2024-06-30 - a self-portrait
Works in progress
Clara
An exploration of how we can better connect artists, researchers, activists, and local communities within and across Preston, Leyland, Chorley, and other areas in Central Lancashire. I'm currently working on a slide deck to explain my moivations and present some options. If you're interested in this idea, please email me: clara@stella-aster.com
Trans Health Action Leyland
Telling stories about trans healthcare, mapping out the issues, and campaigning for better care.
Currently forming, if interested please get in touch via email: tahl@stella-aster.com
End Weight Stigma Central Lancashire
For my PhD research, I am convening a group of higher weight people in Central Lancashire to work towards dismantling weight stigma and creating more accessible and compassionate healthcare in the area. I'm thin, and my involvement in the project explores and challenges the position of the 'outsider' at the intersections of art, research, and activism.
I am currently working on my ethics application and will be advertising the poster and recruiting participants in the next few months.
Writing
Mostly poetry, but I'm also working on an essay about sincerity, and some speculative fiction about money abolition.
Previous works
2024-11-24 - Music by Belisha beacons
a sonic exploration of urban infrastructure
https://music-by-belisha-beacons.co.uk/
2024-11-17 - wetherspoons g&t
went to @wetherspoonsofficial this week and ordered a g&t. i got id'd but didn't have any id so i was refused service. because i ordered in the app, i was denied a refund. i went back the next day to get the g&t i'd paid for. i was refused my drink again, so i decided to mix my own at the bar.
this artistic intervention aimed to expose the way that capitalism turns groups of workers against each other. the bar staff didn't write this policy, but they are expected to enforce it, and their employment is contingent on doing so. owners make the rules, but workers have to enforce them. under these conditions, workers are alienated from each other. we do not see each other as just people, we see each other as people performing a role, people with specific duties. staff do not share their personal views on this policy, because they are required to perform their roles in whatever way best serves the owners, and the rules they have written.
at the same time, these rules are fragile, and can be broken, as i show here. the reason rules work as a form of control is because we fear sanction, punishment, negative consequences. "if you do X, then Y will happen to you." if we want to exist as sincere people, then we must be able to break rules which threaten to close off who we can be and what we can do.
spoons staff also wear bodycams now, which is another alienating vibe. i recorded this on an action cam i had duct taped to my cardie. my makeshift bodycam draws attention to the imbalances of power which lie behind the increasing proliferation of surveillance devices. @wetherspoonsofficial state that bodycams increase staff safety, but they also allow owners to monitor staff activity in minute detail. "were you clearing those tables in the most efficient way?" the separation between owners and workers becomes clearer when viewed through the glass of a camera lens.
staff faces have been pixellated to protect their identities, from the owners if nobody else. the problem here isn't people, it's systems. i celebrate the staff for how they dealt with the strange situation i put them in.
#capitalism
#wetherspoons
#artivism
https://www.instagram.com/p/DCe0ZLDi_vn/
2024-11-02 - Poem - is there a limit to my love
Under consideration for The Chestnut Review and n+1.
2024-10-28 - Poem - Untitled Improvisation
Under consideration for The Chestnut Review and n+1.
2024-09-26 - Poem for our neighbour John
Currently under consideration for the Togetherness Poetry Challenge.
2024-09-19 - Poem for burying my Mum's ashes
Under consideration for The Chestnut Review and n+1.
2024-09-14 - Poem for my HRT
Currently under consideration for Poetry Magazine (US) and The Paris Review.
2024-09-01 - Poem for Pressed Town, Issue 3, Fall
This is the first time my poetry has been published!
---
between your buildings at night,
we kiss by the candlelight
of streetlamps,
soft lips
over hard teeth
connecting
the breeze
gusts down the street,
we walk
hand in hand
from the abandoned garage,
past cars and passed by cars,
crossing the boundary
between decay and 'growth',
i notice the pavement
is nicer here,
elegant slabs
replace cracked tarmac,
characteristic of
privately owned public space,
your fractures are clear, Preston,
Winckley Square, Friargate, Moor Lane,
we walk your veins
and wonder how
state and capital
caused this decay.
