Tag: (U1/2/3) Stakeholder Engagement and Feedback

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Agenda for Discussion – How can nature improve wellbeing in cities?

Due to having only secured 1 panellist for the discussion due to time constraints and people being very busy in the run-up to Christmas; I am running this discussion as more of a podcast-style talk with audience questions at the end.

The panellist is Kristina Libby, an expert in biophilic design who has been involved in running a covid memorial project centred around biophilia and has a background in technology; exploring the links in how technology can connect us to nature. Kristina has been involved in the previous two-panel discussions and so she is very familiar with the project.

The discussion will run Thursday, November 11th at 1pm and will be streamed to the Nature In Youtube Channel via stream yard. The youtube link for the discussion will be posted on the Nature In Instagram page and in the LinkedIn Community to direct the audience to view the talk.

The Agenda for the discussion between Kristina and I can be seen below:

How can nature improve wellbeing in cities?

  • Short background on you
  • How do you utilise nature in your work/ profession? 
    • Either for inspiration or directly implementing it into your practise? 
  • What are the benefits of interacting with nature – to physical and mental wellbeing / importance of nature if our lives
    • Exploring the various benefits and how they can be achieved 
    • Can nature be prescribed as a form of therapy – if it’s introduced into city spaces then the form of natural therapy would be a part of daily life and so not needing to be prescribed?
  • How do you interact with nature in cities?
    • What do you do to feel the benefits of nature when in the city? 
      • Walking with nature, higher air quality – recreating the setting of outdoors inside
    • What is you favourite recent experience of nature in the city?
  • How can nature be included in internal city spaces?  
    • Design elements – adding plants, taking inspiration from nature in patterns and lights
    • Workplaces/ hospitality/ public spaces?
    • Events/ experiences?
  • Final thought – easy idea to include nature in your work/ day today 
  • Any audience questions

Promotion of Discussion

Reflection

It is unfortunate that I haven’t been able to secure any more panellists this time around. However, this panel has been organized in a much shorter time frame than the previous two, as the recent evolution of my project to be around developing the Nature In Community has consumed the majority of the time to get it up and running. I have now planned out my monthly topics for the panels for the next year including ideas for panel guests so this issue shouldn’t arise again. I will post this planning of the content in an upcoming post.

However, I am looking forward to running the talk in a different format, as the podcast style focusing on one person will allow for greater insights and understanding into Kristina’s work and personal opinions and ideas on how nature can benefit city dwellers.

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Organising Panel Discussion 3 & Growing the Nature In Community

Over the past week, I have contacted the network I have developed throughout my project to join the Nature In LinkedIn Community. I also asked if they would like to get involved in the panel discussion I am going to run on the 11th November at 1pm UK time.

The panel is set to discuss ‘How can nature improve wellbeing in the city?

So far I have reached out to:

  • Kristina Libby
  • Vanessa Champion
  • Raji Iyer
  • Heidi Lenaerts
  • Lianne Bongers
  • Dr Alia Fadel
  • Bill Browning
  • Bruce Dallow
  • Bettina Bolten
  • Leonardo Binetti
  • Sue Thomas
  • Willem Van Bolderen

I will look to host the panel via stream yard linking to the Nature In youtube account. However, I am considering charging a small fee for audience entry to the event which would allow me to offer some form of small payment to my guest speakers. I am going to research the logistics and feasibility of this aspect further before committing to it.

I have also reached out to the participants of the Immersive Event whose contact details I received and invited them to join the panel as audience members.

The agenda for the panel will be posted in the upcoming days alongside promotions for the panel that I am running on the Nature In Community via LinkedIn and also on the Nature In Instagram.

Reflection/ Evaluation:

At the end of the week, the Nature In Community now has 8 members who are all involved in the natural design industry. I will continue to approach people over the coming week to join the community, now focusing upon other professions to gain a wider audience in the group.

For the panel discussion on Tuesday, I have secured Kristina Libby to part take and I have 4 confirmed audience members. Many experts I have approached are very busy in the run-up to Christmas and so are unable to get involved in the panel. Therefore, if I am unable to secure any more panelists for Tuesday I will run the discussion just with Kristina in a podcast-style format still taking questions from the audience.

