FoAM - bio

Rainforest Etiquette

theun — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 20:45:25 +0000

Start: 2011-10-16 00:00 GMT+2

FoAM is organising and hosting a lecture by Suprabha Seshan. She is the spokesperson of the Gurukula Botanic Sanctuary in Kerala India. At the rainforest sanctuary local tribal women are trained to become parataxonomists and ecosystem gardeners. Through their work over 20 years Suprabha and the team have seen human pressure, demands and damage on the rainforest increase. She will speak on several topics including the failure of environmental education. The forest needs a particular type of support if it is to survive at all. This lecture series is an attempt to bring this type of support to a general and expert audience. The lecture in Amsterdam is followed by a workshop that translates Suprabha’s knowledge to a European context; can we start ecosystem gardening in the city?

more details: http://shibumifriends.nl
for the 16 oct workshop please register: shibumifriends@gmail.com

Dates for the full series:

01 oct 2011 Brockwood Park Educational Centre, UK
03 oct 2011 Department of Philosophy, University of East Anglia
04 oct 2011 CEEC Seminars, Dept of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia
05 oct 2011 Forderkreis, Zurich
12 oct 2011 Public Lecture, University of Lugano
16 oct 2011 Studio Maria Blaisse, Amsterdam including FoAM workshop
17 oct 2011 Gaia 1 Wageningen University
18 oct 2011 Hogeschool van Hall Larenstein, Velp
27 oct 2011 University of Kansas, Lawrence, Public Lecture Centre for Global Studies
28 oct 2011 Resilience Lecture, organized by The Land Institute, Salina Kansas
07 nov 2011 Oakgrove School, Ojai California
17 nov 2011 Public (invited) lecture, Yewfield, The Lake District, UK
20 nov 2011 Musical Event with KT Tunstall
22 nov 2011 London School of Economics

London dates are approximate. There may be one of two additional talks.

Pop up Park

theun — Thu, 12 May 2011 08:36:34 +0000

Start: 2011-05-28 11:00 GMT+2

End: 2011-06-12 17:00 GMT+2

Pop-up Park,

design your own park.

This festival is aimed at designing a public garden or park with local residents under guidance of 4 experts. The garden in question is located behind the Meester coupeur opleiding on one side and the Jan Evertsenstraat on the other side. (It is located at the same square as FoAM's edible garden.)

In 4 design sessions participants are invited to join the design process centred on 4 themes: urban farming with farmer Dirk van Berge, urban fauna with city ecologist Maarten Melchers, garden economies with Fransje de Waard and recycling / sourcing local materials with 2012 Architects. (some to be confirmed)

festival blog: http://popuppark.posterous.com/

Production Landscapes; ‘Grow your own’

lina — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 15:42:32 +0000

Start: 2011-04-12 15:00 GMT-1

End: 2011-04-12 20:00 GMT-1

Production Landscapes; ‘Grow your own’

We have a myriad of environmental challenges facing us, especially in regards to food production, and its relationship to the city. If we start to see food as a language, and as a form of communication, could this be an initial step towards creating resilient cities. Our food systems are shaped by culture, climate, geography, our human interactions, life quality, and pleasure. Food is thus a measure of: Sustainability, Life quality, State of the ecosystem and Cultural identity.

On the 12th of April, FoAM Brussels and FoAM Nordica, together with students from Landscape architecture department at Alnarp, the Swedish university of agricultural sciences, joined for 5 hours to brainstorm, investigate and look at the different creative methodologies for strengthening our relationship with what we eat, and how we grow food in the cities. The aim of the workshop was:
1.To develop a food mandala inspired by permaculture plant guilds. A mapping of the seasons in order to communicate to a wider urban audience what one can grow and when.
2.To develop a serious of do-it-yourself (DIY) indoor farming prototypes.

Through hands-on suggestions and creative alternatives, we tried to explore the relationship to the way food arrives on our plates daily. Making the concept accessible, desirable, fun, educative, and worthwhile to plant where one lives. And begin to understand the discourse around what the main challenges are presently, and in the future, on how we feed our cities.

Workshop leaders: Anna Maria Orru,
Johan Zetterquist (FoAM Nordica) and
Lina Kusaite (FoAM, Brussels)

images:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/sets/72157626377573941/

groWorld Bazaar at Pixelache 2011

dave — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 13:42:46 +0000

Start: 2011-03-10 10:00 Europe/Helsinki

End: 2011-03-13 18:00 Europe/Helsinki

//Pixelache - groWorld Bazaar, Helsinki, March 10 to 13, 2011

During 4 days in March 2011(10/03 – 13/03) FoAM presented a groWorld
Bazaar at Pixelache festival, using the Aronia Melanocarpa (Chokeberry)as a common connection to bring together game designers, gardeners,electronics experimenters and urban foragers with a set of hands-on-workshops, discussions and experiments.

http://www.pawfal.org/dave/blog/2011/03/groworld-bazaar-pixelache/
http://www.pixelache.ac/helsinki/festival-2011/programme/groworld-bazaar...

