Eco Sapiens

SCANZ: 2009 was an interesting experience. So interesting, that it prompted me to join the team creating the next SCANZ event in 2011 - Eco Sapiens.

What are we facing? Extinction or adaption? Evolution or revolution?

These are some of the questions we are working with, within an interdisciplinary frame. Scientists, artists, technologists, permaculturalists, activists and others are invited to send in submissions; we are hoping to get a great group of people together.

The local botanic gardens and the shoreline of Taranaki, NZ, will be the main spaces to 'exhibit' the resulting works. It is hoped these will be longer term exhibitions that play a productive role in the local community, and support the plantet.

Take a look here for the full write up (http://www.intercreate.org/view/eco-sapiens)

On another, rather incongruous, and hypocritical note, I am a huge fan of the Huntly Power Station. There is something otherworldly about it that reminds me of childhood comic books and science fiction novels. Look at its marvelous modernist lines - functionalism in its highest form. (sigh).

Wonderland

Mapplethorpe introduced me to the sexuality of flowers (all those erotically photographed lilies and tulips). Of course the orchid is the most licentious of the lot; a recent visit to the Wonderland Exhibition at the Auckland Museum proved this.

Wonderland has certainly been hyped in the local media as a kind of multimedia extravaganza. I wouldn't say that. It does have some quirky touches that make it an amusing distraction on a wet day.

For a start they persuaded Mika, a local drag queen, to be filmed in various costumes reciting poetry and telling stories about orchids. The short clips were then made accessible to the public via touch screens, situated in a small gallery that is interspersed with orchid related art.

They also have some smelling tubes for people to guess scents, some 3D orchid picture viewing posts, and a large selection of real orchids for you to view (and in some cases buy).

On the more disturbing end of the scale, a large screen shows a film clip of a bee furiously humping an orchid. The poor deluded insect has been persuaded by the flower that it is its mate, and while it is trying to mate with the flower it is stuck with extremely large globs of pollen for its trouble. (There is moral for all of us in this sad tale!)

My favourite aspect of the experience was the hybridizing machine. This was a software programme (again on a touch screen) that allows you to manipulate and create orchids. When you are done you can email the finished specimens to yourself. The purple flower at the beginning (left) of this post is my creation, and another one can be seen here.

While the exhibition isn't state of the art, it is innovative in NZ museum circles. I certainly give the creators points for upscale merchandising to go with it (think posh tea-towels and handbags). Worth a look if you are in Auckland (exhibition closes November 8th).

people lending

..how would you like to go to a library, and instead of borrowing a book you borrow a person? You can “borrow” a Muslim; a police officer; a person suffering mental health issues; a gay guy; or a young person expelled from school. You can then have a 30 minute conversation with them which potentially challenges stereotypes you may not realise you even had. A great way to engage with other realities and build your meta-cognitive muscle. Check it out here...

space, place and the nature of reality

Explore the nature of reality from indigenous and western science perspectives at the Space and Place - The Language of Spirit conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, August this year.

This dialogue is the latest in a series started in 1992 by the late David Bohm and Leroy Little Bear JD, (former Director of Native Studies at Harvard). They originally brought together a meeting of the minds between quantum physicists, Native American scholars, and linguists to discuss the underlying principles of the Universe, not from an adversarial point of view, but out of mutual respect for the differences in world views. Since then, a core group of participants, plus occasional guests, have gotten together approximately once a year to continue the dialogue process

Audio tapes and written transcriptions of past dialogues are available, and it may very well be worth the 60 or so US dollars if the list of past participants is anything to go by.

mobile activism and techno community tools

Grant Corbishley (Snr Lecturer at Wellington Institute of Technology and expert in cross disciplinary engagement) has kindly sent me a number of great links related to mobile activism and techno community building tools. Uncategorisable objects and ungenreable activities aboundJ

The SMS Guerrilla Projector is a device that allows people to project text messages onto other people, buildings and public spaces. Fantastically subversive, it currently seems to be used for either arts or marketing purposes but would be interesting as part of a campaign for activists (hence the name perhaps).

With a similar but different purpose the Graffiti Gun Camera adds material into people’s photos by ‘firing’ images and text onto public spaces - unseen by passers by but logged by their cameras.

Mobichange is a mobile social networking site/tool that is multi-lingual and open source and designed for people to access via voice and sms. It is designed for people who have a mobile phone as their only computing device and have limited skills in English - people who want to meet others and/or need to moblize to take collective action in grass roots communities.

Tactical Sound Garden is another open source based platform this time helping people to cultivate sound gardens in shared public spaces. Using a Wifi enabled mobile device (pda, mobile phone, laptop) people can plant sounds in and around their cities that can then be picked up via headphones connected to those same devices. A fantastic way to stimulate the imagination and connect digital, imaginal and physical spaces. (Similar technology to some of that created by the A.R.T Mobile Lab of Banff New Media Institute mentioned in an earlier post)

And finally Kitchen Budapest is a new media lab based in Hungary with some incredible talent working on a vast array of projects that connect mobile and new media technologies with spaces, cultures and communities. The cyclists among you will greatly appreciate their Bycall Project which lets bicyclists transmit a warning signal to cars (via their radios) within a 15 minute radius. A flick through their project page will inspire you for weeks to come!

Thanks again Grant!

PS: don’t forget ANAT’s Portable Platforms as another great source of mobile inspirations.

un-fictional onions

Peabody prize winning website The Onion is a fantastic fake online news portal. Subversive satire mixes with the just plain silly in a way that only The Daily Show can match. Flick through the articles in today's Onion and amuse yourself while learning what is happening in current events.

Un-fiction at its best.

tentacles and terabits

Squids and tentacles are everywhere in my life at the moment- like a cliched sub-narrative from a b-grade fantasy movie, or a bad Freudian therapy session. More about that in a minute.

I first want to share some standouts from the Aotearoa Digital Arts Symposium, which I attended this past weekend.

Digital artists are an eclectic bunch, made up of programmers, sound and visual/film performance artists, electronic gadgeters, and academics. Often well travelled and highly educated, the members of this sub-culture are at the cutting edge of a number of fields, and form a hub of transdiciplinarity.

Highlight for me was meeting Phil Dadson, a world renowned interdisciplinary pioneer. His artistic practice weaves together sound, moving image, music and performance to create masterpieces of ungenreability. From Scratch has been his main (but not exclusive) platform, combining experimental instruments (often made from things found around your backyard), with the latest in performance technologies. Phil seems to have kept himself at the frontier of performance art, with his earliest successes starting almost forty years ago.

What I find most inspirational about him is his humility, and his incredible success at collaborating across disciplines and genres. Check out his website for an archive of ingenuity.

Elsewhere in the conference, I enjoyed hearing presentations on: 'live' cinema creation, creating creative spaces, interactive abstract painting, new radio, and some philosophy on the nature of 'real' and 'the material' (among many other interesting, although at times undecipherable, topics). There is some info on these in the symposium blog.

Conferences like this are great ways to find out what is happening at the cutting edge of technology and media. I usually survive the often obtuse topic matter and language by swallowing my pride and asking extremely basic questions. For example I asked my friend why we were spending almost two hours discussing something called "materiality" and her answer (hastily scribbled on a piece of paper, and furtively passed to me was " it's geek self-lashing"). Of course.

I also didn't understand why everyone kept referring to "white cubes" - I genuinely wondered if it was a new designer drug or an addiction to sugar shapes. Again, upon discrete enquiry, I found that it was a reference to traditional gallery and exhibition spaces which often work to confine artists and predefine the nature of their work.

And tentacles?

Well, from reading my blog you will see that I have recently become slightly obsessed by squids in a kind of 'oh dear this is quite sad, please get other hobbies' way. But who would blame me after my weekend of squid encounters. First, while walking to the conference I came upon a production crew setting up for an American mobile phone commercial. [This kind of occurrence is not unusual in a country where everyone seems to work in film, work as an extra, or is a hobbit from Lord of the Rings].

As I walked across the set, which seemed to take up several city streets, I came upon a giant squid bursting out of a house (!)

I stopped to take a sneaky photo of this dayglow inflatable phenomena (picture left) and carried on to the conference. There, as I arrived to register at the conference desk, the man arriving next to me proclaimed himself to be from Tentacle Media.

[Of course, I immediately, and rather excitedly, showed him the squid house up the road. He looked a little frightened of me and walked off].

During lunch a small boy crawled past on the floor with a squid soft toy on his head [I kid you not - what parents would buy something like that?]. And finally, the next day a friend at the conference delighted in telling me that a new squid/jellyfish-like crop circle had appeared in theUK in last few weeks.

