17/11/06
Dark skies with occasional sunshine

The last day of cycling in this Independents Biennial.
Unlike all my other days, I set out on this journey knowing I only had a couple of miles to cycle and a few sites to evaluate – the ones I had intended to do on my return journey back up Edge Lane yesterday.

My first site is the last site from yesterday – opposite the Littlewoods building and next to a petrol station. It was all but dark when I evaluated this site and I wanted to double check the size and vegetative cover, which I had estimated at around an acre with more than 30% Silver Birch tree cover. What I had assumed was earth covering turned out to be mucky and broken concrete, and I could see more edible plant species, although, a second evaluating didn’t make any difference to the overall coding of a Yellow Tag.

Although the old fencing is breached in many places, making the site ‘accessible’ to the curious, I didn’t feel the urge to crawl through and inspect further – this decision was largely governed by a time factor… The 2nd Annual National Public Art Conference, “City in Transition” was in Liverpool, and I wanted to go. Like many other freelance artists and project managers, I found the conference fee prohibitive, at a staggering £175.00 + VAT for the day. Personally outraged by the exclusive nature of this event – that appeared to be excluding a vital element of public art practice – the artist - my plan was to gatecrash, loudly and proudly. Originally the plan was to gatecrash the entire conference – but there’s no benefit to be gained by cutting short a conversation with someone like “Jim the Stud” - hence – on conference day – I find myself back on the bike.

The second site, edged with a red sandstone wall draped in ivies, adjoined the first. Three R.S.J. girders stand vertical-ish at what would have been an entrance or driveway, allowing full foot access into the site. Fixing my bike to an R.S.J. I step inside. What I experienced on the other side of the barrier – within the Brownfield – was now becoming familiar. This maligned and disregarded space, like so many Brownfields was a magnet for tipping. There were torn bin liners, their contents part in and part strewn across the ground. Scattered all about me was household and building debris. Scorched ground, charred remnants, and beer cans were suggestive of what could be construed as anti social behaviour. This image is why we consider such spaces to be wastelands. And stood amongst such crap it is no wonder that our senses become more acute – a basic instinct when we feel at risk or apprehensive. Desecration of a wildlife habitat, at whatever successional stage, annihilates tranquillity. But for me, the overwhelming sensual experience I had as I entered this site, was the change in soundscape. Step inside, and the sound of traffic becomes muffled by the tree canopy. The canopies are filled with passerine birds. Sound does the opposite of heat – it falls. The bird’s songs were falling from the trees and filling the space. The juxtaposition of litter overlaid with birdsong is discordant. And whilst Brownfields present the opportunity to experience nature in an urban environment, the experience is often tainted.
Slightly smaller than the first site, but with greater tree cover this site was also tagged a Yellow. A single fence separates one site from the other. A fence may prevent human and large mammal access, but for the majority of wildlife fencing is not a boundary. Out of curiosity, I evaluated the sites as one wildlife site, which changed the coding from a Yellow to a Red
Just as a reminder...
The evaluation has 5 colour codes for ‘value of experiencing nature’. Using an evaluation sheet I am able to allocate a mark from 1 – 5. There are 9 categories allowing a minimum score of 9 and a maximum of 45. Each site’s totalled marks translate into a colour code.
White 9 to 15
Blue 15.5 to 22
Yellow 22.5 to 30
Red 30.5 to 38
Green 38.5 to 45

And the colours give an indication of the make up of the site. As a rule of thumb:

White
is usually a single plot, unwelcoming, littered, inaccessible, and with little or no vegetation
Blue
is usually a multiple plot, unwelcoming, littered, inaccessible, and with tall herb cover
Yellow
is usually up to 1 acre, accessible by foot only, biodiverse, but heavily littered
Red
is usually over 1 acre, biodiverse, with structural and/or land features, and accessible
Green
is usually over 3 acres, biodiverse, with structural and/or land features, accessible, no litter

But this is not always the case, for example:
A fictitious, but feasible site could be; an area over 3 acres, recently raised to the ground creating an uneven rubble surface with areas where water can gather, no trees or shrubs, but nitrogen fixing plants, and no litter. Such a site would score a 27 - a Yellow site, but its description is not as outlined above.
So there are the odd sites that don’t ‘match’ their colour coded expected characteristics.