Category Archives: Editor

The Restless Compendium

9783319452630

This interdisciplinary book contains 22 essays and interventions on rest and restlessness, silence and noise, relaxation and work. It draws together approaches from artists, literary scholars, psychologists, activists, historians, geographers and sociologists who challenge assumptions about how rest operates across mind, bodies, and practices. Rest’s presence or absence affects everyone. Nevertheless, defining rest is problematic: both its meaning and what it feels like are affected by many socio-political, economic and cultural factors. The authors open up unexplored corners and experimental pathways into this complex topic, with contributions ranging from investigations of daydreaming and mindwandering, through histories of therapeutic relaxation and laziness, and creative-critical pieces on lullabies and the Sabbath, to experimental methods to measure aircraft noise and track somatic vigilance in urban space. The essays are grouped by scale of enquiry, into mind, body and practice, allowing readers to draw new connections across apparently distinct phenomena.

Published open access (free to download): click here.

Herbarium

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Herbarium is an anthology of poems and songs written by 55 poets celebrating and exploring the contemporary resonances of medicinal plants and herbs for the Urban Physic Garden.

Herbarium has now sold out, but you can read the poems online or watch videos of the poets who read at the launch night on the 22 July 2011. Thanks to Steve Fowler for filming and to Wayward Plants for all their support.

This anthology is the first in the Capsule Editions series. The design was by Lina Hakim and the embossed covers were made by the Henningham Family Press.

List of poems:

Alecost / SARAH KELLY
Aloe Vera / SIMON BARRACLOUGH
Angelica / WAYNE CLEMENTS
Arnica / LIZ ADAMS
Artichoke, Globe / TIM CRESSWELL
Balloon Flower / MARCUS SLEASE
Basil, Holy / PETER JAEGER
Basil, Sweet Genovese / ISOBEL DIXON
Bergamot, Wild / EMILY HASLER
Betony / LUKE ROSIER
Bindweed / LAWRENCE BRADBY
Borage / LIZ ADAMS
Broad Bean / JAMES HARVEY
Caraway / MJ WELLER
Celery / HARRY GODWIN
Chamomile / LAURA FORMAN
Chervil / CHRIS PAGE
Chickweed / JAMES WILKES
Chicory / LUKE HEELEY
Comfrey / CLAIR WILCOX
Coriander / HANNAH SILVA
Dandelion / MATT MARTIN
Dill / JOHN CLEGG
Echinacea / MICHAEL ZAND
Elecampane / JEFF HILSON
Fennel / MENDOZA
Feverfew / TIM CRESSWELL
Flax / ANTONY JOHN
Foxglove / EDMUND HARDY
Garlic / HOLLY PESTER
Ginger / JON STONE
Ginkgo / JON STONE
Goat’s Rue / CLAIR WILCOX
Gotu Kola / LIVIA DRAGOMIR
Gravel Root / CHRISTODOULOS MAKRIS
Heartsease / LAURA FORMAN
Hemp Agrimony / CHRIS PAGE
Honeysuckle/ HELEN SLATER
Hop / MATT MARTIN
Horseradish / EMMA BENNETT
Hound’s Tongue / AMY CUTLER
Hyssop / TESSA WHITEHOUSE
Jacob’s Ladder / STEVE FOWLER
Lady’s Bedstraw / POSIE RIDER
Lady’s Mantle / EMILY CRITCHLEY
Lavender / BEN BOREK
Lemon Balm / ROWYDA AMIN
Lemongrass / CHRISSY WILLIAMS
Lemon Verbena / SARAH KELLY
Liquorice / SIMON BARRACLOUGH
Marigold / NAT RAHA
Marjoram / PHILIP TERRY
Marsh Mallow / KEITH JEBB
Meadowsweet / TESSA WHITEHOUSE
Milk Thistle / AMY CUTLER
Motherwort / CHRIS PAGE
Mugwort / MENDOZA
Mullein / JAMES WILKES
Musk Mallow / NAT RAHA
Mustard, Black / JON STONE
Mustard, White / SJ FOWLER
Nasturtium / ISOBEL DIXON
Nettle / CHRIS MCCABE
Opium Poppy / STEPHEN EMMERSON
Orach, Red / TAMARIN NORWOOD
Parsley, Curly / EMILY HASLER
Passion flower / DAVID CADDY
Pennyroyal / ALEX DAVIES
Peppermint / MICHAEL ZAND
Primose, Common / KEITH JEBB
Primose, Evening / HOLLY HOPKINS
Pulsatilla / KIRSTY IRVING
Purslane / JEFF HILSON
Rosemary / LAURA FORMAN
Rue / JAMES WILKES
Sage, Clary / PETER PHILPOTT
Sage, Common / CHRIS PAGE & JON K. SHAW
Salad Burnet / JON K. SHAW
Self-Heal, Common / POSIE RIDER
Skullcap / KIRSTY IRVING
Sorrel / JOHN CLEGG
Southernwood / PETER PHILPOTT
St John’s Wort / CAROL WATTS
Strawberry, Wild / PETER PHILPOTT
Tansy / CAROL WATTS
Tea Tree / EMILY HASLER
Thyme / MENDOZA
Toadflax / LUKE ROSIER
Valerian / ROWYDA AMIN
Vervain / FABIAN MACPHERSON
Violet, Sweet / STEVE WILLEY
Viper’s Bugloss / ISOBEL DIXON
White Horehound / SJ FOWLER
Wintergreen / SIMON BARRACLOUGH
Woodruff, Sweet / AMY CUTLER
Wood Sage / DAVID CADDY
Wormwood / PHILIP TERRY

Special Works School

specialworksschool

During the First World War, a corner of Kensington Gardens was fenced off from public access and turned into a replica of Flanders, filled with trenches, shell holes, fake trees and decoy tanks. It became the home of the Special Works School, established by the Royal Engineers as a place to teach, display and experiment with new techniques of camouflage. Following the end of the First World War, the Camouflage Park was dismantled – but did it ever really go away?

Heather Ring and I refounded the Special Works School in 2011, as a collective of artists, writers and designers who wanted to engage critically with this secret history. In August 2011 we edited and published a Preliminary Report, which gathered together field observations, speculative proposals, historical images and capsule essays by the collective.

With contributions from: Tom Chivers, Sally Davies, Simon Elvins, Lily Ford, Synnove Fredericks, Alex Haw, The Henningham Family Press, Manu Luksch, Mike Massaro and James Trefor-Jones, Vahakn Matossian, Sophie Nield, Christian Nold, Mark Pilkington, Heather Ring, James Wilkes, Hannah Wood, Patrick Wright, Liam Young.

UPDATE: my contribution, ‘Runners and Risers’, was republished in 3:AM Magazine (without the original photos by Sally Davies)