As I was leaving Wellington, my hosts for the weekend encouraged me to visit the Colossal Squid at Te Papa as kind of climax to this string of squid encounters...but alas time ran out, as did my medication.

Signing off.

PS: I liked this graffiti alien I found near the conference venue - it has a large squid-like head don't you think?

coded alchemy

Sue Page send's this link to a talk by Terrence McKenna on The Voynich Manuscript. This highly mysterious document is encoded in a language that has not been able to be deciphered in 500 years. With references to strange astronomical, pharmaceutical and botanical items this unique booklet has confounded intelligencia throughout the ages...and the intelligence community (most famously the National Security Agency in the US).

For something fabulously un-fictional take a look and listen to the talk.....

fresh out of the box

Fresh out of the Box is an exhibition currently showing in the hybrid Puke Ariki centre, located in Taranaki, NZ. Puke Ariki is a combined visitor centre, library, art gallery and workshop space that fosters engagement with knowledge past, present and future. A wonderful building located in the heart of provincial NZ it is a standout for small city innovation and worth a visit.

In this particular exhibition (curated by Bill Milbank) 80 objects from the heritage collection were picked out by researcher Ron Lambert to illustrate what it is like to be a Taranakian. The works included rugs, books, barbed wire fences, school uniforms and other cultural artefacts. 15 artists then were invited to reinterpret (and subvert) these items - using them as inspiration for a series of multimedia and traditional pieces. I particularly liked:

Ngahina Hohaia's mixed media installation that projected images of local Maori in and out of a giant circle of intricately hand embroidered poi(left).

Nicole Freeman's surreal painting of a child based on a collection of photographs from the centre's Swainson Collection (top),

and Paul Hartigan's beautiful neon mini-installations inspired by a rag rug carpet (below).

being tricky

Loki, Squid, Coyote, Maui, Hermes, Hanuman are the many names and faces of Trickster.

Trickster is a messenger between worlds – a god of portals and crossroads, and of unusual meetings and meeting places. Trickster is the patron of this blog and therefore worth some discussion.

According to anthropologist Lewis Hyde (Trickster Makes This World, 1998), Trickster is a transformative creature that has been set among us to help us develop and grow. Although it must be said that the activities that feed this growth are often unpleasant and disturbing experiences.

Through sneaky acts and hilarious mistakes, Trickster forces us to question dichotomies of right and wrong, private and shared, pure and dirty, true and false.

Often inducing embarrassment and shame with his lack of ability to keep secrets, Trickster also reveals hidden truths. But he also routinely reveals the obvious, the things that all of us know, but conspire not to talk about.

By helping us see our world with new eyes, the Trickster inspires both innovation, and dissolution.

Ungenreable games, installations, experiences and experiments confound our functionalist categories and force us to open our minds to new ways of knowing and understanding. Cross-boundary collaborations create unusual entanglements and become portals to different realities and possibilities. Trickster inspires all of these activities, playing with our understanding of truth and beingness for his or her own pleasure. Trickster made the Wachowski Brothers, created Hide and Seek, provoked Watergate and confused Baudrillard.

Trickster is the patron saint post post modernism, and is worth more than a little respect.

manufacturing in your living room

If you are like me and have a thousand great ideas for making things...but don't have the time or skill to put them together then Ponoko is for you (www.ponoko.com).

Ponoko is an incredibly innovative internet based initiative that allows you to design, manufacture and then sell your own products. Homeware, electronics, toys, jewellery are some of the items that have been created by Ponoko's community of amateur and professional designers. Its pretty simple...you upload your designs, then they will use a 3D printing machine to 'make' it in whatever materials you decide. You can then have it shipped to you and/or sell it to others.

According to Derek Elley, one of the company's founders, when 3d printing units are developed for home use it will be possible to manufacture almost anything in your own home, eliminating carbon miles and distribution costs....a major plus for the environment.

This new venture is the latest the DIY trend. First it was DIY house repairs, then journalism in the form of blogging, then it moved into DIY music videos and movies via Youtube. Technology has empowered people, as never before, to participate in the creation of their reality and grasp back ownership of media, and the consumer industry.

Derek spoke at a seminar I attended and I found his company and vision behind it quite inspirational. Ponoko are using cutting edge (literally) innovation to deal with global issues, and making money at the same time. After his speech he was off to San Francisco where he and his business partner are opening their US office...and I wish them luck!

Re/sense

Can we hear and taste the colour green? Are our landscapes maps of smell and sound?

These are questions that Raewyn Turner and Diana Burgoyne have been asking as part of their synaesthesia based collaboration Re/Sense, which was recently exhibited at the International Sinestesia Conference in Grenada

Synaesthesia is defined as an experience where one sense provokes another sense - for example seeing the colour blue and immediately associating this with a particular sound. Synaesthesia subverts sensorial categories and enriches our perception of reality in ways that are difficult to describe without resorting to flowery language and cliches. Although this phenomena has been explored by artists, perfumers and culinary practitioners throughout the ages, in recent years there has been a growth of interest within the scientific professions. This has resulted in a number of well funded trandisciplinary conferences and collaborations.

Raewyn is one of NZ's foremost interdisciplinary artists and has exhibited multi-sensory installations internationally for many years. But is was in the small city of New Plymouth that she originally conceptualised this work.

While walking around the streets and parks she photographed many different 'greens' - plants, objects etc. This digital photo collection was used to create a computerized colour palette, which was then made into a video. She then invited Diana (a Canadian electronics specialist) to collaborate with her to put sound to the pictures. Diana did this by using a sensor that is sensitive to variations in the tone and intensity within the colour palette to create a "responsive frequency generator" [not sure what this is either but sounds tricky!]. She attached her circuit sensor to the computer screen while it displayed the video and this created sounds corresponding to the differing greens. The result is an audio/visual sketch of the colour green.

Later Raewyn made a second video of Canadian greens with the idea of projecting both videos on opposite walls. The animated pallets were shown to the commercial perfumer, Louise Crouch, who offered commercial fragrances which synaesthetically match the visual green sequences. All of this work was assisted by Banff New Media Institute who provided funding for a residency and expert input from interdisciplinary group of art, media and science professionals.

For more information about Raewyn's background and work see: http://raewynturner.co.nz/

extraordinary voyages in strange times

I've been voyaging in the hinterlands of reality for a couple of months engaging in a new and, of course, subversively ungenreable activity. All I can say is that the "Swine Flu/H1N1" pandemic arrived very synchronicitously with my latest venture which involves apocalyptic activity as a core theme;-)

I will launch details of this in the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime wanted to mention a few meetings and connections you may be interested in.

Last week I had a drink with the internationally respected media curator and digital artist Honor Harger who was here on a flying visit with her partner Patrick. (I met Honor when she attended Luminous Green in Singapore)

Honor is most famous for Radioqualia, which broke new ground in transdisciplinary practice by using broadcasting techniques to create new artistic forms and illuminate abstract ideas.

Her partner Patrick J. Gyger, is the Directeur-conservateur of the Maison d' Ailleurs - the Museum of Science Fiction, Utopia and Extraordinary Voyages. This fabulous sounding Museum holds exhibitions, educational seminars, and events that illustrate the science behind popular fantasy and science fiction themes. This is not a prop museum for Star Trek memorabilia, but a location for academic research and exchange in the areas of science, literature and art. Jules Verne of course features prominently, but so do other authors and artists who have invented worlds, and taken us on journeys using a number of different mediums. Take a look at the site to see some of their latest exhibitions.

Today Rod Oram was guest speaker at the business school where I regularly lecture. He delivered a stunning presentation on the opportunities arising from our current economic crisis and the latest ideas around sustainable business practice. If you can get the chance to read his material or hear him speak I strongly recommend it. His quick wit, intellectual breadth, and his ability to be right on the pulse of emerging trends makes him one of the most influential and well respected thinkers in NZ today.

Finally, Bill McKibben, author, educator and environmentalist has been on a whirlwind tour of NZ. I heard him talk at Waitakere City Council who kindly hosted his West Auckland presentation. The www.350.org website has details of how to get involved in what is fast becoming the leading global campaign attempting to influence the Copenhagen Climate Change summit that is taking place this December. If ever there was an issue that required cross boundary cooperation this is it! And 350 has already produced a number of innovative and creative initiatives. Take a look at these here

Be back soon with more news;-)

connectivity and the indigenous

I just finished attending the SCANZ new media symposium held at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth. The symposium was the culmination of a two week residency programme entitled  'Raranga Tangata' (the weaving together of people).  This broad theme interconnected chaos theory, complexity, cybernetics, post-structuralism AND pasifika, aboriginal, indigenous, south american, indian, asian, polynesian and maori knowledge or belief systems. The themes of environmental response and participation were also interwoven within this broader agenda.  

