{"id":343,"date":"2022-02-21T04:36:03","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T04:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthdoor.org\/ongoing\/?p=343"},"modified":"2022-04-05T08:11:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T08:11:55","slug":"ongoing-and-occasional-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthdoor.org\/ongoing\/?p=343","title":{"rendered":"Ongoing and Occasional 6"},"content":{"rendered":"
Watersmeet Barn, Emsworth \u2013 Built by Artizans<\/address>\n

Dear Fourth Door<\/a> mailing list folks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Between the last Ongoing & Occasional<\/strong> mailout and this first one of 2022, the world has once again changed, tipping on its axis into a yet more calamitous orbit. Here, as I write, down south close to the English Channel, spring has arrived: the sun is out, daffodils and bluebells are blossoming.<\/p>\n

Except of course war has returned from the near faraway to the near here. COP26 already feels so last year as Government administrations of varying hues and brands frenetically recalculate their net zero glide paths to 2050. Note, though, that wars and conflict have been calculated to comprise 6% of carbon emissions<\/strong><\/a>, with none of this accounted for in the UNEP 2050 targets. Anyone who knows of a life cycle analysis of a cruise missile, please get in touch.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s early days as to how this moment of history plays out, but if this is a resource war, amidst the seeping stain of Butlergate<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> it is also a Globalisation war. Interdependence has never been clearer. This Ongoing & Occasional<\/strong> casts its lens on inspiring people and projects, interesting things and interesting ideas, that lean towards another global worldview. In their way these are One World-leaning projects, though markers to a rather different One World to the one Globalisation has ushered in.<\/p>\n

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Pioneering the Potential <\/strong>\u2013 The Xylo Sessions<\/h2>\n

Xylo Sessions \u2013 01 Update<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joining Fourth Door friends Charley Brentnall<\/strong> and Sally Daniels <\/strong>will be the West Sussex carpentry and timber co-building collaborators, Built by Artizan\u2019s<\/strong><\/a> Dylan Walker<\/strong> and Paddy Cox<\/strong>. Built by Artizans will be bringing a touch of the traditional timber framing perspective to the timber frame renaissance evening, helping to round off the first Xylo Sessions evening.<\/p>\n

For further information about the first in three Pioneering the Potential<\/em> wood evenings, see here<\/strong><\/a>. For booking a place, see Eventbrite here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Annular<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 Fourth Door\u2019s wood and timber culture site has recently been expanded to encompass a broader spectrum, including Annular Arts, Annular Books, and Annular Forest, amongst its new sections. And further to follow.<\/p>\n

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Ongoing & Occasional 6\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 March 2022<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Innu mythology illustration \u2013 Living Language Land project<\/address>\n

Another kind of extinction rebellion<\/strong> – One of the \u2013 arguably less likely – contributors to last November\u2019s Glasgow COP26 jamboree was a project extolling world leaders, delegates and the great general public to consider language death as part of the greater diversity disappearance.\u00a0 <\/strong>The Living Language Land project<\/strong><\/a> highlights how language death<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 when the last native speakers of a language disappear – is accelerating, using a simple conceit. 26 words from 26 languages under threat of extinction, including Ladakhi<\/strong><\/a> from Ladakh, India, Doric<\/strong><\/a> from Northeast Scotland and Inno<\/strong><\/a> from the Inno people of Labrador and Canadian maritime east, are pronounced in clips on the site.<\/p>\n

Language extinction is one of those vast yet almost invisible cultural glaciers melting away. In the early 2000\u2019s there were 7000 known, native spoken languages. 90% are expected to be gone within thirty years. There are places and programmes attempting to hold the line \u2013 for instance the Living Tongues Institute<\/strong><\/a> or the Recovering Language and Literacies of the Americas<\/strong><\/a> project \u2013 yet these can feel like small pebbles in the face of a steamroller. While keeping coal in the ground might have made the headlines, the poetic Living Language Land project was a timely reminder of yet another form of human diversity on the brink.<\/p>\n

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Green sky thinking<\/strong> – For the budding anthropologists amongst you, playing with another language is at the heart of the Green Sky, Blue Grass. Colour Coding Worlds<\/strong><\/a>. A reminder of how our connection to colour at the individual level and colour\u2019s meaning shifts between cultures, the title coming from a Japanese haiku which characterised sky and earth in these hues.<\/p>\n

