Welcome to my weekly studio/life notes, week 23 of 52. I write these. I don’t use AI it would defeat the purpose.
This week began with me traveling back overnight from Wales, a rather intriguing conversation with the other foot passenger who had an Oz accent and was traveling light with bagpipes and a travel case of about the same size. After about an hour of conversation he eventually asked what the course I was doing in the UK. I think I responded instantly and unwaveringly “time travel”. He raised his eyebrow commenting he could see I was still buzzing from it. He blew things up for a living, working in the mining industry near Perth, WA. Very controversial in my world view but I choose to be curious, he shared a lot about his life. He didn’t get gold mining at all. We connected over old motorbikes, being Irish and his return to say good bye to older relatives.
It was good to get home, narky and tired, I slept well.
Reflection
I think there is so much unfolding from the co-design work and last weekend that this week almost went by in a blur. Rob Hopkins had warned that time travel journeys might leave us a bit discombobulated. I’ve begun reading his book – How to fall in love with the Future.
Sail and rail is such excellent value and building in slow travel to my schedule add some processing and bridging time. Recommend bring food for the travel, rail trolley sandwiches and awful middle of the night expensive breakfast can only be counteracted with good healthy picnic food you have chosen yourself.
When I came back to my desk an article called BAFUSHIA was underneath my red mouse. I picked up this article in the Hugh Lane Gallery the day of the Palestine March, four weeks ago. I’d gone in to see the Brian Maguire exhibition and this was in one of the small side galleries.
I’ve sat with it, read slowly and sensed deeply into the publication and essay of ‘A Travellers Provocation’ by Dr Rosaleen McDonagh.
“The word ‘Bafushia’ was discovered written in a sketchbook belonging to Jack B. Yeats alongside ‘Telling the Cards’ (1898; Collection: NGI). Through collective interpretation with participants from the Traveller community in a collaborative arts project led by artist Séamus Nolan and the Sligo Traveller Support Group in partnership with CAIRDE Sligo Arts Festival, the term was translated as a possible word for divining the future, ‘telling forward’, and for seeking out and imagining what lies ahead. While we have not been able to find any record of the word Bafushia being used by Traveller groups or anyone else, through the workshops with Traveller participants, an open and transparent process of inquiry led to the possibility that Bafushia might have been a localized term, reflecting how language evolves and gains meaning when spoken. The group’s collective speculative understanding of the word was one of being physically rooted while imagining the future—much like how the word Bafushia itself was a product of the group’s speculation.”
Digital prints on paper, 40 x 75 cm
As I have found previously with Cant trying to confirm the word, even the spelling and meaning is difficult. Not having records or documentation of Cant is a significant gap in Irish culture and heritage. We’ve been too busy being racist to this minority group to respect and honour their community and culture.
I wonder what are we missing when we ignore whole swathes of populations as less then.
The link to future thinking is not lost on me as it sat on my desk until I’d return from Hawkswood and 2030 before I could read it. I’m sitting with what this means and as I find my Irish way to the future what local resonances might I attune to.
Synthesising last weeks co-design work and finalising the story boards was done Tuesday. I began unpacking the work. It needs more time. I’ve begun working on the Co-design Playbook.
I’ve been thinking a lot about social infrastructure and social scaffolding that enables change, there are some resources linked below. I will write about it as my thoughts form more clearly.
I kicked off a new facilitation piece of work, it’s short but could have some service design legs it definitely needs some broader thinking, speculative design frameworks and dare I say a sprinkle of what if… maybe even some time travel. If a Welsh Public Park can fund a time machine perhaps every client should be introduced to time travel?
There was an interesting conversation on Doughnut Economics with Codema, lets see where that one goes, more IDEN then business or perhaps a bit of both.
This week I was thinking about morphic adaptive surfaces and if this way of making things could also be away of holding an adaptive challenge. I thought of up a framework and immediately abandoned it as who need another framework!
I’ve started to seek other work, reaching out to my network as I’ve a lot of capacity, you can read more about the work I do on this dedicated BDT Consultancy page, it will grow to its own website soon. But right now its a page all to itself.
Other things I’ve been thinking about are
- stories, storytelling, oral tradition and the shapes of stories
- publishing failed tenders and submissions
- Health for women over their lifetime and over my lifetime
Insight
I’ll pay a lot more attention to co-design readiness, project suitability and community viability in future. There we’re indications that despite two partners being for ever changed after the co-design work they may indeed just run a survey. I’ve started to uncouple myself, I have one day left to work on the project. I note I get overly invested and care to much.
We achieved a better future for all humanity and all beings within the planetary boundaries. The key is connecting to an emergent future. Our future selves, outcomes and multiple possibilities. Where we understood, and had done everything possible. Some call it imagination activism but I have known it as speculative design. It turns out I’ve been working on Future Ancestor and creative visualisation work for years but it was not not until I finally edited this page I saw that.
My plan for this page is to edit and post chapters for some of the bulleted list, check back midweek for more details.
A question for you?
Would you retrain as a heat pump installer? If you a a career guidance coach, parent, guardian or someone working with people in transition – are you recommending this as a pathway to a secure livelihood. I don’t believe AI, LLM models or robotics will ever be able to retrofit a home.
Resources
Researchers quantify the carbon footprint of generating AI images. Creating a photograph using artificial intelligence is like charging your phone.
Article from 2023
The Future of Innovation is Collective, Stanford Business Review article.
Ireland’s UBI for Artists Pilot, Recipients of Basic Income for the Arts share their experiences in a new report published this week. See the National Campaign for the Arts (NCFA) for on going action on UBI for Artists.
An féidir leat é seo a léamh?
Interesting bit of research on the Irish language by Media company Thinkhouse.
“Language becomes more than a tool, it becomes a form of resistance, creativity, and pride. Across cultures, we’re seeing a renewed interest in indigenous, minority, and heritage languages as people look for real human connection in a digital world. Irish is part of that wave.”
In light of earlier comments on Cant, Traveler’s traditions and cultural heritage this was interesting to read, remember they are a media, brand, PR company.
A view to the week ahead
Curious times lie ahead.
Something fairly epic may happen this week.
I am looking forward to working on the Co-design Playbook, a speculative future workshops design, and further outreach for the Shared Ground pilot.
I hope to also sort the accessibility to IDEN emails, I’ve been locked out of it for months now! I’m going to have to kill the account if I can’t get it sorted soon.
Oh and the Well Being Economy Alliance is hosting a Creative Community music event in Limerick towards the end of June, I aim to be there, more on that next week.
Have a good week.
You might be interested in the last few week notes if you’ve not read them
Roisin Markham 
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