When european artists engage with the ideas and materials of marginalised peoples (whatever form that takes) you are always going to have the shadow of exploitation, the tension of 'getting it right', the edge between political correctness, honesty and experimentation present somewhere in the background. And there were definately some awkward moments dancing in and around these issues and edges!

Given this is the case, traditional symposiums are not the best design for deeper dialogue to take place as they tend to be very timebound and formal in structure.  I tend to favour more participative structures such as the one we use for Luminous Green.

All that said, there was some innovative and valuable work on display, and the people attending (including international participants) were impressive for both their experience, and in their depth of talent and knowledge.

Highlights for me included:

Dr Herman Pi'ikea Clarke's discussion paper on Kanaka Maoli art and the eluding of globalization in Hawaii was the standout for me. He talked about the squid and its trickster nature. Squids swim in two directions at once and are very clever at hiding and disguising themselves.  This is a great way of also describing the actions of indigenous Hawaiian artists after their monarchy was overthrown by the US. Art is a wonderful way of disguising revolutionary comment and insurgency. As someone who has experienced colonisation at its worst, and best, he provided a human counterpoint to some of the more academic and abstract papers. He also used easy to understand and connective language to put forward his ideas which was a great relief.

Zita Joyce gave a wonderful paper on the taonga of the radio spectrum.  Her source material was Waitangi Tribunal claims by Maori, but wove these into research into etheric communication with spirits, and the history of the radio broadcast spectrum.   From her abstract: the Waitangi claims frame radio spectrum as a fluid space of extensive interconnection and knowledge transfer between people, and between humans, ancestors and gods. When the paper is loaded online I will provide a link as I found it extremely informative.

Mike Baker simultaneously presented his paper to us, and to an audience in Second Life who we could see on a large screen. I thought this was fabulous, and made sure everyone around me at the time thought so too...thus making me the most uncool person in the room. I need to work on my arts-academic poker face:-)

His work on 'leaving' was thought provoking.  The idea that in every arrival are the seeds of our 'leaving' was one of his central themes.

Heather Raikes' Corpus Corvus was a presentation of her project to integrate digital 3D stereoscopic image (translation: 3D images you see with glasses), ambiosonic sound (posh surround sound) and dance performance based on the archetypical movements of Ravens. It is a hybrid project that augments the physical reality of dance performance with visuals and sounds that move in and out of spaces between (and within) dancers and audience. Check out her website which is an exceptional example of how to document complicated hybrid, trandisciplinary projects in a relatively simple way.

Helen Varley Jamieson, and her colleagues performed an interesting piece using the upstage cyberperformance platform. Best let you read about the theory behind it here, and explain that what I saw in practice was  snippets of commentary and quotations appearing and then moving around a big screen in front of us,  a woman running back and forth across the screen in real life (on a raised platform) using a white canvas board to 'capture'  different quotes as they appeared (by sticking the canvas in between the projector and screen), background noise in different languages which got louder and more confusing..and eventually rose to and indecipherable cresendo...while the words on screen started going crazy and melting into a red mess superimposed onto an image of a brain.  Sorry to give such a prosiac explaination but hey thats what it looked like to me!  

Finally, I had a chance to connect with Angus Leech from ART Mobile Lab at Banff. He is doing some great work using mobile phones, gps systems and open source software that allows you to mark 'place' with audio and sound files.  You can basically set up digital trails around parks, urban environments etc that have pictures, stories, music etc attached, allowing learning and fun to happen in really creative ways. The marker points that you normally have with GPS systems trigger as you approach, allowing you to see what other people have noted about that particular spot.  Take a look at their project pages for more details.

On the note of physical/digital interface and innovative learning in natural settings, it appears that Taranaki is leading the way with their work in the 60 Springs project in Pukekura Park. Hopefully I can put some further information about this on the blog soon. 

Am glad I attended the symposium, will definately be following up with some of the artists and academics present.

PS: the image on this item is a little valentine trinket I picked up in the rather fabulous gift shop. Well worth going to the gallery just to shop. Happy (belated) HallMark Valentines Day

cola, fear and slow rivers winding

Several things..... 

A friend just delivered me some fabulous cube cola concentrate. It is the base incredient for creating DIY cola, and I first encountered it at a blind cola tasting/installation in Brussels a couple of years ago. If you want a subversive open source alternative to mainstream cola domination, and a lovely tea towel based manual that comes with it visit: http://www.sparror.cubecinema.com/cube/cola/

Another friend, an experimental musician and artist, has been creating Below 20, an installation to be previewed in Brussels in March. The performance based installation is focussed on how fear is generated in society through media and surviellance and includes a blog which presents samples from the  'fear' industry.  The actual performance will not only create an environment of fear, but reveal how this is done at the end.  A great example of using art to build our capacity for  critical reflection.

For those of you interested in transdisciplinary initiatives, Slowflow invites artists, technologists and environmentalists on a 6 day journey down the Whanganui River (in NZ) by double hulled 22 person waka haurua (canoe) and bicycle, creating the setting for a flow of conversations - Te Ia Kōrero between different people and points of view. Over the course of the six day journey local experts are invited to give short talks about the historical context of each site they pass. Participants bring a project to make or experiment with on the trip. Whether it be a piece of technology, a piece of media, an art work, documentation of the trip, or some writing, the collective works will form the basis of an exhibition, a web site and a publication. 

Finally, it is well worth listening to this Radio NZ interview of Jane McGonigal. Jane is one of the world's experts of social gaming and gives an interesting overview of ARGs, and some useful arguement towards fun and games as tools of learning and community development:

http://www.radionz.co.nz/__data/assets/audio_item/0007/1851613/sat-20090131-0905-Jane_McGonigal_serious_play-m048.asx

(Thanks to Carl C. for alerting me to Slow River and Jane M)

trandisciplinary engagement and collaboration

People have been asking me what 'transdisciplinary' engagement is all about, and since I am thinking about this at the moment while collating some research for a client I will be self-indulgent and actually blog a decent amount of text on the subject:-)

what is it?

 Essentially transdisciplinary engagement exists in the space between traditional specialisms and disciplines.  It is the point where people not only bring their expertise and experience to the table, but simultaneously transcend this to engage in new, ungenreable activities and actions in collaboration with others. 

 why it important right now?

 Healthy, collaborative relationships have always been a major key to success in any enterprise, and are the bedrock to society. But why is transdisciplinary collaboration particularly important right now?

 Parallel to the development of global telecommunication networks and media, there has been a strong global trend evident to network, and collaborate, across traditional boundaries of sector, geography, discipline, and religion.

 The degree of percieved complexity, in our lives has increased to the point where finite understandings or boundaries are almost obsolete, except for very few manufacturing and administrative tasks and processes. 

 The  'known' world has become increasingly 'unknowable'. 

 The growth of sophisticated online social networking and media tools (eg. Ning, Linked inFacebook, Youtube, flickr) has allowed us to build maps to navigate complex global relationships, and to bridge geographic distance. Also to work in ways that were never though possible previously. They have also meant that traditional notions of knowledge and truth are no longer valid, or at least very unstable. (Especially when faced with constructivist tools such as 'wikipedia' where knowledge is collaboratively generated rather than disseminated by 'experts').

 Social media has allowed other people's stories to be heard and shared in our own living room, making it very difficult to live in a world where environmental, social, economic and cultural crisises are 'other people's problems' and 'out of site and out of mind'.

 Also a number of interventions and solutions are needed to engage with the incredibly complex nature of the crises facing us. Climate change, poverty and conflict are interwoven, and caused by thousands of different actions. They are also spawned from a way of thinking that has dominated our plant since the enlightenment, thinking based on seperatist reality and fixed, objective truth.  To deal with issues such as climate change, interventions need to join and transcend current disciplines rather than be formed within each of them seperately. 

What helps?

 There are a number of factors that support trandisciplinary collaboration in my experience these include:

• some shared passion or interest e.g. climate change
• organisational committment and support for the individuals participating
• adequate resources, including time
• a reasonably high degree of communication skills
• a commitment to participation and equity, coupled with an understanding of power and rank differentials
  
• a committment to understanding and learning from interpersonal process as much as the content
• some degree of meta-reflective capacity and self awareness - i.e. the ability to look at ones actions and assumptions from a distance
  
• the presence of intermediaries that support interaction and process not just manage content eg. facilitators and brokers like Foam, Brussels
  

 

While one off events are helpful, the deepest, and most sustainable transdisciplinary work is based on long term partnerships applied to practical projects and issues.

