Supervisor: Dr Kiven Strohm
What is your team’s project about?
Working with a community garden/farm located in Everton Park, Singapore. We are working directly with the farmers in the space but during this process we have had to interact with the surrounding social institutions such as the Resident's Committee and Community Centre. The majority of our project was directed toward granting the farmers a degree of political sovereignty as the space had undergone cyclicing support/pushback from government organisations, both at a national and local level. We worked from the ground to understand and map the complex and political dynamics present within the space whilst establishing a strong repoir with the farmers. Toward the end, we turned inward, implementing and planning for social design elements within the social space.
What does your team enjoy most about the IEx project?
The farmers! They have been exceptionally welcoming, sharing with us their gardening hacks and secrets as well as some of the crops that they've grown.
What are some challenges that you think are unique to the project?
Beauracracy. Though it was expected, the glacial pace of inter-party communication, especially dealing with the CC and RC, proved difficult for my team to progress with our project given the two-year duration. Moreover, much of our efforts barely reached people who'd listen, instead we were often shutdown or pointed toward legislature instead of opening productive dialogues.
Any specific tips about working with your team’s community?
First and foremost, the most important tip my team would have is to listen, listen, listen. We are in the space not as "saviours" or the "solution", we should never impose our ideas over our interlocutors. The farmers already know what they want, our job was to assist them within our capacities to realise those desires. To do this, you must listen.
Any fun stories to share with your juniors?
Absolutely! One thing that was really enjoyable was one of our first trips down to the garden, wherein the farmers took us through a thorough tour of the space! When all of a sudden, they opened up a large styrofoam box with their "fertiliser". We covered our noses, believing a pungent and overwhelming odour to smother us, but instead were met with the smell of chocolate! The farm utilises nearby food vendor waste such as ground-up coffee beans and soybean husks as their only form of fertiliser. Upon composting, a sweet and chocolatey aroma is produced! We even got our hands dirty with it. It totally changed our idea of how a farm could be fueled, both in a sensory way but also with circularity of waste.