Hefin Jones

0:40 Never unhear me yeah okay.

0:47 So I'm a london-based designer with a socially engaged design practice and I'm here to talk to you about projects called the welsh base campaign and specifically how it started what's happened so far and where is heading so I'm from a town called cardigan in west wales is a town around 4,000 people.

1:04 And it's built upon working-class trades so my heritage is grounded in the hands-on skills based activities but I feel there's a gap between these skills and interesting ways of using in contemporary culture beyond the content beyond the kind of a current context of use so kids plumbing and trade skills be using more interesting ways than fixing a boiler or plastering a wall I propose the question can a plum the build a space suit so confident to release this question from the realm of speculation through a series of lofa experiments I rigorously research space technologies and I also spoke to the best experts now I'm trying to inflate up some legs with a pressure vessel in my garage so when I'd grounded to my basic understanding of space of technologies I travel back to my hometown and arrange to spend two days of work of my blurton with my brother a plumber by trade the first day's work as his apprentice was negotiated for a second day of space suit related plumbing discussion it was a collaborative process in which he traded his knowledge of plumbing and heating systems in return for my knowledge of how it could be subverted for cosmic application so you get a gist well my brother come into the clinic conclusion of years pretty much the same as a hint system in it we built this simple space suit pressure system prototype and it was made from part of the back of his van so this creation of this prototype was exploring a nice tension between the domestic and the cosmic in the two contexts completely disconnected from each other so later on that evening to try and understand well attention was I asked my dad to translate the NASA launch countdown transcript into the Welsh language and then read it from the dinner table digg no voice sighs with daniel edward three die een dim car avant so Cory bunty's liftoff in Welsh so I placed these two prototypes together and the Welsh space campaign came into existence so I looked at other aspects of Welsh culture that I could reconfigure into space so the Ritz through the process of recontextualizing these cultural kind of artifacts and activities into space I begun to prepare all the relevant components for a space program so looking at traditional wooden clogs these these became space clogs I also try to twin Wales with another planet in our solar system but through a series of emails this kind of failed but I always prevailed with other aspects of a space program so this time turning my attention to a space suit I arranged to arrange the meeting with the National War Museum Wales and took this really quick pro Creek Photoshop of a woollen spacesuit and through the meeting we came to the idea of why don't we collaborate with some of the last woolen mills and Wales to provide fabric for the outside of a space suit and on this informed an idea of how woolen mills all around Wales could be used as place herbs for communities so in involving people in the protis as early as possible I find really enrich ha's the process because you're engaging the people that you know that this matters to so mills around Wales contributed all this amazing fabric and I begun to prototype a spacesuit.

4:53 But it wasn't about them just giving the fabric it was about them investing in the idea of what the Welsh space campaign could mean to their industry so I started to get these really amazing engagements so this postcard saying dear having good luck with your mission which received with some fabric and asking cross people if they've ever wanted to go to space well of course now to secure private linea min here Gordon a ticket I would get away ok one with onion of my life ever feel I'm gonna have been any min that I you put some mail in what form it fell eventual well to may have gotten sicker high for the end without getting fat women I'm sure to be there machinist on alumina then it be gone he's shutting so what whilst I was visiting the wool mill by chance there was a poet laureate carry when Jones there visiting so I grabbed him told him about the project. And it led him to writing this which is a 10 to 1 launch countdown poem with each number referencing an aspect of Welsh culture and his people so at this point I I was really looking at the cultural ization of space I was looking at how I could put this rich culture into space and the most logical method for doing that seemed like a rocket so every year in Wales its host to the nationalist Edvard it's the one on the right it's it's a it's a traditional festival in which poets compete for this chair through writing and performing a series of poems so I designed a four stage rocket that would look to put this chair into space I collaborated with physics professors at Aberystwyth University to work out how we could put this chair into near-earth orbit. So it passes over Wales the same time every day they they sent me this amazing booklet with equations such as detailing how much energy per kilo would be needed to get this chair into space and detailing the launch site you know how much energy we needed to get it from there.

7:09 And I decided the launch site would have to be the castle in my hometown of Cardigan because it was the place in which the first ever nationalist Edward was held back in 1176 so the Welsh space campaign launches ordinary people into outer space through finding a cosmic context through Welsh culture skills and traditions the primary element of the space campaign is a journey towards us towards a community space suit so some of the last meals and Wales provided fabric Here. I am with them kind of shocking them a bit and a traditional clock maker from North Wales has made space boots and my brother the plumber has built a pressure system for a spacesuit and from this simple drawing we expanded this into realization and the pressure system actually functions so if connected to a spacesuit it provides 3.5 PSI pressure and that's the right atmospheric pressure to prevent your your bodily fluids from boiling so it sustains life in outer space so the project facilitates this thing where I kind of I've got them head I described as participatory speculation in which people are invited into the creation of these cosmic objects and their experience during this process allows them to reconsider the current context of their skill and through them do reconsidering their skill maybe they might want to create some new possibilities for it so once the space it was complete I organized a surprise pilgrimage to the National War Museum yes good so I spoke to the cross people that contributed and we discussed what this space suit could mean for their industry I've never mean normally fear was planning intuitiveness via e blue well I have it uniontown a mil weird oh no eating to advert in with a plan in internal not be domiciled a dash and each other hey another William anyone even theater marquee in trouble jack day what he meant evident us but how much they bought one I don't blame you say it again oh evening wear them where no we did so we were considering the current you know community role of these well skills and how the Welsh base campaign could be used as a way to reorganize and enrich communities so all these possibilities that they were presenting to me were booked were been born really from a belief that they had the capacity to do this you know belief that they could collectively come together to build a space suit so after this discussion I made a film which would aim to authenticate a world in which wool mills all around Wales provide space suit fabric thanks so elements of the welsh space campaign are currently being exhibited in the baltic contemporary center for arts in newcastle the entire first mission will be displayed in Rotterdam's museum bowman's the end of this year. And this September is parlons own festival and cessation with crafts Council the Welsh space campaign will launch a second mission.

11:29 So the second mission involves the construction of a new and develop space suit including contributions from other musicians and writers are out from Wales and to document the first and second mission every interview every interpretation from plumbers physics professors musicians writers will go into wealth space campaign book.

11:50 And this book will then be published and distributed to the main space sections of libraries around the UK and beyond so the discovery of more industries cultures and communities that can be recontextualized for space is an ongoing process whether it's designing space rugby or looking at how I can reconfigure redundant minds around Wales to be used as astronaut training facilities I will persist the aim that Wales has the capacity to explore space and to show that off world culture ization can be achieved through a collective communitarian effort thank