 

Would welcome your thoughts to the above....

the great bates street light up

Who knew that plastic rubbish could be so beautiful?  

You will remember from an earlier post

that I found Raewyn Pope and her magical lights at a local polytech student art show.  Soon after that blog entry, I introduced Raewyn to a regeneration project working to light up a notorious state house street with magical Xmas lights as part of a bigger 'Xmas at the Pa' celebration.

 .......and the result was a magical transformation of 'normal' xmas lights into amazing light installations of glowing lego, coloured plastic plates, icecream lids and recycled softdrink bottles. [Raewyn pictured right]

As well as making recycled lights out of plastic junk, whanau worked very hard to make wooden cultural motifs and mascots for their houses which they painted with the help a local artist in the community. Help was also provided by Matua George (pictured left) on the drill, Les the school caretaker and local whanau members who came and helped on the skill saw.

Instead of  pine trees and reindeer, which never sat very well in 25degree NZ summer heat, they created Pacific Island and Maori flowers, symbols and flags. 

 

Yesterday local fireman helped install all the lights and wooden structures on their down time this morning and local tradespeople chipped in for materials..it was a real community effort.

Finally, after weeks of planning the Xmas at the Pa event happened and the whole group ended the night by watching the houses light up to amazing effect. 

The original idea, and all the hard weeks of legwork and project planning was down to another group consisting of Edmund Hillary Primary School leaders, community workers from Papakura District Council, and local police as part of the Awhi Wraparound Project. 

All good. Now all I want for Xmas is a better camera so the night pics I took are actually worth publishing:-(

...now I understand why the postman wears board shorts

..I almost choked on my soymilk hot chocolate today when I opened up today's NZ Herald and read something spookily related to my eariler post about the Truman Syndrome.  The article entitled "Welcome to the land that's all about making movies"  refers to a new Atlas where NZ is described as being "one giant film set" and a "place where nothing is as it seems".

 The North Island apparently houses film studios, aircraft hanger special effects sets and crew trailers, and the South Island is a holding area and parking lot for equipment trucks. Am I on to a giant conspiracy? Is the greatest secret of them all finally being revealed?  See what you think at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10546238  

  

The original source of this amazing revelation is called Our Dumb World, http://www.theonion.com/content/atlas/  and the publication The Onion is one of the funniest spoof news sites around, kind of an online newspaper version of The Daily Show.  Take a look here: http://www.theonion.com/content/index

and just before I move off this topic and take my paranoia medication for the day ..google has listed the following as the 'fastest rising searches':

Fastest rising searches of 2008
1. olympics
2. facebook
3. youtube
4. lotto
5. wiki
6. seek
7. miniclip
8. asb
9. tvnz
10. large hadron collider
11. heath ledger
12. obama
13. gossip girl
14. jonas brothers
15. miley cyrus
16. euro 2008
17. mathletics 

Is there anybody else who thinks item number 10 is extremely disturbing??

  

To capture the zietgist of the moment see: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist/index.html  its actually a great tool...

the greatest reality show on earth

Today I came across a large cluster of articles describing 'Truman Syndrome', a delusion where sufferers believe themselves to be a conscripted participant in a giant reality show. 

Understanding the way that we construct and relate to reality is crucial to solving some of the biggest issues on the planet and articles like this may indicate the weak signals on the horizon of bigger shifts.  

Is it that people are having existential awakenings to the social construction of life...or are they unstable, or both? Big transformational shifts happen most often at the point of greatest confusion and disruption. Perhaps, in a very strange way, we are seeing signals of awareness that has always been recorded in the esoteric scriptures of every major religion. The awareness that reality is an illusion. Before loosing you completely by talking about the work of Foucault on the construction of madness it is probably best for you to to take a look for yourself at  http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hWkftqeFi0EBmsf7Gw-g-iaBkhdg  or google Truman Syndrome for other articles.

garden guardians

 guardians have appeared from awhiworld to guard the portals in the garden. Made from junk and crafted by creative teaching staff and pupils, they fend off unwelcome guests (including birds) and remind students of the important role of gatekeepers.

gameland

Running around the streets of Brazil at 7am in the morning is an exhausting process as I found out by playing http://www.canyouseemenow.co.uk/.today. It's the latest game/street installation from the incredible group at www.blastheory.co.uk.

Can You See Me Now is a chase game played online and on the streets. Players are dropped at random locations onto a virtual map of the streets around Belo Horizonte, a city in South East Brazil.

[extract from their site] Tracked by satellites, Blast Theory's runners appear online next to your player. Situated in the real city, handheld computers showing the position of online players guide the runners in tracking you down.An audio stream from Blast Theory's walkie talkies lets you eavesdrop on your pursuers: getting lost and out of breath on the real streets. If a runner gets within 5 metres of you, a sighting photo is taken and your game is over.

In practice all of this is incredibly surreal as you hear people talking to each other to track you down, vocally responding to your texts and doing their best to manuaver around busy the busy street life of the neighbourhood.

It blurs several reality boundaries. The players were not only reacting to people on the street around them, but also talking as if they could see us running in front of them in real time. They frequently paused to reminisce about people they hadn't seen for a while which added to the atmosphere and injected a kind of performance disturbance into what seemed to be a 'real' game. The excitement of being somehow simultaneously in two places at once was also interesting. I was running around the streets and being engaged with as a fugitive...while at the same time occaisionally dipping into my facebook or writing an email.

Unfortunately I was caught several times over by the Runners much to my annoyance. But there was an element of comradery to this that made it fun and frustrating at the same time.

The event plays for two more mornings and is a fantastic way to see technology used in a really creative way...and has applications for working with youth around environmental issues and getting people engaged with spaces in a new way.

I also checked out Superstruct..an environmental ARG designed to educate people about various possible futures. They have some slick visuals and interactive materials that are worth looking at...and of course the idea is that you contribute to the story by sending in your own material. Excellent educational resources, and a great step on from http://worldwithoutoil.org/ but slicker.

hybrids and connections

in the last wee while I have come across some great examples of leading edge, often strange and occasionally controversial hybrid work connecting:

human and trees: http://www.biopresence.com/description.html

humans and machines: www.interface.ufg.ac.at

creative practice and technology: http://www.hexagram.org/spip.php?page=home&lang=en&sid=0

culture and technology: www.trans-techresearch.net

art and science: http://www.leonardo.info/isast/leoplan.html

art, science and games (by a friend and foam colleague Angelo Vermeulen): http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=EGuMrrpO8LU

http://www.athensnews.com/entertainment/2008/jan/14/artwork-turns-computer-gamers-green-thumbed-sculpt/

sculpture and sound: http://www.sonicobjects.com/

culture and nature: http://nextnature.net/

art and streetlife: http://www.xmarkjenkinsx.com/outside.html

biology and art: http://www.greenmuseum.org/content/artist_index/artist_id-19.html

enjoy...

tourist in my own land....

Have you ever had that experience where you wander around your neighbourhood and suddenly discover something new that you hadn’t seen or experienced before? Something that was probably there all the time, but you took it for granted, or missed it in the daze of just getting through life? That happened to me recently at Manukau Festival of the Arts 2008.

Manukau is one of the most diverse districts in NZ with over 180 ethnic groups living in the surrounds, and nearly 40 percent speaking two or more languages (with Samoan being the most widely spoken language after English). It’s a place where new sub-divisions sit uneasily next to state housing ghettos, and roads often are the only barrier between utter poverty and suburban utopia.

Over the weekend I attended several different events in the final days of the festival: a writing workshop, an exhibition of work from students at Manukau School of Visual Arts, and a Pecha Kucha evening.

Highlights for me were… the work of final year student Raewyn Pope who made wonderful light installations using second hand and recycled materials.

Tin cans, plastic plates, old gardening implements…all of them were illuminated to create grass-roots chandeliers and glowing Tupperware. (I have a project in mind that I would love to entice her into;-)

I also liked Charlie Lu’s illuminated pictures depicted life in Auckland in shiny 2D, kitchy but fun.

Another student, Krystle Tavai, created an un-fictional suburb called Mannixville using life size figures and the graphic novel form. The feel of it was very south Auckland but the style was comic book/colouring-in book. This caught my eye because one of my current projects/experiments involves older youth creating books for younger children in their neighbourhoods.The idea of colouring books featuring pictures of people and things that kids can relate to in their own neighbourhood inspires me!. (This idea was generated by Tama Johnson at CEAT Ltd, the alternative education school I am collaborating with).

