Social Cycles provided 41 hybrid bicycles free for use by students, staff and their friends for the duration of their studies and employment at University College Falmouth and the University of Exeter.
A characteristic of the project was that it sought to avoid the use of language typically associated with green cycle schemes, public relations greenwash and the growing rhetoric of sustainability. Word of mouth was used to inform students and staff about the bike scheme. There were few rules for the use of the bicycles and participants were encouraged to take the bikes wherever they liked, and to use them however they wished. There was no obligation to use the bikes even, and the participants could return the bikes whenever they wished or pass on the bike to a friend.
The project temporarily took the form of a cycle repair workshop to coincide with Artful Ecologies organised and hosted
by the RANE research cluster at University College Falmouth.
The aim of the event was to bring together artists and researchers already to consider how
artists might best address current ecological concerns and to explore what role art might play in facing the current ecological crisis.
