Green Words
Two haiku, one responding to the news of record September average global temperatures, and one celebrating a bit of biodiversity that is often overlooked.
Climate
“Hope springs eternal”
In 2010 I wrote a series of four haiku spanning seven-year intervals in response to Deepwater Horizon: 1996, 2003, 2010, 2017. Now it’s 2023, maybe an update that ignites the will to keep plugging on would be helpful…
National Poetry Day
Writing haiku, inspired by the natural world around (and perhaps inside) Exeter Cathedral.
“Climate Blocks” for “Get On Board 16”
Studio 36 has a wonderful noticeboard out front, hosting a continually changing series of shows of work by local artists. For Board 16 the wider Studio 36 community was invited to submit work relating to climate change.
“Paper Promises” for “Moths to a Flame”
I hope that at COP26 world leaders will hammer out a deal that will save our life support system. I hope that out of the darkness of despair, we can extend our wings and find our way to the light.
What can I do about the Climate Emergency? Part 9
One of a series of articles for Exeter Cathedral’s monthly news. It’s the Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi, and I’m looking at the emotive issue of food.
The Climate Emergency and #BlackLivesMatter
This was intended to be the last in my series of articles for Exeter Cathedral’s monthly News about what we can do about the Climate Emergency. White people say we want to be an ally to Black people. But are we ready for sacrifice?
What can I do about the Climate Emergency? Part 8
One of a series of articles for Exeter Cathedral’s monthly news. Coronavirus has given us an opportunity to rethink how much and how we travel. We need to use it; we only have 6 months and counting to ‘save the planet’.
What can I do about the Climate Emergency? Part 7
Part of a series of articles for Exeter Cathedral’s monthly News. Coronavirus has changed much, but it is an opportunity to reframe what we think of as ‘normal’.
What can I do about the Climate Emergency? Parts 5&6
One of a series of articles for Exeter Cathedral’s monthly News. We have 10 months and counting now to ‘save the planet’, so I suggest we increase the pressure on business, and put our money where our heart is.
“Minecraft Climate Quest” at the ExIST STEAMM Show
This was an opportunity for me to pilot my latest work, with some interesting outcomes and lessons!!
What can I do about the Climate Emergency? Parts 3&4
One of a series of articles for Exeter Cathedral’s monthly News. We have 13 months to ‘save the planet’. This month’s suggestions are about saving energy in the home and putting pressure on the Government.
“Minecraft Climate Quest” is STEAMMing ahead
I’m looking forward to piloting “Minecraft Climate Quest” at the ExIST STEAMM Show, an interactive exhibition of commercial, research and creative projects from the south west which combine arts, sciences and technology.
What can I do about the Climate Emergency? Parts 1&2
The first in a series of articles I’m writing for Exeter Cathedral’s monthly News, on the changes we can make in our own lives, and how we can encourage necessary structural changes. This time: calculating your environmental footprint, and taking a Sabbath.
Time and Tide wait…
This weekend was NASA Space Apps Challenge 2019, and I joined the Time and Tide team to play with slow visualisations of rising sea levels, and make a patchwork of contours.
What do we want? Climate injustice!
When do we want it? World without end!
For what are we shouting? With our voices? And with our actions that speak louder than words?
“Climate Questing in Minecraft”
In which the UK Climate Projections 2018 meet Minecraft and “The Warlock of Firetop Mountain”.
UK Climate Projections 2018 in Lego
This is an update to my previous post on trialling a Lego visualisation of UKCP09. This second trial uses the latest data from UKCP18 and covers the whole UK.
A show and Lego
A show of the conceptual artwork produced by my 4th year medical students, and the Little colouring books of climate mindfulness in Lego.
“Looking slant” for Science and Belief blog
Ruth Bancewicz of the Faraday Institute asked me to write a piece for the blog “Science and Belief – A blog about the positive interactions between science and faith”. I finally took the opportunity to write up my reflections about “Green|Blue” more fully.
Review of “Green|Blue” on Phonic FM “Culture & Review” show
Culture & Review is the monthly round-up of cultural activity in Exeter. My Cathedral Chapter House show was reviewed back in June by presenter Josie Sutcliffe, musician Emma Welton, and playwright Emily Holyoake. Five months later, I’ve managed to get hold of the recording!
Grieving the future
“In this environment, the task of the prophet is not initially to lead a movement toward social renewal, but to lead the people in creative, artistic, public lament.” – Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination
#ExeterClimateHope at “Think…Art”
Today, my “Little colouring books of climate mindfulness” popped up in the Exeter University Forum alongside “Green|Blue: Exe”. I was doing a colour-by-numbers activity as part of “Think…Art”, a day of free fun artistic activities linked to the University’s research themes.
