Hello fellow Particulart-ers, crafty craftivists, and all. This is just to say that we are taking a break from Particulart. Not for ever, we hope. We still have plenty of chemistry to explore! And we’ll probably pop back from time to time as governments come and go, and we need to keep the site up-to-date. And we’re still tweeting occasionally about the issues.
Happy knitting!
Clare and Diana
“Fun Palaces is a movement campaigning for culture by, for and with all – with a firm belief that community belongs at the core of all culture – and an annual weekend of events, where arts, crafts, science, tech and digital are a catalyst for community engagement and full participation for everyone, from the grassroots up.
Fun Palaces are made by local people for their own communities, bringing together arts and sciences, crafts, tech and digital, free and fun, linked by the the Fun Palace network – Everyone an Artist, Everyone a Scientist.”
In 2016, Exeter Library got on board late on, and at short notice organised a fun weekend of art and science related activities. We got involved with Particulart on the Saturday. The weekend mostly attracted children, and we swung the earth a lot and made carbon dioxide pompoms. Sadly I don’t have many photographs, only those @ExeterLibrary tweeted.
And #funpalaces day two has begun. Rob is helping @ParticulartExe setup, here blowing up the globe. pic.twitter.com/sYVbtoaURx
— Exeter Library (@ExeterLibrary) October 2, 2016
Here’s @ClareBryden from @ParticulartExe explaining about the art of gentle protest, knitting and science. #FunPalaces pic.twitter.com/gyZx77wnnJ
— Exeter Library (@ExeterLibrary) October 2, 2016
Clare was at the Greenbelt Festival over the August bank holiday. As part of a fantastic weekend, she gave a Pecha Kucha talk about her art work, and “Particulart: Up in the Air” popped up in the Allotment Gallery.
There was visual art dotted around the site at Boughton House near Kettering, including three venues in shed down by the lake: the Garden, Allotment, and Potager Galleries. The Allotment Gallery hosted a series of installations from different artists over the weekend. Particulart took the 12-4pm slot on the Sunday.
Clare had a series of great conversations across the ages and genders, from small children attracted by the inflatable globe and hanging molecules that could be swung, to young people interested in data and/or science; from knitters gaining new ideas for how they can use their craft in activism, to a mechanical engineer thinking about communicating data and information, and a psychotherapist pondering the benefits to mental health of knitting and making generally.
Half way through, she was approached by a woman from Radio 4 who asked her whether she would record some of the Daily Service for Wednesday, part of a special week of programmes from Greenbelt. So her voice can be heard reading some prayers halfway through “A Different Type of Power: The Power of Art”.
The mechanical engineer provided one of her favourite quotes: “When I read the board outside, I had no idea just how amazingly cool this was!” Her other favourite quote was a throw-away line from a couple of women as they went on to their next thing: “I love Greenbelt!” Presumably because Greenbelt is the sort of space where they can happen upon stuff like bonkers installations involving knitting, chemistry, contemplation, and gentle protest. Clare loves Greenbelt too!
Here are some photos of the shed, with thanks to Sue Holden.
Thanks to Jenny Carr from Oxford City Council for photos 2,4,7.
Download this pattern as a pdf
See also the patterns for the atoms and bonds between atoms.
| Carbon Oxygen Nitrogen |
Black Red Sky blue |
|
Carbon dioxide
|
Atoms 1 carbon |
Bonds 4 carbon-oxygen |
|
Carbon monoxide
|
Atoms 1 carbon |
Bonds 3 carbon-oxygen |
|
Particulate matter PM2.5
|
Atoms 1 carbon |
|
|
Nitrogen dioxide
|
Atoms 1 nitrogen |
Bonds 3 nitrogen-oxygen |
|
Nitric oxide
|
Atoms 1 nitrogen |
Bonds 2 nitrogen-oxygen |
Download this pattern as a pdf
See also the patterns for the atoms and bonds between atoms.
