Discover Eden Large Print version This document is also available in: • Standard version • Easy English version • Widgit version • Braille version • French version • German version • Japanese version What is the Eden Project? 4 How we use art and automata to put the message across 9 The Core 12 The Exhibition Hall in the Core 14 The Plant Engine 15 The Themed Display Cases 17 The Plant Processor 17 The Resource Files 18 Locker Room Lives 19 Fridges 20 Thanks 22 Funders and supporters 23 The Arcade of Ideas 24 Rooted to the ground 25 Spaceship earth 25 Lords of the Land 27 The Knowledge 28 Envirodance 29 The Mechanical Theatre 36 The shows 43 Genetic Modification and Plants 43 Summary of the GM story: Hot science, hot potato. 45 Intellectual Property Rights Issues 51 Summary of the Intellectual Property Rights Issues story: Nature plc. 54 Thanks 64 The exhibits and the National Curriculum: An introduction 65 About this document 69 What is the Eden Project? - An educational charity - A regeneration project, demonstrating that sustainability is possible - An international visitor attraction - A Living Theatre of Plants and People - The home of the biggest greenhouses in the world - A botanical garden - A science museum The Eden Project, an educational charity, connects plants and people, and explores and celebrates environmental conservation, responsible land use and sustainable futures. Before we try to communicate these issues we first have to aim to live by their principles; hence the regeneration of a china clay pit, the creation of a Living Theatre and the establishment of an international visitor attraction that addresses environmental and social issues hand in hand with economic viability. We like to push the boundaries and so try out new things. It’s not always easy. Sometimes it works, sometimes not, but the point is that we aim to share the outcomes with others so they can learn from our successes (and from our mistakes!). Recent successes include our waste reduction and recycling project, Waste Neutral, and Gardens for Life, a project connecting schools in the UK, India and Kenya who are growing their own food and exchanging ideas about food production, trade and healthy diets. We communicate our work, and that of others. Rather than dwell on problems, we aim to celebrate the world, look to solutions, show what is being done and what can be done. To reach a large audience of all ages, interests and abilities we aim to connect, provoke curiosity, engage, amuse and entertain using a wide range of methods which we are working to assess and evaluate This all happens in our Living Theatre, where two huge greenhouses, the Humid Tropics Biome and Warm Temperate Biome, serve as a backdrop to the Outdoor Biome. All Biomes are brimming with plants, displayed as natural habitats and cropped landscapes. We use them to help connect, and often reconnect, us to our world, showing how we use them for food, fuel, medicines and materials. Many of these exhibits use art, sculpture and automata to bring the stories to life. All areas are designed with accessibility in mind, both in physical terms and in how we share information. We work with Sensory Trust to develop an inclusive approach which includes using cartoons, widgits (for those with learning difficulties) and Braille. A combination of plant scientists, artists, designers and educationalists devise and develop the exhibits. Eden could be described as a museum for the future full of contemporary stories and future possibilities. News and views change, so it has to be very dynamic. As well as changing exhibitions, we host public and formal educational events on site which link to our seasonal themes (Bulbmania, Jungle and Time of Gifts) and extend off site through outreach work, global projects, the web and published materials. ‘Eden is demonstrating behaviour change on site, holding a mirror to our values and civilisation and encouraging respect for the things that sustain us and respect for each other.’ (Dr Tony Kendle, Foundation Director, Eden Project) ‘The Trust’s interests lie in exploring the natural world through the lens of plants in order to understand our dependence on them and develop best practice for principles of sustainable living that can act as a model for others.’ (Tim Smit, CEO, Eden Project). Eden is a project, a work in progress. It is a symbol of the strength of people working with nature. How we use art and automata to put the message across Many of the public feel science is very complex and too academic for them. Some even mistrust science and scientists. At Eden we help to communicate scientific issues, and a wide range of other subjects, to a large audience of all ages and abilities by using, amongst other things, art to help visitors emotionally connect with the stories. Two types of art which really seem to hit the button at Eden are sculpture and performance. Our research has shown that it helps people to engage and learn. We took elements from both concepts and rolled them into one, commissioning and installing automata. These are also called mechanical puppets, mechanical toys or kinetic art. One of Eden’s most frequented exhibits is the ‘Plant Takeaway’ (better known as ‘Dead Cat’). This automaton, built by Will Jackson (now of Engineered Arts) and automatist Paul Spooner, both of whom are known internationally for their work, features a larger-than-life-size kitchen scene (30 sq. m. ) which is home to two adult puppets (Alan and Enid), a child and their pets. One by one, all the plant products are (mechanically) removed; the fruit from the table, the wooden table itself, the contents of the fridge, until the room is bare and Alan and Enid and family are left collapsed upon the floor with not even oxygen left to breathe. The message is a simple one: without plants we would not exist. Automata are often humorous. People laugh when poor Alan and Enid sink naked to the floor. It’s OK, they are not real. The automata convey a story in the same way as nursery rhymes, fireside stories and cartoon strips do, enabling serious lessons to be communicated with a light touch. A huge bonus of automata is the fascination with their engineering technology. Automata have been with us for hundreds of years and are still as popular today as they have always been. Building on the success of ‘Dead Cat’, we decided to base many of our new 2006 exhibitions on automata… but ones that were far more intricate. Links: www.engineeredarts.co.uk www.timhunkin.com www.automata.co.uk www.cabaret.co.uk www.cabaret.co.uk/artists/spooner. www.keithnewsteadautomata.com Automata, A Historical and Technological Study by Alfred Chapuis and Edmond Droz, Translated by Alec Reid. B.T. Batsford Ltd., London, 1958. Automata, the Golden Age: 1848-1914 by Christen Bailly. Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc., 1987. The Core When we first planned Eden the aim was to have three covered Biomes, an Education Centre for schools programmes and the public events programmes and an Exhibition Hall to take stories and issues to a deeper level. On day one, due to initial funding constraints we had a choice: the second biggest greenhouse in the world and an education centre OR the biggest greenhouse in the world and a tent. Guess what? Yes, we got out the tent pegs. In the end it turned out for the best as over the next few years our thoughts and plans evolved into something more sophisticated than the original building. The new building, called the Core, is an exhibit in its own right, designed to provoke curiosity and pay homage to the ‘Plant Engine’ that powers our world. The building was designed by the architects, Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners, and… nature: the structural engineers programmed the mathematics of the sunflower head, based on Fibonacci numbers and plant phyllotaxy, into a computer and printed out a model on which to base the roof structure. A sunflower is a composite, made up of many small individual flowers that together achieve more than the sum of their parts. This building philosophically demonstrates collaboration, showing what a group of people from very different backgrounds and disciplines can achieve when they work together. As a fundamental part of social sustainability, it is inclusively designed, responding to the full diversity of people who would work in and visit the building. It is also an example of biomimicry, the science that studies nature's designs and then imitates or takes inspiration from them to solve human challenges. Plants have had 400 million years to evolve their structural design. After securing the funding we had 18 months to turn our plans into reality. The Exhibition Hall in the Core Across the Eden site we touch on how our plant resources can be managed sustainably, and also feature some of the world’s ‘wild places’, flagging up the need to conserve them. The exhibition on the ground floor of the Core, situated in the heart of the Eden site gives us the opportunity to take things a little deeper. It looks at how the ‘wild places’ keep us alive, the challenges we are imposing upon our global environment and, most important, gives hope for the future, showcasing what people are doing and what people can do about it. The Plant Engine Plants are all around us yet we very rarely stop to think about what they give us. This machine is designed to grab people’s attention and turn science into theatre. The Plant Engine, designed and built by Will Jackson and his team from Engineered Arts, demonstrates photosynthesis. Real plants in a huge glass sphere, grown hydroponically and aeroponically, take in water, carbon dioxide and artificial sunlight and produce the energy-rich carbohydrates and oxygen that keep us alive (check out the dials around the machine). It was a very tricky exhibit to build and this helped to reinforce the complexity of trying to reproduce natural systems. The hand-crafted automata in the bell jars, theatrically ‘kept alive’ by the oxygen coming through the air tubes from the glass sphere, represent the services that the world’s wild places (our ecosystems) provide. These services, generated by connected natural cycles powered by the sun, are crucial to the human race. It was not until we began to disrupt the services that we realised their true cost, currently estimated as $33 trillion a year. Paul Spooner, internationally renowned automata artist, translated and simplified components of the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment publication (4 years work by 1300 scientists costing $24 million) into an exhibition that is accessible to a wide range of interest groups. Discover more about the services and the vital role of conserving the ecosystems that provide them in the cartoon strips, created by Paul Spooner, beneath the bell jars. The Themed Display Cases We took three ‘disrupted’ services and talked to individuals and organisations worldwide to find out about the challenges and some of the solutions associated with them. Their views and work are portrayed in the themed display cases with small amounts of text and quotes supporting models and artefacts to create a visual, intriguing, thought-provoking display. The exhibits were designed and built by Engineered Arts. The Plant Processor Another attention-grabbing exhibit in the hall is a thirty-foot-high interactive Heath Robinson device, the world’s largest nutcracker and also a self-oiling machine. It’s a real sledgehammer to crack a nut and represents the polluting fossil fuel energy we use to process plants every day for food, fuel, medicine and materials, and how complicated we make it. Around the base explore some of the issues associated with production and processing, and discover what Rob Higgs (the artist) thinks too. The Resource Files Here you can explore the big issue questions: can the world be fed, fuelled, cured? What about our material world? The Eden team asked people and organisations worldwide their views and answers to these questions. To avoid putting visitors off by presenting walls of text panels and to encourage people to think about the big, sometimes uncomfortable, issues the world faces, we needed a device to provoke curiosity. So Engineered Arts came up with an interactive filing cabinet, designed and built by Alan Munden. Watch the visitors, they often read one drawer and then start to walk away. However, when they close the drawer another pops open, then they become intrigued and continue reading! Locker Room Lives There are nearly six and a half billion of us in the world and each has a view. We asked 4 very different people their personal views on the same questions: a world-renowned environmentalist, a Cornish farmer, a Bedouin woman and a South American shaman. Their replies and a glimpse of their lives, including a range of personal items such as their hats, coats and shoes, can be found in the lockers. Take a look at the questions. What would your answers be? Picture of it What’s the most useful item you possess? What is your most treasured item? What gift would you give to a friend? What are the main challenges you face day to day? What do you think are the main challenges facing the world today? What idea would you put forward for a better world? This exhibit was designed and built by Engineered Arts with assistance from members of Eden’s in-house design team, Elly Slatford and Lou Thorn. Fridges Do you leave notes pinned to your fridge? Visitors can have their picture taken, and write their thoughts on our Idea cards. Some end up in our exhibition! Key words: Fibonacci sequence: This code was cracked by an Italian mathematician 800 years ago. Fibonacci devised the following number sequence whilst working out how fast rabbits could breed in ideal circumstances! 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 … Each number is the sum of the previous 2. If a Fibonacci number is divided by the one before it in the sequence it levels out at 0.618 (‘phi’). The golden proportion or ratio of 0.618 to 1 is the mathematical basis for many shapes in and out of nature. Phyllotaxy: The mathematical arrangement of plant parts, such as leaves on a stem. Hydroponics: Growing plants in water not soil. Their roots are supported by pots of clay granules. Aeroponics: Similar to hydroponics except that the plant roots dangle free in the foggy air. Ecosystems: Specific groups of plants, animals and micro-organisms in particular climatic areas. These include: The surface layers of the oceans with their photosynthesising bacteria The anaerobic (oxygen free) sediments where bacteria rot things down The soils and soil life of the world The temperate and tropical forests The grasslands and deserts The managed forests and farms (which are both on the increase). Thanks Exhibition designed and built by Engineered Arts Ltd, with special commissions by internationally renowned artists Rob Higgs (Plant Processor sculpture) and Paul Spooner (Plant Engine automata and Biodiversity exhibit). Funders and supporters The Eden Project would like to thank all those who supported the building of the Core and the exhibitions within it. Funders include the Millennium Commission, the South West Regional Development Agency, the European Regional Development Fund (via the Cornwall Objective One Programme), the ReDiscover Programme (supported by the Wellcome Trust, the Wolfson Foundation and the Millennium Commission), The Department of Trade and Industy ( DTI), The Energy Saving Trust, EDF Energy, The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation, Kelloggs, Misses Barrie Charitable Trust, Rio Tinto plc, Creative Partnerships and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council The Arcade of Ideas Roll up, roll up to the 21st century, ideas aplenty, questioning, engaging, sideways thinking, white knuckle ride of life, decisions, dilemmas and choices in the Living Theatre of Plants and People. The Arcade of Ideas is located on the high ground at the edge of the Eden site. It can be reached from the Visitor Centre over the bridge or from the base of the pit via a lift next to the Core. The Arcade takes some of the thinking behind traditional fairgrounds and contemporary amusement arcades and uses the medium to communicate stories concerned with environmental and social issues. The exhibits generally take one to four people each, so several of each one have been constructed. They have been designed to be interactive and accessible to a wide range of interest groups. Rooted to the ground Plants can feed themselves, reproduce and survive, all without moving. Can you do the same trick? In this exhibit you need to stand on one leg and see if you can reach drinks, foods, a mate (reaching out for Barbie / Ken dolls!) and protect yourself from the weather. A wheelchair accessible version has also been included. The exhibition is designed to put you in the plant’s shoes (literally), to provoke curiosity and to encourage people to delve further into how plants actually achieve all these things. Spaceship earth This fairground sci-fi shooting-gallery game is designed to explore food chains, food webs and biodiversity. We use ‘Bio Ray Guns’, taking the shoot out from a hypothetical alien’s perspective. The difference between this game and the ones you see at the fairground is that once your ‘duck’ is down it doesn’t necessarily stay down. Instead you discover the impact you have made by removing something from the food web. For example, take out the ducks and the slugs reappear, take out the fox and the ducks return and the slugs disappear. Once the system has become unstable can you ever fix it again? An entertaining but harsh reminder of the impact we can have on the earth’s biodiversity. The issues, challenges and some of the solutions connected to biodiversity loss can be explored in more detail in the Cabinet of Diversity in the Core. Lords of the Land More than one in ten people think we grow rice in the UK Two thirds of people don’t know that sugar is grown in the UK Sixty per cent of children in parts of the UK don’t know that crisps come from potatoes Nine out of ten people have no family connection with farming, whereas two generations ago nearly a quarter of the population had relatives in farming. Image of Agriculture Campaign, 2003 This ride-on tractor game is aimed at a young audience (around 5- to 7-year olds) but also caters for adults who still want to play on tractors! It takes you round the farm to find your breakfast. If you fancy bacon and eggs you need to find the pigs and chickens. Do you prefer cereal with milk? What do you need to find next? If you get stuck ask the farmer. The tractor ride links plants to products, reconnects us with our food, farms and farmers and introduces the concept of local sourcing to children, teachers, parents and carers alike. It also holds a few surprises; the farm at first looks like a video simulation but at Eden we do things for real. Look behind the scenes, it’s a real model farmyard