At the Pecha Kucha night http://www.pechakucha.co.nz/?page_id=6 held at the Telstra Pacific Centre, there were many standouts. Benjamin Work, a born again Christian graffiti artist who has achieved some degree of fame internationally with his grass-roots based work.
[if you are into some pretty innovative graffiti art see ANATs site! http://grl.anat.org.au/grl]

Siliga David Setoga who uses t-shirt as his medium for cultural commentary.

Other speakers included: Coco Solid an independent publisher revolutionary comic book creator and musician, Raymond Raymond Sagapolutele aka RIMONI ‘brotographer’at large in South Auckland, Matthew Salapu Faiumu aka ANONYMOUZ a classically trained pianist and rapper working with youth in the area and Andrew Tu’inukuafe architect who’s work in NZ is inspired by the idea of NZ as a pacific nation. Take a look at the site…I was incredibly inspired by the people who spoke, all of whom affirmed for me the tremendous creative power generated by diverse identity within close knit community.

PS: I also really enjoyed seeing people being forced to present well by nature of the format. Will definitely experiment with that format (20 photos of 20 seconds each) next time I run a gig.

awhiworld update and a 3D excursion

A certain primary school had another visit from Raewyn (picture left), the intrepid portal investigator this week along with my story-ing, Suess- hat, wearing self (picture right).

This time the focus was on gatekeepers, and the importance of guardianship.

Who are gatekeepers and guardians? What are the qualities they bring to communities and schools?, we asked the children?

They protect the school. They look after our garden. They guard the magical doorways and portals... the children answered.

The children attentively listening to my story of portals and gatekeepers through time, and watched Raewyn's inspirational images and ideas about protective energies and structures. They all then disappeared back to their classrooms to work with their teachers to construct gatekeepers for their school garden. They are starting on paper, but will eventually work on a bigger scale with recycled materials. The vision is to end up with creative structures that will sit around the school greenery to remind them of good gatekeeper/guardian values.


A couple of days later the staff of this amazing school attended a teacher development day at Nextspace: www.nextspace.co.nz,
one of NZ's leading 3D graphic imaging innovation hubs. Brenda Frisk (Business and Education Strategist for Nextspace) the visionary school leaders, and myself, had designed this excursion in order to help teachers develop their skills in 3D virtual space, and thus prepare for even more creative hijinks next year.

On the day, Brenda worked with the teachers using Right Hemisphere designed Deep Exploration software, to create storyboards, presentations and other documents with 3D content. Brenda also assisted us to look into the future, where our workforce (and therefore education system) will need to dramatically change in order to keep up with the 3D revolution that is occuring in every industry and profession.

Next year the vision is that Awhiworld will go 3D, and that innovative practices will occur simultaneously in the physical, digital and imaginal rhealms. While current digital and communication infrastructure at the school is extremely poor, but school leadership is working very hard to bring it up to a level that will allow creative juices to move from 2D to 3D visual work.

expo-sing un-popular culture

Yesterday I had a disturbing regression into the darker parts of my youth for research purposes. I hereby confess to attending the pulp culture expo otherwise known as Armegaddon

http://www.pulpexpo.com/

I took the time to play a few video games ..from the creatively tame Spore, through to the R18 shoot em up genre which were incredibly realistic and totally horrible. I must confess that I am seriously bad at playing games...my hand eye coordination just isnt what it used to be.

And as for games like RockBand (or something like that) which involves going onto a stage and playing musical instruments in front of crowds of highly critical peers ..............well I left that to the much braver metallica wearing mob of teenage boys in black. Unfortunately many of them were too cool to choose the 'easy' level on the game and kept opting for 'expert'. Thus leading to them crashing and burning in front of groups of jeering digital (and warm blooded) audiences.

The only really interesting exhibit was put on by Weta Studios. There I met Greg Broadmore who is building fascinating, un-genreable and unfictional artefacts and publications. http://www.thebattery.co.nz/GregBroadmore/TheBattery_GregBroadmore.htm
http://www.gregbroadmore.blogspot.com/
http://www.wetanz.com/holics/index.php?catid=4

His work includes Infallible Aether Oscillators, which are a line of immensely dangerous yet simple to operate wave oscillation weapons.

Meticulously built to the exacting standards and plans of Dr. Grordbort, these weapons, bespangled in fine detail and with various (most likely quite dangerous) moving parts are the perfect addition to a gentleman's study or a deterring centerpiece for a lady's powder room or chiffonier. (Or so his website tells us)

I talked to Greg about the need for conduits between the creative professions and community development work, and he agreed...and I noticed that just before I left he signed an autograph for a very young fan that told him 'school is cool' or something like that. Nice work.

Other than Weta there was some interesting Manga animation, a few C-list Stargate Atlantis stars, a couple of special effects and production design stands (Cutabove Academy) ...and then a bunch of tacky stuff not really worth entrance price.

As an expedition into a relatively strange land, an opportunity to re-embrace my inner geek, a chance to connect with really creative people and a place to kill some time before some other social events.... it was well worth attending. But if this is NZ youth sub-culture at its best I am worried!

appreciative inquiry

In the last few days a few people have expressed an interest in the Appreciative Inquiry approach to community engagement. So here is the link to the Appreciative Inquiry Commons:http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/ and some links to articles and case studies I have written on the topic:

http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/practice/organizationDetail.cfm?coid=6981&sector=22

http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/practice/organizationDetail.cfm?coid=4082&sector=22

http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/practice/organizationDetail.cfm?coid=7427&sector=22

I still use many of the ideas but now intertwine them with different creative and hybrid practices:

http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/practice/organizationDetail.cfm?coid=12177&sector=28

PS: photo is of me and a village elder taking a break during an Appreciative Inquiry session in MBam Eco-Village, Senegal, West Africa.

the return

Landed back in Aotearoa after a long flight from Beijing. The Dialogue on Art, Culture and Climate Change was wonderful. I spent two days facilitating a wonderful group of artists, scientists and cultural facilitators who are doing extremely interesting projects around the globe. I strongly recommend look at the following link to the participant bios as there may be some interesting connections for you to make to your own practice, and some great people to network with...

http://www.culture360.org/artandclimatechange/

I worked with the group on the weekend using techniques ideas from World Cafe

http://www.theworldcafe.com/what.htm

and Open Space Technology

http://www.openspaceworld.org/cgi/wiki.cgi?AboutOpenSpace

weaved into the archetypal themes of Food, Shelter, Clothing and Mobility.
Collaboration and connection definately resulted, as well as a lot of good learning around what we could do differently next time to improve the sustainable conference model:-)

The experience reemphasised for me how important it is to learn and exchange across professional and cultural boundaries in order to best deal with global natural resource and climate change issues. Given the rush to cooperate over the global credit crisis it seems vital that we mobilise this same sense of urgency and importance around the issue of climate change..if we can do it for the banking system, then we can certainly do it for the eco-system!

pan fried bullfrog and hoping keep-fit massage

After a few dicey moments on the runway at HongKong, when the tail end of a cyclone blew in, I have arrived in Beijing safe and almost sound. Today we worked in an area that was once a large factory, and is now a dynamic centre for art and design. Cafes, galleries, studios and educational institutions squeeze together with open air sculptures and installations. More photos to come in the next few days, but here are a few that represent my day...

beijing bound

This Sunday I will be leaving awhiworld for China to facilitate the Dialogue on Art, Culture & Climate Change. This is an investigation into the role of culture and the arts in the cross-cultural dialogue on climate change between and in Asia and Europe. The project gathers together 50 Asian and European artists, designers, architects, cultural practitioners, environmentalists and scientists to exchange across boundaries of discipline, culture and geography. I am facilitating on behalf of Foam, Brussels. http://www.culture360.org/artandclimatechange

awhiworld update

Teachers at a certain school have been hard at work creatively engaging their children in the uncovery of the parallel reality known as Awhiworld.

Gatekeepers have been identified within the local community and their amazing qualities and values have been studied as part of their social studies material. Mapping of awhi territory has taken place as part of their maths curriculum, while art and english have focused on print making, and story telling aspects of their excavation and uncovery process. Last week portal activiation devices were created with secret codes embedded, and forensic analysis of anomalous items (found during expeditions around the school) has continued. While it is challenging working with an integrated curriculum, and with the imagination, some payoffs are already being noticed. Boys in particular seem to take to this kind of work quite well, as the older ones can cross reference between gaming environments and the material.

