1mile²
The Bank of Reason
Walker & Bromwich
People of Edinburgh and beyond, we invite you to join us in forming The Bank of Reason.
You are invited to participate in finding new ways for ecology and economy to work in harmony within an alternative banking system beginning in Edinburgh. The Bank of Reason is an ideas bank, a sound bank and a bank of transformations.
Walk - as the first act in forming The Bank of Reason, an ecologist and an ecomomist took participants on a walk through the ecological and economic diversity of Edinburgh's City Centre.
Talk - the walks were followed by discussions with contributions from ecologists, economists and leading campaigners from near and far to search for a happier marriage between economy and ecology.
Invest - deposit your ideas in The Bank of Reason; a mobile repository of ideas on a sustainble future and economy. Big and small ideas are welcome to be invested and will get equal returns.
Borrow - share ideas and spread the seeds of knowledge.
1mile² is a three year global arts programme that asks communities to map the biodiversity, cultural diversity, and aesthetic diversity of their local neighbourhood, working in collaboration with an artist and an ecologist. Communities are linked across the world through an internet platform that shares and challenges their findings, perceptions, ideas, experiences and creativity and encourages new connections between people. 1mile² provides opportunities for contemporary artists to undertake a collaborative investigation of arts, biodiversity and community.
Download full programme of events (pdf)
The How Not To Cookbook - lessons learned the hard way
Aleksandra Mir
What Is It?
A limited edition book and art project by Aleksandra Mir commissioned and produced by Collective
What is the idea behind it?
Based on Aleksandra's personal history of cooking disasters, the project invited 1000 people from all around the world to give their advice of how NOT to cook.
For those who contributed their advice in the form of a recipe, the cookbooks have now been posted and you should receive your copy soon.
1mile²
Publik Booth
Sreejata Roy & Mrityunjay Chatterjee
Sreejata Roy and Mrityunjay Chatterjee have just completed a six week residency at Collective. Both artists, who work collaboratively and are based in Dehli, were selected as part of 1mile².
They have completed a newspaper publication title Publik Booth which is available from Collective and free.
Looking through the history of Edinburgh, Publik Booth enters into an exploration ofhow people from different places and walks of life have come together to create thriving spaces such as the Grassmarket, Farmers' Market and various other public sites of local commerce.
Download Publik Booth: Stories of Seamless Communities
Cookbook Launched
Buy your limited edition copy now. The How Not to Cookbook - lessons learned the hard way by Aleksandra Mir, is on sale now at Collective. For a limited time only, The How Not to Cookbook price is £25 in person from the gallery or email us to order a copy for £25 + P&P.
To celebrate the launch of The How Not to Cookbook and the opening ot the Edinburgh Art Festival 2009, Collective hosted Break it to make it: giant omelette cook at The Ross Bandstand, West Princes Street Gardens on Wednesday 5 August, 2009.
The evening consisted of food music and speakers:
Everyone was invited to crack an egg into the giant omelette mix!
Festival favourite, John Hegley was compere and introduced speakers; Mary Anne Francis and Simon Munnery.
The giant omelette was cut up and shared out. Live music from Pictish Trail and a DJ set fron Ten Tracks followed.
Organic free range eggs for the giant omelette were kindly donated by Waitrose courtesy of Guy Lee at Cackleberry Ltd. The event was in association with Edinburgh Art Festival and The Skinny.
ChristMASSProduction
Chen Hangfeng
18 December - 4 January
ChristMASSProduction
Chen Hangfeng
Even though Collective is closed for a break over Xmas and New Year, there is still an exhibition to see! Chinese artist Chen Hangfeng has been commissioned to create our first Xmas window. Chen Hangfeng is showing Santa's Little Helpers, a documentary made in Zhejiang Province, China where 50% of the world's Xmas decorations are made by hand, along with a new multi-coloured, site-specific piece made up of snowflakes composed from different brand logos, titled ChristMASSPrduction.
"The secret of Christmas: 80% of the Christmas decorations are made in China now, the come from pretty much all over the countryside, some are even from village scale workshops, the whole village give up what they did before, who are fully devoted to this kind of mass production under very bad working conditions.
Christmas is becoming a very important holiday in contemporary Chinese culture, a symbol of increasing purchasing power and growing consumer desire. Young people go shopping, go out dining and drinking, they even go out partying until the wee hours of the morning on Christmas Eve. Every restaurant has a Christmas menu. Every mall has a Christmas discount. Every bar and club has a Christmas party. It's all a big advertising campaign to encourage people to spend money. To express our new branded landscape, I play a tricky game by mixing various brand logos into traditional Chinese patterns. At first glance they look just like traditional Chinese patterns but a deeper look reveals an insight into Chinese consumer culture. If you look closely at the snowflakes, you'll see that they're composed of many different logos arranged in a radial pattern. It's a snowflake of brands which provokes the question: What is the true meaning of contemporary Christmas?" Chen Hangfeng
Hangfeng works and lives in Shanghai. He is currently on a residency in Bradford as part of the 1mile² programme, funded by Visiting Arts. Hangfeng graduated from the College of Fine Arts, Shanghai University in 1997. Recent exhibitions include a solo exhibition; Daily Prosperity at Lobor Gallery, Shanghai (2008) and a residency at Braziers International Artist Workshop, London (funded by the Arts Council of England, 2008).
Visit Chen Hangfeng's website.
18 April 09
Potluck Dinner Event
We hosted a Potluck Dinner at Portobello Community Centre on Saturday 18 April, 7-9pm. Guests included artist Aleksandra Mir, Ray McKenzie (Glasgow School of Art, Senior Lecturer) and Ian Moore (comedian, mod and chutney maker). Everyone brought a dish to share and got into the potluck spirit. Live music from Earl Grey and The Loose Leaves followed.
