one day: Day One ? Resilience in Bristol

one day: Day One – Resilience is part of Bristol 2015 and the concept and creation of artist Sara Zaltash. The project will take a mobile geodesic dome to a number of locations around Bristol and aims to get people talking abvout how their neighbourhood and city could change in the future and what that will mean for them.

The dome has been illustrated by artist Jack-Reuben Fletcher with a stunning and thought provoking vision of a future Bristol. The image shows how the city can adapt to inevitable changes such as climate change, housing, food supply and transport.

The dome can be seen in Bedminster on Sunday 14 June at Make Sunday Special and on Monday 15 and Tuesday 16 June at Cascade Steps in the Centre as part of the Big Green Week. It will then tour around schools, community fairs, street parties and heritage sites.

At each event the public wil be asked to record a short video where they answer a question about the future. They then leave a question for the next partipant to answer.The videos will then be shared online and in exhibtions around Bristol including the Big Screen in Millennium Square, Broadmead and the Bristol 2015 Lab.

The project was inspired by Bristol Green Capital Partnership’s Resilience Action Group. Led by The Schumacher Institute, the group aims to encourage projects, activities and relationships that protect Bristol, and its people, from shocks and stresses like extreme weather events, resource shortages, food supply problems or power cuts.

Artist Sara Zaltash stated:

“What if we could see what the future has in store for us, and learn to bounce back more effectively? How might we act if that future were now? How can we share this resilient-thinking around the world, and learn from each other’s ways of bouncing back to our best?

All the energy in Bristol around the elections and the Green Capital shows just how much people care about their city.  Whether it’s green issues, housing, stronger communities, wanting fairer work opportunities or just decent, honest food in our bellies, it’s clear that Bristol residents are looking for ways to get involved and change their lives for the better.

In order to be able to bounce back from the coming shocks and stresses that we know we will face in the future, people need to be able to envisage what those impending challenges are, and to understand what they would personally do if – and when – that situation occurred.

Often, the ways that the climate crisis is communicated can be full of scaremongering, or can imply that a solution to the problems that we are facing will come from the scientific community or governmental organisations, without the input of everyday people.

Showing the people of Bristol the work that individuals and organisations are doing to make the city resilient means that everyone can understand what role they can play in making our city stronger.

To survive and thrive – even when things are looking a bit bleak – we need to create and share visions for our future. Our project gives people a way to do that. We ask, “what do you want Bristol to be like one day?” We then share these visions with everyone else, so that we can create our future, our Day One, together. The future is ours, after all. Now is the time to remember that, and do something about it. ”

Chair of Bristol 2015, Andrew Garrad said:

“We’re delighted to support one day : Day One – Resilience. This project makes the idea of future-proofing Bristol accessible to everyone and gets people involved in thinking about how they can play a part in making the Bristol of the future just as great a place to live and work as it is now.”

For more information see http://www.onedaydayone.org/resilience