Regular readers of this blog know that I am doing a bike-focused PhD in Education. In a nutshell, my project explores how bicycles feature in West African girls’ access to secondary education.
It is a great project and I love working on it.
I’ve been developing a research methodology called velo-onto-epistemology (VOE) as part of this project. I know it is a mouthful, but the article explains what it means.
I am delighted to share my latest publication which introduces my novel bicycle-focused research approach for the first time.
I wrote this paper with my incredible supervisor Dr Sherilyn Lennon. In this paper, I take Sherilyn for a bike ride as a way to put to work my VOE research methodology and destablise the traditional power hierarchy of the PhD candidate-supervisor relationship.
To show how velo-relationality works differently, we juxtapose – or ‘recycle’ our experiences next to each other (see below) in what we call ‘tandem writing’.
This article is an engaging read.
It is theoretical enough to be rigorous and interesting, but relatable for the everyday reader-rider.
Below is the abstract and a copy of the paper.
Feel free to download a copy (third icon on right below).
Check it out!
Ride on!
Enjoy!
ABSTRACT
Traditionally, the candidate-supervisor-relationship is predicated on a supervisor as teacher/expert – candidate as learner/novice model. But what becomes possible when the materialities of this power dynamic are destabilised and reimagined? This article draws from emerging feminist ontologies to introduce the concept of velo- onto-epistemology [VOE] as a means of re-cycling candidate- supervisor-relationships. VOE acknowledges the agency of the bicycle in moving and being moved. This novel approach is used to explore how stor(i)ed encounters and in-the-moment bodily responses enact current-future becomings. Through re-cycling, the candidate-supervisor-relationship is dis-articulated and re- articulated in ways that enable alternative and more equitable understandings of the world to emerge.
In the previous blog post, I detailed a project I was involved in earlier this year called Reading with Reciprocity run by The Ediths. In that post, I explained the contributor’s brief, what we did and how we did it. In this post, I am excited to share the final output that contributors cocreated. It’s such a wonderful way to wrap up the year. What a project! So exciting! Great ideas on how to research more generously. See more below. NG.
Image: The Ediths
The Ediths are a feminist interdisciplinary research collective based at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia. The collective uses socially engaged creative methodologies to conduct ecologically responsive research.
I am delighted to announce the Edith’s Reading with Reciprocity Project has just been released. Congratulations to the organisers, Mindy Blaise, Jane Merewether and Jo Pollitt and to all book responders.
I was very honoured to be invited to contribute to this project and to have my book response included.
Reading with Reciprocityis an initiative by The Edith’s inspired by the Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research’s (CLEAR) blog post,#Collabrary: a methodological experiment for reading with reciprocity (2021), which draws on the scholarship of Joe Dumit (2012), Zoe Todd (2016), and Eve Tuck (2017) to learn reading practices that are “humble, generous, and accountable” (CLEAR, 2021). We were interested and impressed with the ways in which this methodological experiment was creating reading practices grounded in a feminist ethic committed to making room for diverse knowledges.
This initiative began by first curating a list of books based on the research interests of the membership and our commitment to privileging different voices. After sending out an expression of interest, we were surprised and humbled at the overwhelming response to the invitation and selected 11 members to take part in Reading with Reciprocity. Similar to the care taken in deciding which books to read and review, we also selected members with consideration and intention, including representation of early career, mid-career, and experienced researchers. Because we see the roundtables as part of postgraduate supervision and an expanded form of mentoring, some of the students we supervise were also selected to participate.
Those who took part in Reading with Reciprocity were asked to read the (CLEAR) blog post, #Collabrary: a methodological experiment for reading with reciprocity (2021) and then submit a review that was based on reading a selected text with reciprocity. We hoped that participants would reciprocate the gifts that the authors had given in their writing.
