Design workshop educating on birds of the past, present and the future via designed communication tools and embodied engagement with materials on site. In the Bring Birds Back workshop, Eco-social designer Christoph Matt from Austria aimed to reconnect people with three bird species linked to the past, present and future of the site through a design walk with communication materials. The workshop aimed to bring back birds that disappeared from the area to people’s consciousness with educational talks, and physically by creating bird artworks using a stencil tool and bodily engagement finding materials from the site connected to the habitats of the birds.
For the past, the workshop focused on the ruff, a reed-dwelling bird that lived in the city reeds that once covered Frihamnen. Participants learned about the ruff’s need for large areas of reeds and how the environment in Frihamnen can be transformed to support its return, creating sculptures of ruffs using reeds.
In the present, attention shifts to the common redstart and black redstart, species thriving in industrial areas and wasteland. Participants used the abundant trash to be found in Frihamnen to craft redstart sculptures, a material that this pragmatic bird often uses for nest building.
Looking to the future, the workshop explored the endangered white-backed woodpecker, whose habitat requires substantial time to recreate. Participants built sculptures from wood chips, symbolising the woodpecker’s reliance on dead wood, particularly aspens, which are now planted in Jubileumsparken a new park in Frihamnen, but will take several decades to mature to host the woodpecker.
Additional information via theconferenceofthebirds.net