2024-08-19 - Poem for bad ADHD days
Under consideration for the Disabled Poets' Prize, to be announced January 2025.
2024-07-19 - Poem for the Tap
I wrote this for my pub, the pub where I spend most of my pub time. We have a nice community and I've made good friends there.
---
our bar is a tapestry,
drawn by a hundred hands
from conversations that
bubbled over the glasses.
communed in curious crafts,
an open community
bonded by beer
which brewed
mutual sincerities.
we are nodding dog friendly:
a place for everyone to boogie or bark.
wear hi vis and head scarves
or flat caps and Tintin t-shirts;
just don't forget your beer tokens 😉
currant events and barricades
make me ask, where is my mind?
here, we find
sunshine on a rainy day;
here, electricities flicker
and laughter bounces
off chipboard panels,
and steam pours
from the glasswash.
2024-07-18 - a fleeting connection
Under consideration for THEMA journal, on the theme of "maybe next time".
2024-05-17 - Letter to organisations about DfE RSHE consultation
I wrote and sent this letter out over several weeks in May to nearly 80 organisations, as part of an effort to generate a campaign for better sex education in schools.
---
Hello,
I am writing to you because your organisation was listed as engaging with the UK Government during its last consultation into RSHE (relationships education, relationships and sex education, and health education) in England in 2018 [1]. You may have seen that the Government has now opened a new consultation to review the RSHE statutory guidance [2].
Unfortunately, the draft guidance imposes dangerous limits on what schools can teach. In particular, the guidance imposes age limits on when different topics can be taught, and forbids schools from teaching about gender. These limitations directly contradict evidence-informed international guidance on RSHE.
The draft guidance states that "sex education [...] should be taught no earlier than year 5" [2], by which time pupils will be aged 9-10. According to clarifying information in the separate consultation document, sex education "should be in line with what pupils learn about conception and birth as part of the national curriculum for science" [2]. The draft guidance also forbids teaching of gender and gender identity at any age, stating that "schools should not teach about the broader concept of gender identity. Gender identity is a highly contested and complex subject. [...] If asked about the topic of gender identity, schools should teach the facts about biological sex and not use any materials that present contested views as fact, including the view that gender is a spectrum." [2]
In contrast, evidence-informed guidance from the WHO [3] lists dozens of key learning objectives which would be unachievable under the draft guidance, either because they address an unapproved topic, or because they should be achieved before age 9, or both. Many of these are clearly uncontroversial and important, including:
- List differences in roles and responsibilities of men and women within the family (knowledge);
- Describe ways that these differences can affect what each can and cannot do (knowledge);
- Perceive that gender inequality impacts the roles and responsibilities within the family (attitudinal);
- Reflect on their own role and their feelings about men's and women’s roles and responsibilities within the family (skill)
- Recognize that gender, disability or someone’s health does not get in the way of becoming friends (attitudinal);
- Define gender and biological sex and describe how they are different (knowledge);
- Reflect on how they feel about their biological sex and gender (skill);
- Identify sources of information about sex and gender (knowledge);
- Acknowledge that perceptions about sex and gender are influenced by many different sources (attitudinal);
- Identify how people may be treated unfairly and unequally because of their gender (knowledge);
- Describe ways to make relationships between genders more fair and equal in their home, school and communities (knowledge);
- Recognize that unfair and unequal treatment of people of different genders is wrong and against their human rights (attitudinal);
- Recognize that it is important to respect the human rights of others, regardless of differences in gender (attitudinal).