The photos below show: a print example, a portal activation device with coded message, some of the gatekeeper material, and a pair of magic shoes which can be worn by any boy or girl, at any time, to instill them with magical properties.

this is what I am talking about....

Some of you have said you want to find out more about interactive media, street gaming, and participatory hybrid events. Here are just a few recent (and upcoming) events and organisations.

http://igfest.org/schedule

http://sandpit.hideandseekfest.co.uk/blog/

http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/

growing buildings....

Courtesy of the luminous green network http://luminousgreen.org/ you may find the following links interesting. They give examples of plant/architecture hybrids used in commercial settings....anyone interested in weeding some wallpaper?


http://pingmag.jp/2006/12/08/vertical-garden
-the-art-of-organic-
http://www.dezeen.com/2008/08/31/harmonia-57-by-triptyque/

These were provided by annemie maes from Okno. Take a look at their site and her blogs for other interesting bits...

http://thoughtsandtalks.so-on.be
http://okno.be
http://so-on.be



Nik Gaffney from Foam also sent out this link about 3D printing techniques being applied to buildings....

http://www.dezeen.com/2008/08/31/harmonia-57-by-triptyque/

forensic investigations of awhiworld

At 13:25 pm (GMT +12) yesterday a specialist in the forensic investigation of portals, and other anomalous activity visited a certain primary school . Raewyn Turner came straight from her lab to assist children in their continued investigation of Awhiworld, the parallel reality to which this term's curriculum is dedicated to reactivating.

Raewyn presented material from her numerous investigations including evidence of strange signs, wild writings and unnatural occurances.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blJFIlGB6io

Children were then divided into small groups to carry out detailed analysis of their school grounds using specialized forensic analysis kits. As the children explored the grounds a number of strange items of interest, and places of significance emerged. Children were encouraged to increase their awareness of their surroundings, and to work in groups to ensure no area was left uninvestigated.

Items that were found included numerous hidden portals, and even some rare portal glass found by a little girl who discovered a vary rare talent for finding extra small and interesting items.

Children will be writing about their finds in class in the coming days. Other classes are studying 'gatekeepers' and the qualities and values that are needed for this important role. In particular they are looking at gatekeepers in their community who are important for the protection of awhiworld. Smaller children are discussing important aspects of the Patupairehe (sky or fairie people from Maori mythology), and putting these onto story boards...will the very oldest children are learning about the environment in a global sense.

Awhiworld activities will continue to the end of term.

PS: the substitute teacher was a little disturbed by Raewyn's talk as he had not realised that such investigators existed, or that portals were so prevalent in the school grounds. He was a great sport in the end:-)

not sustainable

Recently I attended a talk by Michael Braungart, one of the authors of Cradle to Cradle.

http://www.mcdonough.com/cradle_to_cradle.htm
http://www.mbdc.com/c2c_home.htm

He presented a compelling challenge to the traditional view of sustainability..particularly in relation to its role in design and technology. In trying to be "less bad" we are making a hash of things effectively and creating more problems than solving them. It would be more effective to design products that can be "perpetually circulated in closed loops", with life cycles that last cradle to cradle. Braungart had some interesting things to say about fear based cultures, and the need to change these to cultures fed by connection and openness (love). He, and his partner, William McDonoughs are having some success with designers and manufacturers who are wanting be more cost effective, equitable and ecologically sound in their design, production, marketing and distribution processes.

This was a nice lecture to attend after seeing the movie Earth earlier in the day. A documentary with some of the most amazing camera work I have ever witnessed. Who knew that Mandarin ducks nested in trees? I would say though that I am done with seeing any more nature movies that feature polar bears in dire circumstances!
See:

http://www.loveearth.com/uk/earthfilm

open house

Awhiwraparound held their quarterly update meeting this week. It included a Ko Tuitui (idea weaving) process that allowed people to discuss themes such as parenting, youth leadership and safe streets initiatives.
1st September marks the opening of the new community house where some of these activities and initiatives will be based.
Its all good.

breaking news

At 09:00 hours, Monday August 25th, 2008 young primary school children (aged 5 to 12) gathered at their regular school assembly. But something was different that day.

At 9:10 am sirens were heard throughout the neighbourhood as a police car pulled into the school. Running into the hall the police officer (in full protective riot gear) delivered a CD to the school. Apparently he had been directed to deliver this to the school by some strange other-worldly force.

The message was played, and in amongst the distortion a strange booming voice filled the hall:

“I am from the Patupaiarehe iwi of Pukekiwiriki. I have limited time to send you this message and have used the police communication network to make sure you receive it and that you know that it is IMPORTANT. You must know that you are about to begin a journey of discovery. Go back to your classroom you must listen very carefully to your teachers. I have given them some detailed information and instructions for you.”

At this the teachers rushed their respective students away to hunt for a message hidden somewhere in each of the classrooms. Some messages had been very well hidden and required some quite deep searching before they were revealed. Finally, when found, the paper messages all said the following (with younger students getting a more abbreviated version):

[Extract from Awhi Message discovered 25/08/08]

….there is a very great secret. There is a world that sits alongside yours, a world that is not easily seen. This world is called many names, for now you may call it ‘Awhi’. Entrance to this world comes through a network of portals that have existed all over your planet from ancient times. These portals act as conduits for energies from Awhi world that are critical to keeping your planet green, healthy and peaceful.

We also don’t know how Awhi, or the portals came to exist, but we do know that, throughout time special people have been appointed as Gatekeepers. These Gatekeepers hold the secrets of Awhi world, they also control access in and out of the world through the portals, and help work with the energies that flow between our worlds.

The Patupaihere’s role has been to help in this process, we visit Awhiworld regularly, and many others like it, and it is in our interests to help the Gatekeepers in their role. But we have, for various reasons we cannot disclose, been neglectful of our duty to both the Gatekeepers,the portals and Awhiworld itself.

Thanks to our neglect, and also many other factors, many of the portals have fallen into neglect or been forgotten about. Some have deliberately hidden or disguised by those Gatekeepers we are still in contact with. Because of this, your world is being destroyed. No helpful energies get can get through, ancient secrets and understandings that could help have been lost, and destructive energies and creatures from other worlds are influencing the planet in ways that they should not.

All of this destruction, if it continues, will lead to the eventual collapse of civilisation in the year 2090. But your school garden is one of the most important portals in the network. If you can find a way to link the portal at your school with the other portals in the neighbourhood you can reactivate the entire network and save the world.

You may not be able to undo what has been already done (for example to rainforests, and to the resources gone already) but you can stop further damage and prevent total destruction of our race and of the planet itself.

We have given your teachers a programme that will help you fulfil your task listen carefully. Your future and that of the entire planet is at stake. Go well children you are heroes of Earth.”

Due to the importance of this message school curriculum has been completely dedicated to Awhiworld activities until the end of this semester (and possibly the end of this year).

Portal location mapping, forensic analysis and documentation, treasure hunts, investigation of local cultural and myth, seed growing and backyard gardening, and a variety of other activities have now been set in motion. Amazingly all of these activities fulfil curriculum standards set by the Ministry of Education..they also have the beneficial side affect of regenerating the neighbourhood and catalysing some innovative community development initiatives.

If you are a creative professional and wish to assist these young heroes to save the planet you are welcome to contact me as soon as possible. No matter where you are in the world your help is needed!

AwhiWorld has emerged.

return from luminous green

Singapore was a great success. Human rights activists, artists, politicians and scientists came together to discuss topics close to their hearts including: games and sustainability, saturation, frugality, is zero no thing?, ear cleaning, luxury emissions versus survival emissions and a sitting on grass protest. To get a taste of this and the masses of other great content go to:

http://lib.fo.am/luminous/panel_2008

http://lib.fo.am/luminous/workshop_2008

http://lib.fo.am/luminous/luminous_green_notes

http://lib.fo.am/luminous/workshop_2008_introduction

http://luminousgreen.org/

for photos:

http://flickr.com/photos/foam/sets/72157606498018873/

for some individual interviews by Andrea Polli:http://lib.fo.am/luminous/tell_your_climate_change_story

and a link to a great blog by a local activist Seelan Palay who I met at the gig:

http://singaporeindianvoice.blogspot.com/2008/06/seelan-palay-i-am-in-total-disagreement.html

luminous green singapore

How do you grow a human world, that is enlightened, imaginative, electrified and most importantly – living in a fertile symbiosis with the planet?