with a mini camera on a mini tractor. The Knowledge This concept started with a fairground simulator and ended up in a real London taxi. Climb in and take off on a breakneck chase around the globe to gather all the ingredients for Elvis’s favourite pizza. Watch the miles pile up on the giant odometer, then get a fright when you see the total cost of your trip! This arcade-style game brings the issues of food miles home with a big bump. The way we purchase our food has a huge impact on carbon dioxide emissions and thus climate change. A typical U.K. family of four would, each year, emit 4.2 tonnes of CO2 from their house, 4.4 tonnes from their car, and 8 tonnes from the production, processing, packaging and distribution of the food they eat. Find out more from the taxi driver. Envirodance Based on the popular arcade dance game, the Envirodance enables you to dance your way through life. What impacts do your actions have? How can you reduce your lifestyle from the current three-planet model to the one-planet model? The game is set to a dance song based on the 4 R’s: Reduce, Re-use, Repair, Recycle. Another equally important R is reinvestment in recycled products. The exhibits in the Arcade can be linked to concepts across the Eden Project site. At Eden we aim for efficiency wherever possible – using less is one of the greatest steps towards sustainability. Our Biomes are very efficient, using minimal materials that are long-lived, easily recyclable and need only a third of the engineers’ estimates for energy to heat them. We source our supplies locally wherever possible, reducing transport energy and supporting local economies; our soils reuse waste; our water is predominantly recycled groundwater and harvested rainwater. We buy Green Tariff electricity, run many of our vehicles on LPG and have a green travel plan for staff and visitors. We have now developed a programme called Waste Neutral, where we: 1: reduce waste. 2: reuse items wherever practicable. 3: source all remaining items, wherever possible, from materials that can and will be recycled. 4: reinvest by adopting a policy of purchasing items that are made from recycled materials, either for use on site or for sale in the shop. In simple terms, when we buy in a greater weight of products made from recycled materials than the weight of materials we send off to be recycled we have reached Waste Neutral. This concept can be applied to any organization, community or even individual household. We have a recycling compound and interpretation centre in Pineapple car park where you can discover what and how we recycle. The Arcade serves as an introduction to many exhibits across the site. For example, there are many exhibits linking plants and products such as coffee and chocolate in the Humid Tropics Biome and cork and perfume in the Warm Temperate Biome. Our restaurants and our exhibition on Plants for Cornish crops look at local sourcing, and biodiversity issues are flagged up site wide. For more details, check out the Guide Book and the website. Key words Biodiversity: Simply life in all its variety and richness including ecosystems and genes as well as plants, animals, fungi and bacteria. Food Miles: The amount of miles (therefore fuel used and CO2 emissions produced) when moving food from its source to your plate. Sustainability: The ability to carry on. To work towards systems which are: Economically Viable, Socially Acceptable and Environmentally Sound. When we make decisions at Eden we often put them (metaphorically) in the middle of a compass and consider how our decisions affect the 4 points: Natural environments Social environments Economic environments and ask the question: Who decides how we balance these things. Sustainable development can be defined as: ‘Development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ World Commission on Environment and Development 1987. ‘Improving the quality of life within the carrying capacity of the supporting ecosystem.’ IUCN/WWF. In short: Thinking today with tomorrow in mind. Preparing for the world in which we will soon live and making sure we are not found wanting. Looking after the planet, people and making sure it makes ends meet. Equipping individuals, communities, groups, businesses and governments to live and act in a sustainable way with an understanding of environmental, social and economic issues. Thanks to: The Arcade of Ideas was conceived, designed and built by Engineered Arts. The exhibition was made possible by a grant from the ReDiscover 3 Programme (supported by the Wellcome Trust, the Wolfson Foundation and the Millennium Commission). The Mechanical Theatre The public have differing views on science issues: some applaud, some mistrust, some don’t understand, some don’t see personal relevance. This exhibition brings science issues, ideas and ethics alive using humour, charm and honesty to engage all ages, abilities and a wide range of interest groups. Eden’s Mechanical Theatre was conceived, designed and built by Will Jackson from Engineered Arts. It was commissioned and developed following on from the success of Eden’s ‘Plant Takeaway’, designed and built with Paul Spooner in 2000/2001, which used automated characters and objects in a theatrical context. It also took inspiration from Will's and Tim Hunkin’s production ‘Science in the Dock’, a 25-minute show on science ethics for Glasgow Science Centre, which used both video and animation. These two highly successful shows provided the platform for testing the ideas and methodologies that are now incorporated within this current exhibition. The object of the Mechanical Theatre is to communicate complex science issues in a humorous and engaging way, making science accessible and interesting to both adults and children alike: the ultimate in storytelling. Will, who has a background in the arts and an obsession with technology, has an unusual mix of creative and technical skills. In order to create this complex and unique exhibit he put together a skilled team of artists, world-renowned automata makers, computer animators, electrical and mechanical engineers, costume designers, talented craftsmen and fabricators, composers, script writers, theatre directors and voice over artists. The subject of the stories proved challenging for the scriptwriter, Beatrix Milburn. It was imperative she