Local Know How

Once, the ability to make, repair, reuse, forage, hunt, or grow was an essential aspect of a community's shared know-how, often passed down through generations within the family home and local environment. In today’s world, local ‘know-how’ can offer valuable insights into recovering more sustainable ways of living within our communities.

Lucy Lippard explores how a sense of place can be reclaimed by excavating local forms of knowledge—knowledge that is physically embodied and "written in the landscape or place by the people who live or have lived there."

Artist Colette Lewis, in collaboration with older members of the Cobh community, explored how we once lived more sustainably through the exchange, sharing, and repurposing of local skills and knowledge. By recontextualising these practices for the modern era, the project aimed to rediscover the necessity and potential of resourcefulness in contemporary life.

Project created during the Creative Enquiry Residency Programme with Sirius Arts Centre, 2019