Elder’s Hill

Elder’s Hill

Elder’s Hill

Elder’s Hill is a collaborative project by M12 (USA) and Kultivator (SE), made site-specifically in
Öland Sweden. This work is emblematic of M12 and Kultivator’s artistic practice, based largely around
cultural exchange in a rural context and in the case of Elder’s Hill, particular attention the sharing
of intergenerational knowledge. Elder’s Hill is a part of a much larger and on-going project initiated
by M12 and Kultivator in 2011, titled Gran’s University,

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.”

 

Digital culture/Friendfarm workshop

Digital culture/Friendfarm workshop

Digital culture/Friendfarm workshop

Digital Culture can be regarded as a praxis of communicative interactions between people on line. We do what we always have done, sharing knowledge, bending reality, but the speed has increased and distances have shortened.
From digital culture may emerge a digital tradition of knowledge gathering, production and collaboration as a mindset practised locally off line and reaching globally on line. Such a contiguous interplay between online interactions and offline practice can be found in different movements such as Occupy, the DIY movement etc., which have emerged on a broad scale in a short time. In this workshop we will participate with Kultivator, a collaborative artist collective working with farming in a local and a global context. Together we will identify areas of interest for designers, artists,  architects, programmers and interaction designers, and we will work collaboratively hands on with problems  of knowledge sharing and knitting distant areas together. The workshop will take place on the Kultivator farm in Dyestad in rural Öland, an island close to Kalmar. Bring rough clothes!
Robert Ek is an interaction designer with a multidisciplinary background in history, media sociology and art.
participants:
Frederic Degouzon, (France). Annabel Pretty, (New Zealand). Maria Luisa Galbiati, (Italy). Eric Maquet, (Belgium). Takayuki Higuchi,(Japan). Junfeng Ding, (China). Steve Diskin, (USA). Yu-Chun Liu, (Taiwan) .Åse  Huus, (Norge). Elisa Bertolotti, (Italy).

Gran’s University with M12

Gran’s University with M12

Gran’s University with M12

A cooperation with M12 (http://m12studio.org/)
Last Chance, Colorado and Dyestad, Sweden

Gran’s University is an artwork inspired by Mrs. Vendana Shiva who in 2003 started the Grandmothers University in Navdanya, North India. The aim of the Grandmothers University is to both celebrate and validate the wisdom of our grandmothers, as well as transmitting this to future generations. Members of Kultivator and M12, motivated by this act of sharing generational knowledge have developed the Gran’s University project to build an archive of rural cultural exchanges based on the knowledge of pioneer women. This artwork and cultural exchange can serve as a catalyst for building long-term dialogue about the importance of rural cultural initiatives that specifically address important global issues such as; environmental sustainability; global economies coexisting with local economies; food production; and the ever diversification of the social landscape in remote regions. Generously funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts—Our Town and the Gates Family Foundation

Composted mind

Composted mind

Composted mind

Jana Fröberg has spent this spring with Kultivator, working out compost and cultivation plans. She has studied art as well as gardening. In a close collaboration between human and microorganisms, materials can slowly be processed into something very valuable. Human only have to create the right conditions, and so specific microbes will show up to do what they’re best at. According to what you set up, a pot of sauerkraut may be produced, or else you stand there, just waiting for compost to happen.
Compost derives from the same word as composition, meaning it’s a pleasant and beautiful mix of materials such as carbon and nitrogen, waste and manure as well as of life and death. No one seems to know where the borderline goes between these two opposites. Maybe simultaneously to the decomposition happening, new humus is built up. Anyhow this humus is of fundamental importance to all life on earth. It’s where it starts, and where it ends.

Friendfarm

Friendfarm

Friendfarm

Friend connections between farms.
micro-cooperations for the global cultural future of the rural!

Friendfarm is a pilotproject supported by Swedish national funds “Kulturbryggan”
Friendfarm wants to develop ways for rural communities in different parts of the world to build micro networks and empower each other. We see human relations and small-scale cultural and economic exchange as keys to strengthen local agriculture and the communities surrounding them.
As a pilotproject Friendfarm will initiate a friend connection between a farm in Sweden, Öland, and one in Tanzania, Galijembe province. In this practical action, we will investigate formulas of exchange, and gain knowledge to create a model for others to use.