- Acknowledge that gender roles can affect communication between people (attitudinal);
- Distinguish between the biological and social aspects of sex, gender and reproduction (knowledge);
- Compare and contrast ways that culture and religion influence how society views sex, gender and reproduction (knowledge);
- Recognise that puberty may be particularly challenging for some children, particularly those who are gender non-conforming, transgender or intersex (knowledge);
- Recall how gender inequality can contribute to girls’ feelings of shame and fear during menstruation (knowledge);
- Critically assess gendered standards of beauty that can drive people to want to change their appearance (knowledge);
- Analyze particular cultural and gender stereotypes and how they can affect people’s body image and their relationships (knowledge);
- Reflect on how gender norms and stereotypes influence people’s expectations and experience of sexual pleasure (knowledge);
- Explain that [...] people can plan when to get pregnant (knowledge)
- Discuss ways that gender roles and peer norms may influence contraceptive use (knowledge);
- Recognize that no sexually active young person should be refused access to contraceptives or condoms on the basis of their marital status, their sex or their gender (attitudinal);
The WHO guidance demonstrates that RSHE cannot be complete and effective without including content on gender, and teaching well beyond the national curriculum for science below age 9.
The current draft guidance harms children by restricting their access to the information and support they need to keep themselves and their peers safe. These restrictions will harm all children, but it will specifically disadvantage girls and LGBTQ+ children. We have already seen similar restrictions targeting LGBTQ+ children before, in the form of Section 28.
Section 28 was a section of the Local Government Act 1988, which prevented local authorities from "intentionally [promoting] homosexuality or [publishing] material with the intention of promoting homosexuality; and [promoting] the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship." [4]
Section 28 has been widely condemned by teachers, academics, politicians, and activists as a homophobic law which has caused significant harm to LGBTQ+ people. It created a vacuum of knowledge about gender and sexuality based on science and lived experience, leaving children to develop understandings of LGBTQ+ people and issues through stereotypes and rumours. Teachers could not answer pupil's questions through fear of being fired, and school libraries could not stock any material mentioning LGBTQ+ people or issues. Section 28 was finally repealed in England and Wales in 2003, but it is still affecting pupils today, with teachers who do not know what content they can teach in their classrooms [5], and school librarians who believe the legislation is still in force [6].
The website "Section 28 and its afterlives" [7] provides oral testimonies from teachers and former pupils about the way their lives were damaged by Section 28.
We cannot allow this to continue. We cannot allow any government to prioritise political manoeuvring over the wellbeing of any group of people.
I am writing to you to ask your organisation to make clear objections to paragraphs 45, 46, 58, 59, and 60 of the new draft RSHE guidance, should you be preparing a response to the consultation. Your organisation's input to this consultation is extremely valuable. I hope that through a unified effort, we can create positive change, and enable the Government to publish guidance which will enable schools to properly inform and support all pupils, without fear of legal challenges.
Within the consultation survey, I ask that you answer:
- "No" to question 22, "Do you agree with the proposed changes related to gender identity and gender reassignment in the guidance?";
- "No" to question 26, "Do you agree with the restriction on teaching sex education only in years 5 or 6?";
- "No" to questions 28 through 36, concerning age limits on various topics;
- "No" to question 38, "Do you agree with the age restriction on the secondary intimate and sexual relationships, including sexual health topic?"; and
- "No" to questions 40 through 43, concerning age limits on specific topics.
There are further questions which provide you with an opportunity to explain your answers. I have provided draft answers here, which you are free to use verbatim or revise as needed in your response:
For question 23, regarding materials on gender:
> The WHO's "International technical guidance on sexuality education" lists gender as a key concept which should be taught as part of a comprehensive RSHE education. It is not possible to fully discuss and understand sex, sexuality, and relationships without also considering gender and gender identity.
For question 27, 37, 39, and 44, regarding age limits on various topics:
> The WHO's "International technical guidance on sexuality education" lists many key learning objectives for these topics which involve gender, and which should be achieved below the age limits set by this guidance. These restrictions will prevent teachers from responding to the needs of the children under their care. Flexibility is not enough, there should be no national age restrictions or limitations on content.
Thank you for taking the time to hear these concerns. I hope that the information provided here will be useful to you, and will enable those of us who value the wellbeing of all children to act in solidarity. Should you have any questions, or if you like any more information, I would be glad to hear from you and help however I can.
