELIA - The European League of Institutes of the Arts Dr Gordon Hush - Head of Innovation School, GSA Alejandro Martinez, Climate Advocate, London College of Communication, UAL Rory O’Neill Executive Trustee and President, GSASA Professor Ramia Mazé, London College of Communication, UAL

Culture as the Fourth Pillar of Sustainable Development debated the contribution of the Arts to Culture as the fourth pillar of Sustainable Development and its relationship to pillars of economic viability, environmental protection and social equity. Through responding to the question, what has culture got to do with Climate Justice? Contributors shared ideas and experiences relating to creative education, advocacy, activism and citizen participation and roles of artists and designers.

• • • •

Dilys Williams, Professor of Fashion Design for Sustainability / Director Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion, UAL Leonie Bell, Director, V&A Dundee Naresh Ramchandani, Partner, Pentagram / Co-founder, Do The Green Thing Professor Jeremy Till, Head of Central Saint Martins and Pro-Vice Chancellor, UAL

DAY 2 Convened by Allan Atlee, Deputy Director, GSA and Professor Jeremy Till, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) UAL, Head of College, Central Saint Martins.

We Need Each Other: Transdisciplinarity and Interdependence for Just and Ecocentric Futures considered how combinations of creative practices and disciplines might offer forms of critical understanding and ways of engaging with the climate emergency.

• •

• • •

Chair: Dr Gordon Hush- Head of Innovation School, GSA Professor Tom Corby - Associate Dean, Research, Central Saint Martins, UAL & Co-founder and Principal Investigator, Manifest Data Lab Janine Francois, Course Leader, Central Saint Martins & Governor, UAL Dr Kate Goldsworthy, Co-Director, Centre for Circular Design, UAL Professor Stuart Jeffrey, Professor of Digital Heritage at the School of Simulation and Visualisation, GSA; and Co-Director, One Ocean Hub

With GSA graduate Lydia Stewart and GSA MRes student Lyndsey Sherrod as respondents.

Closing Session More than Words: From Strategies into Action, facilitated

by Deepa Patel, drawed together speakers from all three previous sessions to move from discussion into tangible action.

Close Of Play: Climate Emergency and Creative Action Collecting in a Climate Emergency

What are the ways in which institutions have been collecting activism?

And what are the issues around collecting works that address the climate emergency? This event was co-chaired by Susannah Waters (Archives and Collections Manager, The Glasgow School of Art) and Judy Willcocks (Head of Museum & Study Collection at Central Saint Martins) and delivered in association with Climate Emergency Network (UAL).

Caroline Gausden, curator at Glasgow Women’s Library discussed GWL’s Greenham Common archive whilst Samantha Jenkins, Collections Officer at People’s History Museum, Manchester gave examples on how they collected protest.

Lucie Pardue and Judy Willcocks (UAL) discussed concerns including endangered materials, polluting processes, the carbon footprint of longterm preservation and asked the question should institutions be collecting at all?

Bridget McKenzie and Justine Boussard presented Climate Museum UK’s project with MA Design History students at RCA on developing their collections ethos and processes. Part of this work has contributed to a chapter in the publication accompanying the ‘Reimagining Museums for Climate Action’ exhibition in Glasgow.

Susanna Cordner presented Contemporary Collecting Toolkit - an ethical toolkit that explores the resources and materials required to collect and preserve museum objects, the environmental cost of associated digital resources, how what we collect represents people as actors in climate change, collecting processes and intangible contributors to climate change and holding financial processes, economic practice and corporations to account.

A second related event, ‘Collecting the Climate Emergency: Process and Practice’ will take place on Earth Day, 2022. This event is in association with Glasgow Women’s Library, UAL and GSA.

Close of Play: Climate Emergency and Creative Action – Keynote, Kunlé Adeyemi 'Building African Water Cities'

Architect Kunlé Adeyemi gave the second Close Of Play keynote, co-chaired by Professor Chris Platt, Chair of Architecture and two MSA students, Maria Kinash and Aurora Takami Siljedahl. Adeyemi discussed his ‘Building African Water Cities’ project.

