9. On Permaculture Principles

(This is a long one, there are 12 principles)

David Holmgren, co-originator of permaculture, identified 12 principles in his 2003 book ‘Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability’. These 12 principles are tools that, when used in conjunction with permaculture ethics, support the design of systems that are resilient, regenerative and productive. Each principle seems simple, but invites consideration and creativity in how it might be applied. The principles are a flexible guide to unwrapping systems thinking. All the principles have an associated proverb, I found this really useful in activating imaginative responses to the principles and their application. It’s worth noting here that there are other lists of principles, and they are always evolving. 

I love the description of permaculture as ‘information and imagination intensive’. It matches my experience of being a socially engaged artist, inviting in complexity and detail. As I started trying to understand the permaculture design principles I recognised how many of them were implicit in the way that I work. Having a language and a tool to make that explicit, and explore it further with others, feels very useful.

I’ve linked to definitions of principles below – I’m going to focus this blog on how I might apply these principles in a socially engaged art practice. At the moment that’s mainly reflections and some questions. I fully expect that in a few months I’ll return to this and my thinking will have changed.

1. Observe and interact - taking the time to observe what is and develop a detailed and nuanced understanding of the territory. When designing for land the suggestion is that you first observe for a whole year, you can make interventions but everything should be resource light and easily reversible so that as you learn more you can change. I wonder what is the appropriate observation duration as an artist embarking on a project? It varies so much depending on the relationship to that place that already exists.

Interrogating this principle has enabled me to think about how time pressured so much of the work I do is. This sense of time pressure has been heightened through connection with artists working both in non theatre disciplines and in Europe, who work on much longer timeframes. So much of the participatory work I have done feels rushed - both in duration of the project and time available to spend together.

2. Catch and store energy - collecting resources when they are abundant to use when things are scarce. I’ve found this one a harder principle to wrestle with - there’s definitely something about building community and connection that feels like a process of catching energy. Skills, experiences, memories are all forms of energy that we can personally and collectively create, catch and keep that support us. There’s something about the ephemeral nature of performance that I find an interesting challenge to think about in relation to storing energy. And how that might relate to ideas of project legacy. There are practical things about how projects are run - using natural light for example, that come into play here. As much of my work happens in other people’s spaces it feels harder to directly affect  infrastructure with this principle.

3. Obtain a yield - get useful results from the effort expended. Investigating this principle sort of blew my mind, especially the phrase, ‘the yield is only limited by the imagination of the gardener’. I was challenged to think about yield not just being the ‘thing’ being created but also joy, or pleasure, beauty or community or new skills or friendships. I became aware of how limited and mechanised my thinking had become around the work I do. This has made me think more about what I think project outcomes might be, about being unashamed about articulating joy, or friendship as a valued outcome. I also sense where this will run into challenges with the funding and support structures. The thinking of Suzi Gablik in her book The Reenchantment of Art and this talk by Dr Stephen Pritchard have also influenced my thinking around the role of art to enable mystery and the intangible to be more present in life.

4. Apply self regulation and accept feedback - being really open to what is happening, welcoming feedback and most importantly applying it. I find that accepting feedback and responding to / building out of this comes easily to me. It can be difficult to get meaningful, useful feedback. Often people want to be nice. Establishing clear processes for gathering feedback and creating a culture on each project that welcomes feedback is an important task.

The self regulation element is more tricky, as I always want to do more and go further than the resources might enable. There’s a really useful lesson in here for me about burnout and proportionality, it also connects really well to the principle of using small and slow solutions. There’s something really interesting in this principle about self-sustaining systems - and it’s something I really enjoy when a group I’m working with takes on stewarding their own dynamic, and starts proposing and generating without my stimulus.

5. Use and value renewable resources and services - this principle encourages me to consider the full life cycle of any materials I use on a project. Where did they come from? How were they made? What happens to them after I have used them? Imagination is unlimited, and with care, is a renewable resource and the bedrock of my work. Collaboration is similar. Finding ways to use resources sparingly and creatively to enable more imaginative responses is already part of my practice, partly because of necessity and partly because of my values and aesthetic interests in creating magic from the everyday. I plan to create and share a personal environmental rider, and open conversations with the organisations I work with about how they use renewable resources at the start of projects. I’d like to be explicit throughout projects about working in this way.

6. Produce no waste - on a practical level planning what will happen to everything used in the project after the work is over, and using the principle to produce no waste to guide decision making. There’s something really interesting in how this applies to a group of people working together, and how they can be invited to produce no waste while engaged in the work, and beyond. I’m also interested in how unused ideas, creative offers not carried can be captured and valued. Is it necessary? Imagination is a renewable resource so unused ideas are not wasted as such. I think this speaks to a deeper desire to work more slowly and explore more ideas more deeply - which creates the possibility of more nuanced, rich and diverse work. The time pressures of much of my work mean that some ideas are quickly discarded as they require a level of interrogation and exploration that is not available within the confines of the project.

