Throughout the first year of the commission I made short video diaries, recapping recent activities, and the project's themes as they emerged. The SARS-CoV-2 virus forced the team working on the commission to adapt to accommodate remote-working. Contrary to the intention of this commission, in which we had imagined a much richer mode of in-person social interaction, these video recordings were a result of a retreat into the studio during extended periods of "lockdown," working remotely from other collaborators and interlocutors. These diary entries were uploaded to the Exeter Arts & Culture website, and their Youtube channel. §
This first diary-entry sets-out the project's microbiopolitical concerns – brought into sharp focus during the pandemic (as detailed here, for instance, by Darren Ollerton in March 2020). §
An update on seminars for food studies, and and introduction to the intial version of the project's website. §
More information about the Cidermaking in the Devonshire dialect poster and its development, and thoughts on the livliness of a living dialect. §
Thoughts about the Abigail North's wassail bowl, and the problematics using it during the pandemic. §
In this more lengthier diary-entry, some reflexive work about th relationship of wassailing to ongoing colonial processes. §
The final video diary, and more information about the double-sided poster of the microbial-cidermaking year and hexafoil charm. §