Reimagining how we might read and review these books with care, reciprocity, and generosity ended up not being as easy as we first thought. It is clear that there is such a dominant way of reviewing work that makes being generous to authors so out of the ordinary and unsupported in the academy. We have to do better! Reading with Reciprocity is one way that we can do this work, individually and as a community of scholars who are interested in doing academia more kindly and generously.
The Ediths
I enjoy being part of The Edith’s collective because the group’s ethics, topics and discussions align so well with my research and personal interests. When we meet, we focus on exploring the material and situated effects of environmental change on feminist bodies and practices and the relations between social justice, ecological sustainability, and Indigenous self-determination. This means a strong commitment to the decolonization of Western knowledge production.
Being part of this research collective creates opportunities for dialogue and collaboration among feminists from diverse backgrounds and to contribute to the development of more just and sustainable societies – such as this Reading with Reciprocity project!
It is so helpful for researcher-writers to have like-minded people to process, feed and be inspired by – I hope you have your own group that does this for you!
Earlier this year, I was invited by The Ediths to participate in a new project they are undertaking called: A feminist initiative towards reading with reciprocity.
The Ediths wanted to explore what it might look, feel and be like to work with #Collabary practices as a way towards becoming generous and accountable scholars.
For me, it was a toss-up between A/P Fikile Nuxmalo and Dr. Laura Rodríguez Castro. Both these scholars work have direct overlaps with my research interests.
In the end, given the direct application of Post-humanist/New Materialist approaches and because of the place-base(ness) of site-specific work (aligns with emplaced bike trails and accounting for other-than-academic/outside environments) with a deliberate engagement with First Nations, Black and People of Colour perspectives (which I have an ongoing interest in), I chose:
Once chosen, you get sent a copy of your selected book – and of course, that copy is yours to keep as a token of appreciation for participating in the project. Woohoo!
3) Using the Collaborary and Dumit resources/links above as inspiration, we are encouraged to experiment with one or more of these reading practices (close reading, constructive reading, positive, generous, slightly genealogical, methodological in focus, and ethical).
4) Then write a 600–800-word review that is informed by one or more of these above reading practices to show how a reciprocal, generous, and accountable review might be done.
We had a generous 6-weeks turn-around to get out work back to the organiser-editors who will then feedback our piece before release.
Once finalised, all project contributions will be publicly available on The Ediths website.
I’ll let you know how it goes!
On March 8th, A/P Deondre Smiles and A/P Max Liboiron did a #Collabrary Zoom session. Here, they discuss: Feminisms from Unthought Locations: Indigenous worldviews, marginalized feminisms, and revisioning and Anticolonial social science by Gaile Cannella & Kathryn Manuelito from the Handbook of Critical Indigenous Methodologies
Regular readers of this blog know that I have been working with Griffith’s Indigenous Research Unit (IRU) and Kungullanji as an Academic Skills Advisor for the last 4 years. But this is the first time I have put in to be a project mentor.
Image: Griffith News
Recently, Kungullanji announced their Summer Expressions of Interest (EOIs). These are small research projects that will be offered to Griffith’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students for the Summer 2021- 2022 Program. Students get to pick which project they would like to work on. The projects need to be achieved within eight weeks (over Summer before T1 starts). Usually, projects include field work, laboratory work, data analysis and statistics, literature review, case studies, method development, and/or product design.
So, I thought I’d through my hat into the ring this year.
It is an unusual project with experimental methodologies – so it’s a long shot that it will be attractive for an undergrad – but you never know! There might be a brave researcher out willing to try something a little different! We’ll see!
The process of writing up the abstract alone was a really helpful activity in helping me clarify aspects of the methodology and thinking through how to explain what VEO is in clear and simple terms.
Below is what I submitted.
I’ll find out in 6 weeks if a Kungullanji student-researcher chooses my project.
EOI: Project description
Title: Cycle Shiftings: Reconfiguring First Nation presences in Morton Bay Bikeway
Project supervisor: Nina Ginsberg (School of Education & Professional Studies)
Project description:
Bike riding is a ubiquitous part of modern life and offers significant social, economic, environmental and health benefits. However, there is ‘an unbearable whiteness of cycling’ (Hylton, 2017) that is keenly evident. Bicycle trails are not free from the history, culture and politics in which they are built and used.