created tales that engaged all ages and abilities, providing a entertaining and informing narrative on multiple levels simultaneously – from slap stick to tragedy with cinematic interludes, mechanical hypnotism and humour. The idea was to make these science topics accessible without preaching, stimulating without being opinionated, enabling the viewer to gain a greater understanding of these complex issues. To get the script from paper to film and stage, Bill Scott, an experienced theatre and film director, combined his talents with Will’s. Bill’s strengths lie in the theatrical interpretation of the story, Will’s in the visual. In turn, Arne Laub, a computer scientist with an artistic background, and James West, a trained animator, were employed to generate animation in a unique and innovative style. They used a technique combining watercolour paintings, stop frame and computer animation interwoven to produce a rich visual effect. Paul Spooner, an associate of Engineered Arts and a well known automata artist, created the look of the puppets along with Tracy Rasburn, the costume designer and maker. However, storytelling and film-making is not just about the story, it also combines talents from other areas of the artistic spectrum. Music composer Tim James was given the brief to produce ‘tunes that marry cultures across the world’ as well as ‘creating an atmosphere that reflects the plots within the stories’, and we feel he has done just that with his score that incorporates music from most of the world’s continents. Obviously, we had to give our puppets life through their voices, and this was achieved by engaging the services of professional actors and singers. They each brought their own experiences to the characters, so giving them a unique sound. None of the above however, would make this exhibition unique without the integration of the animated film with the mechanical puppets and stage props that take centre stage. These evolved after many months of development at Engineered Arts premises in Penryn, Cornwall. Will worked closely with Rob Higgs, a talented sculptor, to bring to life the visions he had for the mechanical pieces. The characters manifest themselves as life-sized robotic automaton figures. With around 30 axes of movement they are able to move fluidly in the real world, gesturing, walking and talking on the stage. There are limitations to the big puppets, their lifelines only allow them to move along one horizontal plane, hence the need for the stop-frame animation puppets to tell the parts of the story the big guys can’t. Due to the sheer size of the puppets and props the stage needed to be a generous length to accommodate them, correspondingly the screen. The final screen measurement of 12 metres across and 2.3 metres high is a very unusual format for film. Four projectors are required to project, simultaneously at times, across the width of this super widescreen format. The screen is curved to prevent the image distortion that would have occurred at both ends had a flat screen been used. The brain of the Mechanical Theatre is a network of computers that can integrate each separate element of the show, marry them together in perfect synchronisation and keep the exhibit running continuously throughout the day without need for human input. Unlike Engineered Arts’ previous installations the Mechanical Theatre has been designed as a medium that can be updated to tell different stories as new scientific issues emerge. This is in line with Eden’s mission to communicate contemporary stories in accessible and innovative ways. The shows, which run continuously, last approximately 10-15 minutes. The audience area consists of circus-style bench seating with some standing room and wheelchair access. The shows The first two shows that have been developed for the Mechanical Theatre concern Genetic Modification and Plants, Health and Intellectual Property Rights Issues. Their respective titles: Hot Science, Hot Potato and Nature plc. Genetic Modification and Plants Genetic engineering is one of the most controversial issues of our time and one on which an increasingly large number of the ‘general public’ insist on a right to be heard, especially considering recent ‘food scares’. Paradoxically there is a low level of public understanding about the science involved, and particularly the extension of GM into the biomedical sciences including pharmaceutical and vaccine production and nutritional enhancement. Eden is also often directly approached by teachers to discuss issues connected with GM and to explore ways of communicating these issues. In response Eden brought 50 students from 12 Cornish secondary schools together with the Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission in 2002 to share their views on the future of agriculture, the implications of GM and how to move the public debate forward. This initiative demonstrated great interest among young people but also showed a lack of understanding of the ethical and development issues involved – just those issues which Eden has expertise in addressing. Subsequently, in 2004, Eden carried out the ‘Pulse’ project, creating and writing a performance with Truro College Performing Arts Dept which toured Cornwall secondary schools with associated workshops. The Mechanical Theatre takes the subject to a much wider audience and explores what GM actually is, looks at different sides of the story and communicates different characters’ points of view on the subject. We hope to make both the Pulse project performance and the Mechanical Theatre show available on DVD. Summary of the GM story: Hot science, hot potato. Characters: Grandma: organic gardener Grandpa: small farmer who is willing to try new things to increase his crop Tom: Grandson, inquisitive and trying to help (in the same way as many scientists are) Barry Barrow: The salesman Tom is in the garden working with his grandma, who loves to garden with Nature. Grandpa, who is on the other side of the fence, literally and metaphorically, is managing his farm. Tom digs up the Book of Life. He is very curious and desperate to open the book. Grandma is having problems with disease on her bananas, and Tom muses that it would be good if they could use other types of healthy plant to give health to the banana. Tom is hungry for knowledge, anxious to