| Hydrogen Carbon Oxygen Nitrogen Fluorine Chlorine Sulphur |
White Black Red Sky blue Light green Medium green Deep yellow |
|
Carbon dioxide
|
Atoms 1 carbon |
Bonds 4 carbon-oxygen |
|
Nitrous oxide
|
Atoms 2 nitrogen |
Bonds 2 nitrogen Alternative version |
|
Methane
|
Atoms 1 carbon |
Bonds 4 carbon-hydrogen |
|
Tetrafluoromethane (PFC-14)
|
Atoms 1 carbon |
Bonds 4 carbon-fluorine |
|
Fluoroform (HFC-23)
|
Atoms 1 carbon |
Bonds 1 carbon-hydrogen |
|
Trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11)
|
Atoms 1 carbon |
Bonds 3 carbon-chlorine |
|
1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane (HFC-134a)
|
Atoms 2 carbon |
Bonds 1 carbon |
|
Sulphur hexafluoride
|
Atoms 1 sulphur |
Bonds 6 sulphur-fluorine |
A month ago, Particulart was in Wallingford, featuring in Oxfordshire Artweeks.
This weekend, there are going to be not one… not two… but yes OK two Particulart events in Oxford as part of Low Carbon Oxford Week, and they’re both brand new exhibitions and both FREE!!
“Greenhouse Effect”……is happening from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm on Saturday 18th June in Bury Knowle Park, Headington. As the poster says…
Human activity, and resulting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, are increasingly changing the Earth’s climate and our weather.
Come to Bury Knowle Park for a family trip out, and happen across a whole new way of seeing climate change! Explore the greenhouse and knit your own carbon dioxide molecule.
18th June is also World-Wide Knit in Public Day. Bring your knitting and other yarn-based activities, have a picnic, and join in.
Anyone who wants to volunteer a bit of time would be more than welcome. Waitrose next door are kindly providing volunteer refreshments. Please get in touch.
…is from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm on Sunday 19th June at Magdalen College School. And the blurb…
The scandal over Volkswagen’s cheating over exhaust emissions testing has disappeared from the news, but the scandal over exhaust fumes and poor air quality in our cities remains.
Air pollution as you’ve never seen it before! Children of all ages can make their own exhaust fumes!
“Exhausted” is also featuring alongside Test Drive the Future in association with Oxford Festival of the Arts, with the support of BMW North Oxford.
A few greenhouse gases and accompanying information are currently winging their way over to Wallingford. They will be popping up as part of an event under the Oxfordshire Artweeks umbrella.
Artist Janey Carline, who set up Everyone’s An Artist, is teaming up with Sustainable Wallingford on 14 May to celebrate their work and the planet, and then opening her studio and garden over 14-19 May.
We’re looking forward to seeing what she does with carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.
On 15 April, Clare was honoured to be able to show Particulart at TEDxExeter.
For those who haven’t come across the TED talks phenomenon yet, do check out TED.com. TED is dedicated to ideas worth spreading. It started as an annual conference, but is now much more. TEDx is a programme of local, self-organized, independent events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.
TEDxExeter has been held each year since 2012. In 2016 the theme was “Dreams to Reality”, and it featured a wide range of wonderful speakers. Danny Dorling showed us how different ways of mapping the world can communicate many different hopeful realities. Alan Smith, data visualisation editor at the Financial Times, gave a really engaging talk about statistics are about Us – the community not the individual – and how they can highlight gaps in our understanding of the world, our country, and even our local area. TEDx events also show a few TED talks as part of the programme. Among others, we got Al Gore on “The case for optimism on climate change”. A nice lot of Particulart-relevant material!
The main focus of the day is on the speakers and performers, but there are generous breaks for coffee, lunch and tea, to enable speakers, performers, delegates, sponsors, stall holders, team, and volunteers to mingle and connect. Particulart was one of many stalls in the break-out areas. Others included sponsor stalls, the FabLab hosted in Exeter Library, the Met Office Informatics Lab, and an exhibition of prints from Al Mutanabbi Street Starts Here.
Clare had some great conversations during the day, especially with many of the school children and young people. She also took the opportunity to talk about her new artwork about flood risk, which was of particular interest to a group from Route 39 Academy in Clovelly, with memories of flooding on the north coast of Devon in recent years.