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Nature In Community Planning/ Future of Nature In

Structure of Community Content: 

  • Monthly Talks 
    • Featuring guests and charging a viewing fee
    • Panel discussions and one to one podcast style
  • Weekly Community Discussions – on Clubhouse 
    • The week after the talk, the discussion will be based upon the content of the talk, in almost a book club style format, allowing the talk to be unpacked and applying the ideas to personal circumstances
  • Content Uploads 2/3 times a week
    • Provoking community discussion and contribution, as well as providing factual info 

Future Plans:

App/ Member’s area

  • Access to businesses/ designers – allowing members to view their work/ ideas and then message to collaborate/ work with them on projects to bring nature into cities

Aim of Nature In Community: 

Bringing together professionals to make bringing nature into city spaces an accessible and innovative priority.

Possible tag line – Making nature and sustainability an easily accessible, engaging priority for professionals working in and on city spaces. 

Everyone is concerned with acting more sustainably with nature, for the planet, especially in a professional/ corporate setting where there is pressure to be seen to be doing so.

The Nature In Community offers a one-stop-shop to access the leading experts, businesses, and ideas in bringing nature into city spaces.

Bringing nature into the city aids personal wellbeing and the climate crisis through protecting and enhancing nature as well as encouraging sustainability-conscious behaviors. 

Discussion and Collaboration: 

  • On current members current work with issues and questions regarding including nature
  • Instigating projects between members from connections made in the group
  • Members can post their work in the community inspired by community conversations

Content Ideas: 

Questions/ facts/ talking points/ games/ competitions/ interactive activities

  • Could look at introducing monthly themes or mini-series?
    • Theme could centre around that month’s panel discussion?
    • Mini-series idea – how to introduce nature through evoking the senses through the elements – air, wind, fire, earth, water
  • Games/ Interactive activities 
    • Interactive maps – Jauntly 
      • Map of biophilic/ natural places to visit in London
      • Map of the best biophilic/ natural spots to work in London (co-working/ cafes)
    • Group Collage 
      • Inviting members to post ways of adding nature in their work that week through images or text – these can be added to a collage of all the members posts 
  • Could begin posting content/ facts around a close look of nature and professionals in the city, gradually zooming out on the subsidiary impacts/ benefits of including nature in the cityscape 
  • Similar idea to ‘minute of me’ 
    • Community members post short videos of themselves – stating their work, goals and ideas
  • Post responses/ questions/ facts regarding the outcomes of COP26
  • Catching lucky leaf idea
    • Community members asked to post their reflections/ wants for good luck into the new year

Ideas for Talk Topics: 

  • How can nature improve wellbeing in the city? 
  • What can natural building do for your work/ life in urban interior spaces? 
    • Contact Jeffery Heart to guest speak
  • How can nature improve your work environment? 
    • Contact Percy Smith to guest speak
  • What does nature bring to the table? – benefits of nature to wellbeing and climate crisis
  • How can nature be introduced in designing urban interior spaces 
    • Contact architects and interior designers with natural deisgn professionals to guest speak
  • How can regenerative design aid our integration of nature into cities? 
    • Contact Carole Collet to guest speak
  • How can nature help graphic designers? – utilising nature for inspiration and for restorative rest bite 
    • Contact graphic and natural designers to guest speak
  • How can technology boost connections to nature?
    • Contact Sue Thomas and Kristina Libby to guest speak 
  • How can adding nature help your businesses attract more customers? -Economics of biophilic design
    • Contact Bill and Catie from Terrapin Bright Green to guest speak 
  • How targeting the senses can help to build connections to nature
  • Can you make a difference to biodiversity/ rewilding living in the city? 
  • Nature and Virtual Reality
    • Could link with Sam’s project for VR and mental health?
  • Nature and displacement activities from screens
    • Could link to Jariel’s project – utilise nature to give a the opportunity to step away from work and improve your project output
  • Nature and furniture
    • Contact Yarn Collective, John Lewis and alike to guest speak 
    • How products reduce carbon output and how natural materials help to improve wellbeing and build connections to nature, alongside benefits to climate crisis 
  • Is a green wall really the best we can do? 
    • General debate/ collaboration of companies pushing innovative ways of how nature can be added into spaces 
    • Could even form this idea into a competition – getting companies to collaborate and produce ideas to add nature to an internal city space 
      • The ideas can then be pitched as part of a competition where the winner gets to create their idea and install it in a given space
        • This does require someone to volunteer a space for the installation of the natural design
      • People will take part as it offers an opportunity to showcase their work, which can draw people to get involved in their work as customers or collaborators   
  • What is the power of plants in a city space? 
    • Contacts Planteria and Plant Designs to guest speak?
  • Nature and city culture – exploring in music, fashion, nightlife and how to incorporate nature
  • How to introduce nature in none-creative careers – nature for lawyers, bankers and business people in the city – ‘we haven’t forgotten about you’ 
    • Pushing past things companies do for their employees in regard to nature, such as adding nature to work environments and instead focusing mire upon how nature can aid personal work/ careers
  • Nature and food 
    • Contact chefs or the likes of Waitrose food magazine writers for a special 
    • How to feel close to nature through city food, where foraging and growing your own food is out of the question 
    • Nature for city chefs? – contact London honey company to guest speak? 
      • Bearing in mind out pricing people due to heightened prices of local produce? 
  • Nature and health/ wellbeing 
    • Exercise, yoga, mindfulness and nature’s integral role in instigating and elevating these practises 

