Local Making with Xin Cheng and Adam Ben-Dror

A Place for Local Making – Creative Mending Circle 2022
Image: Milan Maric

Xin Cheng & Adam Ben-Dror are renowned artists and creatives with a passion for thoughtful living. Their latest venture Local Making is “a shared space for inspiring imaginative and caring ways of making and living together in our multispecies entanglement”. Xin and Adam both kindly agreed to answer my nosy questions about their inspiring and fascinating journeys!

I see that you’ve studied fine arts, ecology and psychology – what an interesting mix! How do these interests play off each other / relate to each other in your art and work? Is the whole greater than the sum of the parts?!

Xin: Our university system has been set up to silo people into their specialised fields and professions. However, I have always been curious about everything and discovering the interrelated threads between things. I see art as a way of living and human wellbeing as intrinsically linked to the well-being of the more-than-human, for whom we depend on for collaborative survival.

I see you’ve had artist residencies in Norway, Taiwan, Cambodia, Switzerland, Korea and Japan. Were there any ecological/sustainable/environmental practices in these countries that have influenced your work? And has your art always had an ecological focus or has it developed over time?

Xin: My research over the years around the world have been focused on everyday resourcefulness: what non-specialists do with the things around them. The field research over many countries has helped me see such resourceful practices as a universal human phenomenon, rather than of a specific culture (although the socio-economic-political climate and aesthetic norms does influence how it manifests. For example whether you see them on the street or only in people's backyards). When you make with materials, there is always the question of where the materials came from, how you transform and live with them (and other beings around you), and what they become afterwards. Seen this way, making is always relational, traversing multiple ecologies. The Three Ecologies by Félix Guattari was influential for me 15 years ago. Recently I have been exploring non-western world-views and well-being practices, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine, where the interplay between the humans and more-than-human is again central to the practice.

In our upcoming Spring event – Reading a Landscape: Puhinui Reserve – you are leading us on a ‘deep listening’ journey. Can you tell us more about deep listening and what drew you to it?

Xin: Deep listening is a practice by American composer Pauline Oliveros. It is a holistic practice that grows from the act of listening (both inwardly and outwardly), to encompass bodywork, improvisation, playfulness and collaboration. I got into it while I was studying in Germany, where I practiced Buddhist meditation, experimented with dance improvisations and film-making, while exploring the question of how to collaborate within diverse co-existences in the anthropocene. Listening empathically and opening up to the unknown, I was able to navigate these unfamiliar territories and discover manifold wonders.

You have worked with Common Unity Project Aotearoa (CUPA) in Te Awa Kairangi / Lower Hutt. What were the joys and/or challenges of working with this community initiative, and are there any ideas/insights that might be beneficial or of interest to the Auckland Permaculture community?

Adam Ben-Dror: Volunteering with Common Unity Aotearoa was really formative for me in terms of learning and the kinds of work I am doing now. Working alongside Hannah Zwartz - the urban kai farm co-ordinator at the time - along with the other knowledgeable and passionate volunteers was eye-opening. I learnt a lot in a short space of time about growing food, working in community and making compost.

CUPA is interesting because it is so diverse, it has farms in the backyards of statehouses , in schools and in Rimutaka prison. Maybe that is something that could be applied – working across diverse communities and working as a community. Each Thursday we held a rotating working bee, going from one garden to the next. This meant that it wasn’t just up to one person to maintain their own garden, every few weeks the working bee would arrive and that garden would get a good dose of attention.

The other great thing that Common Unity does is run a Café and as volunteers we were fed fresh soup and curries each day. Members of the public could purchase a meal for a very affordable price and absolutely no-one was turned away if they didn’t have any money. You could just sit in the garden and eat and not worry or think about anything. The Cafe created a real sense of community – where you could pop in and see familiar faces. These were the joys, the challenges had to do with people's energy levels which I think were helped by the always available nourishing meals.

A Place for Local Making – Frugal Electronics Workshop, Wellington 2022

Image: Milan Maric

And you also have wide-ranging interests – art/design/film/robotics/performance. How do these interests interact in your work and life?

Adam: I’m open to trying new things. I have always had an interest in electronics and when I became interested in waste through working with Xin and Chris Berthelsen I realised that I could be working with e-waste. So things connect. I also echo what Xin said, the university system is set up to silo people but I am interested in what happens when knowledge systems and practices blur. Someone asked me recently about what the relationship is between compost and robotics? I replied that all of the materials needed to make a robot or a computer are mineral – they come from the earth. When you look at the earth under a microscope you see all of this microbial life – bacteria, protozoa, fungi etc and compost creates conditions for more of this life. And a robot is like trying to make something come alive in a way too. I came across the Clay Theory recently too which says that life might have evolved from clay. Inert matter becoming alive, which reminds me of the Golem from Jewish folklore – where a being is brought to life and created from “inanimate” clay. So making compost is helping the earth come alive and making robots is another way of bringing things to life.