help and tries to listen to both his grandparents’ points of view. Inspired by spirals he sees in nature, Tom cracks the code, opens the book and inside discovers the building blocks of life. Wanting to help grandma, he uses genetic modification to take disease resistance from the rice and put it in the banana. To his surprise, grandma is furious and accuses him of trying to control Nature. Barry Barrow arrives and tries to sell his wares including weedkillers, sprays and fertilizers. He spots Tom in the shed and starts to spy on him. Tom is using his newfound knowledge to create caterpillar resistant cabbages and weedkiller-resistant maize. Tom goes for lunch with his grandparents where we are introduced to the fact that grandpa is a diabetic. Barry sneaks into the shed and steals the Gene Gun that Tom has been using for his experiments and decides to use the gun for his own ends. As a consequence we see new GM products for sale in his barrow. Tom is dismayed to find his gun not only gone but being misused. Grandma is angry about the whole concept of modifying Nature. Barry tries to win her round by showing her vegetarian cheese, which used GM rennet rather than animal products in its manufacture, and GM cotton that is resistant to pests and can be grown without using sprays. Then, much to everyone’s surprise, a modified gene comes out of grandma’s organic sweetcorn. Grandma blames Barry for the contamination (due to cross pollination from the GM maize). Barry doesn’t really care. Tom is also very concerned that things are getting out of control. He has noticed that the GM maize is also crossing with wild relatives producing superweeds, which are resistant to Barry’s sprays. Grandpa is upset. The GM maize seed he bought from Barry didn’t suit the dry conditions on his farm and has failed. The weeds are taking over. Barry plays another card, a new weedkiller. Grandpa tries it out. It seems to have a detrimental effect on the wildlife and gives grandpa a coughing fit. Barry continues to cause havoc with the gene gun, this time changing the colour of flowers. Tom tries to stop him and explains how complex the language of genes is. He shouts warnings and then shields himself with the Book of Life as Barry fires another round. The gun backfires into Barry’s head, and in the confusion Tom grabs the gun and runs off. Later on: Grandma’s garden is blooming, the pages of Tom’s book are raining down like confetti and a duck is collecting them up. Tom has realised that there are many challenges with GM but still wants to persevere after doing a lot more research. Grandma is still cautious. Then grandpa arrives and collapses. He needs his insulin! Tom steps in and gives grandma some he has made from GM bacteria. She doesn’t hesitate and immediately injects grandpa who starts to recover. They reach a truce. Grandma says she’ll help grandpa out by putting some goodness back into his soil after all it has been through and gets on to the tractor. Grandpa summarises by describing GM as an infant technology and uses the analogy of the invention of the first car and the improvements needed thereafter, such as inventing the brake. The story ends with a series of clips showing what the current situation is: GM crops grow on 30% of the world’s cultivated land 6 countries grow 99% of GM crops (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, South Africa, USA) No GM crops are currently grown in the UK One company owns 90% of the GM technology There is already a glow in the dark rabbit and a cactus with human hair GM foods are subject to more rigorous testing than conventional foods ‘It’s the same with all new technology,’ says Grandpa. ‘What we fear today, we may depend on tomorrow.’ ‘Even with a brake, cars still kill thousands of people every year,’ retorts Grandma, Currently 16% of the people in the UK are in favour of GM. The jury is still out! Intellectual Property Rights Issues Looking ahead, this is a new topic which is beginning to hit the media and the curriculum. We wanted to explore the subject in order to provoke both interest and understanding. Patenting was introduced as a way of protecting physical inventions and intellectual capital in them as a way to reward inventiveness. The movement into ‘life issues’ has occurred because of the development of biotechnology and the application of ‘inventing’ to life forms, in response to the emergence of a new industry. The issues this throws up include: The nature of pharmaceutical research and the return to shareholders from profitable markets. Many research establishments say they need to have patents protecting their research or the research won’t be done. The clash of world views and cultures. The First World (North) has most of the technological capacity and the Third World (South) most of the biodiversity resources as well as the heritage of community knowledge of use upon which technological development will depend. This leads to potential ‘theft of cultural heritage’. This relates to the key drivers of the Convention on Biological Diversity, one of whose aims was to set up a partnership between both sides to give Third World countries more financial/cultural incentive to protect their biodiversity; in other words a conservation treaty. (In 1993 the UN Convention on Biological Diversity recognised that plant genetic resources were no longer the common heritage of humankind but belonged to their country of origin which has a right to insist on the sharing of benefits from its commercial development.) Private benefit vs. public funded research. Many feel the latter is often stolen for the benefit the former. Who benefits? Patents tend to protect medicines designed for the wealthy West (cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes) rather than parasitic diseases which are often under resourced in terms of research attention or left to philanthropy. The increasing merging of food and health issues through the development of nutraceuticals leading to a concern over the merging of control over our food supply by the pharmaceutical model of research and development These were the issues we wanted to address in Plant Health Rights and Rules performance. Summary of the Intellectual Property Rights Issues story: Nature plc. Characters: NB. Junior and Ayesha are puppets, all the other characters are