FoAM (Belgium), are yet again calling on the creative sector to enrich the public debate around environmental sustainability, ethical living, eco-technology and design through Luminous Green http://www.luminousgreen.org/.

The workshops (on the 30th and 31st July) are nestled within the International Symposium of Electronic Art (ISEA2008)

http://www.isea2008singapore.org/index.html

and are designed to encourage transdisciplinary discussions and collaborations between people from all walks of life, including artists, designers, academics, activists, social entrepreneurs, economists and policy-makers.

Maja, Nik www.fo.am and myself will be facilitating/producing

...take a look:

http://www.isea2008singapore.org/conference/conf_workshops.html#luminous

http://www.isea2008singapore.org/conference/conf_panels.html#maja

matariki mirror building

Last night over 400 adults and 300 children turned up in torrential rain and storms to celebrate Matariki (the Maori New Year). They came to enjoy performances by the school children and eats lots of fabulous food.

They also came to shift their reality and grow a new world.

As inhabitants of an area rife with poverty, violence and substance abuse, it has been easy for people to believe they are bottom of the social pile.

Well meaning experts (and the appalling NZ media) have fed this belief with piles of statistics and stacks of in-depth reports and articles. Label after label has been stuck on the consciousness of the inhabitants including: The Hood, Crime Block, Gang Haven, Tinnie House and P-lab ghetto.
The agenda of last nights event, was to do something different. The people of our community have been provided with a distorted mirror that only reflects pain, fear and suffering. It is the stuff of nasty fairy tales.

Using exercises, peformances, visuals, and good old fashioned fun and games everyone was encouraged to celebrate what is good, positive and functional, and in between lightening bolts and hangi smoke the foundations of a new mirror was built.

welcome to awhiworld

It’s been interesting times here in NZ.

I have been reactivating urban spaces using ideas from geo-caching and treasure hunting; opening portals and generating parallel worlds in deprived sub-urban neighbourhoods; and facilitating photo rap odes to abandoned netball courts.Basically putting the ideas from this blog into practice!

Spawned from my work with Foam - and particularly groWorld http://www.fo.am/groworld/ - the South Auckland suburb of Papakura (my home town) has been the site of a number of semi-subversive experiments.

A local community worker inspired one project after she read my blog entry on geo-caching. By using a set of written clues, in combination with GPS units, we encouraged youth to visit and engage with derelict and marginal spaces.

The next evolution of this will involve clues different media (ala ARG), a larger space, and tasks to be performed at each location with the assistance of mentors from different disciplines. I’m waiting for funding to come through to take this to the next level.

In the meantime, running parallel to this is a more comprehensive initiative called AwhiWorld. AwhiWorld combines ideas and practices drawn from art, technology, alternative and virtual reality gaming, techno-treasure hunting, urban regeneration, community development, youth empowerment and leadership development.

My vision is that, using ARG type clue systems and storylines, marginalised youth will engage with neglected spaces in creative ways that build the capacity of deprived neighbourhoods. At the same time spaces that are already filled with potential and life, will regenerate other parts of the community. For example, the garden at a local school can spread into many different spaces (including backyards) through imaginal and virtual portals that are created by children through painting, storytelling and digital imaging.

Over the next few months I am working with teaching staff to integrate AwhiWorld ideas into the curriculum and will write about this process as I go. But one small success already, is the production of a photo rap montage that was created by some youth from the local alternative education school. (Alternative Ed is where children are sent if they cannot engage well in traditional schooling and/or are excluded).

Using a combination of ideas from Appreciative Inquiry http://appreciativeinquiry.case.ed digital cameras (mobile phone or otherwise) and the help of their teacher and a local rap artist, we created a presentation that will be shown at a large community event. The rap song/visual is focussed on some abandoned netball courts that are now derelict…but have the potential to be reactivated into a fabulous community space. The kids were encouraged to see this potential through a cameral lens, and write about it … then the rap artist helped them put this together with an original beat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN3F65vssec

AwhiWorld generated as a complement to the Papakura Awhi Wraparound Project, an initiative where a Police Officer takes responsibility for a the most crime ridden and economically section of a small township (in Papakura this involves an initial pilot block of 11 streets). [Awhi means to embrace in the indigenous Maori language.]

After attending a community meeting and seeing the kinds of issues the people in the neighbourhood are facing (drug houses, gang violence, neglected children, tagging etc etc etc) I decided that it was time to see if some of the ideas in this blog could work in this kind of environment. The answer is so far, yes.

design for the other 90%

Fancy drinking dirty water out of a super straw? Or winding up your laptop to look at your email? These are some inspiring transdisciplinary projects that are taking place in the design word right now.

Last night I went to a presentation by Cynthia E. Smith, curator of the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum of New York. Her exhibition, design for the other 90%, showcases the work of designers, architects, industrial engineers and other creatives who are working to alleviate poverty and suffering in developing nations around the world.

http://other90.cooperhewitt.org/

What interests me is the possibility of working across national and disciplinary boundaries to create items that drastically changes lives in the poorer nations of the world. AND the possibilities of designing objects and experiences that alleviate poverty that exists around the corner in our own neighbourhoods. Check out the link it is a great website.

the 2008 shift report

The 2008 Shift Report, published by the Institute of Noetic Sciences is now out and I would recommend that the whole planet read it!

The report provides the most up to date synthesis of global trends and scientific discoveries. It pulls together material from individuals and organisations at the leading edge of business, science, art, philosophy, social activism and a number of other disciplines. Best of all, is written in easy to understand language.

It is a great resource for use in many different contexts and is incredible value for money.

To purchase go to: www.bleepstore.com

educating for the future

Yesterday I visited Nextspace, a not for profit think tank, catalyst, mentoring organisation charged with facilitating the growth of 3D graphical communications technology. I had a tour of the facility and a demonstration of their some of their equipment. Butterflies and golf balls flew at me out of the screen!

Brenda Frisk, Nextspace's Business and Education Strategist, had some very switched on ideas about generating innovation in NZ and, more particularly, innovative thinking. If any of you are interested in models for generating innovative thinking among youth contact
www.nextspace.co.nz

Also....in a related way you may be interested in this article that came out of the recent Creative Australia Forum.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23480181-16947,00.html

transitions, transitions

Hi All,
I have been moving countries in the last couple of months and so have had a number of opportunities to engage in reality construction first hand. Will give you some updates in the weeks to come.

happiness as a default

I just finished reading The Art of Happiness by H.H. Dalai Lama and Howard C. Culter. I highly recommend it as a book that unfolds parts of you as you read it. A different perspective on reality generation.

Do you want a reality of suffering or one of happiness? Take the happiness. Apparently it's our natural default anyway.

hubs and suds

The laundromat smells of chemicals and people. It’s overcrowded. Empty bags and containers sit on the top of machines waiting to be refilled with cleaner contents. Strangers engage in lively debate about the cost of living while folding socks and underwear. My poor French allows in only hints of the surrounding conversations and I allow myself to drift into musings about hubs.

Hubs are meeting places. Connection points where realities touch.

Some are explicitly designed for engagement and sharing e.g. conference venues, cultural centres and clubs.

Other hubs are not necessarily for the sole purpose of meeting others. Interaction here is seen as an added benefit, or annoyance depending on your disposition. Train stations, parks, supermarkets and laundromats fall into this category.

And finally there are hub points that are more ephemeral, places where suddenly a crowd gathers for no apparent reason, or for a reason that will evaporate within a short space of time. These hubs form around accidents and altercations, important conversations, charismatic people and shiny objects. They are places of temporary attraction.

Hubs are places of immense potential and opportunity. They provide the container for explicit and implicit exchange. Ideas can be generated, lives can be changed, perhaps without any words spoken. A glance creates a love story, a smile stops a suicide.

My attention turns to my immediate surroundings.

A young black couple and middle aged, rather portly, white woman are having a very lively discussion on the challenges of bringing up children in this part of the city…or perhaps they are commiserating over the rising cost of vegetables. My language skills are challenged. Anyway, they are alternating between laughing and loudly agreeing with each other.

And now the couple are leaving, shouting out loud goodbyes to their new friend. She replies in kind and then turns her smiling attention to blouses and sheets.

Seeing this inspires me to search for further evidence of the importance of hub life. Unfortunately, as I look around, everyone seems to be too busy grabbing handfuls of underwear out of small, smudged, glass doors to be even remotely interested in having deep and meaningful conversation. Societal revolution is simply not as important as making sure socks are reunited and sheets come out in one piece.