March 10th
Bartaku hosted a co-creation 'Temporary photoElectric Digestopians'
worklab with research based experimentations on the transformation of
light energy into electric energy with food. Fusing cooking- and solar
tech and designs, the participants were working with edible materials to create ‘e-tapas’ of different aesthetics and tastes. A principal role is for the Aronia Melanocarpa (Choke/Apple berry), one of the most powerful, anti-oxidant rich berries both in terms of kJoules and
microWatts, entangled in a rich global historical narrative.
http://libarynth.org/luminous/phoef

March 11th
Lina Kusaite and Dave Griffiths invited the audience to join a
seedballing workshop, with the focus on local (southern Finland) edible plants and its importance for the locale or urban environments.
Participants learned how to create clay balls by using water, clay,
compost and seeds, which were preselected based on Chokeberries (Aronia Melanocarpa) companion planting.
http://lib.fo.am/aronia_guild
http://lib.fo.am/plant_guilds?s[]=permaculture&s[]=gardens

March 12th
FoAM has been working for a number of years on using games to strengthen the connection between plants and people. Our latest approach takes popular games such as FarmVille as inspiration, but explores what would happen if they were infused with aspects of permaculture, and where characters called “Plant Spirits” help or hinder you as you discover a world organised by companion planting.

Dave and Lina invited public to join them to design their own characters on paper that were rebuilt in the running game for them to play with. Visitors also had a chance to learn about what permaculture is, as an ancient art of assembling “guilds” of mutually beneficial plant species, as well as hints to a more general design strategy or philosophy.
http://www.pawfal.org/dave/blog/2011/03/germination-x-draw-your-own-plan...
http://www.pawfal.org/dave/blog/category/lirec/

March 13th
Theun Karelse member of FoAM and initiator of Boskoi was hosting
discussion on Augmented Ecology.

This discussion focused on whether there is still a private-life for
plants and animals as animals are fitted with tracking devices, web-cams and hooked up to sms services, satellites are tracking global crop development in real time, ecosystem monitoring is crowdsourced with mobile technology. This included an introduction to the local foraging scene in Helsinki by Joel Rosenberg, new developments in foraging / new media and Boskoi by Theun Karelse and Jussi Kivipuro was talking about Greenpeace's Digital Vision on a mobile media strategy for ecoactivism.
http://augmentedecology.posterous.com
http://boskoi.org

Images:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/sets/72157626278056452/

Autumn Harvest Dinner

maja — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:47:58 +0000

Start: 2010-10-15 15:00 Europe/Brussels

End: 2010-10-15 22:00 Europe/Brussels

As autumn ripens, nature and its resources are slowly turning inwards, preparing for the seasonal rest.

This is a good time for various works in the city gardens - preparing plants and soil for the winter, harvesting the yield of the year and planning next steps for the coming spring.

As we all share the enthusiasm about growing edible greenery in our surroundings. To celebrate both the plants & their urban cultivators, FoAM and nadine invited urban gardening experts, beginners & enthusiasts alike, to sit around a table, overflowing with autumn goodness, to share experiences, challenges and discoveries.

The Autumn Harvest Dinner is an informal gathering for plant-enthusiasts from the Brussels region. A potlach meal, where everyone brings their harvest - raw or cooked, so we not only share our knowledge but also taste its fruits.

For those so inclined, there is a joint cookup in the afternoon.

Workshop Guerilla Gardening: Seedbombs

maja — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:32:31 +0000

Start: 2010-07-02 18:00 Europe/Brussels

End: 2010-07-02 21:00 Europe/Brussels

In collaboration with FoAM, Recyclart is organising a seed-bombing workshop.

Analogous to kneading of dough, the participants learn how to create a fertile paste including thousands of seeds (herbs, bushes, shrubs & ground covers), that can work together to form a self-sustaining plant guild. Recyclart invites people of all ages to discover the urban ecologists in themselves.

The workshop will be repeated on the 16th of July and 5th of August.

More information: http://www.recyclart.be/content/view/14153/1/lang,en/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/sets/72157625259865902/

Seedballing at Micronomics

maja — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:06:53 +0000

Start: 2010-05-01 11:00 Europe/Brussels

End: 2010-05-01 14:00 Europe/Brussels

Klorofil, OKNO and FoAM work together on a seedballing workshop in Brussels, as a part of the Micronomics Festival.

Since 2006, City Mine(d) devote themselves to the issue of economic paradoxes in Brussels. Under the banner Micronomics, they look for answers at the micro scale. They have brought together a wealth of micro-initiatives, who are actively building an urban micro-economy that is fair to those who take part in it and that is at the heart of the way our cities are shaped.

During the 2010 Micronomics festival, Klorofil, FoAM and OKNO join forces to spread the green virus in the city. In a collaborative action they organize seed-balling workshops, construct small vertical gardens and give all information on how to grow your own vegetables on the tiniest spaces in the city

More about the Micronomics programme: http://www.citymined.org/index.php?action=fullnews&id=83
images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/sets/72157623875287851/

Vlaamse Overheid

maja — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:24:36 +0000

Culture 2000

maja — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:19:08 +0000

groworld / bio

_pix — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:47:41 +0000

The 'bio' strand of groworld is about gardening. About revegetation of urban environments, growing your own food, reconnecting rural and urban situations in ways that replenish, rather than deplete their environments.

bio projects: seedballing workshops, urban permaculture, the institute for augmented ecology

Within bio, we explore different methods and techniques for eco-system gardening and wholistic design through which we can cultivate not only plants, but also a greener, more participatory human culture. We want to transform our cities into edible landscapes for all their inhabitants, regardless of their species or social status. We learn from Fukuoka, Mollison, Holmgren and other less known, but none less knowledgeable gardeners. From seedballing to permaculture, from roofs to keyholes, we exchange experiences and experiment with gardening on a variety of scales, habitats and soils.

"Gardening will emerge as one of the major economic forces of resistance" -Hakim Bey