Client: EcoCity World Summit 2023 at the Barbican Arts Centre
Narrative: ‘from the micro to the macro’: understanding the importance of soil conservation in solving climate change.
The Collective Earth Stories project launched at the Barbican during the EcoCity World Summit 2023, with an exhibition co-designed by Stephanie Romig-Orr along with Central Saint Martins MA Narrative Environments students Holly Telfer, Barbara Kakzmarkzyk, Ming-Ching Wang and Paula Llinas as their work placement.
The project launch exhibition invited visitors on a journey to their favourite place on earth to collect a soil sample, while learning about the importance of soil conservation from the ‘micro’ level of the role played by soil microorganisms in preventing soil degradation and storing carbon, to the ‘macro’ level of soil conservation as a solution to global issues such as loss of biodiversity, global warming, and food insecurity.
Participants from across the world were invited to share soil samples, which will be received and processed by CABI, a laboratory specialising in soil conservation.
The study takes an anthropological form, giving voice to communities who have been decimated by climate change through shared narratives of contributors’ connection to places around the world they collected soil from.
The Collective Earth Stories project launch was made possible with the support the Central Saint Martin’s Creativity in Action fund which supports emerging ideas, thoughts and disciplines across the Central Saint Martins. As well as finding new ways of enacting UAL’s strategy, the fund puts an emphasis on collaboration, inviting applicants to bring together staff members and students in new, exciting practices.
The project is produced in partnership with DEFRA, the governmental agency for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and in affiliation with Spatial Practices Climate Forum.
For more info or to participate in the project, head to the Collective Earth Stories website at the link in bio.
Website design by CSM graduates at See.Also
Giant cardboard globe by @csm_pcid.
Photos by Jamie Johnson @enderstooi
Sustainable paper exhibition furniture by @paperlounge.uk