http://www.tessybritton.com Tessy Britton Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:42:09 +0000 http://www.tessybritton.com en http://www.tessybritton.com/Garden-Design http://www.tessybritton.com/following/tessybritton.com/Garden-Design Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:42:09 +0000 Tessy Britton 51149 I qualified as a Garden Designer at The English Gardening School at the Chelsea Physic Garden. Although focusing on Social Spaces and education for the last 5 years, I am passionate about growing projects in communities and urban farming, and am always looking for opportunities to bringing it into my own projects. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/51149/potat_600.jpg" border="0" width="600" height="602" width_o="2048" height_o="2056" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/51149/potat_o.jpg" align="left" /> http://www.tessybritton.com/The-Ad-Hoc-Enquiries http://www.tessybritton.com/following/tessybritton.com/The-Ad-Hoc-Enquiries Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:11:53 +0000 Tessy Britton 2556576 <img src="http://payload12.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/2556576/ad hoc cubes - pic_600.jpg" border="0" width="600" height="506" width_o="1374" height_o="1159" src_o="http://payload12.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/2556576/ad hoc cubes - pic_o.jpg" align="left" /> Starting in April 2012 Social Spaces will be running a series of 12 exploratory new events at Hub Westminster, organised by Laura Billings, Cassie Robinson and Tessy Britton. The primary assumption for the project is that there is new knowledge to be built and that we need to find new collaborative ways of building it. These weekly Enquiries are structured events designed to give people who have designed and implemented innovation local projects an opportunity to describe their work and their emerging insights to a group of interested and experienced peers. These innovation projects are required to be working specifically in the participatory paradigm where creative and strategic solution seeking and collaborative working are their most evident characteristics.  What happens at an Enquiry? The evenings will begin with a sociable supper, during which the ‘theorist(s)’ will present their project, their theory of change and new emergent theory - followed by a number pieces of evidence to support their theory.  Each participant in turn will state their core disciplinary perspective e.g. science, philosophy, design etc and offers either a supporting or challenging statement for the theory, connecting with other knowledge bases to understand and interpret the new theory.  How will the Enquiries be documented? Each week the event will ‘extreme’ recorded to a structured and pre-set format and set into a large format digital/on demand book including all participants names and responses. The events will be audio live streamed - and later converted into podcasts. Why are they called The Ad Hoc Enquiries? Enquiry The name ‘enquiry’ goes some way to describe the format for the evenings. The name implies that the answers to our new questions are not currently evident and that some specific process is needed to draw out the ideas and examine the evidence. The purpose of these events is a serious one, and the idea of calling it an ‘enquiry’ implies that some noteworthy and important work will take place during these evenings.   ‘Enquiry’ is also an academic term to describe an investigation into a specific topic or question. Ad Hoc The word ‘ad hoc’ is a term used in a number of contexts including scientific and philosophical theory; national investigations; technology systems and networks theory. There is also a link to the term Adhocracy, described by Alvin Toffler in the book Future Shock to mean an organisational structure working in the opposite way to a bureaucracy. How have we developed the format? We have used understanding of how thinking in a new type of social setting might take place to develop this new format.  The events are structured to achieve knowledge creation through social and intellectual interaction and to be respectful of people’s ideas and the time they are offering to the project through the documentation and sharing process.  The format takes account of the different phases individual and collective cognition might take place: stimulation/processing/connection/discussion/synthesis/building further on emergent ideas.  The structure secures the serious aspects of the project's aims, and will therefor also allow a great deal of playfulness and fun to be injected into the evenings. We will be running these events in *very* strict order... possibly even using a gavel.... Call for new theories - do you have one? The first stage in preparing for these events is to ask people to submit their ideas for a theory they would like to present. 1. Have you developed an innovative local project? 2. Does this project work in the Creative/Collaborative paradigm?   What we mean here is the work should not work in the Consumer, Representative, Charity or Challenge participatory paradigms.  There may be some of these in the mixture - but overall the project needs to work more collaboratively with communities and local authorities, possibly reconfiguring existing systems and fundamentally changing the way the community interacts in some way (See here and here for more details on how we see the Creative/Collaborative paradigm) Apply here! Deadline for applications to present a theory: 25 January 2012  Register early interest to attend and participate in an Ad Hoc Enquiry here! More pics of our cubes <img class="asset asset-image at-xid-6a00e54fceb8b788340168e500ce79970c" style="width: 460px;" title="Ad hoc cub pic2" src="http://thrivingtoo.