More customer based: 

  • How can you bring nature to your life when living in the city with no garden? 
  • Nature for city kids 
    • How to get city kids to include nature in their lives, goals and ideas
      • Explore what’s out there for kids – ‘mind’ game looking at nature and now and getting kids to consider it at meal times

The Product 

  • App/ community platform 
    • Thursdays rebrand from honey pot that was hosted on Instagram and the oncoming birth of Web 3 suggests that the internets of social media is shifting towards a space where customised online community spaces are the form of social media whereby the spaces are less mindless scrolling and more mindful scrolling in community spaces of like-minded people 
      • Suggesting moving the online community group off linkedin to an own hosted platform might be the correct move to form the community into more of a viable business model
    • Companies/ experts/ professionals pay to be on the app as listed Nature In approved – subscription-based payment? – free gets you to see certain things but to utilise it properly or message people you have to subscribe? 
      • Possible feature/ section for venues wanting to add nature in projects and the professionals on the app can select them – the venues could pay to be listed in this section
    • Professionals want to join the app/ space to see who they can work with, see what projects are available and what ideas they can create/ utilise 
    • Could offer professional access first and then roll out to the public to access the listed professionals? 
    • The panels/ talks will be linked to/ access given via the app platform – free to members 
      • Or could do a tiered membership: 
        • Free- access to see some posted content (just enough to give the sense of the community and what to be achieved? 
        • Basic – access to members, messaging, and community content
        • Premium – access to all the above and panel discussions/ talks and access to listed venues or companies available for projects? 

Who to Get on Board with the Project – large targets: 

Technology Inspiration: 

  • Onezone app
  • Thursday app- Massively growth in short period of time – Jess Wreford Marketing lead 

Podcasts:

  • Design the future

Big Big: 

  • Bill Gates 
  • Google 
    • Off the back of how to avoid climate disaster – highlight need to include nature in all lines of professional work aimed in cities

Natural World:

  •  More younger generation figure of the likes of Chris Packham or Alan titschmarch 
    • Consider who this could be?

Reflection

Having started to grow the Nature In community on LinkedIn, through inviting the contacts I have made throughout my matsers journey to the page and uploading content, it is exciting to plan the future growth of the space.

I feel the platform of LinkedIn is the most suitable strating point to grow the community initially as it allows of easy acess to many professionals already on the site. However, looking to the future and growing this community and platform into a viable model for change and business I feel it may be best to move onto a self made home platform such as an app or website space that can be fully customisable and provide a space to unify people with alined intentions. Thus, helping to step away from the negative connotatons that can be brought into the soical media space. For instance, ideas of watsing time on the platforms through encourgaing habits of mindless scrollling. Also, with the prodicted trends in Web3 exploring future rises in social networking online moving off the current platforms I feel establishing a unique community space may be a suitable option.

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My Positionality and Ethical Practice

Researching Positionality

Positionality statements need to include:

  1. The researcher’s worldview on the topic
  2. How this view shapes the scope of the research (background, identities, values, assumptions)
  3. Being conscious of biases, values, experiences

(Holmes, 2020) and (Youtube, 2015)

Statement of Positionality:

Why I am suited to utilising community to bring nature into city spaces:

I have a personal love for nature through growing up near the Peak District and having a keen gardener for a mother, nature has always been a prominent part of my life. However, having recently moved to London I experienced the harsh disconnect from nature in the city and therefore I wanted to make nature accessible for those in cities.

My undergraduate study of geography furthered this interest in the natural world under the lens of urban planning and green building, leading to my discovery of biophilic design. Subsequently, I aim to make the concept of biophilia approachable and integrated within the cityscape through multiple channels. My passion and skill to unite people and engage with stakeholders helped to drive this project into a community focus. The interdisciplinary and intersectionality nature of this project brings together my background and interests positionality.

