Reflections on Particulart

Clare has written a blog post reflecting on the development of Particulart, from the initial spark of an idea in conversation with Diana to the exhibition in Real Food, and the responses it provoked both in her and the visitors to the exhibition. We hope you enjoy the read.

Last night, at somewhat short notice, Clare also gave a St Michael’s Lecture, entitled “Particulart, or the art of knitting, chemistry, meditation and gentle protest”. She liked the title so much, she changed the strapline of this website.

Councillor responses

Councillor Keith Owen responded to our letter of 6 October after only a few days. He is the Portfolio Holder for Environment, Health and Wellbeing on Exeter City Council. Unfortunately, he was unable to attend the exhibition launch.

Cllr Owen response - RE_ Energy from Waste

Councillor Roger Croad, who is the Cabinet Member for Community and Environmental Services on Devon County Council, required substantially more prodding. Eventually, in late November, we received a very full response (pdf) from the County Waste Manager.

Party!

A6 leaflet - colour2Please find here our invitation to you to attend our party… the exhibition from 13th October to 8th November, and/or the launch event on the evening of 15th October before the Incinerator’s inauguration on the morning of the 16th. If you could let us know you’re coming, that would be very helpful. Thanks for your support!

 

Participate!

Hello! Thank you for your interest and concern. You may be wondering what exactly we are planning. Well, we haven’t ironed out all the details yet. But we can tell you that the overall idea is to knit lots of particles and set them free in Exeter, to bring alive the impact of the incinerator on the city. We’ll probably label them all with this website address, so the people who find the particles can follow the thread back here.

What do we want you to do now? KNIT! We want to keep it simple, so we’d like you to knit some atoms and bonds, and at some future date we will have a sew-a-thon to stitch them all together. Of course, if you feel inspired, feel free to create a whole particle. There is a pattern for atoms here, and a pattern for bonds here, and a pattern telling you how many atoms and bonds in what colours are needed for each particle here.

If you can’t knit, maybe you could help us to spread the word on Twitter. And we’ll need plenty of plastic charity bags for stuffing. Or you could always ask someone to teach you how to knit.

The deadline? Well, the incinerator started operating in spring 2014, but won’t be officially opened until October 2014. We plan to ’emit’ our particles at the same time, exhibiting them at cafés around Exeter, and maybe just leaving them in strategic locations around the city for people to find.

It would help us enormously if you could get in touch and let us know roughly what you are planning and how you are getting on, so we can keep track of who is involved and how many particles we might be getting. We might email you occasionally with updates and encouragement and sew-a-thon dates. We hope that’s OK.

And thank you again!

Planning

Invitation to inaugurationAfter months of wondering when the Incinerator would be formally opened, and by whom (Prince Charles was mentioned!), Diana finally received an invitation to The Big Event. This also meant that we could select some dates and start planning in earnest for our exhibition.