A YEAR OF MAKING THINGS IN COMMON

VISUALS | DESIGNS | STICKERS | VIDEO | INTERVENTIONS on Ecology and Class This is a body of work tracing a journey of trying to understand what happens when Capital (tries to) steal our Ecology. All of the work comes from conversations with people and from reading texts. Some of the work is static (posters, stickers, flyers, vouchers,writings) and some of it takes the form of surveys or inquiries, asking questions (What Lies Between Red and Green?, Carbon Footprint Analysis Matrix). Some of it is designed to be consumed (a recipe nettle beer, video, audio) and some of it is designed to be produced (Mortgage Strike). A selection is available here on this computer, and all of them are available online at www.stuffit.org Produced by Steve Stuffit for the Trapese Collectives: "Experiments against Enclosure - Tools to reclaim the Commons."

A SURVEY - WHAT LIES BETWEEN THE RED + GREEN? A project looking at the crossovers between ecological and social change, developed after the Trapese pamphlet about Transition Towns. It asks the question 'Is it possible to declare a ceasefire with Capitalism?' >FILL IN QUESTIONAIRE ONLINE. CLIMATE CHANGE: BUSINESS AS USUAL Concept: video remix of UK Government's 'Act on CO2' campaign video with Will Barne's text 'Capital Crimes'. To juxtasupose calls to individual austerity with 17 minutes of scrolling histories of capitalistic crimes, designed to both bore and illuminate. Ideal for projecting on buildings or forests in a public setting.

CARBON ANALYSIS FOOTPRINT MATRIX >TAKE THE SURVEY Concept: An online survey, promoted on the street using Public Information Boards. Each board contains a statement about Climate change, Apocalyse, Scarcity and Capital by an imaginary company profiting from climate change called 'Capital Solutions'. The boards contained a link to this survey which parodies the typical Carbon Footprint online questionairre. The survey is as simple multiple choice quiz, asking questions of both responsibility and agency, and it wonders what ideologies are hidden with the language of contemporary debate over climate change. It uses a crude analysis designed to reveal these assumptions in our ideas and feelings about climate change. The results suggest what your ideology is and recommends some texts that represent a different view. The survey asks users for name, postcode and email address. The results are then emailed to me. I intend to collate the responses and display them (anonymously) in the gallery during our time here, and strike up a email conversation with users. You will be awareded a points score out of 100 after taking the quiz but a higher score is not an indicator of correct answers. >TAKE THE SURVEY

YOU CAN'T OFFSET A SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP Concept: Inspired by the text 'You can't blow up a social relationship' by suggesting that trying to solve the ecological crisis by targetting CO2 is much the same as trying to locate Capitalism by blowing up CEOs. View: PDF | JPG | A4 Stickers Screenprints: T-shirt | Poster

CARBON HATED: THE SWAMPY GROUND OF CLIMATE CHANGE Who is to blame for the current crises upon us? How do we take action if the terms of our debate are being co-opted by Capital? Who will make the profit and who will make the loss? Concept: to explore different idealogical views of the causes of eco-systemic catastrophy. To install public information boards and stickers representing some of these viewpoints and collect feedback via the Carbon Analysis Footprint Matrix. Read and View: Carbon-Hated text and documentation of posters and stickers

PLAQUE ALE - PRE ENCLOSURE HERB BEER 80 pints of KING GONE! and QUEEN GO! brewed for Bristol Radical History Group Download KING GONE flyer (including recipe for pre enclosure herb ale, made with locally sourced nettles, yarrow and juniper berries) NETTLE BEER - OR HOW TO BREW A DIFFERENT SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP BASED ON COMMONING RATHER THAN ALIENATION New text premiered at Cube Cola Producers Party, written for Eccentric City Newspaper next edition. Download: PDF

THE SOCIAL ECOLOGY OF CARBON A short A-Z (written for the Journal of Aesthetics of Protest #6) that functions as a tool for further analysis. It traces a molecule of carbon between different ports, over four centuries via social struggles and resistance to the enclosure of common land and resources. It wonders if Capital can profit from Climate Change, and if so what can be done about it. Download: Pamphlet | See images here WILD FOOD AND THE COMMONS Working on a new format combining a wild food walk with a short 500 year history of capitalist enclosure and how collecting wild food represents 'commoning' - a way of looking at nature as one of collective and negotiated economic resource for substinence that is 'free' but isn't 'a free for all' (as privatisation propogandists would have you believe). Part of Transition Easton. Download the handout (contains glossary of commoning from Peter Linebaughs 'Magna Carta: Commons and Liberties for all' and wild food plant list) and accompanying text