This project focuses on one section of a popular bikeway located on Narlang lands of the Quandamooka peoples (commonly known as the Morton Bay Bikeway (MBB), Wynnum-Manly, Brisbane). This bike path is the focus of this project which uses emerging mobile ‘riding-with’ research approaches that work to decolonise place. ‘Riding-with’ research approaches are unique as they consider what bicycles can ‘do’ and ‘be’ beyond being just objects of transportation, utility or recreation.
This means paying close attention to what is seen, said, remembered, thought, felt, understood and experienced while bike riding researcher-community members move through particular environments – and in this case specifically, the Moreton Bay Bikeway. This project fits into an exciting and newly established research space that uses embodied and mobile methodologies to destablise current settler-colonial bike path logic and praxis – to look at what might be learned or discovered by cultivating more First Nations experiences as/into bike paths. The underlying aim is to bring forward possibilities for identifying and refiguring what is considered ‘normal’ on bike paths by promoting and celebrating First Nations presences – and that doing so will broaden and bolster similar conversations elsewhere.
The Kungullanji researcher will be encouraged to actively co-contribute to all aspects of the project process. There are opportunities for the researcher to communicate work undertaken (ie via publication, community bike tour, etc) which is highly encouraged, given time and interest. This project would suit a motivated, curious, mature and open-minded researcher who is interested in working with innovative research skills. The supervisor, Nina Ginsberg, will provide guidance at all stages of this project.
Student responsibilities:
Research mobile methodologies and local First Nations presences (around Wynnum-Manly area)
Write short summaries/narratives based on key research themes
Co-develop (with supervisor) an approach to action key research themes
Develop and experiment with riding-with approaches
This project involves being able to go for regular bike rides along Wynnum-Manly foreshore (accessible by train)at a leisurely pace with regular breaks for about 10 kms. Must have a general level of fitness and know how to ride a bike safely. Ideally, the Kungullanji researcher will have their own bike (in good working order) and safety gear (if not, Nina can help arrange this).
Meet with Supervisor at least weekly for bike ride-meetings to discuss findings, progress and next steps.
Opportunity for a co-authored publication (Kungullanji researcher and Supervisor) and/or community bike tour to share findings (if time/interest allows).
Morton Bay Cycleway. Image: Visit Queensland
The Kungullanji Program
The Kungullanji Research Pathways Program raises aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students by providing an undergraduate research experience, professional development, and connections to the broader Indigenous research community. The idea is to provide an introduction to research and develop valuable skills for students to start their research journey.
The idea is that First Nations undergrads work alongside research staff (who may be an academic staff member, research fellow, postdoctoral fellow or HDR candidate) to gain hands-on research. Supervisors provide regular and ongoing mentorship, guidance, research-specific training, and experience.
This award-winning program is a key part of Griffith University’s strategy to “grow its own” First Peoples higher degree research cohort.
Kungullanji is an Aboriginal word from the Yugambeh language that means ‘to think’ – and this service is specifically for undergraduates.
Kungullanji offers practical research experience and opportunities to develop research skills and confidence not found elsewhere for undergraduates. Students receive a scholarship and are provided with online and in-person research skills training, cultural experience activities, a transdisciplinary art-based workshop, and Peer Mentors provide additional guidance and support.
Image: Griffith News
Postscript: This year there was a remarkably high number of EOIs submitted (the highest ever!) – which speaks to the growing recognition and high caliber of this program! Ultimately, 46 projects were submitted. There were 23 students. My EOI was not selected – another time!
Nina with Kenly Grey’s Wheel (2021). Image: Nina Ginsberg
This month is Brisbane Festival month.
So this week, I headed down to Metro Arts to check out a wholly bike-inspired, free art exhibition called The Mechanics of Adaptation.