Chi body energy meets digital tech<\/strong> \u2013 so, where\u2019s the algorithm? Step forward Roy Ascott, early mentor to the young student Brian Eno, and 60\u2019s Cybernetic Serendipity<\/em> participant. Ascott has recently uploaded the complete proceedings to the 2004 Qi and Complexity<\/strong><\/a> conference. A part of Ascott & Co\u2019s remarkable and mainly academically off-piste Consciousness Reframed<\/em> conference series, a few contributor titles offer a taste: Mysticism and Complex Systems: from Magic Squares to Systems Biology, Schrodinger\u2019s Cell Phone<\/em>, and Telepathy through Biosensor Media Stimulation<\/em>. FDR4 reported on the inaugural Consciousness Reframed<\/strong><\/a> back in 1997, Ascott having already long announced the emergence of the Post-Biological era.<\/p>\n

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Dock at the radio station<\/strong> – Speaking of which, Eno has not only launched his own radio station, the Lighthouse<\/strong><\/a>, but has also recently been tuning folks into Radio Garden<\/strong><\/a> at every turn. And for good reason. Radio Garden is fab and a reason in itself for the Internet. You can pick up radio stations from all around the planet, from Mumbai to Mombasa, Quito to Quebec and Rio to Rome.<\/p>\n

Here not there<\/strong> – Meanwhile in this neck of the third stone from the sun, Waterweek 2022 (Streaming<\/strong><\/a>) returns after two years absence and is happening around Pevensey, Hailsham and neighbouring ponds, streams and rivulets. Running the second week of April (9-15) the Waterweek project<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>was conceived in 2014 by artists Clare Whistler<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>and Charlotte Still. The pair draw in a rich tapestry of artists, ecologists, musicians alongside the interested general public to celebrate, and also practically repair and clear the local waterways. A feature in the next \u2013 long awaited yet genuinely soon-to-arrive Fourth Door Review \u2013 has been prepared by Whistler.<\/p>\n

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Earth panels at Sevran \u2013 Cycle-Terre<\/address>\n

Earth moves<\/strong> \u00a0– In downtown Sevran, a district on the eastern edge of Paris, France\u2019s first \u2018earth materials production facility\u2019 (the long way round to describing an almost-factory) Cycle-Terre<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>opened its doors in late November 2021. The culmination of a major research programme, materials<\/strong><\/a> rolling out of Sevran\u2019s production facilities include compressed earth bricks, (up to 600,000 a year) as well as mortar and earth wall panels. The earth comes from the immediate neighbourhood, and the aspiration is for Sevran to be the first in a network of hyper-local earth almost-factories spanning the country. There are a few others, including Martin Rauch\u2019s<\/strong><\/a> earth block almost-factory, Erden<\/strong><\/a>, in his home village of Schlins. Vorarlberg is up and running (Rauch\u2019s operation is explored in-depth in this Unstructured extra<\/strong>),<\/a> as are a few others across Europe. But there are only a handful\u2026so far. And absolutely none in Britain. A visit in February is being written up and will feature in Fourth Door\u2019s Unstructured<\/em> web-mag soon.<\/p>\n

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Our friends in the North I\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Architectural roads lead to R\u00f8ros<\/strong> – Every two years the small Norwegian town is host to a lovely, intimate gathering, the R\u00f8ros Seminar<\/strong><\/a> brings together Trondheim\u2019s architectural tribes<\/strong><\/a> with influential if less architecturally inclined international players. Over the years R\u00f8ros\u2019s organisers have persuaded a singularly impressive roll call of international architects (including Glenn Murcutt, Peter Zumthor, Anapuma Kundoo, Simon Valez and Kengo Kuma) to make the journey north, as recounted in organiser Hans Skotte\u2019s Unstructured extra\u2019s overview<\/strong><\/a>. With R\u00f8ros one of the coldest places in Norway, and much food and drink on hand, many an inner Viking is drawn into a more expansive mood. This year they\u2019ve pushed the date back to April 29-May 1st<\/sup>, so the rising sun will be up over R\u00f8ros\u2019 skyline a few minutes earlier, and possibly a mite warmer too.<\/p>\n