CARBON WEEVILS: RETORT Concept:I was forwarded a link to a short cartoon about climate change called 'Carbon Weevils'. I wanted to ask the question is it 'misanthropic' in the way it lumps all 'human' consumptive activity together (as opposed to systems/capital) as being 'the cause' of global warming, the way it appears to suggest the main causes of climate change being population growth, car traffic and holidays. It also novelly posits war as being an outcome of 'hot air' and also as yet another excuse for humans to release CO2.I graffitti subtitled it (using FLOSS Kdenlive) and put it on youtube with the original Click the above video to View Carbon Weevils retort (graffiti start at 1:24) or view in context here

THE HYDROCARBON COMMONS Concept: A proposal to create a Hydrocarbon Commons.It is designed to be read in an poetic voice, like a proclamation, and is influenced by 'Warren James' the Freeminer who distributed handbills when struggling against enclosure in the Forest of Dean in 1831. The text starts by asking 'Is the soul of Profit located in coal? or can it be found in the private interests of Capital, for it wants to grow and grow, making money for its owners..' Developed in response to dialogue between NUM and climate camp/environmentalists over Just Transition. Otherwise who has the agency to Leave it in the Ground? The government won't as coal is too profitable. The corporations won't - ditto. Which is why NUMs proposals are interesting - UK coal (created using deep mining rather than the more horrific open cast) which will also save huge amounts of transport emmissions from shipping coal across the world, burned using decentralised CHP stations (they burn 95% efficiency as opposed to Kingsnorth which is 45%). It is obviously problematic (do people really want to work down mines still? isn't it just delaying a transition to green energy? is Carbon Capture really viable? Download: 2X posters A3 PDF

GASTRIC-TRADING The Carbon Trust looks like a good initiative to help industry reduce its carbon emissions. One of its board members was with Shell oil for 15 years. Part of North Sea oil corporations that been burning gas, 6 million tonnes of CO2 per year - for years - into the atmosphere, as a waste product whilst drilling for oil. They are now campaigning for these emissions to be included in UK Gov Co2 targets, so they can then reduce the amount and then get paid for it through offsetting markets. Luckily Walkers crisps are also working with the Carbon trust, and currently each packet of crisps results in 107g of Carbon dioxide emissions. 6 million tonnes of CO2 is equivalent to 56074766355 bags of crisps. To get this in perspective, the proposed power station at Kingsnorth will release 8.4 million tonnes. Globally flaring is responsible for 400 million tonnes of CO2 - the UK release 150 million per year from all its activities. This sort of criminal waste could only be possible in a profit led economic system. Download: correction labels - single here (jpg) and A4 pack (PDF) | View in action: here and here Stats: North Sea gas flares 2004: 2.4 BCM X 2.5 = 6 Million Tonnes CO2 source: A Twelve Year Record of National and Global Gas Flaring Volumes Estimated Using Satellite Data

IS IT POSSIBLE TO SHUTDOWN A SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP? Concept: Next poster in the 'social relationship' series. Looking at the possiblities for the expansion of climate change campaigns 'against coal' into 'against commodity production'. Inspired by the Petroleum Commons and Just Transition, and online debates between red and green. The red colour symbolises the enemy (CO2, the police) with the twist being that the policeman in the poster is actually a miner, taken from the classic photo during the 84 strike. The idea is that by linking things together we won't make enemies of workers and substances and can then target systems and economies (social relationships). Download: Medium size poster | hi-res A3 poster

COMMONED FRAMES Custom built frames made with wood 'commoned' from Ashton Court 2008. The collecting of wood or 'estovers' is a practice referred to in the 1217 Forest Charter, a document long forgotten that described the economic rights of people to subsistence from the commons. These customs are attacked, destroying ecologies to impose work and make a profit, a process called the Enclosures. The process continues today.. Read label here WHAT IS THE SOUND OF THE WAR ON THE POOR? Submission for Ultra-Red project, brief was to make 1 minute audio piece on the above title. I chose the Severnside Siren over at the heavy industry docks of Avonmouth and the M32 splinter between Easton and St Werburghs in Bristol See text and hear audio here GREEN STINGER CYCOPATH NETTLE BREW Nettle brew made in honour of a green and red Mayday, commoned from the Cyclepath in Bristol. 200 nettles,Boil for 1 hour in 5 gallons water. Put in 3kg sugar, 100g cream of tartar.Stir. When lukewarm put in 10 tsp yeast, transfer in big bucket for 4 days, somewhere not cold then into brew barrel for week then bottle and drink couple days later.

