Would you like us to facilitate a community-led reimagining of the greenbelt where you are?
Please email maddy@greenfuture.org.uk for an initial conversation and we’ll take it from there.
What is the Green Belt?
And what should it be? And who decides?
‘Green Belt 2.0: Rings of Resilience, Resistance and Renewal’ ran from June to December 2023. It is an ongoing opportunity to question and explore the relationship between the rural and the urban. We are in the midst of multiple societal and environmental crises – housing and climate breakdown being two of the most urgent. The role that green belt land in England will play in tackling these emergencies is of growing importance.
I’m so glad to have just watched your Greenbelt film. It’s warm, concise, thoughtful, inclusive of many voices and hopeful. Thankyou so much for sharing it. I’ve shared it with my team as an inspirational example of work and as a great film.
Please explore these three short films and webinar recording – click on the images to play:
1: Behind the scenes of the green belt 2.0 project (3 mins).
2. Our new animated green belt explainer showing the imagined futures emerging from the workshop (8 mins)
3. The recording of our follow up online Policy Influencers session on Reimagining the green belt
4. Time lapse of the live illustration done by Camille Aubry at the workshop
This project (films 1,2 and 4) was a R+D piece, exploring these tensions and using creative technologies to bring this conversation to a wider audience. We used film, animation, photography, live illustration, drone capture, open-data mapping and sound recording to capture this discussion through an experimental approach.
The result is a creative spark. A conversation starter. A catalyst for change.
What do you think Green Belt 2.0 should be?
Get in touch. This is just the beginning. We want to keep this project growing and find more collaborations. All suggestions welcome at this point.
“THE VENN DIAGRAM OF COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS AND CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY CREATES A REAL SWEET SPOT… THERE’S A REAL EXCITEMENT AND HUNGER TO DO MORE.”
– MADDY LONGHURST, PROJECT LEAD.
Who’s involved?
Green Belt 2.0 is a Grounding Technologies project funded by Bristol Creative R+D and WECA to investigate how creative technology might support place-based, just climate action.
Project Lead: Maddy Longhurst (UAC)
Creative tech: Reuben Armstrong (Animator, producer), Mark Thurstain (mapper), Camille Aubry (illustrator), Richard (Max) Maxwell (audio and drone), Jon Aiken (film)
Case Study: A special thanks to Catherine Withers of Yew Tree Farm who’s struggles are an inspiration for this project.
Workshop Participants:
Ayesha from Black2Nature, also a greenbelt resident – https://black2nature.org
Lily also from Black2Nature
John from We Can Make and Goblin Combe nature reserve – https://wecanmake.org/builds/first-two-homes/
Kirsty, Climate Lead at Heart of BS13 – https://www.heartofbs13.org.uk/what-we-do/climate-action/
Ben, a greenbelt landowner in the Chew Valley
Mary-Jane from CPRE Bristol & Avonside – https://www.cpreavonandbristol.org.uk
Maria from Right to Roam and Healing Weeds – https://www.righttoroam.org.uk. https://healingweeds.co.uk
Julio, a Glocal volunteer
Jackie, a greenbelt resident and part of Eyes on Bristol Airport – https://www.watershed.co.uk/studio/projects/grounding-technologies
Humphrey from Three Hares Farm – https://threeharesmarketgarden.com
Jeremy from the Urban Agriculture Consortium
Full credits are at the end of the films.