The exhibition was well laid out and had a variety of materials, forms, and mediums across two galleries. Each work was given sufficient space so viewers could walk around the installations and see them from different angles.
I decided to wander through the show first to get a sense of the artworks. It was interesting to see the different techniques used to fuse, fix and set each of the works together. It felt like these were not super technical pieces, which made them more relatable because it felt like anyone could have a go constructing some of these works.
After my initial look around, I grabbed a handout of the exhibition (see details below) which explained a little more of the context behind the exhibition.
The handout and the necessary artist’s name/title/year posted on the walls next to exhibits were the only pieces of info provided at the exhibition.
When I got home and looked for more online, there were heaps of other interesting info about this project! Why wasn’t this extra info promoted at the exhibition?
And the passing mention in the exhibition handout about the ‘collaboration’ was actually a vital part of the whole artistic process and overall project.
The collaboration was the part I found most interesting about this whole project, yet at the exhibition, there was very little info about it.
Online, I found a catalog that gave more details about the project (see below).
This catalog outlines the background and details the collaboration with Traction and Sycamore, which I think is where the real art story is at – see here!
Having established artists running a series of workshops with youths at risk (Traction) and young people living with Autism (Sycamore) to teach artistic and technical using bikes is a brilliant idea – and I love that the final works were being exhibited as part of the Brisbane Arts Festival.
As a visitor to this exhibition, I felt this key aspect of the project was missing.
I would have loved to have seen better recognition/focus in the exhibition about the involvement of the youth groups.
Even so, it was awesome to see more bike art being supported and showcased.
If you are in Brisbane and have the interest -consider popping in and checking it out!
More bike projects and art exhibitions like this one, please!
Deucamp’s artwork changed the course of contemporary art by elevating ordinary objects to the status of art. In 2021, after 10 successful years and four million trips, the Brisbane CityCycle program is ending.
With access to decommissioned bicycles provided by JDDecaux, Metro Arts commission and five local artists to produce new work inspired by these now-defunct bicycles.
This work captures the emerging world of ever-accumulating industrially produced items and the potential for found materials to be incorporated into artworks whilst also inviting a playful attitude into the rarefied context of art galleries.
Today, bicycles also represent the urgency of the need for environmental awareness and sustainability.
Within this context, the artists’ use of the decommission City Cycle bicycles reflects the opportunity for artistic experimentation that connects histories of art to environmental sustainability.
As we move into holiday mode, my thoughts turn to long, lazy afternoons enjoying the rich, inviting, creativity of a thriving bike community. I was nostalgic for a local event something along the lines of Bespoke City. Bespoke City was a super special, one-night-only art and design event held in Sydney some years back. A wonderful reminder of what can be achieved when creative minds come together. For those who missed it, this post explains the event. Here’s to hoping for more bespoke events like this! Enjoy. NG.
Bespoke City. Image: UNSW Newsroom
The Bespoke City event was put on to celebrate a new generation of designers, makers, technologists and innovators who had teamed up with artists to re-imagine Sydney’s streets from the perspective of the cyclist.
Brilliant! There should be more city events like this!
The Bespoke City festival included a series of bike-inspired installations, projections, interactive artworks, unique sculptures, videos, kinetic artworks, demonstrations, and stalls. Curated by Laura Fisher and Sabrina Sokalik, Bespoke City invited audiences to reimagine Sydney’s urban environment.
It was held in a new community space in the heart of Oxford Street. This was the first time the event had ‘spilled out into the streets’ from the UNSW Art & Design Courtyard and Galleries.
Bicycles were central to all the artworks.
Bikes were used to generate light, colour, sound and energy, while other artworks used them as a metaphor for the city itself – reminding us that urban spaces can be deconstructed and remade and that we are all implicated in the politics of public space.
A key aim of the event was to spotlight the bicycle as a humble but brilliant piece of technology, and to share a vision of the city as open to being hacked, remapped and remade.
