Week 34 of 52 the calendar moves into the second half of the year as summer becomes autumn in Ireland. Q3 looks a little different we shall get into that shortly.
Hi there, welcome to my studio notes where I’ve committed to writing weekly reflections, insights, a question for you, share resources and a view to the week ahead. I write these notes, I don’t use AI to write them. Yes it would rather defeat the purpose.
I continue to explore the themes of
• how to create a future worth living into
and
• this shall not be waste
through my world of work, activism, culture and creativity.
This week brought an interesting mix of great joy with some new research work, pain from a scalding boiling water burn, disappointment from an unsuccessful tender, curiosity, some new people in my world, continuing business development collaboration and explorations.
I’d some deeper thinking that I drew through creatively creating a zine over the weekend. They are the perfect device for straigtening messy thinking. I use Zines as a device for figuring things out and in projects for storytelling and communication. Exploring gestalt principles with some thinking on my identity, feminism & intersectionality, creativity, economic literacy, storytelling and exploration of new pathways for post-growth just transitions.
Let’s jump in.
Reflection
As the oaks produce heavy acorns and knolls I am reminded of alternatives to flour and coffee. Acorn’s during WWII were used for flour and roasted for an alternative to coffee. Our land produces food but do we want to eat or drink it?
This week I’ve started cropping local blackberries and apples dropping from our tree. There may have been a blackberry cooking blitz one morning after a sunrise coffee.
My research began for the Social Farming Ireland project. An initial desk to preview of documentation and a shallow scan across EU and UK research. I want to do a deeper dive but the documents sent by SFI kept me reading for most of morning and part of the following day. The scope of the project does not allow for a strong desktop review. As is my practice with research I start a digital research wall. It has to be organised enough for the team and client to visit but suit my brain so I can see patterns, make notes, a space to be curious, question, challenge and document thinking. As practice I describe it as making the invisible visible.
Organising the research information is very satisfying. for people not familiar with is way of work they get really excited to see the visual story and the whiteboard build. It’s a long time since I did a research wall or room physically onsite with a team, it gives tremendous focus and creates a space where stakeholders and teams can move through quant and qualitative data. It’s particularly effective for cross sector or otherwise silos of work.
Shared a synthesised board post research to Oohs and aahs! It was a bit different, good to share with client and associates not familiar with using digital whiteboards in this way. It also clearly demonstrates process, rigour and what the output might look like. In reality I always create a storytelling deck after research, for data and insights but also why the insights matter. I created a research form to capture mentoring session information that we can also use during the research.
In relation to wellbeing, stress management and mental health we know connection to others is important. Wellbeing economy indicators that explore how much social contact we have provide us with better outcomes because it draws our attention to positive reinforcing behaviour. In this vein I asked on TikTok How much do you talk to the people you are closest to… the responses all from women are insightful.
The Dark Matter Labs, Cornerstone Indicators are a point reference here.
Quality of life and societal health should be the starting points from which we operate; this is often forgotten in a system that primarily optimises itself for financial profit and growth.
Metrics ReImagined, RSA June 2024
Indeed this theme of metrics reimagined came up in other work this week also.
I could say lots about the disappointing news of not winning a tender that would have kept myself and associate deep in innovative, vision, strategy and roadmap work till the end of Q1 2026. Alas it’s not meant to be. I’d spent 2-3 weeks working on it with support from J. It sucks. Good and detailed feedback provided which I value. We were ready to go. Now we both have immediate capacity.
Nothing is ever wasted
regenerative by design
While we both process the news we registered that it was incredibly valuable to have worked together and delivered a request for tender. We shall find ways to regenerate the shared unsuccessful experience.
Other new work began with Healthy Ireland for their conference on 11 September. They reached out via my contact form a few weeks ago to invite me to speak and run a workshop at their Building Resilient Futures through Local Government Conference.