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54fceb8b788340168e500ce79970c-500wi" alt="Ad hoc cub pic2" /> http://www.tessybritton.com/Social-Spaces-Studios http://www.tessybritton.com/following/tessybritton.com/Social-Spaces-Studios Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:35:20 +0000 Tessy Britton 2386746 This is where we put the knowledge, experiences and tools developed and tested in the Social Lab into wider practice, to help develop creative and collaborative work. We believe that there is a new participatory paradigm emerging where a new practice is needed for both citizens and professionals, which we are calling the Creative Collaborative paradigm. Social Spaces Studios is part of the Social Spaces project Social Spaces Studios work as a partnership, currently comprising of Tessy Britton, Laura Billings and Maurice Specht, working predominantly in the UK and The Netherlands. If you are a community group that is finding it hard to connect with local residents, a council that is looking to support grass-roots action, or an organisation supporting innovation in services and policy - we would like to share what we are learning about how people are making and creating community. We offer: Strategy and Social Design Workshops Training Speaking Events http://www.tessybritton.com/Social-Lab http://www.tessybritton.com/following/tessybritton.com/Social-Lab Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:31:54 +0000 Tessy Britton 2386717 Social Lab is part of the Social Spaces project. It is our new space for collaborating with people from varying disciplines to understand and spread creative community culture. We connect with innovative people and organisations around the globe, to share practise, test new ideas, research community projects, and create tools and techniques. And we keep our feet on the ground and make ideas more tangible and experiential by running various practical events and activities ourselves. From hosting a PieLab, to launching a Trade School to developing hybrid mapping methodologies through MapLab..... http://www.tessybritton.com/Community-Lover-s-Guides http://www.tessybritton.com/following/tessybritton.com/Community-Lover-s-Guides Sun, 30 Oct 2011 17:38:52 +0000 Tessy Britton 2226541 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/2226541/IMG_3423_600.JPG" border="0" width="600" height="426" width_o="2048" height_o="1456" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/2226541/IMG_3423_o.JPG" align="left" /> Community Lover's Guide to the Universe Following the fantastic response to the collaborative book Hand Made (70,000 online readers), which was published in Autumn 2010, the idea evolved that we might be able to start producing local versions of Hand Made - which are now known collectively as Community Lover's Guide to the Universe Since announcing the project in June 2011 we have 45 confirmed voluntary editors. Our ambition is to publish about 50 editions in the next 2 years! We work as a Collaborative Innovation Network, and are setting up an organisational structure which gives ownership to all contributors. The first one to be published is the Community Lover's Guide to Rotterdam - to be launched on 24 February 2012. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/2226541/rotterdam CLG pic_600.jpg" border="0" width="600" height="400" width_o="2048" height_o="1365" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/2226541/rotterdam CLG pic_o.jpg" align="left" /> http://www.tessybritton.com/PHD http://www.tessybritton.com/following/tessybritton.com/PHD Sat, 20 Nov 2010 08:27:04 +0000 Tessy Britton 795648 UPDATE NOVEMBER 2011 - The commencement of this PHD has been deferred until further notice. I start my PHD at the Institute of Education in October 2011 under the supervision of Professor Andrew Tolmie. The study will focus on expanding the research results of my MA research into learning processes for enhancing executive control, and integrating wellbeing and learning into a metacognitive framework. http://www.tessybritton.com/Emergent-New-Community-Culture http://www.tessybritton.com/following/tessybritton.com/Emergent-New-Community-Culture Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:22:34 +0000 Tessy Britton 584713 Open publication - Free publishing - More community The above chapter - and all 27 other chapters are available for free download since March 2011 here. Purchase a copy for £29.95 Hand Made is a beautiful collaborative book with 26 innovative perspectives and projects from around the world, over 230 pages, about new ways of creating connection and community. The projects have been carefully selected because they have all been developed with new thinking and methodologies and involve Learning, Sharing or Making. The projects generally break through normal dynamics by integrating design thinking, systems thinking, new understanding of networks and human functioning ... with an inspiring dose of imagination. The aim of the book is to highlight some truly original and inspiring projects to spread ideas and encourage doing things in new ways ... Encourage people just to try things in fact, to experiment, to work around the system and together with other people, make communities they want to live in. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/584713/website pic hand made_1.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="446" width_o="900" height_o="600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/584713/website pic hand made_1_o.jpg" align="left" /> http://www.tessybritton.com/Work-Space http://www.tessybritton.com/following/tessybritton.com/Work-Space Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:00:29 +0000 Tessy Britton 440987 I am currently using Tumblr to post in this Work Space on work, thinking and visuals in progress... <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/440987/tumblr archive pic.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="262" width_o="1190" height_o="467" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/440987/tumblr archive pic_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/440987/tumbler pic.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="416" width_o="916" height_o="569" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/440987/tumbler pic_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/440987/tumbler pic2.jpg" border="0" width="670" height="416" width_o="916" height_o="569" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/440987/tumbler pic2_o.jpg" align="left" /> http://www.tessybritton.com/Thriving http://www.tessybritton.com/following/tessybritton.com/Thriving Sat, 30 Jan 2010 09:00:53 +0000 Tessy Britton 51167 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/51167/Thriving pics.jpg" border="0" width="556" height="599" width_o="556" height_o="599" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/2525/51167/Thriving pics_o.jpg" align="left" /> I started Thriving in 2007 as a collective platform which aims to promote creativity and personal development in education. Sir Ken Robinson inspired starting Thriving, is still a major influence on my thinking, particularly about human capacity. The website is a beautiful creation designed with Kate Andrews. The project is currently dormant ... but will hopefully come to life again soon! http://www.tessybritton.com/The-RSA-Fellowship-Council http://www.tessybritton.com/following/tessybritton.com/The-RSA-Fellowship-Council Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:42:23 +0000 Tessy Britton 51201 I love everything about the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) I was delighted to be Chair of the new RSA Fellowship Council. 2009/2010 and remain a member of council.