I’m intrigued by your makeshift café on wheels! Can you tell us more about how and why you created this - and was it fun?

Adam: It was great fun! At the end of 2019 Extinction Rebellion Aotearoa was set to be the first in the world to kick off a week of global climate action, disrupting 60 cities around the world. (“XR is a global environmental movement with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk of social and ecological collapse.”)

I was volunteering at Common Unity project at the time and was inspired by their “Koha Café” which had a pay as you like model. Thus was born the Koha Cart. A mobile cafe with seating onboard for two people. The cart proved to be a really valuable piece of activist infrastructure as it served hot drinks and snacks to tired activists on a very chilly October’s day! The activists loved it. There were some activists who had handcuffed themselves to a boat in the middle of the street and I remember serving them fresh tea. It was also a great performative platform that helped us engage more widely in a light-hearted way. When we ran out of hot water on the cart we pushed it to another cafe in the CBD and introduced ourselves as a roaming cafe etc. They refilled our thermoses from their coffee machine. There was a lunchtime rush for coffee at that café and we started serving their customers in their queue. Eveyone was laughing. In a later iteration of the cart it was also able to compost foodscraps onboard by way of a worm farm installed inside of a briefcase.

I’m also interested in your work with pigeons (I am fond of birds!) What drew you to pigeons?

Adam: I was studying for my undergraduate degree in Industrial Design at Victoria University and was looking out of the window watching the Pigeons and I just felt drawn to them, like they had something to teach me. I started watching and following them around and I realized – wow I don’t know anything about these beings who are all around me. When I started reading about them I realized how fascinating they are, the fact that they are feral – they are “wild” after being in a state of “domestication” and the fact that humans intentionally introduced them to cities (as a food source, status symbol and for communications), before we awarded them the status of “pest”. This is such a common pattern across so many human endeavours – do something, make a mess and then blame someone or something else for it. Following pigeons led to a little guide to human-pigeon relationships and later the performance Hello Pigeons where my collaborator Kedron Parker and myself took Wellingtonians to a local park and introduced them to the local pigeons as well as some domesticated ones

Following the pigeons also led me to questions how I could talk or relate to these beings? If they have something to tell us how do we listen? This lead me to discovering somatic practices such as Ecstatic Dance, Contact Improvisation, Body Weather, Shamanic practices and also the world of performance.

Can you tell us about your latest project Local Making. I love your description of ‘joyful playing, inquisitive thinking and resourceful living.’ It makes me want to sign up! What would happen if I did?

Xin & Adam: You would be invited to many convivial and wonderful hands-on workshops and discussions around making with locally-available materials and beings. Our current series is running at Avondale library.

Local Making doesn’t have a social media presence so the best way of finding out about the things we’re doing is by signing up to the Local Making newsletter!

The Koha Cart at Extinction Rebellion Aotearoa week in Wellington, 2019.

Image: Adam Ben-Dror

When and where did you first hear about permaculture? What areas of permaculture most interest you right now? And what aspects do you incorporate in your life?

Xin: I first heard about permaculture when I was volunteering for the Department of Conservation on Codfish Island in 2005. One of the fellow volunteers told me about it and it just make so much sense! In 2014 I also lived in a developing permaculture food forest in Northern Thailand, where we made compost, helped to build adobe houses, learnt bamboo crafts from the local carpenter. My mom is also a keen grower of food and her practice of observing closely and growing a variety of plants in a small area has been very inspiring for me. The aspects that I am incorporating in my daily-living are: Produce no waste; Creatively use & respond to change and Use small & slow interventions.

Adam: Permaculture has been on the periphery of my awareness for a while now, I have never engaged in a specific permaculture workshop but have worked alongside many permaculture practitioners and I think much of my learning is permaculture adjacent. I would like to learn more about permaculture!

Do you have any seeds of wisdom or food-for-thought that you would like to share with the Auckland Permaculture community?

Xin: More discussions around decolonising permaculture, consideration of our own positionality and cultural roots as individuals and as a community of regenerative carers of the land.

Adam: Wouldn’t it be great if instead of supermarkets and hardware stores we had makerspaces, permaculture foodforests and local farmers markets.

Are there any books, podcasts, movies etc. that you could recommend?

Xin:

Wawata – Moon Dreaming by Dr Hinemoa Elder

Soil of Cultures Charles & Grace Buenconsejo have been doing some deep and rich mahi around food sovereignty and being Tangata Tiriti in Te Whau and Whangarei.

Adam:

A seedbag for resourcefulnness by Xin Cheng
Distributed Resource Centre by Chris Berthelsen

Do you do anything to celebrate Spring? If so, what are they and why are they special/significant to you?

Xin: We have been preparing our Hügelkultur beds and will be planting beans and peas in time with the Maramataka in a few days.

Adam: Spending time in the sunshine, watching the plants come alive and doing nothing are also good things.

We look forward to meeting you at our Spring walk at the Puhinui Stream on 17th September 2023😊