Public Presentations

A good way of getting Permaculture ideas to reach a wider audience is to talk about it publicly - by which I mean outside the formal teaching context and its self-selecting attendees.

Thus far, the closest I've got to this if a kind of halfway house - giving workshops and presentations at small events and at the London Permaculture Festivals in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Stills for films in the Reels of Resilience show

 At the first London Permaculture Festival in 2010 I curated and presented the 'Reels of Resilience' film show of archival documentaries from the 1930s and 1940s, encouraging the audience to find parallels between then and now. I tried to make it more than just a film show, so that the audience would both observe and interact with the material. I thought that the Permaculture ethics were apparent in the films and that they showed ordinary people creatively adapting and responding to change and inspiration to us now with our different challenges. I had presented these films (and others) previously in other Permaculture and non-Permaculture contexts including the Permaculture Picturehouse in Hackney (2nd June 2009), Green on the Screen in Crouch End, a Transition Leytonstone event, and at The Hornbeam Community Cafe in Walthamstow - I also repeated the presentation at the 2010 Permaculture convergence.

I first conceived the idea whilst studying Action Research with Nick Wilding during my MSc in Human Ecology during which I created the document Reels of Resilience - Audience Development and Sustainable Community outlining the project in more detail.

At the 2011 London Permaculture Festival I was involved in two public engagements. I gave a presentation of the life and books of Robert Hart alongside Claire White's presentation of Forest Gardening. I also led a workshop on Future Scenarios connecting with the Permaculture Association's work in this area. I've written more about that here.

At the 2012 London Permaculture Festival I gave an interactive talk on the subject of natural patterns within the context of Permaculture, I've written more about that here.