My Position/ Biases:

My position as a privileged white female must be taken into consideration when placing nature at the forefront of current issues, as people in less privileged groups may have alternative priorities, with those living in deprived areas less likely to have visited natural spaces (GOV.UK, 2021). There are numerous controversies surrounding disparities in access to nature between different economic and ethnic groups (Nature Gap, 2020).

My education and access to nature ground my position as an expert in biophilia. However, I have currently assumed others have these privileges and failed to involve those who have not had access to education, which I will address in future community growth. 

I have consciously collaborated with experts of varying backgrounds and ethnicities across the globe ranging from the UK to America, Singapore, Norway, Italy, and beyond to collate as many different viewpoints as possible.

Additionally, I must listen to those individuals who do not value nature, understand their perspectives and try to address them through the communities’ efforts.

Maintaining an Ethical Study

To ensure I have maintained and ethical practise throughout my project and in line with the work of Khanlou and Peter (2005) all participants have been offered the opportunity to conseal their identity and withdraw from the research at any time.

Additionally,, participants have been informed how their contributions will be utilised and stored. Consent has been gained to distribute any content online.

Furthermore, I have educated participants in the field of the research, unpacking terms of biophilic and biomimetic design, creating informed conversation.

Reflections

From this research into positionalities, I feel informed and ready to approach bringing professionals into the Nature In Community that offers very different perspectives from my own. Be these perspectives in terms of ethnicity, economic grouping, geographical locations, or ideologies, and viewpoints. I recognise the importance of including the whole story in my work as much as possible, for the community to be able to create real change and bring nature into city spaces in ways that cater for and excite as many different people as possible to spread the power of nature!

Additionally, I am now confident that I will continue to conduct ethical research after exploring the work of Khanlou and Peter (2005). I will ensure all ethical standards are maintained throughout my project in now forming the Nature In Community and beyond the study of my MA.

Bibliography

GOV.UK (2021) ‘The People and Nature Survey for England: Adult Data Y1Q1 (April- June 2020) (Experimental Statistics) GOV.UK [Online]  https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/the-people-and-nature-survey-for-england-adult-data-y1q1-april-june-2020-experimental-statistics/the-people-and-nature-survey-for-england-adult-data-y1q1-april-june-2020-experimental-statistics Accessed 29/09/21

Holmes, A.G.D., (2020). ‘Researcher Positionality–A Consideration of Its Influence and Place in Qualitative Research–A New Researcher Guide.’ Shanlax International Journal of Education, 8(4), pp.1-10.

Khanlou, N. and Peter, E., (2005) ‘Participatory action research: considerations for ethical review.’ Social science & medicine, 60(10), pp.2333-2340.

Nature Gap (2020) ‘Confronting Racial and Economic Disparities in the Destruction and Protection of Nature in America’ Nature Gap [Online] ‘https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/reports/2020/07/21/487787/the-nature-gap/ Accessed 20/10/21

Youtube (2015) ‘Positionality Statemnets’ Youtube [Online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpcIVzGYhVs Accessed 29/10/21

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Editing Branding/ Community Content

After recent feedback on my branding for Nature In from my tutor and my peers, I have iterated it to provide more of a contrast between the colours so that the logo can be seen more clearly.

I have also created some other logo options, introducing orange and shapes into the colour scheme to bring energy and excitement to the branding, as Nature In is aimed to be engaging, dynamic, fun and innovative.

I have also tried to take on the feedback of making my branding more exciting, fun, and engaging by including oranges and shapes in my initial community content and headers.

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Outcomes from Immersive Natural Event

Due to the distributions on the first day of the event and then also issues with the light and noise present in the canteen area the event was held, there was low participation in the event. Subsequently, there is only a small amount of evidence collated to analyse.

Analysis and Evaluation of Outcomes:


Conversations:

The majority of participant interactions were interesting conversations with people intrigued by the event. These conversations predominately led to exchanges of contact details to keep in touch and to look to collaborate on future work, which was very exciting and valuable.