I caught up with Moze who is co-facilitating the doughnut day in Fethard, Co. Tipperary with me later in September. We discussed the suggested outline I’d drafted. We are both excited to try a slightly different way of workshopping the introduction to DE. We’ve agreed less is more. A good mantra for working introducing people to doughnut economics and what data can and cannot tells us.
Insights
Early insights from the SFI work are already forming. Curiously based on research I worked with in the Bioregional Weaving Lab and Dunhil Multi Education Centre I am seeing reinforced insights from reports by SFI. Farmer peer to peer knowledge is preferred, prioritised and adopted much more easily then information from lived expertise or others experience.
Always check a boiling flask of water has its lid tightly and firmly closed.
What felt most like me this week was starting projects, design & research, creativity, deep enquiry, tech tools to move the project forward enabling and working with others towards a shared end goal.
I love zines. I made one over the weekend exploring some lingering thoughts and ideas on identity.
It’s snapshot thinking and scrappy visuals that hold pieces of the puzzle for now around roles I embrace, resist and refuse.
I use zines in my work for storytelling. I also use them as a device for when I’m stuck on something. The act of physically folding paper I think acts as a key. Then organising and drawing the information across the pages unlocks flow.
Who decides Zine is partly unfinished and shared on instagram.
I enjoyed drawing every day this week as is my practice. Came across the idea that doddlers are more analytical and focused than their non-doodling colleagues. While I am not typically a fan of repetition I deeply love my creative space every morning. It allows me to experience creativity and flow first thing in my day. Before any media is let in my brain or hands, I draw.
A question for you
When was the last time you did something for the first time?
Resources
Your brain on Art, a fascinating look at the neuroscience of art with Ivy Ross and Susan Magdalen. It comes with a stammer that experiencing art can add 10 years to your lifespan!
I really enjoyed Sophie Lucido Johnstone spoken post Can I come over for dinner? An idea for these times for sure.
I also thought this was a great listen from The Tech Humanist Show, The Mirage of AI Hallucinations. Host Kate O’Neill talks to Anna Mills and Nate Angell in this insightful articulation of the language we use to speak about AI/LLM and why it’s doing harm. The contextualisation of AI prompting as a systems mirage is excellent. I also learned about AI rainbows which I’d never heard of before. Curious to hear what you think, if you listen let me know.
During the week someone sent me an email asking for details of the environmental impact of AI my reaction was where do Instart. I thought I’ll write something. Happy that trusted source, Kieran Joshi published this article earlier in the week.
Karen Hao is interviewed in the Irish times on the 9 of August by Nadine O’Regan who states
“The impact of AI on the environment is extraordinary. Just one ChatGPT search about something as simple as the weather consumes vast energy, 10 times more than a Google search. Or, as Des Traynor of Intercom put it at Dalkey Book Festival recently, it’s like using a “massive diesel generator to power a calculator”.
“Ireland, there are more than 80 data centres, gobbling up 50 per cent of the electricity in the Dublin region, and hoovering up more than 20 per cent nationally, as they work to process and distribute huge quantities of digital information.”
Our local inshore rescue did a mad fundraiser 24 hours in the water for two of the crew. Float for a boat was the catch phrase for raising money for the new boat. They get €5,000 annually from the government to deliver the lifeboat rescue services. #Floatforaboat So if you know Cahore and frequent our local shoreline please donate or if you have some cash that you are looking for a good cause. It is one, give them your money.
A view to the week ahead
Looking forward to finalising the preparations on the SFI work with the team and to scheduling research interviews and a co-production workshop.
With EP looming this week I now have three talks to deliver in September and two workshops to design, finalise and create worksheets for.
If you are going to Electric Picnic I will be in Global Green at the Biodiversity tent with the Irish Doughnut Economics Network. On Sunday I will be chairing a conversation with Cultural Creatives at 14:30 on Art and Activism in the Polycrisis.
Have a great week.
Roisin Markham 
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