Increasing biodiversity in the process of producing what we need should be a necessary condition in the decisions of every government, company, trade association and international organisation.

Biodiversity Fingerprint is a companion to the concept of the Carbon Footprint. Whereas “Carbon Footprint” focuses on our unintentional negative impact on the atmosphere, “Biodiversity Fingerprint” focuses on our intentional impact on biodiversity.

If humanity is now the dominant influence on the ecology of our planet, then aiming for Net Zero and low impact is not sufficient, as it will only slow the pace of degradation; we need to imagine ways in which we can redesign our civilisation to have a dramatic positive impact on biodiversity and progress toward an age of ecological abundance.

If we do not have awareness of the potential for positive ecological impact, and only emphasise our negative impact, then human beings are conceived of as inherently damaging to our planet, and the focus can only be turned towards minimising damage.

The potential for human beings to have a positive impact on biodiversity in the process of producing what we need to thrive is absolutely astounding.

There are many examples from human cultures throughout the world and throughout history of this phenomenal potential, such as the shaping of the Great Plains, the creation of self-sustaining oases across the Middle East, Homegardens increasing rainforest biodiversity in South East Asia or of the Loess Plateau rehabilitation program. We need to learn from examples like these, apply the wealth of contemporary scientific knowledge, and harness the power of the human imagination to redesign our civilisation and make the Anthropocene an age of ecological abundance.

About the Commission

Katie Bret-Day and William Joshua Templeton have been commissioned by Proposition to create artworks responding to the concept of the Biodiversity Fingerprint. 

Katie-Bret Day’s monumental piece will be mounted on the external wall of the building of Proposition Camden, facing the iconic Roundhouse. The banner displaying Katie Bret-Day’s artwork has a good Biodiversity Fingerprint. The textile used has been created by taking waste plastic out of the environment to create yarn which was woven into rPET textile. The inks used have received the OEKO-TEX® ECO PASSPORT. A gutter is installed to divert any rain runoff away from drains, which could result in microparticles being distributed into rivers and eventually the ocean. Lighting of the banner is under 2200 Kelvin and not pointing towards the sky to prevent disturbance to birds. At the end of the life of the banner, Proposition are going to have the rPET textile melted down and cast into the mould of a beehive, which will house bees on the roof of our building and support pollination.

Katie Bret-Day and William Joshua Templeton were selected from 105 artists who applied to the Open Call for artworks in response to the concept of  Biodiversity Fingerprint. Applicants were longlisted to 22 and then shortlisted to 5: Aurora Destro, Romain Poiter, Inferstudio, William Joshua Templeton, and Katie Bret-Day. After meeting with all shortlisted artists, the panel was struck by Katie’s visually arresting work, and William’s ideas surrounding the world of ecology. 

Following the selection process, the artists began their residency with a Research & Development programme. This included receiving tuition from Satish Kumar (Founder of Schumacher College and previously Editor of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine for over 40 years), Colin Tudge (real food campaigner and science writer, author of The Secret Life of Trees), Martha Lewis (Head of Materials at Henning Larsen Architects), and Proposition Co-founder Daniel J Hudson.

The commissioned artists also visited Professor Martin Wolfe’s Wakelyns Agroforestry Research Centre and Martin Crawford’s Forest Garden, two outstanding examples of increasing biodiversity through farming. Curatorial guidance throughout the six week residency came from Alice Black - who sits on the Mayor of London’s Cultural advisory board, is Governor of the Museum of London, and is Proposition’s in-house artistic advisor. 

Katie Bret-Day explained “I wanted to represent the complex interdependence and collaboration between human and non human subjects, to think of us as a collective body within a galaxy. I hope that considering this entanglement will help us better protect and encourage ecological abundance.

“It has been a huge privilege to be part of this commission. I have had opportunities to learn about biodiversity in many forms, from philosophy to farms. This has given me a broader understanding of what this phrase really means and how these ideas can be put into practice. It is a huge challenge to represent such vast ideas and beings but I hope that the imagery makes people look and engage with some of the real world examples I have learnt from.” 

