In this publication we got together to create a way to encourage others to question the permanence of nature. As a group of interdisciplinary creatives we decided to work collectively by learning about our practices and un- derstanding the urgency of arts and design in our journey during the climate crisis. Luke - studying photography, Lavin - making her collection on the fashion design programme, Amber - working and studying between the RCA and the V&A on the History of Design course and Zosia - studying Curating Contemporary Arts. We’ve visited our spaces, and explored materials, methodologies and skills to learn from each other and create a skill-sharing environment.
We have shared and looked at already existing modes of practices within sustainability, such as The Tree School by the DAAR Collective and Institute of Post-Natural Studies introduced by Zosia, Upstart: Creative Careers Festival 2023 introduced by Amber and Sustainable Darkroom introduced by Luke. As we’ve shared our experiences we quickly defined the main key words that would then initiate our discussion. These were: community, skills-shar- ing and materials waste. After primary conversations, we’ve decided that to be able to talk about collectivity, we would like to first meet each other better and understand each others’ practices. With that in mind we’ve started our process with several studio and site visits to then reflect on our practices and continue with the extended research, experimentations, workshops and finally the design and making process.
Using reflection as our main tool we developed relationships with each other and recognised them as crucial for creating a sustainable system to work. In this part of the publication, we share our experiences, research and thoughts to then use them for creating what we’ve called a ‘toolbox’ for the next generations of RCA students to create collectives and reflect within themselves on topics around climate, sustainability and next steps towards a better future.
