Collaborative mark-making & conversation: An invitation to participate in new research exploring Allotments & community gardens

As part of a practice-led PhD research project in the School of Communication at the Royal College of Art, London, members of allotment groups / community gardens / shared growing spaces are invited to engage in group conversations, to address themes of growing, sharing, organisation and responsibility within their growing practices.

Participants are guided to try simple mark-making techniques with ink, paper, plaster and clay (you don’t have to be an expert in any of these) and join in a group conversation with other growers on their site, to share thoughts and perspectives on allotment life.

If you are part of a growing space and would like to know more about the project or how you can participate in a collaborative mark-making & conversation workshop between April and September 2023, please contact:

Kam Rehal
kam.rehal@network.rca.ac.uk

The Process for Participating
1  Organisers and members from allotment groups / community gardens / shared growing spaces can contact Kam Rehal to find out more about the research project 

2  Individuals and groups who are interested in participating in the project will receive a Participant Consent Form that provides full details, including how their contributions will be used as part of the research

3  We arrange one (or more) ‘collaborative mark-making and conversation’ workshop(s) to take place at your growing space between April and September 2023

4  Kam shows up at your site equipped with the tools and materials we’ll need for our workshop and guides Participants through the process

5 Material from the conversations – in the form of quotes, images and the mark-making – will be used to support the research development

More on the research
Collaborative mark-making and conversation forms part of communication designer Kam Rehal’s practice-led PhD research within the School of Communication at the Royal College of Art, London, UK.

Since 2020, Kam has been an active researcher and plot-holder within an allotment community in Tonbridge, Kent – experimenting with the tools, materials and processes that correspond with the seasonal cycles of preparing and planting, digging and weeding, cultivating and picking, sharing and composting – testing ways to learn more about the connections between individual and communal practices of growing.

The collaborative mark-making and conversation method has been developed and piloted with members of our allotment group as a social and supportive way to reflect on our experiences of growing. The method encourages an open dialogue that explores growing within a community whilst we simultaneously come together to participate in a shared making activity. Participants are not responsible for a single, individual contribution, but work collaboratively to generate a growing conversation and marks on a surface.

By opening the research out to other allotment groups / community gardens / shared growing spaces, a richer and more diverse range of practices and perspectives might be gathered, to support a wider understanding of the role growing spaces play in the lives of their communities.

Please get in touch if you and your growing group would like to be involved.

Kam Rehal
kam.rehal@network.rca.ac.uk