18-26 September 2021
What if cities were designed as spaces for both people and wildlife to thrive? What if we thought like coots, ducks or peregrines? There Project invites you on an audio journey along the 200-year-old Regent's Canal. Taking a bird's eye view, it questions whether design can help us become more ecocentric.
Listeners are taken on an atmospheric walk along Regent's Canal between Islington and Haggerston, guided by young conservationist Kabir Kaul and interspersed with interviews with designers, activists and thinkers including Thomas Thwaites, Studio Ossidiana, Climate Museum UK co-founder Bridget McKenzie, the Wildlife Gardeners of Haggerston, and Sabina Mohideen from the Design Council.
It asks some poignant questions about the purpose of design in an age of breached planetary boundaries, whilst also providing a moment to take a deep breath and reconnect with our surroundings.
You can tune in from anywhere in the world, but if you're in London, we encourage anyone who can to enjoy this audio journey on the canal - recommended starting point is at Islington Tunnel, walking east towards Kingsland Basin Nature Reserve (a leisurely 40mn walk). This is an experience designed for individuals to enjoy using their own phone and headset. Nevertheless, please observe current social distancing guidelines.
The audio journey was conceived by There Project, with sound design by Deborah Ridley, for London National Park City.
There Project is a collaboration between design curators Justine Boussard and Sarah Turner, founded to grow the community of designers who use their skills and creativity to imagine regenerative futures.
London National Park City is a place, a vision and a movement to improve life in London by making it greener, healthier and wilder.
Available from Friday 18 September
Accessible 24/7 with own phone and headset via www.thereproject.org
Photos: Top: Kingsland Basin, Marc Atkinson, 2020; Below: Variations on a Birdcage, Studio Ossidiana, 2020