Adeyemi is an architect, professor and development strategist whose works are internationally recognised for originality and innovation. He is the founder and principal of NLÉ – an architecture, design and urbanism practice founded in 2010, for innovating cities and communities. His notable works include ‘Makoko Floating System (MFSTM)’ - a ground breaking, prefabricated, building solution for developments on water - deployed in 5 countries across 3 continents, with the latest iteration Mansa Floating Hub in Sao Vicente, Cape Verde.

Adeyemi is currently an Adjunct Visiting Professor at the University of Lagos, following appointments in various institutions including Harvard, Princeton, Cornell and Columbia Universities, where he leads academic research in architecture and urban solutions that are closer to societal, environmental and economic needs.

Close of Play: Climate Emergency and Creative Action - Carbon Usage

Walking Tour with Dr. Ewan Gibbs, Historian of Scotland’s Energy Industries, University of Glasgow.

Glasgow lay at the centre of the development of a global carbon economy and was itself transformed by coal and then oil technologies during the nineteenth and twentieth century. This tour stopped at seven locations including Customs House, Clyde St; The Finnieston Crane; and the former British National Oil Corporation HQ on St Vincent Street; to explore some of the key locations in a story of invention, industry, empire and local and global justice and injustice.

This walking tour was in association with The Drouth, Scotland’s weekly web journal for literature, art, politics and informed critical commentary. Since being founded by Johnny Rodger (MSA tutor) and Mitch Miller (GSA PhD) as a quarterly magazine back in 2001, The Drouth has been front and centre of cultural, political and artistic debates.

Sustaining a photographic practice in an ecological crisis, Dec 2021

This Close Of Play event brings togther photographic and lens-based practitioners from Fix Photography Collective, The London Alternative Photography Collective and The Sustainable Darkroom. The event is hosted by GSA MFA and chaired by MFA student Anna Winther.

The talk provides a platform for conversations around issues of sustainability in terms of photographic materials and processes and will consider some of the questions surrounding the role of photography in an ecological crisis. It will also reflect on ‘the Collective’ as a means to support and enable practice, education and action.

FIX Photography Collective is an artist-run collective founded by Christina McBride (GSA tutor) and Jess Holdengarde in Glasgow. The collective aims to bring together a community of lens-based practitioners who share a commitment to analogue processes, a concern for the natural environment and a commitment to expand new, exciting and more sustainable processes and materials within photography.

Close of Play: Climate Emergency and Creative Action

A free one-day online workshop hosted by FIX Photography Collective and The Glasgow School of Art. The workshop offers an introduction to plant based developers and sustainable photographic practices.

The Phytogram utilises the chemistry of plants for the creation of images on photographic emulsion. This is an environmentally friendly analogue process that requires no camera or darkroom facilities and can be done safely from home.

The workshop is aimed for those wanting to gain a deeper understanding of sustainable photographic processes whilst engaging with a light sensitive method that both considers and utilises the natural environment. The workshop will be led by artist and educator Vanessa Cowling who is based in Cape Town. Vanessa Cowling will give a brief introduction to her own experiments with the Phytogram process and provide a step by step guide to making a Phytogram at home.

Other Events held during COP26

Concealed by Nature Hosted by Professor Penny Macbeth, Director of the GSA, and featuring Sir Tim Smit KBE, founder of the Eden Project; Andrew Whalley, Chair of Grimshaw Architects; Anna Gordon, Head of Silversmithing + Jewellery, and GSA graduates Rachel Hetherington (Silversmithing + Jewellery 2021) and Kialy Tihngang (Textile Design 2021 /Newbery Medal winner 2021).

Facilitated by Alan Moore of the School for Beautiful Business.

Concealed by Nature was a lively and thought-provoking series of provocations, followed by an interactive panel discussion exploring how the GSA’s disciplines relate to the natural world, and the extent to which they both derive inspiration from it and influence it. Watch the interactive panel discussion.

This event also marks the launch of a long-term and innovative partnership between The Glasgow School of Art and the Eden Project in conjunction with Grimshaw Architects.