animated. Junior Bizznizz: young man born into the world of big business learning from father who makes money from patenting life forms Ayesha: Indian princess born to respect cultural heritage learnt from mother San Bushman: representing nomadic culture with indigenous knowledge of a plant that the First World is interested in Sister Science: Scientist working on new medicinal developments with interest of humanity at heart Mrs Patent: Protector of exclusive rights on inventions The story starts with a ‘Natural Assets’ board game. Junior is being taught how to play the game by his father, who is showing him how to make money so that he can take over the family business. The board features factories, plants and products. Junior later meets and falls in love with a beautiful young princess, Ayesha, in the tropics as she harvests her rice. Ayesha initially says the relationship won’t work as they come from very different worlds but is rather attracted to Junior. She takes him to the temple where he causes offence by eating the sacred rice offering. Ayesha explains that the ‘Basmati’ is their crown jewel, there to worship not eat. Her concerns about their relationship grow. Junior assures her he can bring their families together. He secretly takes the bowl of sacred rice. Ayesha’s mother discovers she is seeing Junior and is horrified. She explains how family Bizznizz aim to privatise nature and rob farmers of their human rights and of their duty to be seed savers. Ayesha tries to defend Junior. Mother notices the rice is missing and Ayesha, now worried, runs off to look for it. Meanwhile in the Kalahari, a tired San Bushman is trying to hunt. He gains energy by eating a succulent Hoodia plant. Sister Science is secretly watching! Sister Science later explains to Junior that Hoodia acts as an appetite suppressant. Junior’s mind jumps to economic opportunities but he is sceptical that this ugly plant could be of any use. Sister Science explains that of the 87 cancer drugs, two thirds are of natural origin or modelled on plant chemicals. She explains making synthetics based on nature helps stop the depletion of natural resources. She wants to copy the Hoodia chemical, trial it and create an anti-obesity drug. Junior offers her money for the research in return for helping him genetically tweak the rice so he can patent it. She does so. While Mrs Patent is granting Junior a patent on his tweaked rice (Bizzmati) Ayesha enters and accuses Junior of kidnapping her rice. Mrs Patent challenges him. He says the rice is subtly different. Mrs Patent confirms that Junior is the owner and has the exclusive right to make, sell, produce and use Bizzmati rice for 20 years and that others will be fined for using it without buying a license. Ayesha thinks this is a joke as her family always saved and sowed their own seed without having to pay anyone else anything. Mrs Patent explains: A patent grants an exclusive right on an invention (product or process) that provides a new way of doing something or a new technical solution to a problem. Patents enable people to profit from their inventions and give incentive to invent. Ayesha objects to patenting nature saying farmers in India and Pakistan have saved and sown their own seed for centuries. Junior’s explains that the money he can make from patenting seed can be used for their marriage. Meanwhile Ayesha’s family are gathering outside and protesting with banners. Captions describe ‘In 1997, an American company won a US patent on novel Basmati rice lines, claiming to have invented basmati. The Indian government challenged the patent. In 2001, 15 out of the 20 original claims were struck down.’ Mrs Patent reissues the rice passport, saying the owner is ‘Basmati Rice Family.’ Ayesha’s mother explains that biodiversity is their richest asset and that patents enable wealthy countries to exploit natural resources. Ayesha ignores her and walks off with Junior. Junior receives a patent document stating he is the owner for the appetite suppressant in Hoodia; P57. The document states the nationality to be ‘Kalahari bushpeople’. He tells Ayesha the bushpeople are extinct. ‘P57 from the Hoodia plant was patented by a British company. The rights to license the drug were sold to an American pharmaceutical giant. They claimed the bushmen were extinct.’ Mrs Patent explains how patent systems don’t recognise community rights or indigenous knowledge and that in order to gain benefits the knowledge has to be proved in writing. Ayesha objects, explains that it’s not always peoples’ tradition to write things down and says that products need to be brought to the market not by using patents to control the economics but by benefit sharing. Junior says that, in order to invest in research to make medicines and food for the greater good, patents are needed to protect investments, recoup costs, provide incentives and make profits. The bushman appears, his spear aimed at Junior who backs down and offers 6% of the potential profits from the Hoodia anti-obesity drug to the San people. They agree. Ayesha is reassured. The caption describes how: ‘In 1999, 100,000 San people protested. In 2003, they signed a benefit-sharing agreement for use of their traditional knowledge. The pharmaceutical company later withdrew from this venture.’ Back in the office the family Bizznizz is on the up and up with patents being put on a wide range of plants and plant products. To date there are 918 patents on rice, maize, wheat, soybean and sorghum alone. Captions describe that: 90% of all biological wealth is found in developing countries Groups from the industrialised world control over 97% of all the patents 6 major agrochemical corporations control 69% of these patents, controlling a substantial part of the food chain. Junior panics realising that Ayesha won’t marry him if she discovers all this. Ayesha challenges the concept of patents, stating that: not all things are patented (e.g. cuckoo clocks and Swiss watches) what worked for 19th-century America and Britain may not be good for all countries today. that patenting doesn’t work with life forms and indigenous knowledge As Junior asks her to marry him she sees her passport with the Junior Buzznizz stamp hovering above it. That’s enough… she realises his greed and runs for the hills. Keywords: Automata: mechanical puppets, mechanical