Selected work at “Makers of the Multiverse”
Spacex commissioned Juneau Projects to create “Makers of the Multiverse”, presenting work as multiples, by multiple artists, for the duration of Art Week Exeter and beyond.
“Little colouring books” in the “Kuuki” exhibition
“Kuuki : the things we take for granted, but cannot live without” is a response to climate change and other environmental concerns, and a statement on the desperate need for social change.
Wiggle Room in the Universe
Clare Bryden. Wiggle room in the universe. The Porch Magazine, October 2016.
“Suppose you had the revolution you are talking and dreaming about. Suppose your side had won, and you had the kind of society that you wanted. How would you live, you personally, in that society? Start living that way now!” – Paul Goodman. Clare Bryden embraces Rebecca Solnit’s vision of Hope in the Dark.
“Little colouring books” and “Freefall Climate Graffiti” featured in Green Christian magazine
Fantastic coverage of both the “Little colouring books” and “Freefall Climate Graffiti” in the Winter issue of Green Christian.
Analysing progress on Shrinking the Footprint in Exeter Diocese
This was a follow-up project to my consultancy work in 2009/10 on energy and climate change work in Exeter Diocese, to analyse progress based on evidence from Archdeacons’ Articles of Enquiry, and write a report for presentation at Diocesan Synod.
“Little colouring book: Winter Blues” in the “Artist Toys” exhibition
The idea for the “Little colouring books” originated partly in the games I made for my “Particulart: Up in the Air” show. It seemed a natural progession to create more playful engagement with climate change. Although the maps are of the UK, they can be applied elsewhere, and I am very happy that they have made their way to other lands.
“Little colouring book: Winter Blues” in the “Toying With Art” exhibition
It’s a toy shop that isn’t a toy shop, full of toys that aren’t toys.
Five “Little colouring books” went to market!
I’ve finally finished my fourth and fifth “Little colouring books of climate mindfulness”. You can now get hold of “Winter Blues”, “Summertime”, “Middle Course”, “Grandchildren” and “Worst Case” in the shop.
“Particulart: Greenhouse Effect” at Low Carbon Oxford Week
The overall aim of Particulart is to engage people with environmental and social issues and challenge the status quo through the power of knitting, science, and public art. In addition, “Greenhouse Effect” aimed to promote public awareness and provoke reflection on climate change and the underlying science, through appealing to different ways of accessing information – words and numbers, sight and touch – and enabling playful interaction.
“Particulart” goes to Oxfordshire part 2
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!!
“Freefall Climate Graffiti” in Reconnect magazine
Whenever I have approached them, Reconnect have always been really helpful with publishing my news. Here’s their snippet about “Freefall Climate Graffiti”.
“Freefall Climate Graffiti” in Exeter Life
I confess to getting slightly confused by Exeter Life, Exeter Living, Devon Live, Devon Life … but we made it into a glossy!
“Freefall Climate Graffiti” at Exeter Phoenix
The visible results of Freefall Climate Graffiti at the Exeter Phoenix will be ephemeral. Have a drink in the café outside seating area, and ponder the graffiti climate maps of the UK, before they’re painted over. Help yourself from, and add to, the woolly wall. Pick up a booklet about the project from the Phoenix box office.
Repainting Exeter Phoenix’s graffiti wall with UK Climate Projections, with Miss*C and the Freefall Youth Group.
“Freefall Climate Graffiti” in The Exeter Daily
The other TED. The Exeter Daily bills itself as “your Daily: You make the news”, ie you contribute and write the news. I’m not sure how many people read it either, but it seems worth including in the press release list. So here’s something I wrote earlier…
“Freefall Climate Graffiti”: Spraying the Wall
Finally on the Saturday we could get down to the real painting. It was brilliant to see most of the Freefall group join us for a session outside their regular Thursday evening slot.
“Freefall Climate Graffiti” in the Express and Echo
A nice piece on p19 of the Express and Echo. Pics of Cleo enjoying herself clearing up, and of me up a ladder in my paint-spattered oldest of old clothes, appropriately next to “Model agency searches for the next star”!
“Freefall Climate Graffiti” Workshop 3: Making the Stencils and Skills Sharing
Making the stencils was a big job, literally. We are going to build up the images from a base layer of the main colour, and add the other colours as layers on top. It means we can be canny re what stencils we need.
“Freefall Climate Graffiti” Workshop 2: Preparing the Wall
While the Freefall youth group took it in turns to bluewash the Phoenix graffiti wall… the Met Office knitting group gave the others a crash course in crafting, and much crochet and more pompoms were created.
“Freefall Climate Graffiti” Workshop 1: Climate Science and Street Art
This week and the next two weeks Cleo Heard and I are running workshops with the Freefall youth group in preparation for painting the Phoenix graffiti wall with the UK Climate Projections during Art Week Exeter. As well as climate science and street art, Workshop 1 also covered design for colour blindness.