Useless Machines, Kialy Tihngang 2021

School of Fine Art Friday Event: Wayne Binitie

Wayne Binitie is an artist and sculptor displayed newly commissioned artworks in the Polar Zero exhibition at the Glasgow Science Centre, during the COP26 climate change conference. He was the only Government-commissioned artist for the Green Zone.

A glass sculpture containing Antarctic air from the year 1765 featured in the immersive exhibition aiming to bring climate science, art and engineering together to explore the issue of climate change in new ways.

He is currently completing his PhD - Polar Aesthetics: Art of the Arctic and Antarctic which asks, ‘What hidden histories written in polar ice can contemporary art reveal?’

Additionally, SEA students and staff member visited the Green Zone to meet the artist and see the work. Wayne’s work Polar Zero drew on his collaboration with Arup and the British Antarctic Survey.

Read more in The Guardian.

Roundtable discussion: The Ocean and Climate Justice: Impact, Adaptation and Mitigation

This event was organised by the One Ocean Hub for as part of the Scottish Government COP26 event series to highlight an important message that inclusive ocean governance is essential to ensure that resilience and adaptation to climate change is sustainable and just. The roundtable explored the impacts of climate change upon an array of internationally guaranteed human rights such as the human right to health and in some coastal communities, the right to self-determination and life.

Speakers included: • • • • •

Professor Stuart Jeffrey (The Glasgow School of Art) and Professor Elisa Morgera (University of Strathclyde) Dr David Wilson (University of Strathclyde, UK) and Professor Rose Boswell (Nelson Mandela University) Dr Bernadette Snow (University of Strathclyde), Professor Jeremy Hills (University of South Pacific) and Dr Kelly Hoareau (University of Seychelles).

Dr Sebastian Hennige (University of Edinburgh) Dr John Pinnegar (CEFAS) and Professor Warwick Sauer (Rhodes University).

The One Ocean Hub is an international programme of research for sustainable development, working to promote fair and inclusive decisionmaking for a healthy ocean whereby people and the planet can flourish.

The GSA is a research partner in One Ocean Hub.

School of Design and Johnson Banks – COP26 Branding

GSA School of Design Visiting Professor Michael Johnson of Johnson Banks gave a talk to the School on the Friday prior to the conference opening.

Johnson Banks were the creators of the COP26 branding.

Innovation School

The COP26 Zero Carbon Horizons Summit brought together policy makers, industry and thought leaders from across the UK who want to shape the future of the built environment. The event discussed the elephants in the room and created radical, actionable ideas to solve challenges that stand in the way of a prosperous and resilient future. The GSA’s Innovation School’s Paul Smith and Madeline Smith participated in the summit as part of the Digital Health Institute a research partnership between the GSA and University of Strathclyde.

Construction Scotland Innovation Centre - Zero Carbon Horizons Summit

The Innovation School also contributed to a CSIC event becoming a United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)’s International Centre of Excellence.

The Common Guild

Professor Ross Birrell participated in the discussion event 'The Art of Gustav Metzger and Climate Activism', The Common Guild, 3 Nov, an event held to mark the journey around Glasgow of Gustav’s Metzger’s car sculpture, Mobbile, programmed in response to COP 26. The discussion involved responses to Metzger’s life and work, his call for us to ‘Remember Nature’ and the relationship between art and activism.

GSA Hosted Dinners Launching GSA’s new partnership with the Eden Project.

Following the livestreamed interactive panel discussion (see Concealed by Nature), the GSA hosted a dinner to mark the launch of a long-term and innovative partnership between The Glasgow School of Art and the Eden Project in conjunction with Grimshaw Architects.

The Glasgow School Art is developing a series of academic courses and collaborative research practice in partnership with the Eden Project and international architecture practice Grimshaw. The course, named Biomimetic Design, will derive inspiration from nature and deliver a developing and investigative approach to design to instil a resilient and regenerative approach across the full spectrum of architecture, design, and fine art.