Feedback from Conversations with Participants:

  • Fine art student – 4D she was intrigued by the use of projections the event and took a video of it. She really liked the natural imagery from the peak district. 
  • Graphic designer – interesting thought for her how to include nature into her work and bring it into other practises of her life
  • architecture – she was interested in utilising it in her work but less so something she is super passionate about- she would be more interested if a client wanted it then she could use the resources to find out more about natural design.
  • Materials and deisgn MA student – looking how different materials can be utilised to replicate nature 
  • performance arts student – using the rave scene as a method of communication for integrating cultures loves the projections of nature and thinking of it in that way – wants to look to collaborate to utilise similar projections of nature in her work – but she is less focused on sustainability
  • Industrial designer student- wants to get in touch about collaborations, loved thinking how to fuse ideas of nature and humans together in the city space, really enjoyed watching the projections as she ate. She also recommends i look into the artist – Moon Ribas who exhibits how earthquakes impact humans through movement and dancing. 
  • narrative environments student- really interested in my project, she looks at how to communicate stories in a new way and environment. Her friend on her course is really interested in bringing nature and forests to people after covid with people still staying in she wants them to get outside and so she is going to pass my email onto her friend to look at working together in the future! She also really enjoyed the wind noise as she felt it made her really feel like she was in the space.

What I learned:

  • People enjoyed the video content and found the natural imagery engaging and relaxing
  • The video was thought-provoking in making people think about nature and when spoken to how they could include nature in their work. Perhaps to get the point of how to include nature in their work across to more people I could have displayed a poster by the video showcasing that very question.


Paper Sheets and Google Forms Questions:

However, despite offering QR codes to google forms of questions and displaying questions on large sheets of paper for people to write thoughts around, there was very little uptake in these activities. I had only 3 participants write feedback on the sheets and lots of this was one-word answers such as ‘peaceful’ and ‘relaxing’.


Perhaps I should have handed out bookmarks with the google forms QR code on the tables before people sat down so that they could answer the questions as they watched the video. Good thought if I do an event in similar circumstances in the future.

Feedback from Google forms:

What I learned:

  • The video helped people to feel the benefits of integrating with nature – peaceful, comfertable, calm and relaxed
  • The video provided insporation to include nature in work/ projects – thinking of developing pattern inspired by nature
  • People said they wished to visit other natural events and that it provided a small escape from the busy world of city life london.

These key takeaways suggest the event was a success in achieving its aims of showcasing the benefits of nature and how to include nature in city spaces in innovative and engaging ways, also in provoking ideas to include nature in professional work and building the Nature In community. However, the limited participants in the event do limit the success of these outcomes.


Online Nature In Communities:

I also promoted my online community groups on both LinkedIn and Facebook. I am still awaiting people to join the groups from the QR codes that I have handed out, and I am aware that leaving people to do this of their own accord means there is unlikely to be an uptake in the activity. The participants which I exchanged contact details (5 of them) I will contact to again promote them to join the group for conversion and collaboration on bringing nature into city spaces through their work.


Interestingly when conversing with the narratives environment student she was surprised the communities were online and not held in a physical space for conversation and collaboration. This was an angle I hadn’t really considered before as I had thought more to host panel discussion events or talks in person, not the community conversations themselves. The idea of hosting physical community meetings is something I will definitely look to explore more in the future.


Also, some people said they didn’t use linked in or Facebook only Instagram and so maybe I will look to expand the community on that platform too.

What I have learned/ Evaluation:

  • I gained connections with students off a vast variety of courses from industrial materials to narrative environments and preformance arts. It was really useful to hear the different perspectives on bringing nature into spaces and how everyone approches the topic differently but that it is a concpet the enagges people from a variety of fields.
    • Seeing the appeal of bringing nature into city spaces attract such a variety of people solidifield my decision to step away from limiting my work to hospiality businesses. The adjusted scope of my project helped to engage all of these individuals and can allow for future collaborations with them in the community to bring nature into cities through their work.
  • I furthered my skills in thinking on my feet. When uptake in the event was low, but I saw people watching the video from their seats I began to go round and hand out QR codes to individuals to try and gain their feedback and to heighten engagement in the event. I do however think that I should have done this sooner, as at the stage that I began doing this, the peak lunchtime slot was over.
  • The use of the video was enjoyed by many and provided the relaxing benefits of interacting with nature, it also served well in provoking thoughts around nature and even including nature in people’s professions.
    • I would look to utilise the video again in other events or situations
  • To consider hosting the community in perosn as well as online and on instagram as another platform alongside LinkedIn and Facebook

Reflection:

Looking to develop other events, I feel I need to focus upon inviting an audience rather than relying on engaging people already occupied in spaces, as this can be very hard to involve people as they don’t wish to spare their time. In order to establish such an audience, I feel it is appropriate to focus on building the communities online over the coming weeks with a view to hosting iterations of the event interventions in the future. Once a community begins to become established then the core community can invite their contacts and create a buzz around the vent so then passersby might be intrigued to get involved alongside the invited crowd.