Bespoke City was part of UNSW Galleries’ First Fridays program, in which the Galleries stayed open late on the first Friday of each month to host lively events engaging in contemporary art and culture.
What a great idea! More, please!
Laura Fisher said Bespoke City appealed to everyone: “This is one for the makers, the pedalers and the whole family.”
Some of the more than 20 Bespoke City artworks, workshops and installations, included:
Pedal powered light mural – Climb on and peel back the layers of the city. See Sydney in flux as your pedalling efforts produce variations in light, colour and space. Artists: Jonathon Bolitho, Jeong Greaves, Jobe Williams, Mackenzie Nix.
Autonomous painting machine – A robot-painter that tracks human movements to create curious images, prompting viewers to think about how machine intelligence is influencing our lives. Artist: Jeffrey Wood
Bicycles that make music – Create a slow groove or some fast electronic beats as you collaborate with other riders to fill the campus with a unique and evolving sound piece. Artists: Milkcrate Events.
Microbiology in the urban wild – Examine the city at the molecular level using a bike-powered laboratory created by the first Citizen Scientist molecular biology lab. Artists: BioFoundry
A virtual ride from Paddington to Rozelle – ‘Veloscape’ is an immersive video work in which your pedalling takes you on a traverse of the city. Artists: Volker Kuchelmeister and Laura Fisher
Giant data visualisation – Watch the ebb and flow of rider movements around Sydney, with a specially commissioned work inspired by the City’s cycling data. Artist: Hanley Weng & Xavier Ho.
There were also lots of other things to do, like get a free bicycle tune-up, join the guerrilla knitters, make some custom reflective gear or get some food from one of the Cargo Bike businesses and pop up stalls.
Yes – a wonderful event that ticks so many boxes: artistic, fun, high community engagement, questioning urban design and mobility, bike-focused, collaborative, free, public event…(*sigh*).
I’d love to see more events like this during the holidays.
Ti wouldn’t be too much of a stretch given that most major cities already have some kind of public, night-time bike events like Ride the Night Brisbane or some kind of innovative bike infrastructure like the Starry Night Bike Path.
So let’s showcase more art and design collaborative artworks on two wheels!
Matt Root and his two cargo bike under 95cm ‘city experts’. Image: Radio Adelaide.
Recently, I had the opportunity to hear Matt Root, an avid bike rider and dad of two toddlers present a session called ‘Going Dutch, cargo bikes for kids’ – and it was really great!
His presenation focused on what life on a biek and in the city is like from the point of view of his two young sons. Perspectives like child-centred research and having chilldren activitely participating and informing research and policy is a key step in better redesigning more liveable cities for all.
So I was most intrested to hear what emerrged from the two young experts (Matt’s two sons, aged 2 and 4) while Dad (Matt)* rigged on-board GoPro cameras to capture all the fun and sense of adventure.
In this session, we heard what the pre-schoolers liked and disliked about our streets from their unique vantage point (see below).
From this vantage, Matt draws out aspects of what new ideas we can learn from these young experts.
Below are a few of those insights. All images by Matt Root.
After Matt’s presentation, I went looking for more information about this and was happy to see Victoria Local Goverance Association has a Child Friendly Cities and Community focus.
*Matt Root is a co-owner of Flyt transport planning consultancy based in Perth and he is focused on the planning of safe and convenient bicycle infrastructure across the city. Between 2018-2020 Matt led the State Government’s planning for Perth’s Long Term Cycle Network to accommodate the city’s population in 2050.
From the front box of a cargo bike, how do our streets and
built environment look and feel to a 2 & 4-year-old?
The Urban95 initiative asks this simple question to leaders, planners, and designers.
Urban95 design principals focus on family-friendly urban planning and those designs can help us active transport professions in our work.
The Urban95 project has at its heart a focus on children-friendly cities and urban development.