THE ROCKY ROAD TO TRANSITION Illustrations for the TRAPESE pamphlet critiquing (in a supportive way) the Transition Town movement, asking questions about ecological divides, heirachy and co-option and the historical nature of social change. Well worth a read View Pamphlet View: Illustrations and additional commentary Read: Review + debate on Transition Towns website

PDF/RESEARCH DOCUMENTS

TEXTS AND WORKS IN PROGRESS

Behaviour Change + Philosophical Issues: The Rules of the Game - Futerra (a sustainability marketing agency) report for the Government on communicating behaviour change and climate change Individual Responsibility and Climate Change - Report by Manfred Lenzen, Dept of Applied Physics, University of Sydney. Is reductionist but at least contains ideas of international and ecological justice rather than purely western-centric view. Defining Dangers of Climate Change and Individual Behaviour: Closing the Gap - UEA report. Painting the Town Green - How to persuade people to be environmentally friendly - Green Engage report. Climate Change Champions - Act on CO2 - Get em when they're young campaign Communicating Climate Change - A guide to inspiring atomised action WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY? by JUSTIN WILLIAMS - Far more critical look at lifestyle politics, consumption and the individual. A Tool For Motivation Based Communication Strategy - Chris Rose - Cultural influencing using the Maslow model. Justice and Adaption to Climate Change - Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research - Looks at a range of responses from individual to international, from doing nothing to being proactive and how it fits in with issues of Justice. Corporate Responses: Environmental Audit Committee - The structure of Government and the challenge of climate change - House of Commons report asking whether Government might be a problem Evolution of the Clean Development Mechanism - Investment banking group 'Climate Change Capital' report Energy and Climate Change package -Fleishman Hillard 'stakeholder' report. Basically European leaders and key industrial figures complain about this and that. Global Scenarios to 2025 - Incredible Shell report speaking of 'Flags', 'Open Doors' and 'Low Trust Globalisation' using 'the metaphor of air navigation' Resistance and Alternatives: 10 Principles for Just Climate Change Policies in the U.S. - ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND CLIMATE CHANGE INITIATIVE Agrofuels - Towards a reality check in nine key areas Alter Eco 2 | Alter Eco 3 - Reports from Bali by grassroots groups Ecology and Class - Anarchist Federation pamphlet Carbon Trading - a critical conversation on climate change, privatisation and power - Larry Lohmann The Carbon Neutral Myth - Offset indulgences for you climate sins - Carbon Trade Watch. Trouble in the Air - Global Warming and our Privatised Atmosphere - TNI report. What is Climate and Energy Justice? - Just Transition Alliance. What's Wrong with Corporate Social REsponsibility? - Corporate Watch report. Grassroots Environmentalism - AF publication Hoodwinked in the Hothouse - the g8, climate change and free-market environmentalism - Carbon Trade Watch The limits of free market logic - Kevin Smith article Marx, Machinery and Motive Power: the Thermodynamics of Class Struggle - Tom Keefer OF HAND MILLS AND HEAT ENGINES: PEAK OIL, CLASS STRUGGLE, AND THE THERMODYNAMICS OF PRODUCTION - Tom Keefer Burn the Bosses not the Planet - Resistance climate change special Rising Tide Climate Action Tour - Resource pack for trainers and facilitators (workshops and lovely stuff) TRAPESE popular education and climate change - Workshops and games by the collective The Sky is not the Limit: The emerging market in greenhouse gases - Carbon Trade Watch Where the trees are a desert - stories from the ground - TNI Carbon Map - Gorgeous fantastic map by UHC collective and Platform london The Oil Issue - Varient magazine number 28 Statistics: Energy Use in the UK - EBO info sheet Resources and waste - EBO info sheet The Global Environment Outlook: environment for development - monster 536 page UN report 80% Challenge - Delivering a low carbon UK - WWF / IPPR / RSPB report Act on CO2 Calculator: Public Trial Version Data, Methodology and Assumptions Paper - UK Government carbon footprinting methodology IPCC - Framing issues report IPCC - Summary for policy makers report A Twelve Year Record of National and Global Gas Flaring Volumes Estimated Using Satellite Data - Final Report to the World Bank Living with a Carbon Budget - Tyndall Centre report for FOE Climate Change - The UK programme - Large document by HM government showing that shifting the cost to capital is difficult: getting people to change lightbulbs is easy. World Survey of Decentralised Energy - WADE report Climate Change, Impacts, Future Scenarios and the Role of Transport - Tyndall Centre report Growth scenarios for EU & UK aviation: contradictions with climate policy - Tyndall Centre report

Suggested reading: John Bellamy Foster: Global Ecology and the Common Good + Ecology against Capitalism Turbulence: 'A New Weather Front' Varient magazine: The Oil Issue Into the Whirlwind: Website and this article especially: The Food/Energy/Work crises The Commoner:Website Bristol Radical History Group: Down with the Fences! Struggle for the Global Commons (this has a huge archive of interesting audio too) Mute magazine: "Its not Easy Being Green" Social Ecology: What is Social Ecology Climate Camp:self-critiques Anarchist Federation: Ecology and Class (PDF) Shift Magazine: Website This and this from the excellent website by Fundamentalist Druid about a real sustainable UK. GegenStandpunkt: Why are many people in developing countries poor? Peak Oil: A User's guide: website Trapese collective: Transition Towns and what it means for social change