Natural Law: 2022-24
recipes for a good life
Becoming better Bonymaen…
An immersive long-term residency in the community of Bonymaen, initial funding provided by Arts Council Wales Connect and Flourish scheme.
The partners are;
Artstation: Socially Engaged Art
Bonymaen Zion Baptist Chapel: Liberation Theology
Swansea University, Law School: Rebellious Lawyering
Tai Tarian: Social Landlord
Residents: Dave Edwards and Hayley Telfer
Current Event Pages.
Climate Change in Food Bank Neighborhoods
listen to 6 expert presentations
meetings organised in collaboration with Cwmpas
Green Dream House
To foster plants & green conversations
Better Bonymaen
Our first litter pick and filming for the new site
CRYMLYN WETLAND SOIL DATA
Collaboration with Paul Granjon - microbial voltage soil comparison between Bonymaen and Crymlyn wetland.
Overview of partners and motivations 5 min.
Part of our expression of interest to Arts Council Wales, Connect and Flourish Scheme.
Zion Chapel Bonymaen
The project started on May 1st 2022. Much of the first phase has involved rehabilitating the Zion Chapel, surrounding and grounds. The building was significantly run down following Covid -19. It now struggles for survival and could be in danger of being sold off to a developer. Sadly, this would mean failing in the mission first laid down by the founding baptist; to increase its appeal and develop its role to support the widest community. Chris and Janet have provided their ministry to a small, loyal but dwindling congregation. They oversee the Eastside Food Bank helped by a handful of volunteers.
Zion is then, the perfect Connect and Flourish partner providing a place in which residents can discuss and plan their future - a community hub infused with art as discussed in our proposals film above.
Dialogue
Artstation has built a beautifully shaped meeting table. It is red ochre colour, references Copperopolis the reprocessing industry once central to the local economy and a part of local heritage.
Within the community and around the table, we seek to learn more about Natural Law in the context of people’s lives. With our collaborators, we seek to seed an evolving conversation that introduces the Social Contract, asking how people see their futures, together, in respect of climate change. With students and invited presentations open to all, we will explore how global trends and politics, impact the cost of living and look at ways we can resist such hardships. Natural Law, above all, seeks recipes for a good life by increasing information flow and feedback within the community. anois will be helping us to circularise the design of our work over two years. Our goal is greater efficiency and raising consciousness about consuming and recycling a key feature of resilient communities.
Food
Many people rely on the foodbank, We have been cleaning and clearing the interior of the chapel and providing smart new shelving to optimise the storasaasgoody food boxes, creating better access to sorting facilities for foodbank volunteers.
The grounds around Zion have become overgrown and neglected. We have been working hard with local people, Chris Lewis the vicar and support from an HSBC Corporate Social Responsibility team, organised by Ashley who lives nearby and runs a small theatre group. Our extensive clearing work has exposed long-term build-up of rubbish dumping on site a menace affecting people locally, action though the council seeks to clear and place illegal tipping notices.
Unfortunately, large sycamore trees and buddleia bushes have been left and taken over the back garden, obscuring sunlight for vegetables most of the day. We plan to compensate for any removals with new planting opposite the chapel.
Energy
Visite to Lawrence Weston in Bristol.
We created a charabanc outing, inviting partners and residents to see how 8 years of community work has transformed key aspects of the community and culminating recently into a community energy project. We visited the team at the local community centre. We visited the site of the new wind turbine one of the largest in England 4.5 MW, able to supply the community with income through an energy buyback scheme.
A presentation about the potential of mine water heat.
Dr Gareth Farr is head of heat & by-product innovation at The Coal Authority focussing on ways to decarbonise old industrial mine workings across the U.K.
Water trapped in mine shafts becomes warm through conducting geothermal energy deep under the earth. Gareth showed residents an experimental ‘open loop’ heating system in Newcastle currently providing heat for 150 homes, he also showed tantalising geological surveys showing mine workings directly beneath Zion Chapel.
Our interest in Gareth’s energy presentation has been to help place Bonymaen, firmly in sight of future government funding to investigate layers of mine workings revealed in the Coal Association presentation.
We are grateful to local councillors Paul Lloyd and Mandy Evans, Mike Hedges MS. who attended these first gatherings and Julie James MS (Minister for Climate Change) who previously sent a message of support.
This aspect of Natural Law is designed to address future ways in which the community could potentially address energy security and cost.
update: 3rd June 2023
ArtHub opened on 5th May with energy company Innova and Julie James MS and Barbera Castle OBE, images lower down page. Garden planting below right, with new planters in front of the chapel. The Swansea University Law School will shortly start their legal surgeries. The first listening started at Crymlyn Bog images below. New work started with the Manic Theatre group - a binaural production to establish Eastside Radio.
As it was at the start of project
Overgrowth and refuse dumping is a blight on Zion Chapel not good for a community garden
Side garden cleared and in a process of rehabilitation for planting
May 2022: We organised a presentation by Dr Gareth Farr of the Coal Association about pioneering work the organisation is developing by recycling the warm water, abundant in disused mines, to heat networks for buildings. Mike Hedges MS. was in attendance and Julie James MS. sent a message of support through Gareth.