The launch of the new design course was hosted at The Glasgow Art Club on 4 November led by Professor Penny Macbeth, GSA Director, with presentations from two recent GSA graduates Kialy Tihngang (watch below) and Rachel Hetherington. Following this a panel discussion moderated by Alan Moore of Beautiful Business, brought together Professor Penny Macbeth with Sir Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project, Andrew Whalley Chairman of Grimshaw and Anna Gordon, GSA Head of Silversmithing & Jewellery.

Read more at GSA Media Centre

GSA COP26 Networking Dinner

Hosted by Professor John French and Professor Penny Macbeth at The Glasgow Art Club.

Sustainability themed dinner with a range of international guests, predominantly academics/students attending COP 26 because of their professional/academic interest in sustainability or association with EAUC. Guest speaker, Ines Saenz Negrete - Dean of the Postgraduate School of Education, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Tecnológico de Monterrey.

Exhibitions GSA Exhibitions co-devised and delivered 'Art of the Possible’, a collaboration between The Glasgow School of Art and Glasgow Art Club (GAC). This in-person exhibition of three parts, with events, at Glasgow Art Club continued beyond the period of COP26, running until 4 Dec 2021: •

• •

Art of the Possible featured work by GSA students and students, including SoFA staff Justin Carter, Michael Mersinis and Marianne Greated alongside Glasgow Art Club members. 20 GSA students and staff responded to an open call for work relating to climate change and sustainability.

‘Silver Narratives Worth Celebrating’ by silversmith and GSA graduate Karen Westland ‘In-Process’ by the new FIX Photography Collective. FIX Photography Collective has been established by GSA lecturer Christina McBride and MFA alumna Jess Holdengarde.

Curriculum Projects A number of academic activities delivered either during the COP26 period or during Semester 1: School of Simulation and Visualisation

Serious Games Design & Research Project: “Personal Agency and the Climate Crisis” Students produced four board game prototypes themed around the climate emergency.

School of Design

Interior Design Postgraduate Studio Project: Slice, with PRADA/AMO Students are currently working with redirected material from Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons F/W21 Menswear show ‘Possible Feelings’, donated by Milan based META, a circular economy project working in collaboration with La Réserve des arts, Paris. Material generated as surplus of waste from ephemeral events such as fashion shows, redirected to cultural sector destinations, both practice-based and educational. GSA sole UK school, with Design Academy Eindhoven and the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague Interior Design Postgraduate Studio 20/21 Project: Three, with CitizenM, Vitra and Bute Fabric Upcycling of three classic chairs from the Vitra archive. The chairs were previously used in citizenM hotel in Glasgow and were due to be discarded. In line with citizenM's sustainability ethos, the brand decided to refurbish these rather than replace them. Included a panel discussion with Christian Grosen Rasmussen–Chief Design Officer of Vitra; Claudia Abt– citizenM’s Design Director, and Kat Hemingway from Bute Fabrics, accompanied by Sarah Douglas–Wallpaper* Editor in-Chief, and Patrick Macklin HoD. Featured online in WallpaperMag and Dezeen and will be published as a hardcopy in January 2022. The winning three pieces were exhibited in the Glasgow hotel during COP26.

Fashion (Year 2) Project: Great Fashion for Climate Action Students undertook a paid placement at Great Fashion for Climate Action at Kelvingrove Art Gallery on 9th November. Participating designers included: Burberry, Helen Kirkum, Mother of Pearl, Mulberry, Phoebe English, Priya Ahluwalia, Stella McCartney Silversmithing and Jewellery (Year 3) Project: Precious Encounters – an exhibition in Central Station As part of S&J’s Jewellery Conversations project, year 3 students were exploring how contemporary jewellery can be used to evoke reaction and conversation in public spaces. The project was asking students to articulate preciousness. Sponsored by Rolls-Royce Partners Finance and Culture and Business Fund Scotland. The exhibition is also online at www.jewelleryconversations.com Product Design Engineering (Year 3) Third year Product Design Engineering students designed abstract sculptures using compostable materials. These will complete their cyclic life decomposing and growing in the grounds of the Stow Building.