“Particulart: Up in the Air” pop-up at TEDxExeter
Clare was honoured to be able to show Particulart at TEDxExeter 2016, in between a nice lot of Particulart-relevant talks(!) such as Danny Dorling on different ways of mapping the world, Alan Smith on how statistics are about Us, and the video of Al Gore’s latest TED talk on climate change.
Press Release – “Freefall Youth Group to graffiti Phoenix with climate message during Art Week Exeter”
On 14th May, the route between the Exeter Phoenix arts centre and Exeter Library will be transformed, as the Freefall Youth Group wield spray cans and stencils to create a new graffiti artwork. The work, called Freefall Climate Graffiti, will feature maps of the UK showing how our climate could change in future decades.
“Particulart: Up in the Air” pop-up at WAM Fest
That’s nothing to do with the 1980s pop group, but the Festival of Weather, Art and Music. The 2016 event was all about “Extreme Weather and You”, and there were loads of activities on the programme, from print-making to climate roulette.
Raffle for refugees
The fantastic folk in Fore Street Exeter are holding a Cheese and Wine Fundraiser for Refugees, to include a raffle of artworks and craft. I am donating a carbon dioxide molecule, also under the aegis of Free Art Friday Exeter. Further donations from artists and makers still very welcome.
What if the “Little colouring books” were really big?
Exciting news! From nugget of an idea to almost fully-funded project in less than a week! Clare and Cleo present… Freefall Climate Graffiti.
A hymn to bees
Clare Bryden. A hymn to bees. Third Way Magazine, March 2016.
As the first shoots and blooms appear, Clare Bryden welcomes the returning buzz of bees, and takes a year-round look at the complex threats to these and other pollinators so necessary to the interconnected web of creation.
New work: “Little colouring books”
Today I p-p-picked up a pilot from the University printshop. I am very excited to see my idea for presenting the UK Climate Projections 2009 as a colour-by-numbers booklet coming to fruition! So, I present to you…
“Particulart: Up in the Air” pop-up in Exeter Cathedral
The Holy Ground service happens once a month in Exeter Cathedral. The evenings very often engage in social issues, which is why this December it was held to coincide with the Paris climate negotiations, and why the “Up in the Air” pop-up made a special appearance.
“Particulart: Up in the Air” video in Exeter Cathedral
Exeter Cathedral is hosting an “Up in the Air” video installation for the duration of the Paris climate negotiations. I’m proud that it is part of ArtCOP21, the global climate art festival.
Talk – “Particulart” at Abingdon Carbon Cutters
Abingdon is my home town, so I took the opportunity to be a visiting speaker at the Carbon Cutters monthly meeting.
Who has the wisdom?
Who has put wisdom in the inward parts,
or given understanding to the mind?
Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?
Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,
— Job 38:36-37
Talks, sermons, lectures and media – Climate and environment
Drawing on my work at the Met Office, on the Shrinking the Footprint campaign in the Diocese of Exeter, as an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, as a member of Transition Exeter, and while living in the eco-monastery at Mucknell Abbey.
When the world acted for the good
Clare Bryden. When the world acted for the good. Church Times, 2 October 2015.
Agreements on ozone show how countries can do the right thing, says Clare Bryden
“Particulart: Up in the Air” pop-up at Relight My Fire
“Up in the Air” popped up for a second time at the Relight My Fire festival of energy and the arts run by RegenSW. Indoors this time, and slimmed down without roof or games area. It just about fit in the space.
“Particulart: Up in the Air” pop-up at Exeter Green Fair
Exeter Green Fair on 5 September saw the debut of my new “Up in the Air” pop-up. Under a blue gazebo (the sky), I suspended eight pale blue hula hoops (clouds), and from these the eight greenhouse gases.
Knit-your-own chemistry
Particulart is the art of knitting, chemistry and gentle protest. It’s about engaging people with environmental and social issues and challenging the status quo through the power of knitting, science, and public art. You too can now knit your own chemistry using these patterns.
“The art of knitting, chemistry, and gentle protest” for Power Culture blog
RegenSW asked me to write for its new blog “Power Culture: exploring our energy generation through the arts”. It took me 44 years to learn to follow the energy, so here’s the story of how Particulart sparked and took on its own energy…
“Particulart: Up in the Air” in the Glorious Art House
The overall aim of Particulart is to engage people with environmental and social issues and challenge the status quo through the power of knitting, science, and public art. In addition, “Up in the Air” aimed to promote public awareness and provoke reflection on climate change and the underlying science, through appealing to different ways of accessing information – words and numbers, sight and touch – and enabling playful interaction.