However, there are positives to take from this event in that the projections provided the benefits of interacting with nature, as well as inspiring people to think of nature in their work; and the majority of participants stated they would be interested to visit future natural events.

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Day 2 – Immersive Natural Event

Thanks fully CSM reopened today so I was able to conduct my event! The start of the event was very slow as the canteen was empty expect for 2/3 people until around 12:30pm. 

Setup 

Today I pinned the sheet up higher to hide as much of the purple border as possible. I also pinned up some of my sheets to write on the encourage people to come up and write ideas down, and this also helped to cover more of the purple board.


The light on the projection was still a big issue today. I feel that having moved the event to CSM so last minute this was a factor I overlooked slightly and it has really impacted the effect my event could have had.

Engagement With Stakeholders

  • performance arts student – using the rave scene as a method of communication for integrating cultures loves the projections of nature and thinking of it in that way – wants to look to collaborate to utilise similar scale de in her work – but she is less focused on sustainability and nature 
  • Industrial designer student- wants to get in touch about collaborations, loved thinking how to fuse ideas of nature and humans together in the city space, really enjoyed watching the projections as she ate. She also recommends i look into the artist – Moon Ribas who exhibits how earthquakes impact humans through movement and dancing. 
  • narrative environments student- really interested in my project, she looks at how to communicate stories in a new way and environment. Her friend on her course is really interested in bringing nature and forests to people after covid with people still staying in she wants them to get outside and so she is going to pass my email onto her friend to look at working together in the future! She also really enjoyed the wind noise as she felt it made her really feel like she was in the space.

Evaluation

Successes:

  • Good meaningful conversations with the participants I did interact with which can be followed up to lead to collaborations and their contributions to the online community.
  • I went round and started to hand out bookmarks with QR codes on to google forms of the questions and this enlisted some responses. In hindsight, I should have done this sooner rather than trying to speak to people on an individual basis that they were apprehensive might take up a lot of their time. Handing out the bookmarks so they could complete the question whilst they viewed the event in their own time was a much better idea.


Midground:

Many people sat eating sat to face and watch the video, suggesting they were intrigued by the event, but that was the extent of their interaction with the event.

Failures:

  • The location. The canteen was too noisy and bright with people focused on having a quick lunch and a chat that interacting with the event. This type of event possibly suits more passers-by or exhibit-style events rather than a space where everyone has ulterior motives for their use of time in the space. 
  • Writing on the sheets had low uptake.

Reflection:

I had positive feedback on the content and mission of the event, so I feel something similar could work effectively if utilised under a different setting. Possibly a projection event could work as part of an exhibit, or in a space with footfall (but not too light/ lights on!) 

I had some really interesting conversations with the participants that did engage with the event. I have the contact details for the vast majority of these participants and I plan to reach out to them all to get involved in the community and collaborate in the future.

Key takeaway – I was able to connect with many up and coming professionals within the design industry in a vast range of fields that were interested in learning how to bring nature into city space through their work.

Evidence

Please see link to google drive below containing images and videos of the event:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vb2r5DRSpB8EB59rznm-BJFx8Zo9AjmJ?usp=sharing

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Day 1 – Immersive Natural Event

In running this event I encountered an obstacle completely out of my hands in that CSM had to close for emergency works to air ventilation at 1pm today and the estate’s team are unsure if the building will reopen on Friday as it is dependent upon whether they can fix the issues before then. This obviously threw a huge curveball into running my event as it only fully began at 11:30 and I had to pack everything up by 12:30 ready to leave the building. I am hoping the works will be completed so I can run the event properly tomorrow.