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Our friends in the North II <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Driftwood Chronicles – <\/strong>Entirely fascinating research emerging from Gothenburg University\u2019s Regional Climate Group<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>reconstructing the Holocene era through driftwood collection and analysis from across the Arctic sub-polar region. Prof Hans Linderholm<\/strong><\/a> and his team have been collecting washed up driftwood from Greenland (and previously Iceland and Svarlbard) which originally made its way from the great pan-Arctic forests of Northern Eurasia and America, floating out of northern rivers into the Arctic seas. The driftwood helps unlock insights into the Paleo-Arctic climate system and its effect on northern hemisphere climate change over millennia as detailed in published research<\/strong><\/a>. Read on and you\u2019ll never look at shoreline driftwood in quite the same way.<\/p>\n

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Yamal\u2019s new town for the LNG complex<\/address>\n

No longer friends in the North \u2013 <\/strong>That the fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine intensifies the complex politics<\/strong><\/a> of the sub-Arctic polar region was underscored by an inadvertently timely conference in the High North which took place just as the invasion began. With Russia currently chairing the Arctic Council, all parties at the Kirkenes Conference<\/strong><\/a> (Norwegians, Russians and Finns) appeared to maintain the line that the long-cultivated dialogu<\/strong><\/a>e<\/strong> between neighbours needed to be continued, not least due to the vulnerability of the region to nuclear exchange \u2013 a third of Russia\u2019s nuclear arsenal are sited across its Northern Oblasts.<\/p>\n

New rounds of military exercises<\/strong><\/a> across the polar Arctic are underway, while cross-border cultural<\/strong><\/a> and environmental<\/strong><\/a> efforts have hit the wall. There are economic reasons as well: the warming of the Arctic sea\u2019s oil, combined with the coming of the Northern trade route and new oil, liquid natural gas and other fossil fuels, have brought massive investment by Moscow, including in 2016 the opening of Yamal LNG, one of Russia\u2019s largest LNG production facilities<\/strong><\/a> sitting on river Ob\u2019s Yamal peninsula<\/strong><\/a>, along with 15 icebreaker super-tankers, a new rail line, and a completely new town to house up to 30,000 workers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s too early to say how this part of the Arctic black gold rush will play out ijn terms of the Arctic\u2019s carbon and climate politics, even if keeping oil in the ground isn\u2019t exactly Russia\u2019s style. As of March 5th<\/sup><\/strong><\/a>, France\u2019s Total<\/strong><\/a>, unlike Shell and BP, with a 25% stake in the venture remain part of Yamal\u2019s consortium. At least for now.<\/p>\n

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Almost finally<\/strong>, congratulations to Francis K\u00e9r\u00e9,<\/strong> the Burkinab\u00e8 architect, who is this year\u2019s, and Africa\u2019s first Pritzker Prize<\/strong><\/a> recipient. K\u00e9r\u00e9 and his studio K\u00e9r\u00e9<\/strong> Architecture<\/strong> have been gradually building an impressive project portfolio – including many earth based buildings – with the Benin National Assembly<\/strong><\/a> and Dakar Goethe Institute<\/strong><\/a> currently on its books. K\u00e9r\u00e9\u2019s story is also incredible and inspiring. Read it here in the in-depth feature<\/strong><\/a> as\u00a0 part of FDR9\u2019s Ground Up Architecture<\/strong><\/a>–<\/strong>themed edition on humanitarian architecture. And yet there is still no UK project for the Berlin-based studio. Long may you run, Francis.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile<\/strong> – a swan song: for those who live for nature\u2019s beauty here\u2019s an atmospheric clip, courtesy of Gary Saunders<\/strong><\/a>, of a mighty swan\u2019s watery winged landing<\/strong><\/a> in the middle of a cold, cold Novemberland riverscape. Except it\u2019s probably February.<\/p>\n

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Watersmeet Barn, Emsworth \u2013 Built by Artizans Dear Fourth Door mailing list folks Between the last Ongoing & Occasional mailout and this first one of 2022, the world has once again changed, tipping on its axis into a yet more calamitous orbit. Here, as I write, down south close to the English Channel, spring has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ongoing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthdoor.org\/ongoing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthdoor.org\/ongoing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthdoor.org\/ongoing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthdoor.org\/ongoing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthdoor.org\/ongoing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=343"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/fourthdoor.org\/ongoing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352,"href":"https:\/\/fourthdoor.org\/ongoing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions\/352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthdoor.org\/ongoing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthdoor.org\/ongoing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthdoor.org\/ongoing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthdoor.org\/ongoing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}