Sincerely,
Stella Aster
References:
[1]: Annex A in "Relationships education, relationships and sex
education, and health education in England, Government consultation (including call for evidence response)", available at: [https://consult.education.gov.uk/pshe/relationships-education-rse-health-education/supporting_documents/180718%20Consultation_call%20for%20evidence%20response_policy%20statement.pdf](https://consult.education.gov.uk/pshe/relationships-education-rse-health-education/supporting_documents/180718%20Consultation_call%20for%20evidence%20response_policy%20statement.pdf)
[2]: Open consultation, Review of the RSHE statutory guidance, available at: [https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/review-of-the-rshe-statutory-guidance](https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/review-of-the-rshe-statutory-guidance)
[3]: World Health Organization, "International technical guidance on sexuality education, an evidence-informed approach", available at: [https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/9789231002595](https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/9789231002595)
[4]: Local Government Act 1998, Section 28, available at: [https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/9/section/28/1991-02-01](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/9/section/28/1991-02-01)
[5]: Tribune, "The Long Shadow of Section 28", available at: [https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/05/the-long-shadow-of-section-28](https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/05/the-long-shadow-of-section-28)
[6]: Walker and Bates, "Developments in LGBTQ provision in secondary school library services since the abolition of Section 28", available at: [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0961000614566340](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0961000614566340)
[7]: Section 28 and its afterlives, available at: [https://s28afterlives.exeter.ac.uk/](https://s28afterlives.exeter.ac.uk/)
2024-05-17 - Leyland Trans Group
On this date, we held the first meeting of the Leyland Trans Support Group. I produced a poster and stuck this up in high visibility general public areas, including a supermarket and a pub window, as well as distributing it online on local Facebook groups. Over the next couple of weeks, I got emails from a handful of people, and arranged a meeting in a local café. We now have an informal network of trans people in Leyland 💖
2023-12-20 - Entry for the TxP Progress Prize
I heard about the TxP Progress Prize through the Civic Future newsletter. The essay competition asks "Britain is stuck. How can we get it moving again?" and was hosted and judged by a bunch of tech policy wonks.
---
You’re not going to like what I’m about to say. You won’t like it because I’ll tell you that we already know the solution to our problems, and that it will require us to experiment with and do things we’ve never done before. You won’t like it, because I’ll tell you that it’s easy, so easy that in many ways we’re already doing it, and that pulling it off will require overcoming some of the greatest struggles we have ever known. Simply put, we have an inability to deal with change and variety.
Argentina is a country in South America. In the west are the Valdivian Temperate Forests, and in the east is the Patagonian Desert. Along the north east you will find the tail of the Andes Mountains, and in the very south is the Perito Moreno Glacier. You ask how we can get Britain moving again? We need to start adapting to our environment. How do you get from the glacier, to the forests, to the mountains? You cannot do it without changing your mode of transport.
We practice adaptation all the time in our daily lives. If the soup’s not right, we add a little salt. If the café is closed, we find another one. But when it comes to the NHS, the economy, or the justice system, we seem to be repeating the same mistakes, expecting the dune buggy to take us smoothly up the mountain, trekking through the forest on skis. The word “institution” conjures up images of large buildings with marble pillars, which have stood unchanged for aeons. We have tried to be rigid, to stand firm in the face of change, but it does not work. Instead we must be malleable, so we can adapt.
In his 2008 book, “Systems Thinking in the Public Sector”, John Seddon explains how the top-down design of public services, and an obsession with targets, homogenises the needs of service users, prevents systems from absorbing and managing variety, and ultimately leads to increased demand and ineffective services. In a little over 200 pages, he deconstructs a decade of failed reforms to policing, trading standards, and housing benefit, and provides a different paradigm and different tools to enable us to re-envision our public services. Sixteen years on, he continues to fight against what he calls “command and control ideology”, yet the failed approach of top-down design remains prevalent throughout the public sector.
The Covid-19 pandemic threw the inequalities in our country and the failures of our public services into sharp relief. But it also showed how local communities were able to self-organise and provide mutual aid in the absence of central planning and government support. Rhiannon Firth’s 2022 book, “Disaster Anarchy”, documents the mutual aid efforts that arose in response to both Hurricane Katrina and the Covid-19 pandemic, and demonstrates that even in the most dire of circumstances, communities will come together to meet their collective needs.