Local resident volunteers and gets an unexpected cargo bike taxi home with provisions provided free by East Side Foodbank. March 2023
gardens are being planted by volunteers attracted to the site as it begins to look better. Weekly we are meeting more people
A local landowner over looks Crymlyn Bog from his equestrian farm. He has kindly delivered us high-quality composted horse manure - absolute gold dust! many thanks Simon.
Images below from May 2022
Our first charabanc outing was to visit Lawrence Weston in Bristol with local councillors, partners and community members of Bonymaen. Our interest was to see how other communities are addressing their future energy security and gauge responses for the Bonymaen community. Mark, the project leader, talked us through their community developments over several years, culminating in the building of their own wind turbine, one of the largest community-owned turbines in the UK, which will generate a sustainable stream of future income for the community.
Around a molten copper colour table and backdrop shelving for food bank storage, a sorting table is from reclaimed timber, easing volunteers’ backs while filling and distributing bags of food.
Above, Christmas 2022: We joined carols and poetry readings against a backdrop of positive change we are making happen through
Connect and Flourishing funding by Arts Council Wales
Frank and Jude of anois, presented their excellent circular economy presentation to local residents of Bonymaen and councillors. On reflection after their visit, the challenge and distance of travel from Cork, made it impractical to fully participate as they would have wished. We stay in touch online to reflect together. All thanks to both from the Natural Law team.
Below: Lower down there are images of the new warm listening hub, which is our response to the chilly inside of the chapel. We will be hosting rebel lawyering, meetings and workshops and events in the near future.
We have also been working hard in the back garden, having discussions with local councillors, the council have successfully cleared rubbish dumped over many years and asked people to report dumping which is a real concern to many living near the chapel.
GREEN DREAM HOUSE
Green Dream House was designed by Artstation originally the subject of a funding bid in collaboration with the AWEN research community, at Swansea University.
The dreamhouse design is conceived as a homeostatic self-regulating installation with solar energy for warmth and water catchment systems to regulate growing conditions - a place to foster plants and community conversations. Above: building a prototype with Dave Edwards, 16mm bamboo cane struts and recyclable Alkathene 20mm MDPE water pipe for the complex joints. In the back garden footings are prepared for the installation.
ArtHub opening
i40 guests helped open the hub, a network of connections emerged and new friendships were fourged.
above - ArtHub opening A0 poster and to the right, a handout flyer by Artstation
The opening of ArtHub attracted 40 guests, including Julie James MS, West Swansea, Wales Minister for Climate Change and Barber Castle OBE who is evaluating our project, we also invited the CEO and staff of Inova, builders of local Carn Nicholas Solar Farm on Kilvey Hill. Glenn Davidson made a presentation about the aspirations of the Natural Law partnership. Innova marked their new partnership with Natural Law by offering Bonymaen Community Centre Play Scheme £5000, which will help support volunteer staff. The company also paid for the refreshments and will be working with us on climate workshops for local school-age children and parents. Towards the bottom of page, a trip to a community-owned solar farm organised through Gower Power, a Crymlyn Bog visit and Kilvey Hill summit walk with artist Marc Rees, who joined the Natural Law midterm project meeting with our project partners and evaluation lead Rob Owen (BRO).
Below left: are logs retaining to build a retaining wall at the back of Zion. Councillor Paul Lloyd helped to get Swansea Council to remove many tons of dumped rubbish on Council land backing the chapel site. During summer 2023, we should see the back garden start to take shape. Below right: listening to and recording Crymlyn Bog (Cors Crymlin the biggest fen in Wales and its most effective carbon sink.
Field research.
The general idea: is to gather recordings that will stimulate interest in Crymlyn as the largest ‘quaking’ bog in Wales. In the community of Bonymaen, little knowledge and interest are thought to exist about the well-being of this biodiverse natural resource. As a living system, the Crymlyn Wetland sequesters C02 in our atmosphere at a rate far in excess of a tropical rain forest (Source: NRW) and urgently needs our help as it strives to help us.
Sounds of life, therefore, that can be heard in the wetland, counter any suggestion that Crymlyn Bog is dead, a wasteland into which effluent and toxic material can be discarded at will. Councillor Mandy Evans was the first to inform us that Crymlyn Bog should be a place people know about and respect, it should be a place of local learning and a resource for local schools.
As things stand, wetland managers NRW LifeQuake funding has the potential to help heal the disconnect between people and the wetlands, a problem recognised in cultural trends, stories and language associations that have built up around wetlands dating back into human prehistory. The bog is deemed not to be ‘quaking’ enough at the moment, one of many indications of ill health.
Currently, NRW is establishing baseline data about water flow to understand how to implement various planned interventions; diverting water systems and removing non-native species of plant alien to the specialised ecosystem. Interventions are thought to be the best way (indeed quoted as best practice) to return the wetland to full health.