toys or kinetic art. Genetic modification/genetic engineering: the use of various methods to manipulate the DNA (genetic material) of cells to change hereditary traits or produce biological products. Biotechnology: the use of biological processes, such as the exploitation and manipulation of living organisms or biological systems, in the development or manufacture of a product or in the technological solution to a problem. It is important to note that biotechnology does not necessarily mean genetic modification. Patent: the granting to the inventor of a useful product or process the privilege to exclude others from making that invention. Intellectual Property Rights: legal and moral rights to make money out of an intellectual creation. Pharmaceutical: a drug or medicine that is prepared or dispensed in pharmacies and used in medical treatment. Convention on Biological Diversity: an international treaty that was adopted at the Earth Summit in 1992. The Convention has three main goals: ? conservation of biological diversity ? sustainable use of its components ? fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources. Nutraceutical: a combination of ‘nutritional’ and ‘pharmaceutical’ referring to foods thought to have a beneficial effect on human health. Thanks The Mechanical Theatre was conceived, designed and built by Engineered Arts. The exhibition was made possible by a grant from the ReDiscover 3 Programme (supported by the Millennium Commission, the Wellcome Trust and the Wolfson Foundation). The exhibits and the National Curriculum: An introduction We are aware of curriculum links in many subject areas but specifically invited the local LEA science advisor to comment on the relevance of the proposed exhibits to the NC. ‘A key part of Eden’s work lies in reinforcing fundamental messages and values that are at the core of the school curriculum. However, Eden is not a school and visitors, including pupils on a school visit, encounter ideas in a different way in order for their impact to be maximised. There are a number of areas clearly indicated in the 5-14 stage curriculum that resonate with the ideas covered in the exhibits. These include: To recognise ways in which living things and the environment need protection. KS2 That there are many gases and many of these are important to us. KS2 Why are green plants important in the environment? KS3 The Programme of Study at KS4 is set to change from 2006 set in the framework influenced by the Tomlinson Committee report on the structure of education, training and qualifications for 14 – 19 year olds. It is likely that the current GCSE Science course (in which many students follow a course largely predicated upon progression to higher levels of science education) will be replaced by one based on the notion of scientific literacy: along the lines of what an educated citizen might be expected to know and understand about scientific issues and approaches. A key indicator in practice is given by the “Science for the 21st Century” project, being piloted in over 80 schools. At its core there is a course dealing with science issues and how they may be approached using scientific method. One of the sections; Food Matters, includes specific reference to “appreciating the scientific basis for debates surrounding issues such as food additives, organic /conventional farming, GM foods and sustainability. Ideas about science developed during this module focus on factors that influence decisions about science and technology.” The delivery of such a course represents a significant change for teachers in terms of teaching and learning styles; there is a journey to be undertaken from a course based on knowledge to one based on approach to issues. Using the above exhibits students will benefit from being challenged to think about, consider and debate issues such as intellectual property rights, provision of food and the impact of humans on the environment. The exhibits approach these in a materially different way and give students the opportunity to access the ideas and issues in a style not possible in the classroom. Similarly teachers have the opportunity to develop their own understanding of the ideas underpinning these issues and the implications for curriculum delivery.’ Ed Walsh, Science Advisor, CEDS. References: www.qca.org.uk, www.21stcenturyscience.org We hope these exhibits help address these issues and that you all enjoy them. We will be carrying out formal assessment and evaluation of the exhibits with Exeter University School of Education and our in house formal education team and also welcome your feedback. About this document This teaching resource has been developed by the Sensory Trust in association with the Eden Project. It is the copyright of the Eden Project. The original exhibits to which this resource responds can be found at the Eden Project; they are the copyright of Engineered Arts and are the property of the Eden Project. The teaching resource is free to download from the Eden Project website/Sensory Trust website for use in educational activities. Any further use, reproduction or publication of the full resource, any parts of the resource, or photographic reproductions of the exhibits, must be with written permission from the Eden Project. This work has been kindly funded by the ReDiscover Fund, a joint venture between the Millennium Commission, Wellcome Foundation and Wolfson Trust. This has been developed by the Sensory Trust in association with the Eden Project. It is the copyright of Eden Project. The original exhibits to which this resource responds can be found at Eden Project; they are the copyright of Engineered Arts and are the property of the Eden Project. This document is free to download from the Eden Project website / Sensory Trust website. Any further use, reproduction or publication of the full resource, any parts of the resource, or photographic reproductions of the exhibits, must be with written permission from the Eden Project. www.edenproject.com www.sensorytrust.org.uk This work has been kindly funded by the ReDiscover Fund, a joint venture between the Millennium Commission, Wellcome Foundation and Wolfson Trust. This resource has been inclusively designed by the Sensory Trust in partnership with the Eden Project The Sensory Trust is supported by the Big Lottery Fund