Positives of Event Setup:

  • The white screen on the ceiling was a big pro as it created a fully immersive experience where you could look up and experience the projections above as well as in front of you 
  • Handing out the QR code on bookmark worked well to allow people to look at the community in their own time 
  • Many passersby commented that they were enjoying the actual vidoe footage being showcased

Obstacles to Avoid in Future Setups of Similar Events:

  • Lights on at the side of the projections are controlled by motion sensors and so couldn’t be switched off. The light provided a lot of glare onto the screen which I would make a big effort to avoid in the future
  • The purple edge to the board. I pinned up a white sheet to cover the majority of the board but some edging was still apparent that was distracting to the eye.
  • Background music is being played in the canteen space. 
  • For future use of the video – slightly adujst the volume of certain clips even more so they are all of a similar sound level – I did try to do this in editing but when played on loud speakers there are still some slight irregularities

Engagement with Stakeholders:

  • Fine art student – 4D she was intrigued by the use of projections the event and took a video of it. She really liked the natural imagery from the peak district. 
  • Graphic designer – interesting thought for her how to include nature into her work and bring it into other practises of her life
  • architecture – she was interested in utilising it in her work but less so something she is super passionate about- she would be more interested if a client wanted it then she could use the resources to find out more about natural design.
  • Materials and deisgn MA student – looking how different materials can be utilised to replicate nature 

Evaluation

When testing the projectors in my flat it was a much more impactful experience. I feel this concept was slightly washed out by the open nature of the CSM canteen space. This may also be to do with the lighting in the space and so next time I will try to move slightly to a less bright space if at all possible.

However, I felt projecting onto the ceiling board was definitely a strong part of the intervention to create an immersive feel.

Reflection 

The experience struggled to get going as the canteen was a very empty space throughout the day, due to the building closing at 1pm when lunchtime is the busiest period for the space. I will look into rescheduling the event for another time when the building is back open.

Evidence

Please see link to google drive below containing images and videos of the event:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uPkcIxUYHmp3x0SXJPB2DfXTzdU5Inif?usp=sharing

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Planning and Creating Immersive Natural Event

Event Summary

Immersive Natural Event 21st and 22nd October 11am-3:30pm at Central Saint Martins Canteen Space

This event looks to bring nature into city spaces and provide the health benefits of interacting with nature to people within the space. Such benefits include increased creativity, productivity, and positivity. The event aims to engage people with nature, encouraging nature to be included in their lives further and promoting the community practice I am developing as a space for professionals and designers to collaborate on bringing nature into their work. 

The event will utilise projections and speakers to showcase a video of natural scenery, which is focused upon the water. The video footage and audio are all shot and owned by me. Water is the focus of this event due to my meetings with expert stakeholders, such as Sue Thomas (expert in technobiophilia) who spoke to me about her reading and experience of utilising water to engage people with nature as an often under utilised but highly dynamic force.

All equipment will be loaned from the CSM loan store and so will be PAC tested. 

All cables will be taped down to the floor to avoid any tripping hazards. 

People wishing to get further involved in the event will be asked to write their answers to two simple questions on large sheets of paper, which I will supply. One of the questions will be before and one after their engagement in the event. I will also provide a QR code for people to scan which links to my online community page, should they wish to join.

I will be present at the event for its entire duration.

Aims of Event

  • To showcase innovative, engaging and dynamic ways nature can be brought into city spaces
  • To provide participants with the opportunity to intercat with nature and feel its benefits – such as increased creativity, producivity and positivity; reduced anxiety and stress
  • To establish interest from deisgn experts/ professionals in the CSM community to utilise nature in their work
  • To meet upcoming deisgners and indivudlas interested in making sustainably minded decisions to join my online Nature In Community

All of these aims are focused upon drawing interest in nature amongst creatives, specifically at CSM for this event, to demonstrate the power and value of biophilic design consequently growing interest and uptake in joining the Nature In community.

Planning/ Logistics

  • Origionally this event was to be hosted at Chelsea College of Arts, to have secured that opportunity I have had meetings with Chelsea canteen and estates teams. However, having the event at Chelsea presented a few logistical issues, as the equiptmet to be utilsied in the event is all to be hired from the CSM loan store. Therefore, I was going to have to transport the equiptment from CSM to Chelsea across the two days.
  • Subsequenlty, the estates manager at Chelsea offered to contact CSM estates to see if the event could be hosted in the CSM restaurant instead.
  • After many eails and last minute changes a meeting was arranged with CSM estates, events and canteen to finalise details to host the event at CSM. Thankfully everything was provisionally approved for the event following my risk assessment.
  • Following this meeting I reserached how to formulate a risk assessmnet form for an event and constructed my document to then send to the estates, events and canteen teams.
  • The risk assessment was approved on monday and so everything is now logistically in place for the event on thursday and friday.