Com Des Graphics (Year 3) Worked with John Thorne, Greenpeace and the NUS’ SOS (Students Organising for Sustainability) Campaigning Group on a ‘Meat is Methane’ poster project.

Com Des Graphics (Year 4) Students worked on Fair COP, a fictional COP26 Fringe event identity project.Students contributed to a short film by London-based filmmaker Chris Parton: https://vimeo.com/644782664

School of Fine Art

The Reading Landscape research group scheduled a series of four seminars to coincide the beginning of COP26 called Practicing Landscape: Landscapes of Energy and Extraction. These began with Material Agency and Meaning on the 29th October which discussed recent projects involving material extracted from the landscape. This involved SoFA staff Justin Carter, along with artist Onya McCausland and geographer Danny McNally, and chaired by Dr Frances Robertson, DH&T. The findings from this symposium will be published in an online critical review in The Drouth (https://www.thedrouth.org/) in a special issue themed Climate to coincide with the COP26 conference.

Fine Art Photography hosted world-leading artist Sebastiao Salgado to talk about his project Amazonia. Additionally a curator’s talk by Liz Wells on “Seedscapes” (followed by trip to Dick Institute, Kilmarnock post COP26) on Environmental Photography – seeds and sustainability.

Dr Laura Haynes contributed to Resurgence & Ecologist COP26 Special Edition, 329.

The Mackintosh School of Architecture

The Mackintosh School of Architecture has taken the stance that the Climate Emergency is not just a topic for discussion during the COP26, but that it requires a sustained focus throughout the academic session, all years and programmes.

To that end the MSA Friday lecture series for semester 1 is entitled The time is NOW… with speakers each Friday at 5pm, open to all GSA and an external audience.

The Mackintosh School of Architecture has taken the stance that the Climate Emergency is not just a topic for discussion during the COP26, but that it requires a sustained focus throughout the academic session, all years and programmes.

Friday 1st October - Hattie Hartman Our first guest speaker is Hattie Hartman, AJ Sustainability Editor and host of the inspiring AJ Climate Champions Podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/aj-climate-champions-with-hattiehartman/id1536913247

Friday 8th October - Rachel Sayers, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studio Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios are at the forefront of climate conscious design in the UK, with the practice founded on environmental and social principles. The studio is committed to developing innovative approaches to low carbon architecture. Rachel Sayers a partner in the practice and MSA graduate, specialises in ‘designs for science’ and projects include laboratories for Oundle School, Aitchison College Pakistan, Royal Scientific Society Jordan and at the RIBA award-winning Chelsea Academy.

Heading up the FCBStudios charity group, Rachel also donates her time to charities based in Burundi and Kenya to provide facilities for street children using local technologies to support sustainable community life.

Friday 15th October - Dr Barnabas Calder Barnabas is Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool specialising in architecture, Brutalism, Modernism and the history of energy in architecture. His most recent book ‘Architecture: From Prehistory to Climate Emergency’ has just been published by Pelican,

Friday 22nd October - Amin Taha - Groupwork Groupwork, is an employee ownership trust formed as a collective of architects and designers committed to the delivery of high quality, well-conceived and thoughtfully detailed buildings.

One of their most well-known projects, 15 Clerkenwell Close, has been described by the RIBA as brave, ambitious, highly innovative and bespoke, where risks have been taken and have paid off,

resulting in a truly imaginative, intriguing and astonishing work of architecture. The Practice’s project at 15 Clerkenwell Close was nominated for the Stirling Prize 2021.

Friday 29th October - Studio Bark Studio Bark is an award-winning architecture practice which creates high quality, sensitive, environmental design. As a young practice, they have worked on a variety of projects and have developed a U-Build flat pack construction system to support self-build clients.

Friday November 4th - Guest Speaker Sofie Pelsmaker Now is Not the Time for Greenwashing Sofie is a chartered architect and environmental designer who is Associate Professor at Tampere University in Finland. Her long-standing passion for sustainable architecture, sustainable housing design, teaching and research has most recently culminated in her new book ‘Everything Needs to Change: Architecture and the Climate Emergency’.