William Joshua Templeton said, "My mission is to unwind/undo the negative human impact on the environment, by sharing positive stories that help us realise we’re all part of this beautiful ecosystem and not apart from it.”

Featured Artists

Katie Bret-Day is a London-based artist who uses the viscous materiality of photography to explore the contingent and discursive nature of being. Spanning the contexts of posthuman and connected ecology, Bret-Day’s research explores the amalgamation of digital and physical bodies using alternative methods of image capture, interventions and printing.

Bret-Day’s interests sit at the intersection of the arts and sciences. She uses the medium of photography as an expanded practice, to represent scientific findings, research and philosophical concepts. 

In 2018, Bret-Day was nominated as one of five rising talents by the Guardian and her work was included in the Tate commissioned Photography Ideas Book (2019) and subsequently acquired by the British Library. In 2018 as well, she received Creative Review’s Zeitgeist Award in 2018. 

Katie Bret-Day graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2020 with distinction and holds a First Class degree from the London College of Communication UAL.

@KatieBretDay

https://katiebretday.cargo.site

William Templeton (b.1985) is a London based photographer and visual artist whose work investigates connection, the environment and our place within it. His documentary style is considered, soft and often sombre. Using muted blacks and rich colours, Will creates images pared down to their raw fundamentals, that carry a positive message.

The environment is a recurrent theme in Templeton’s personal work, as he seeks to use his visual arts practice as a force for Good: "My mission is to undo the negative human impact on the environment by sharing positive stories that help us realise that we are all a part of this beautiful ecosystem and not divorced from it.”

Templeton supports the International Rescue Committee, the Rivers Trust and donates 1% of annual sales to environmental organisations via the 1% for the Planet initiative.

Previous work include Ways and Means: River Pollution in England, a project released as a book by La Mentale publishing in Jan 2024, and Environmentalism in Embakasi, a film shot for Culture COP, which brings the voice of culture to the annual COP conferences. The project documented the work of a young environmental activist in a southern Nairobi urban informal settlement.

@williamtempleton

https://williamjoshuatempleton.com/

What is biodiversity?

Biodiversity is the existence of a large number of different kinds of living things such as animals,  plants, fungi and bacteria which interact to create an ecology.

What is a Biodiversity Fingerprint?

The biodiversity that is supported and increased due to the actions of a person, country, company or other organisation. It functions to create focus on how actions can have a positive impact on biodiversity during decision making processes.

Want to find out more about biodiversity? 

Dive in deeper below.

Videos

Books

  • The One Straw Revolution, Manasobu Fukuoka 

  • Desert or Paradise, Sepp Holzer 

  • Farming in Nature’s Image, Judith Soule and Jon K Piper

  • The Carbon Farming Solution, Eric Toensmeier 

  • How to Create a Forest Garden, Martin Crawford

  • Tending The Wild, M Kat Anderson

  • The Epic of Gilgamesh 

  • Fifty Plants That Changed The Course of History, Bill Laws

  • Dirt: The Erosion of Civilisations, David Montgomery 

  • Against The Grain, James C Scott 

  • Thus Spoke The Plant, Monica Gagliano 

  • What a Plant Knows, Daniel Chamovitz 

  • The Revolutionary Genius of Plants: A New Understanding of Plant Intelligence and Behaviour, Stephan Mancuso 

  • Mycelium Running, Paul Stamets

  • Meat: A Benign Extravagance, Simon Fairlie 

  • The Secret Life of Trees, Colin Tudge

  • Good Food For Everyone Forever, Colin Tudge 

  • Feeding Britain, Tim Lang 

  • Blessed Unrest, Paul Hawken

  • Teaming with Microbes, Jeff Lowenfels 

  • Teaming with Nutrients, Jeff Lowenfels 

  • Teaming with Fungi, Jeff Lowenfels 

Articles

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