Urban95 interventions help cities increase positive interactions between caregivers, babies and toddlers; increase access to — and use of — the services and amenities families need; and reduce stresses on caregivers. They are organised into two categories of policies and services:
Family-friendly urban planning and design, including the planning, design and regulation of a city’s space, land use, infrastructure and services
Healthy Environments for children, including improving air quality and access to nature
The Urban95 background states that more than a billion children live in cities, and rapid urbanisation means that number is growing.
Babies, toddlers and caregivers experience the city in unique ways.
They need safe, healthy environments, where crucial services are easily accessible, frequent, warm, responsive interactions with loving adults are possible, and safe, a stimulating physical environment to play in and explore abound.
The City at Eye Level for Kids (Ebook pg 54 & 55).
The City at Eye Level for Kids
From Urban95 comes The City at Eye Level which, as their website explains, develops and shares knowledge about how to make urban development work at human scale.
A collaboration with the Bernard van Leer Foundation’s Urban95 initiative, this – The City at Eye Level for Kids – book contains over 100 contributions from across the world on work to improve cities for children and the people who care for them.
It shares practices, lessons, perspectives and insights from 30 different countries around the world, that will be useful to urban planners, architects, politicians, developers, entrepreneurs and advocates for children and families.
Celebrating diversity in bike ridership is a key theme for this blog. This blog actively promotes a fuller range of rider experiences, alternative bike set ups, and projects and events that are inclusive of more-than-the-mainstream-norm kinds of bike riding. Sadly, many of these initiatives do not receive adequate attention and often remain invisible and un(der)recognised. Some examples are:
So I was delighted this year to see rider diversity being represented in one of my favorite annual bike events, the Indian Pacific Wheel Race.
The IndyPac (or IPWR) is an epic, unassisted 5, 550kms adventure ride going from Fremantle to the Sydney Opera House that few attempt. It is the most prestigious bike touring race in Australia. I got especially interested in IndyPac 2017 when my dear friend Jackie Bernardi rode it (only one of seven females). That was also the year the event was cut short after the tragic death of rider Mike Hall.
Each year since, I’ve kept my eye on the IndyPac.
This year, the story of Ed Birt (Chief Operating Officer for The Disability Trust) caught my eye as he was riding to raise funds and awareness for their CycleAbility program. Below is an article about Ed’s IPWR participation, which I found via The Disability Trust news.
There were many aspects of Ed’s approach to the IPWR that stood out for me (balls in just attempting the event itself, but also supporting a good cause, positive awareness raising for greater diversity in ridership, and more) was the terminology shift from Indian Pacific Wheel Race to Indian Pacific Wheel Ride employed in communicating his involvement. I appreciated the subtle vocab shift to focus more on participation as opposed to competition.
Ed Birt and bike. Image: The Disability Trust
With tenacity, tailwinds and a passion for cycling Ed Birt, Chief Operating Officer of The Disability Trust, has successfully completed the Indian Pacific Wheel Ride, a solo unsupported, 5,500km ride ocean-to-ocean across Australia.
Ed, a keen cyclist who recently celebrated his 50th birthday decided to undertake the personal challenge whilst on annual leave and use the experience to raise money to purchase bicycles, tricycles, recumbent bikes and frames to support The Disability Trust’s new CycleAbility program and other existing programs such as Vacation Care and Getaway Saturday.
The course does not follow the most direct route from coast to coast making it a truly memorable adventure through deserts, wine districts, rolling hills, winding coastal roads and tough alpine regions riding through the heart of Australia’s major cities. Starting at Freemantle Lighthouse at 6.22am on Saturday 20 March 2021, nine riders dipped their wheel in the Indian Ocean with the goal of being able to do the same in the Pacific Ocean once reaching Sydney.
After 23 days on the road Ed arrived at the steps of the Sydney Opera House on the 11th of April, cheered on by family, friends and supporters. He was the second rider to complete the challenge with only four completing the race with other participants retiring due to injury or bike issues.