7. Design from patterns to detail. I see this principle in relation to my work as a funnel - from breadth to depth, at the same time increasing in complexity and specificity. It’s about taking a theme or idea or challenge and then exploring it more and more from different angles. It feels very aligned with the process of creating performance - moving from intention, to action, to specific moment to moment detail. It connects deeply to observing, respects diversity and invites in other forms of knowledge, new skills and other experiences. I usually experience this as an unfolding process whilst doing. And maybe the processes and tools I have around making performance are the design strategy. I feel like consciously playing with this principle could expand my practice in interesting ways. Starting with the question, what are the patterns here?, could be a fruitful starting point for devising.

8. Integrate rather than segregate. The industrial revolution started a process of specialisation that bought economies of scale. This thinking has seeped into our culture and we often separate things out - from agriculture where a field contains one crop type, to boundaries between different artistic disciplines. These monocultures are fragile and brittle in a way that a diverse system is not. This principle already feels aligned with my work, which is often multi-disciplinary, and invites difference. It’s a challenge when working with people, how to build collaboration while respecting, and celebrating the uniqueness of each person. It invites me to plan, and honour, the process of building collaboration more. It’s something I’ve learned through trial and error, that even on time limited projects spending lots of time nourishing the group dynamic is vital to the creative process, and to the other yields that a project can generate. Those being community, the skills to build community, the confidence to share your perspective, a sense of belonging, engaging in meaningful activity, joy and play.

9. Use small and slow solutions. This principle is the single biggest challenge to my process. Performance, as I’ve practised it, is all about big. I love spectacle and awe and large community hoorays - festivals and street events. The systems that I work in do not support or value the slow or small in many ways. I feel this is the principle that will really support me in developing my craft, and aesthetic. It’s inviting a level of specificity and intentionality that I appreciate in the best work that I see. It suggests a more sustainable way of making work.  I’ve certainly been drawn more and more to work that seems small but is actually profound in its impact, like Adrian Howells Footwashing for Sole. 

I also feel excited by the wonder that could exist in work created with this principle. Some years ago I was on a creative retreat in Cornwall, having something of a crisis of confidence in response to a question about where I would like my work to sit in the cultural landscape. While on this retreat I did lots of walking, and discovered a myriad of beautiful insects - shiny beetles, velvety feathered moths, angular crystalline lacewings. And I realised I wanted my work to be that, moments of beauty for those that encountered it. It helped me redefine success for myself and feels like a doorway into applying this principle more deeply to my own work.

10. Use and value diversity. This principle feels aligned with how I work already, though I recognise that it’s ongoing work. I strive to be anti-racist, anti-ableist and gender affirming. I’m still learning how I can best do that and trying to be ok with the inevitable times that I get it wrong. I’m reminded to have upfront conversations about the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policies and practices of organisations I’m working with - to ensure that they align with my approach. I’m reminded to allow time, and invite others' perspectives, into the design of projects so that they can be as inclusive and welcoming as possible. I want to find more skillful ways to talk about how I value diversity and celebrate that within the work that I do.

11. Use edges and value the marginal. In permaculture terms, the edges, where two systems like a river and grassland meet are the most diverse and productive. This reflects my experience as an artist who frequently works in edge spaces in human experience. In terms of people’s relationship to power and resources, I often work with those on the edges. The themes or concerns we explore together often feel central to the human experience but invite in a multiplicity of lived experiences, observations and reflections that are often not listened to. The heart of drama is conflict - a place where edges meet that people need to navigate. I often work with metaphor, as well as verbatim and autobiography - this also feels like an edge - rich in meaning, loaded with feeling. This principle invites me to check back in with the ethics. I’m reminding myself to ensure that using edges and valuing the marginal is always within an ethical framework of care. It can be very easy to tip to an extractive, and exploitative approach when making work in this territory. I’m reminded to use my reflective toolkit, and check back in, inviting others to check in and call out or stop exploitative processes where we encounter or perpetuate them.

12. Creatively use and respond to change - finding the right time to make an intervention based on observation. This principle invites me to consider timing in my work, in relation to the vision of the future. The ability to see what could be, and recognise when to make an intervention to realise that vision. That feels like part of my toolkit as a theatre maker - finding the right story to tell at this moment, the right time to move from idea generation to shaping or give a note to a performer. This principle invites me to stay present with what is happening in the moment as well as staying connected to the future vision of the work.

The twelve principles are often pictured arranged in a circle with the ethics in the centre. This non-hierarchical, web-like representation feels like a more useful planning tool than some of the formal project management methodologies I have used. It speaks to the humanity of projects, and works as a set of prompts to ensure a holistic thinking and design process that centres care. 

What I’ve learned:

• I‘d like to start my planning process on a wall - with the ethics and principles on signs. Then spend some time, ideally over more than one day, to allow reflection, to annotate, add questions and actions. The ethics and principles excite me because they create aperture, opening possibilities through considered design questions. 

• I’d like to create a plan that’s a web, that I can then develop into some more sequential actions. At the moment I think the plan for the Somewhere / Anywhere project will exist as a sequence of spirals. This excites me and makes the spreadsheet loving, Gantt chart advocating project manager in me feel distinctly uncomfortable, which suggests that it’s probably the right thing to try.

Resources, references and further reading

What is Permaculture: Part 2 – Principles

The 12 Permaculture Design Principles