May – June: Monts du Cantal – Saint Étienne – Bourg-en-Bresse – Xirocourt
Currently: Tonnerre

Status report:
Kilometre reading (June 24) : 235 201 km
since the beginning of the journey (March 18): 4 222 km
since last newsletter (May 14): 1 428 km
power meter: 11,7kWh

Most listened music last month:

Book recommendation:
bolo’bolo by P.M.
follow this link for the English edition: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/p-m-bolo-bolo

Outlook
from June 28: three-week artist residency at Polymorphe Corp. in Cérilly, central France. There I will build a bread oven out of rammed earth and stone.

June / July:
Cérilly (Centre de la France) – Brussels

On the road with Charlélie in the Massif Central

Since my project in Cérilly was postponed in May, I met my friend Charlélie in the Massif Central, in the Monts de Cantal. We drove over adventurous mountain passes, where I sometimes had to shift into first gear – unlike Charlélie with his four-wheel drive.

Digital Workshop at the HfG Karlsruhe

At the end of May, I put my nomadic workspace to the test. To do this, I parked on the banks of the Loire (near Saint Étienne) and held a digital workshop with students from Chris Kabel’s ReAct seminar (product design) at the HfG Karlsruhe. The aim of the intervention was to take away the students’ fear of failure and to create a starting point for their further material research.
Documentation of the workshop here: http://hfg.danielparnitzke.de/

Stranded

Departure from Saint Étienne, north-east, towards Lorraine, 450km of road. Halfway there, I had a mishap, skidded over a threshold and bent my wheel rim. It was Saturday evening, the garages were already closed, and I had an appointment on Monday.
At first it was stressful, but bit by bit I was able to tackle the problems, reschedule the appointment, get a spare wheel, adjust the track, change the axle boot.

A weekend in Bourg-en-Bresse

So I had to take a 2-day break in Bourg-en-Bresse, north of Lyon. In the area there are beautiful houses and a building tradition with rammed earth, which I had a look at on a little bike tour.

Chantier Participatif and outdoor furniture

Back to Xirocourt (see Newsletter 1) and a project for the Verger de Vincent, the community garden linked to the association Être Éco Lié. The aim there was to design and construct an outdoor kitchen, an outdoor sink, a recycling station and a dry toilet. These elements were to be mobile, stable, simple, reproducible and versatile, based on existing standard sizes, a single wooden profile and low-tech construction. The inspiration for this was Enzo Mari’s Autoprogettazione from 1974, a series of furniture that can be realised with standardised wooden profiles, a hand saw and a hammer.

The realisation took place collaboratively with volunteers, who were on site partly after their working day, partly for a full week. For this chantier participatif* in Pierre-Antoine’s workshop we set up various work stations and production processes, which also enabled amateurs to produce excellent results.

A chantier participatif, also known as a solidary workshop, collaborative workshop, shared workshop, etc., is an event during which individuals meet to work together, voluntarily and in a friendly atmosphere. (translated from French Wikipedia)

A month in Xirocourt

I stayed in Lorraine for almost 4 weeks. It is good to have such longer breaks in the same place to tackle longer-term projects or repairs. There was a lot to do as well: Installing a yurt, repairing my car, mowing with a scythe, mounting a solar installation…

Short trip to Paris

Two days in Paris, meeting friends, checking up on old projects (rocket stove at LEO, wind turbine at Vive Les Groues, see newsletter 1+2). Here is a great illustration by Julie Dancre, from our workshop with Coline in March.

Two weeks later: A violent storm has raged on the terrain of Vive Les Groues and caused some damage – among others to my wind turbine. The wooden rotor blades bent backwards by more than 30cm in the high wind speeds – until they touched the mast and broke.

A location for my solar-powered website

More than a year ago, I handed in my Master’s thesis under the title “Pleasure in Scarcity”. I applied this principle to the format of the thesis itself. It is accessible through an autonomous server that is powered by a solar system and a battery – simply put, a medium that is directly connected to a limited, local energy source. The solar-powered server is located in Xirocourt, eastern France, with seasonal daylight hours between 8h19m and 16h07m.

During extended periods of bad weather, this website will go offline. It gives the user the possibility to use an “energy saving mode”, whereby up to 80% less data is transmitted. It shows the reality of the global data and energy infrastructure and is at the same time an example and a proposal for an internet with limited accessibility.

The thesis and current information on the server’s energy production and consumption here: http://pleasureinscarcity.com. More about the format of a solar-powered website here: http://pleasureinscarcity.com/chapter/27

Until next time,
Dani

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