“It’s just empowering to get from A to B under your own steam,” Mr Birt said. “It’s a big country and lots can happen, but I was pretty well-prepared. The bike performed really well,” Mr Birt said.
The highlight for Ed, as well as enjoying the beautiful countryside he travelled through, was the support and generosity of the people he met along the way. Avid “dot watchers”, people tracking the riders online, will often join the cyclists on their own bikes as they head through their towns, providing riders with refreshments or a place to rest.
“There were people who put me up in their homes, or truck drivers who stopped and made me a peanut butter and banana sandwich in the middle of the desert,” Mr Birt said.
Fundraising has surpassed his goal of $10,000 and is over $11,000 with The Figtree Lions Club and Resin Brewing also set to bolster the fundraising with charity events.
The CycleAbility program will be supporting independence, fitness and social inclusion through the use of bicycles as active transport. The program will provide skills, knowledge and safety in using bicycles and Wollongong’s cycling infrastructure.
The empowering CycleAbility program will be facilitated through The Disability Trust’s Sport and Recreation team and will run on the last Saturday of every month commencing 29 May 2021. The program will be run from The Disability Trust’s head office car park in Wollongong (5 Edney Lane Spring Hill) with a focus on
Fun
Skills development
Safety while riding
Bicycle maintenance and repair and
Getting to know the Wollongong Cycle network
100% of funds raised will go towards purchase of equipment for CycleAbility and other The Disability Trust programs.
This session: Key to addressing human impacts on climate change is changing human demands on ecologies. My project is exploring how participating in ocean sports shapes peoples’ relationships to and knowledge of ecologies, and their ways of thinking about our responsibilities for environmental care (Olive). In particular, this project is aimed at challenging white-settler relationships to place (Kimmerer, Kwaymullina), and the ontologies that underpin how we understand ourselves in relation to the world.
Swimming and surfing remind us in deeply personal ways that we are part of ecologies, not separate from them. This includes learning to make kin (Haraway) with threatening aspects of place and space, such as sharks and various forms of pollution (Tsing).
For this discussion, I have suggested a lot of quite short readings, often from much longer texts. I have also set a recent essay that gives a good overview of my current work. You might not get to them all, but reading across at least a few of them will be helpful.
As part of this meeting, we dicussed: How can we better communicate knowledge with relevant communities and the public?
Image: Rebecca Olive
My session notes and thoughts
Below are two worldings I wrote about this session to give sense of what emerged.
Nature returns revisited
We’re discussing nature revisited and tainted returns. I’m traversing Ecofeminisms and thinking in habit(at)s. ‘Proper’ places. Sarah Jaquette posits climate anxiety is a white-person’s phenomenon. A culture of denial. Our vulnerability offsets our humility. Confusion about Margaret Howe Lovatt and Peter the dolphin’s more-than-pleasurable interspecies relations. People actively speaking about creative connections and kinships beyond family and humanness. Healing traditions. Tsing’s challenge of ‘living in the precarious ruins’. Reassuring exclusionary ethical participation. Hydrofeminisms. Definitions and distinctions between ‘locals’ and ‘imports’. PolesApart. Activists, stewards, custodians, collectors. Val Plumwood resituates humans in ecological terms. Putting humans back on the inside of nature.
Surfing ontological waves
I’m considering Rebecca Olive’s work. Surfing intensities. Reflecting on human impacted climate change and changing human demands on ecologies. Briny netroot polemics. Explorations of environs question peoples’ relationships, knowledge and responsibilities of ecologies and environmental care. Transnatural perspectives.Much needed challenges of white-settler relationships to place and the ontologies of how we understand ourselves and our actions in relation to the world. Moving Oceans. Natural environments affect us in deeply personal ways. Making kin. We are ecologies-with, not ecologies-from. Facing fears.Choices that either support or threaten ourselves, each other, creatures, plants and environments. The benefits of swimming with sharks.
Innovative technology is increasingly being applied to bike riding to address some very pressing issues, such as increasing bike participation and rider safety.
