The Importance of Legacy - Design & Innovation Day, Portmagee Community Centre
One of the key aspects of CoDesRes's methodology is to create legacies that sustains the work that the pCr interventions initiate as CoDesRes comes to an end. As part of this work the CoDesRes team have been developing new research avenues and working towards transitioning beyond January 2020. We are delighted to share Sea Synergy’s first Design & Innovation Day, held in Portmagee, one of our local villages. This forms part of the Net Re-Use project in conjunction with Sea Synergy with and funded by BIM and part of the legacy of the CoDesRes project. You can read all about the work begun in our communities here.
For those of you who haven’t met us yet, Sea Synergy is a Marine Awareness and Activity centre based in Waterville, County Kerry. Our mission is to raise awareness of Marine wildlife and heritage and encourage more people to understand and care for the Blue heart of planet Earth, our Ocean.
Late last year we were lucky enough to have been selected by BIM to carry our research into re-using net offcut material to create prototypes of marketable products and add value to waste material.
The project we proposed - SS Net Re Use – uses a co-design process, integrating the CoDesRes pCr methodology with design thinking. This means that instead of coming up with ideas for products and trying to get communities interested in those products, we work with the communities, through a co-design process to harness their own ideas and inspirations to create prototype products.
We believe the solutions to the problem of net waste material could equally be found in the creative imagination of a 12-year-old child or the vast experience of an 80-year-old.
To help get the creative juices flowing with some of the groups we have been working with we held a Design and Innovation day in Portmagee in late January. The aim of the day was to introduce participants to the net offcut material and encourage exploration of the possibilities of reusing this material to create a useful item.
The day started off with a world café style discussion on the issues of net offcuts. Some of the
prompting question included, what is the root of the problem of fishing net waste and how does fishing net waste affect you personally or professionally?
Following from the discussion we had a lovely lunch provided by An Corcán in Waterville (yes this is shameless shout out, If you’re in Waterville go there for lunch, great food and super staff! And caters for vegan and gluten free!)
After lunch it was time to knuckle down to the serious stuff. The net offcut samples were hauled out and shared around and the task of making and exploration began. Below are some examples of the work created. There were lots of experienced minds in the room with skills in sewing, weaving, jewellery making, engineering and much more leading to many discussions on how the net material could be rewoven or reengineered to allow for greater scope in its re use.
On hand for the technical bits was Engineer Colin Keogh, a specialist in innovation, disruptive
technologies and 3D printing. The workshop was lead by our very own Dr. Anita Mckeown, artist and design thinking expert. Sean O’ Laoghaire our local storyteller and puppeteer was drafted in for his knowledge on traditional craft and skills, and I was there as the token Marine biologist to offer what I could about the realities of the fishing industry and the efforts already being made within industry to reduce waste and re use net material where possible.
We would like to say a huge thank you to all who came along and participated and shared their knowledge and ideas and we hope to see you all again at our next event!
To follow on from this great day and further develop the ideas that emerged we will be holding more Design and Innovation days soon, the first is scheduled for the 13 th of April, location and time to be decided.
You can follow us on Facebook at Sea Synergy Net Reuse for updates or, if you or a group you work with, would like to know more about the project or host a Design and Innovation workshop please get in touch at ss.netreuse@gmail.com