Friday 19th November - Dr Lindsay Blair Howe from ETH Zurich - plus pre lecture discussion at 3.30pm Lindsay trained as an architect with a specialism in urbanism and geography. She is passionate about socio-spatial inequality with her work existing in the intersection between the social sciences and built environment studies.

Lindsay has most recently co-authored the book ‘Upscaling Earth: Material, Process, Catalyst with architect Anna Heringer and Martin Rauch. The book focuses on showcasing innovative thinking about earth and the potential for earth building to replace more environmentally damaging, resource-intensive materials like concrete. The book demonstrates ground breaking technological innovations that highlight the advantages of using earth.

Lindsay was also available at 3.30pm on Friday (lecture zoom link) to talk to students about their work and to offer guidance and support on how to build with earth Padlet To support Climate Literacy across our community, MSA has set up a site on CANVAS for sources and resources for students and staff, including Padlet bringing key information into one place, https://glasgowschoolofart.padlet.org/kli43/ajmq64754kpimx7h Fridays for Climate Discussions In addition, all staff and students have been invited to join us for Fridays for Climate Discussions in MSA. These began on Friday 1st October at 3-4pm and continuing until the end of Semester 1, we invite any MSA student or staff to join in open discussions on all things climate /ecology /ethical /carbon related to architecture. At the outset we didn’t know where our discussions would take us, what action we could take, or knowledge we could build together, and we don't know where our future will take us either…

Events In partnership with GSASA Sculpture and Environment Art collaborated with the Students’ Association to bring ex-SEA student, Darren Cullen’s ‘Hell Bus’ to Stow Carpark. The Hell Bus takes on the ‘greenwashing’ of fuel companies by pastiching their display techniques – see more here:http://www.gsasustainability.org.uk/events/artists-hell-bus

In a further collaboration with GSASA, SEA staff and students participated in We are Ocean – Into the Oceanic curated by Anne-Marie Melster, Curator-Director of Artport and incorporates work by artists Elizabeth Ogilvie and Robert Page. A programme of screenings, talks and discussions and projections at various locations around the city. The WE ARE OCEAN Global Programme is an Action of the UN Ocean Decade for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) endorsed by UNESCO.

External Events attended by GSA Staff Faithful and Gould

University of Glasgow and Edinburgh Council’s approach to net zero / the climate emergency

Climate Leadership lunch at Glasgow City Chambers

Principals and Mayors of institutions and cities around the world with key note from Michael Bloomberg and the Leader of Glasgow City Council

Carbon Capture Seminar

Chaired by Professor John French

Celebrating Girls & Women in STEM

Civic Reception at Glasgow City Chambers

Blue Zone of COP26.

GSA Sustainability was part of the EAUC delegation

Cultural Reception

Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, Jenny Gilruth MSP, and the Leader of Glasgow City Council, Susan Aitken, reception on culture and net zero as COP26 draws to a close.

SMI Terra Carta Action Forum

Event regarding The Power of Enterprise.

Cultural Event

GSA with Scottish Opera for HM Treasury Reception, sponsored by NatWest.

British Fashion Council Event

UK Gov Cabinet Office and British Fashion Council event featuring GSA students and connections at Kelvingrove Art Gallery

COP26 Digital Media Over the two weeks of COP26 (2-11 November), the GSA’s Instagram was taken over by a range of areas of the School or projects related to sustainability including: • • • • • • •

Close of Play Sculpture and Environmental Art students Walking Forest ‘living artwork’ Fine Art Friday Event Silversmithing and Jewellery ‘Precious’ Jewellery exhibition PhD student Catherine Van Olden COP26 People’s Summit

The GSA’s twitter was active in promoting in the lead up to, and during COP26, the range of events happening at the GSA including Close of Play event promotions, GSASA fringe event promotion, and related student/staff activity.

See a snapshot of activity here and on the following pages some content from the GSA’s Creative Network of graduates that gained traction over the period.