Previously I’ve posted on the pioneering work of Griffith researchers working on the world’s first ‘thought-control’ bicycle for spinal injury rehab (see more here). This story details Dr. Dinesh Palipana who is a Griffith University medical graduate. Dinesh became a quadriplegic after a car accident partway through his medical degree. Despite this, Dinesh completed his degree and has since been collaborating with a Griffith research team on the world’s-first integrated neuro-musculoskeletal rehabilitation recline bike that will enable quadriplegics to use ‘thought control’ to ride a specially adapted bike. This project uses ground-breaking 3D computer-simulated biomechanical model, connected to an electroencephalogram (EEG) to capture Dinesh’s brainwaves that then stimulates movement that not only push the pedals for him but also helps revitalise is neuro pathways for eventually recovery.
I recently came across an article written last year by Timna Jacks for the Sydney Morning Herald that looked at a ‘mind-reading- bicycle designed to save lives by improving riders’ safety. I was particularly curious about this article as the researchers were using e-bikes in this case Timna makes links with the unprecedented surge in bike use due to COVID-19 – something we have all noticed. So, if you missed this article, I’ve included it in full below.
The ‘mind-reading’ bicycle that could save lives
Cycling in Melbourne might seem a dangerous game, but what if the bike was so intuitive that it could detect when you were in danger and manoeuvre you to safety?
Researchers at Monash University, IBM Australia and the University of Southampton in the UK have invented an e-bicycle which they claim can “read” people’s minds and detect when a cyclist is in danger.
The electroencephalogram-supported e-bike prototype, built by the researchers over more than a year, scans the electrical activity in the cyclist’s brain to detect the nature of the rider’s field of view.
An EEG electrode cap measuring electrical signals in the cyclist’s occipital lobe, the visual processing area of the brain, feeds into a small computer in their backpack, which converts the signals from brain activity to instructions for the bike’s engine.
If the rider’s peripheral vision is narrow – a neurological response when a cyclist detects a danger ahead such as a car cutting them off or an obstruction to a bike path – the bike’s accelerator halts. The cyclist can still move forward by pushing the pedals, albeit more slowly.
Conversely, if the rider has a wide peripheral vision because there is no threat in sight, the bike accelerates.
Changes in peripheral awareness are often linked to a person’s awareness of their surroundings, and their physical performance and co-ordination.
Researchers at Monash, IBM and University of Southampton Josh Andres said cycling accidents often occurred at intersections where cyclists needed a heightened awareness of their environment.
He wanted to find a technology that gave riders extra time in critical situations, but instead of outsourcing this skill, he wanted to build a technology that helped riders connect more with their bodies.
This e-bike, named Ena, would provide a feedback loop for cyclists, enabling them to improve their peripheral vision.
“This is a problem right now. Many of the technologies we are building are teaching us how to outsource how we feel, whereas we should try to be more in touch with our bodies, more in tune with our bodies,” Mr Andres said.
He has previously built e-bikes that connect the bike’s motor to traffic light signals and instruct the cyclist to speed up or slow down.
Monash University researcher Floyd Mueller said the new bike was aimed at boosting people’s confidence in cycling, allowing them to feel in control.
“We know from good cyclists that they talk about how they become one with the bike … what this technology allows is for the cyclist to be an extension of their body. The bike knows when the cyclist is in danger or having fun without being explicitly told.”
Cycling is having an unprecedented surge in popularity because of the COVID-19 lockdown. A Bicycle Network count of 8800 riders on April 25 showed the number had increased by 270 per cent compared with November last year.
But Uber this week confirmed that its shared e-bike outfit Jump would be taken over by Lime and pulled off Melbourne’s streets, in line with similar moves overseas.
The program launched in early March and paused three weeks later as COVID-19 lockdowns began.
It is understood the decision was made in the face of financial strain wrought by the virus, with the company reportedly expected to lay off more than 100 Australian employees as part of its major global job cuts.