“Particulart: Up in the Air” featured on the Glorious Gallery blog
“Sulphur hexafluoride’, ‘Tetrafluoromethane’ and ‘Fluorform’ [sic] might not be words you expect to see as part of your everyday art exhibition, but then again, Clare Bryden is not your everyday artist (if there even is such a thing!).”
Press Release – “Knitting exhibition shows climate change to be ‘Up in the Air’”
An innovative art installation goes on show this week to bring alive the greenhouse gases that are causing climate change. Local artist Clare Bryden has been knitting larger than life versions of the particles and making card games. The exhibition, which will be on display from 11-24 July at the Glorious Art House in Fore Street Exeter, is designed to be a playful way of sparking people’s interest in the science and issue of climate change.
“Particulart 3” is go!
I got some excellent news this morning. Exeter City Council have approved a small arts grant towards my next Particulart exhibition.
“Particulart: A Stitch in Time” in Bristol Cathedral
During Lent 2015 – 18 February to 4 April – the Church of England in the South West ran a Carbon Fast. It was 40 days to reflect on how we affect our planet and consider what we can do to reduce our carbon footprint. “A Stitch in Time” ran roughly concurrently, showing 3D knitted representations of a series of greenhouse gases that are implicated in climate change.
Taking the Long View: If you go down to the woods today…
Written for TEDxExeter 2015 “Taking the Long View”: The short-termism of deforestation, and some hopeful examples of the long view of reafforestation.
Taking the Long View: Climate change and knitting
Written for TEDxExeter 2015 “Taking the Long View”: The Guardian’s campaign to keep fossil fuels in the ground, a Lenten Carbon Fast; and how I take the long view in my knitting and arts practice.
“Particulart” participating in Lent Carbon Fast
You’ve probably heard of Lent fasts: giving up chocolate or biscuits or swearing for the 40 days before Easter. The Church of England in the south west is going to be running a Carbon Fast this year, and Particulart is going to be involved through a new exhibition in Bristol Cathedral.
“Where have we put our treasure?”
I explore where our treasure lies in today’s world for the Bright Now Blog run by Operation Noah.
What the frack?
Clare Bryden. What the frack? Third Way Magazine, October 2014.
Depending who you ask, hydraulic fracturing – fracking – is either a panacea for our energy crisis or an environmental apocalypse in waiting. Clare Bryden drills through the propaganda in search of some answers.
An appeal to inner values
Clare Bryden. An appeal to inner values. Church Times, 30 August 2013.
Good causes will get further by emphasising their intrinsic worth rather than external rewards, argues Clare Bryden.
Thoughts on living and campaigning
It’s impossible and unhealthy to live with heightened anxiety over a long period of time. And scaring people and making them feel guilty are rubbish motivators of behavioural change.
Living the Questions: Fancy a pint?
Written for TEDxExeter 2013 “Living the Questions”: OK, actually about climate change: why Doha was so important, how it has been forgotten, and what you can do.
Carbon irony
“We need to be able to see the cause of our problems in the landscapes of our lives”, because “it’s pictures that helps stories come alive”.
Listen intently and then get your hands dirty
Clare Bryden. Listen intently and then get your hands dirty. Church Times, Issue 7749, 23 September 2011.
After a year living in community at Mucknell, Clare Bryden offers a Benedictine perspective on the crisis in sustainability.
Lessons on sustainable living, with the green monks [and nuns!] of Mucknell
Clare Bryden. Lessons on sustainable living, with the green monks [and nuns!] of Mucknell. Guardian, Comment is Free: Belief, 15 September 2011.
Spending a year with Benedictine monks has taught me how to cultivate a healthy environmental idealism rooted in reality.
Green, not grandiose
Clare Redfern and Clare Bryden. Green, not grandiose. Church Times, Issue 7693, 27 August 2010.
Churches should join forces with the Transition movement to promote sustainable living, say Clare Redfern and Clare Bryden.
Climate Change, a new prophetic ministry for Anglican Religious?
Clare Bryden. Climate Change, a new prophetic ministry for Anglican Religious? Mucknell Abbey, March 2010.
“The world’s faith communities are among the oldest and most enduring of institutions. You can, and do, inspire people to change. As we take the final steps on our journey to Copenhagen, that inspiration is critical.” — UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.
Oh, my anguish, my anguish!
The stories coming out of Copenhagen and its aftermath led me to grieve business as usual, and start to imagine a new world.
“Freefall Climate Graffiti” (2016)
Repainting Exeter Phoenix’s graffiti wall with UK Climate Projections, with Miss*C and the Freefall Youth Group.
“Little colouring books of climate mindfulness” (2016-17)
Colour in the maps, and think about what the future holds for our weather under climate change.
Available in the shop
“Particulart” (2014-16)
The art of knitting, chemistry, and gentle protest.