Image: flannery o'kafka

A historic day in the fight for climate justice – photographs from Cop26 protests Glasgow-based artist and GSA Graduate flannery o'kafka (Fine Art Photography 2018) spent the day documenting those involved in the Global Day of Action for Climate Justice, as 100,000 people took to the streets of Glasgow. Find out more at It's Nice That.

Image: Copyright © Lydia Morrow, 2021

Ethical Fashion with Lydia Morrow Associate Editor at It's Nice That, Jyni Ong (Communication Design 2017) talks to fellow GSA Graduate Lydia Morrow (Painting and Printmaking 2017) about ethical fashion and making work att he intersection of neurodivergence, disability and gender. You can see more of Lydia's work on her website: http://lydiamorrow.superhi.com/

Image: Neckpiece - The Seaweed Gatherer, 2021 Knotted-Wrack Seaweed (Ascophyllum nodosum), Brass, Bio resin

Iona Turner: Scottish seaweed jewellery Iona Turner is one of ten silversmiths and jewellers whose work has been selected by the Scottish Goldsmiths Trust and Lyon & Turnbull for the Elements 2021 graduate showcase exhibition. Pieces include necklaces, neckpieces, brooches and earrings fashioned from the “bladders” of storm-cast knotted-wrack seaweed, which dries in varying shapes and colours depending on the time of year and where it comes from. Iona uses materials that are sustainable and renewable in her work.

She said: “I like to go foraging for seaweed as a food source to dry and eat. The seaweed preserves really well, has a wonderful texture and is very strong when it’s dried. I found it works really well for jewellery, it’s beautiful and very distinctive."

Image: Fergus Teller, Scobio, grown from gin distillery waste

Fergus Telfer: Scobio The Global Grad Show has unveiled 150 highly innovative academic projects to improve lives, support communities and protect the planet. The shortlisted entries from 70 countries underline key shared concerns internationally and illustrate the scale of the efforts necessary to address them.

From the 23 entrants from the UK, GSA graduate Fergus Telfer (MEng Product Design Engineering 2021) features with Scobio, a colourless and biodegradable plastic replacement biofilm grown from Scottish gin distillery waste, developed in an effort to reduce the growing amount of plastic waste produced by households every year.

FLOW – the magazine of The Glasgow School of Art The next edition of FLOW – the magazine of the GSA’s Creative Network will be published in December as a special digital edition of the GSA magazine - designed by Kamilla Hu-Yang, 2020 Communication Design graduate, found via her Showcase page https://2020.gsashowcase.net/2020/05/27/kamilla-hu-yang/.

Features – written by journalist Angela McManus include Culture as the Fourth Pillar of Sustainable Development discussing the role of Arts and Culture as the fourth pillar of Sustainable Development, responding to the Culture as Cornerstone symposium hosted during COP in partnership with UAL and co-hosted by Allan Atlee (Deputy Director Academic); Climate Literacy and The Future Estate What does our commitment to a greener estate look like? After November looking at the future, post-November and COP26, and the GSA’s continued commitment to being engaged with COP themes. Doing this by looking at the GSA Events series over the next year, and partners including The Walking Forest and Glasgow Women’s Library. This feature iterates how we listen to and value a range of voices to help inform our strategy and vision. The regular Making Waves feature will focus on videos from graduates talking about sustainability/climate-focused projects: • • • • • • • • •

Sculpture Placement Group Glasgow Tool Library Karen Westland POTR Christina Wong James Pfaff AllotMe Cassandra Bellanger Circular Arts Network

Watch: AllotMe GSA Graduate Startup (via Vimeo), for Flow magazine December 2021 AllotMe is the first of its kind marketplace for garden sharing specifically aimed at growing food.

Often described as the ‘Airbnb for gardens’, we connect empty outdoor spaces with would-be vegetable growers. Users can list their space to become Hosts and start earning a monthly rent, or find a Plot to start 'growing their' own.

Through renting an AllotMe plot, you can help to reduce your carbon footprint; eat healthy; improve your mental health through gardening; and engage with your local community. https://www.allotme.co.uk