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Short abstract:

What happens when Janus-headed, inter-, and trans-disciplinary art-based “projects”, intersect with national, and local authority, climate action strategies? What can the messy entanglements of making such things, tell us about the efforts required for place-based transformation?

Long abstract:

In 2022, studio repair acts, was established in the midland’s county of Westmeath, Ireland as a means through which to foster more restorative approaches to material cultures and our landscapes. Taking a situated and arts-based approach, this paper reflects on the first year of the programme. Contextualised within languages of critical making, design justice and just transformations to sustainability, the localised nuances of what it means to really do and make work, that seeks to transmute material arrangements and the affective relations that often sustain such practice, is mapped against the funding and evaluation mechanisms that to date have shaped the programme. Highlighted by examples of making and doing, that bring together desk-based research, archival work, and creative practices, including the formation and delivery of community workshops, installation, exhibition, image, video, and documentary-based art works. Concluding points, reflecting on how the nature of multi-layered, Janus-headed, inter-, and trans-disciplinary art-based “projects”, can intersect and problematise national, and local authority, climate action strategies, while also providing alternatives to other ways of making things happen.