The answer to our problems does not lie in a better proposal for our decision-makers, because decision-makers are a structural component of the problem. Policy is a structural component of the problem. Government is a structural component of the problem. Institutions are a structural component of the problem. Any attempt to solve our problems from above will only serve to further evaporate agency and capability from the individuals and communities who face these problems on a daily basis. We don’t need ‘better’ decisions, we need to change who is making the decisions. We need to give people control of their own lives.
Adaptation is a fundamental behaviour of all life. It is something we are all capable of, in various degrees, as individuals and as collectives. But like any muscle, it will wither if it is not exercised, and it is hard to exercise when you are being forcibly restrained by someone else. This is the great struggle I alluded to before. We need our decision-makers to do less, not more. We need them to stop restraining us and start empowering us, giving us the tools we need to look after ourselves and trusting us to do exactly that. If you want to get Britain moving again, you need to find ways to enable people to work on improving their communities, learn new skills, do community organising and research, provide education and care for the people around them, and spend their time on the things that are important to them. The two greatest constraints on that are time and money. We need enough money to meet our basic material needs, and we need enough time to think about and work on the problems that we see around us in our own lives, our families, our communities.
If you want practical suggestions to get Britain moving again, and you want to give people more time and money, consider:
- Implementing a Universal Basic Income at or above the Real Living Wage.
- Mandating a three day working week, with a corresponding increase in the Minimum Wage.
- Providing funding for worker-owned co-operative businesses, along with training in worker ownership and self-management.
Let go of the handbrake, we can drive the car ourselves.
2023-09-28 - zeroed
Submission to ARRG! Call For Participation: MODELS FOR MAKING DISTANCE.
---
Hi Eryk,
Here is a short submission for the zine.
A Bash one-liner which zeroes every 1000th byte of an input file. Produces interesting results on JPEGs. Example attached.
xxd -p input_file | fold -w2 | awk '/../&&((++v%1000)==0){sub(/../, "00")}{print}' | xxd -r -p > output_file
2023-06-01 - Jacob's Join at The Golden Tap
"Jacob's join" is a term used in some places in Lancashire and Yorkshire to refer to a potluck, or an event where several people bring food to share. I organised one at my local pub. I started by asking a few people if they'd be up for it, because there's no point organising something if nobody will show up. I got their contact details and worked out a time and date that would work for most people. I also printed a poster with my contact details, and later updated this with the agreed date and time. A box of reusable plates and cutlery was purchased from Amazon. On the day, I greeted people and labelled their dishes. I asked about dietary suitability and allergens, and wrote that on the labels. Everyone had a great time sharing food, conversation, and drinks together, and learning new flavours and recipes 😋 Is that art, research, or activism?
2022-12-16 - ceiling / bedsheet
2019-06-06 - Byres Road glass, first floor stairway
These beautiful panes were in a tenements in Glasgow where some friends lived.
2019-05-20 - the-light-of-the.world
the-light-of-the.world was a piece of self-describing network software art I created that was active from May 2019 to June 2020. The original copy that was hosted on the site is presented below.
You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.Matthew 5:14-16 (NIV)
This website, the-light-of-the.world, serves as a humanist interpretation of this passage, by using the computer display as a lamp. The background is not completely black, but instead calculated from the number of visitors currently on the website. As more visitors arrive, the colour changes from black to white, increasing the brightness of the display/lamp.
We are the-light-of-the.world. We each bring light into this world. We shine brightest when we all shine together.
The website is set up so that it will reach full brightness at 8 billion visitors, and the United Nations projects that the world human population will reach 8 billion people around the year 2021 [1]. However, the International Telecommunication Union estimates that since the end of 2018 only 3.9 billion people have access to the Internet [2]. In this respect, the-light-of-the.world is both aspirational and critical. Fully lighting the lamp is a concrete goal and the product of significant collective action, but it is not possible until we close the digital divide.
[1]: https://population.un.org/wpp/Graphs/Probabilistic/POP/TOT/
[2]: https://www.itu.int/en/mediacentre/Pages/2018-PR40.aspx