One might take the view that the bog could repair itself through its own natural means (à la re-wilding) and instead, funds could be used to foster wide-scale community behaviour change toward Crymlyn. The pollution, after all, originates from human activity in the local surroundings, including agriculture, industrial even municipal refuse dumping where known pollutants damage the wetland's health. Climate change is also contributing to these problems.
In early June, artist Marc Rees and Glenn will be collaborating on planning an event about Crymlyn Bog. They will explore the identity and voice of Bog to help foster and celebrate a thriving ecological system that warrants our admiration and protection. Neglecting to do so could put us all at risk.
Cors Crymlyn - NRW
We had an online discussion with Mark Bond (NRW) and John Ratcliffe writer of the NRW Lifequake Funding being used to rehabilitate Cors Crymlyn. We talked in-depth about methodologies used by NRW for the work. We were interested to hear how they were planning to remove alien species. We discussed future public access and community relationships. A mutual exchange of information with NRW has been established, John and Mark agreed to send materials to display their work on the wetland to the community who visit ARTHUB. We also agreed to furnish Cors Crymlyn visitor centre with Natural Law material. We are to explore with Mark drone filming designed to reveal areas of the wetland which remain inaccessible.
Hello, World!
Below: Discussions with Paul Granjon: We listen to the wetland using a DIY device which reveals sounds below ground level. Bottom of this section - images of the new data logging device that streams data.
Listening
Tuesday evenings at 6pm have become a regular program in ArtHub. Below: Glenn is working with Director Ashley Mansell of Manic Theatre group on a binaural recording of their reading of 2015 play Copperopolis, written by Ashley and Chris Lewis with help from a Swansea University historian. The work seeks to draw out better stagecraft, speaking and other transferable skills through a focus on sound and attentive listening. The group aspire toward making its own online radio station in the future. There is much developmental work still to be undertaken, including furnishing ArtHub with the appropriate acoustic baffle environment and speakers and recording equipment.
click to goto webpage
Below: Theatre workshop for Manic Theatre with invited director/writer Philip Mackenzie - exploring listening, voice and group work .
Food production and growing
Glenn has been working with volunteers to produce a garden in the curtilage of Zion Chapel produced. The first harvest of courgettes beans and potatoes was recently given to a a local resident volunteer (Mum and two children). Future work is planned with the Bwyd Abertawe organisation to increase Food Bank volunteer knowledge and skills across growing, food sourcing, cooking and eating. More about this soon. A new 1000 ltr. bouser was installed facilitating local volunteer watering and releasing dependence on chapel water utility costs.
ArtHub - Law Clinic
Weekly sessions: FREE Law Clinics held at ArtHub - by Swansea University Law School with Professor Richard Owen and students.
note: 15 recipients have currently attended the clinic with many more expected in the following terms. documentation is limited to protect people’s identities and the privacy of their consultations.
Cargo bike delivery of Law Clinic leaflets with Chris Lewis for parents of children attending Ysgol Gymraeg y Cwm Primary School below.
revision of this temporary flyer with partner and funding logos is in hand
Orchard
Local residents want to build a community orchard, Hayley has talked with her neighbours. Two green spaces between their houses are being investigated. Chris Lewis suggested visiting ArtHub (now active on Tuesdays) to see if we can help this wonderful dream become a reality.
Rosie Barns of Cwmpas, the community-led building organisation was also visiting. We are working on a public presentation at ArtHub about the work Cwmpas do. It will be open to all, later in the year. Ending this section are gardening volunteers.
Below produce grown with volunteers is available. Sound and listening workshops with Manic Theatre have become a regular event 6-8 pm every Tuesday. The back garden is developing too, with the gabions to hold back landslip.
Below: Swansea Law School planning next Lawe Clinics.
Below: Visiting Valleys Veg run by Graham Lewis of Gwyrdd communications company as part of our new partnership, planning a legacy organisation Better Bonymaen - post Natural Law Oct. 2024.
EVALUATION
18th November 2023: A superb evaluation event at Arthub by BRO, looking at the arc of the Natural Law project and its future legacy when this phase comes to an end in October 2024.
Rob Owen and Barbara Castle led the dynamic session and we were very pleased to have our Arts Council project officer Henry present throughout also with Marc Rees our wonderful project mentor. A rigorous evaluation report is now available by request.
Future:
Working with NRW we are planning a drone film and soundscape to help us to engage with the community about climate change through the wetland development.
Working with CWMPAS we are planning a Housing and Land workshop for the community next year.
Working with BWYD ABERTAWE we are planning a Food and Cooking workshop at Zion for foodbank users
Working with Innova there is a plan for school visits to the local Solar Farm.
ArtHub is to be visited by a consortium of local schools in association with local council members and the Eastside Food Bank.
The project evaluation will happen in early November.
Working with Manic Theatre skills are being developed to interview friends and family for Podcasts and radio, and record heritage sounds to develop the play Copperopolis.
We schedule music events when communications and networking permit.