Creating Video

  • All footage utilised in the video was shot by me during trips to regents park and also in my recent trip back home ot sheffield, where I live near the Peak District which offered a very valuable opporutnity to gather truley natural shots of water
  • I edited the video utilsing premier pro which was a new software for me and took a while to establish how to create the video I wanted, but I am very happy with the final outcome.
  • The video will loop back on itself to cover teh duration of the event

I also tested projecting the video in my flat to see the impact it would have in the event and test out any issues. Please see the google drive link below to the videos of testing the projector:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13c8jJSqMpDPjT56LJo6_G87xkqE7A1b1?usp=sharing

Measures

  • Assessing the impacts of the event upon participants knowledge of the power and benefits of nature – how they experience these benefits from the event
  • Establishing if the event has insipred participants to utilise nature in their work

To measure these aspects participants will be asked to write their thoughts on a piece of paper upon entry in answer to certain questions:

  • How does this event make you feel about nature?
  • Does this event inspire you to include nature in your work and how?
  • Would you reccommend natural events to people and will you keep in touch?

These questions will also be linked into a google forms page that people can access via QR code to provide added details and also to leave their email for future contact

  • Growing the Nature In Communtiy
    • QR codes linking to LinkedIn Nature In Community, as well as another QR code to the Nature In Facebook Group for people who don’t have LinkedIn

What I Have Learned In Developing This Event:

  • Creating a Risk Assessment form
  • Editing a video to a standard fit for a professional event and utilisng effects on Premier Pro
  • Co-ordinating many different teams from events to estates and the canteen, to logistically get the event running
  • Developing relevant measures for the event are brief enough to ensure responses but that also provide enough infirmation for later effective evaluation
  • How to access not just already established professionals through internet searches on platforms such as LinkedIn; developng this event has helped me learn how to consider all types of professionals to jion the community that can influence change. For instance, the upcoming cutting edge creatives that study at CSM as well as the teachers.

Reflections:

It has been a long process in developing this event, largely due to the location change, and it has gone through many rounds of changes in developing the idea. However, I think with my new project direction centered around community building to tie all the threads of my work together, this event has the potential to be very powerful in changing perspectives and providing ideas/ knowledge of how nature can be brought into city spaces. Hosting the event in CSM is also very exciting to be able to access many upcoming designers which can join the discussions in my community group and begin to consider adding nature into their work.

Ideas Summary for Event:

Posted on

Creating Community Group and Nature In LinkedIn Page

Why LinkedIn?

To launch the professional community of Nature In I have chosen to utilise LinkedIn groups. This is due to many professionals I am wanting to reach and bring into the community already having big presences on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has also been incredibly instrumental in my work on this project to access high-level experts and individuals by simply reaching out through messaging on LinkedIn and asking if they would be interested in getting involved with my work. LinkedIn was also suggested as a potentially valuable platform during my second panel discussion.

How Will The Community Be Launched?

The community will initially begin by hosting the individuals I have connected with through the journey of my master’s venture. These key experts will form the foundation of the group and I will use this base to build the content and conversation between community members to attract further experts to get involved in the group. I will reach out to all of these connections individuals so they are made aware of the aims of the community and also invite them to introduce any revenant professionals they know to the community. All community members need to be accepted into the group via my admin approval. 

Content Featured In The Community

I will curate and plan the content featured initially within the community. However, members will have the function to post in the group, I will simply approve the posts with my admin role. The posts will aim to promote discussion and collaboration among members which also providing knowledge/ information. The content will also include links to scheduled clubhouse discussions for members to join in on, as well as links to larger panel discussion style events that will be hosted via Streamyard on Youtube.

Future Plans for Growing the Community

I plan to expand the reach of my community by targeting people that lie outside my own niche and positionality so that I can attain multiple perspectives allowing for diverse discussions and truly innovative collaborations between members. I will access these potential members through LinkedIn searches, getting referrals from existing members and contacts, in-person meetings and through my immersive natural event on Thursday and Friday this week, where I will utilise the position of being in UAL to access upcoming designers and sustainably focused student to ask if they wish to join the community.

Looking to the future this community group may develop off LinkedIn into an app space or on the Nature In website (that I am in the process of developing). Additionally, to form this venture into a potential business, there may be a fee introduced to join the community group as a monthly subscription or to join the discussion talks. 

Reflection/ Evaluation

In order to ensure the community is developed as efficiently and works as effectively as possible, I will explore and unpack literature around community practice and community building over the coming weeks. I am also conscious to identify my positionality amongst forming this community and so I look to develop a statement of positionality over next week too.

Visuals of LinkedIn Page/ Group