Hope walks briskly through the door, woollen cap almost obscuring his eyes. Perhaps he will start another conversation to prove my point about hubs, life etc? Hope evaporates as he aims directly for the top left drier that is now finished its cycle. Roughly pulling out his hot clothes, he stuffs them into a cheap plastic bag and walks out again as if any delay could cost him his identity. I try to make eye contact but the scruffy brown hat seems to deliberately creep further down his face. I give up.

At this point, the washing machine spins dramatically then comes to an abrupt stop. I take it as a sign to finish this entry. Hubs are important…but not as important as my laundry.

portals in the fog

Walking through damp morning air to the metro I pass row upon row of domestic portals. Some are open, ready at any minute to expel inhabitants into the sponge like fog. Most are shut. Cocooning, shielding, barricading, hiding.

A blonde dreadlocked mademoiselle pushes two small uniformed children in front of her as she transits them from the warm reality within, to the coldness waiting outside. All are solemn. Au Pair, I think to myself and wonder if they love one another, or simply exist together through capitalist circumstance.

Later, at the end of the day I drag myself home. Fog replaced by sinking blue skies. I pass the same row of portals. Nearly all are shut, too many people shuffling past for them to so shamelessly bare their contents.

I return to the door of the solemn faced trio. A chic, pert woman of middle age manoeuvres her bicycle past the two small children now tumbling out of the door. The dreadlocked mademoiselle is leaving. Her face is still solemn as she firmly holds the straps of her backpack on either side of her breasts. The children plaintively call out farewells in French as the middle aged woman tries to simultaneously push the bicycle and their little bodies back inside. They are throwing goodbyes as I turn the corner. The dreadlocked girl does not turn to catch them.

In the new street I stop for a moment and wonder about portals.

We spend much of our day moving through doors and gateways, moving from one scene to another, one world to another. But how often do we take notice of these transitions?

Sometimes are forced to notice because the world beyond requires ritual before inclusion. There are demands for tickets, invitations and documentation. For proof of eligibility.

Our burning needs for money or belonging outweigh the intrusions that are made to our bodies and our property as we are irradiated, inspected, invaded, and finally allowed to pass through into the new world.

But what about all the other portals? The gap spaces between realities that we unconsciously pass through in our homes, our workplaces, in our communities? There are rituals in different cultures to mark these points of transition. We knock, we bow, we take off certain items of clothing or remove our shoes, but often there is nothing. Nothing that marks the changes between one reality and another.

So, what would it be like to live mindful of portals? We could mark points of transition with a split second of awareness. We may acknowledge the privilege of being (sometimes inadvertently) shown another families world by sending good thoughts their way. We may simply pause slightly as we move from one scene in our lives to another. Letting go of what was there and welcoming what is to come.

I ponder these thoughts for a few moments as I continue on to my apartment block. As I dive into my bag to find my keys I smile at my door, take a breath and prepare for the next shift in my reality.

fever

I spent 6 or so days with an incredibly high fever recently. Reality was blurred by heat, and a change in perspective from outer world, to inner and closer layers occurred. The bed became my world, and the texture of my sheets and patterns on the ceiling took on strange new importance. Emotions were a luxury, something I remembered having when I was well enough to afford them. Everything shrank and dissolved and...altered.

The presupposition behind the term 'altered' states is that there is a fixed stable state that is somehow the default. But are we not just flux, a moment to moment adjustment in a strange entanglement of humanity? hmm

After many days not knowing when I was awake and when I was asleep, I find myself gradually returning to another more familiar state. But not the same as before. Internal alchemy has occurred that has shifted my perspective on a number of key life issues. Like a b grade sci-fi movie, my consciousness has metamorphosised into something new and strange. A new default perhaps. Or just another moment.

So our body blurs reality, shifts perspective even if the control freak inside us screams in protest. But where does our bag of skin end and our consciousness and soul begin? How much of that illness based reality did I choose to generate on some deep level? Maybe it was the only mechanism I had that would cause me to ask the really hard questions that were lurking in the alleyways of my mind for far too long?

Or then again maybe I just had a bad case of the flu.

the shift movie

I started 2008 watching the trailer for a documentary called The Shift Movie. It chronicles the exponential growth of global activism. I've contacted them for a little more background information...in the meantime, take a look for yourself at:

http://www.theshiftmovie.com/

oh...and Happy New Year!

international treasure hunting

Geo-Caching is a new, hybrid high tech game/sport that uses GPS technology to construct elaborate hunts in nature. Basically using clues posted on websites, participants are sent on hunts to find small caches of treasure that are hidden in all sorts of interesting places in the landscape. I discovered it in the NZ Herald today...you can see the article for yourself on:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10484658

It is a great way for nature and technology to combine to engage people with their environments without all the expense and storying that happens with ARGs. I can see lots of different applications business and educational. Take a look.

And to finish, I hunted for treasure in a different way when I visited the Stonleigh Sculpture in the Gardens Exhibition at the Auckland Botanic Gardens. As you meander around the large site you come upon the 27 different exhibits, including the two at and on the lake you see here.

http://www.aucklandbotanicgardens.co.nz/subsites/botanicgardens/sculpture-in-the-gardens/

Thats it for now. 24 degrees and not a cloud in the bright blue ozone-less sky...time to go to the beach.

a view from the centre of the universe

..the surreal experience of xmas in the southern hemisphere is thankfully almost over! To cope with the stress of this time of year I retreated for an hour or so to watch a great DVD called: "The View from the Center of the Universe" created by and featuring Joel Primack, one of the worlds leading cosmologists, and Nancy Ellen Abrams, a philospher and writer. They give a presentation about how our perception of the the universe has direct implications for the way in which we interact with our world. If we are able to start using metaphors that posit us as a central interactive part of the universe, and also expand our perception to think in universal time scales, then our political decision making would be radically different and more effective in dealing with global issues. The latest research and thinking in cosmology is presented using excellent quality graphics and is worth watching simply for this.
To find out more go to:

http://www.viewfromthecenter.com/index.html

For those interested in getting some Nz "culture" as part of my blog...here is the view from the centre of the Waingaro Hot Springs Tavern...yikes!

I made a world on a biscuit today….

...at the Auckland City Art Gallery “Making Worlds” show http://www.aucklandartgallery.govt.nz/exhibitions/0711makingworlds.asp

The exhibition places the work of esteemed artists alongside activity points where you can create a world on a cookie, inside a matchbox and various other mediums.

Standout experiences were Len Lye’s kinetic sculpture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Lye and an animation on 5 screens from Chicho Aoshima and Bruce Ferguson called “City Glow” (2005). www.superflatart.info/2007/11/city-glow.html

Making Worlds is on until 21^st January, 2008.

out and about in auckland

To celebrate emancipation from jet lag, I spent the last couple of days out and about researching, networking and generally saying hello to the hybrid/transdisciplinary scene in NZ. I have also been most generously welcomed home by the mosquitos of Auckland...and so it is amongst my hellish itching that I write the following update:

Yesterday I attended the Xmas party of the Moving Image Centre (MIC) http://www.mic.org.nz/mic/events/exhibitions/present

I had some great conversations with people from the art/technology/film scene…one of which was with Mary-Jane O’Reilly. Mary-Jane is one of New Zealand’s most respected dance practitioners in a career spanning almost 30 years both in New Zealand and internationally. She has created many high profile dance events including her choreography of the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games (1990) www.maryjaneoreilly.com

What sparked my interest was her latest, very successful venture: Tempo° Dance Festival.
Tempo° is an annual event that brings different dance worlds together in a month long festival which includes various showcases. The showcase themes this year were Loud (for percussion dances), Hot (for hip hop styles) and World. According to Mary-Jane, one key to successful inter-disciplinary collaboration is providing the opportunity for specialists in different dance forms to perform and during the process (waiting backstage, seeing each others dances etc) it becomes a forum, a cultural exchange through performance process which allows people to just make their own connections. Simple really.

In other news….

Pacific Islanders are rejecting capitalism for traditional trade in Vanuatu. Or so the New Zealand Herald reported yesterday. Apparently they are spurning the cash economy in favour of traditional local currencies such as pigs, tusks, grass mats and sea shells. Fuelled by fears that capitalism will destroy traditional way of life...they are bravely attempting to preserve cultural heritage in the face of the cash hungry rhetoric from organisations such as the World Bank. Full article is available at: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=34&objectid=10481808

Something else I noticed today (through my Envirolink Network feed) was an article entitled: “Water becomes the new oil”….have a read of this…it is a useful reminder of why generating new realities is vital:

http://www.envirolink.org/external.html?itemid=200712090840520.138012

atheists and the subconscious in hong kong airport

Hi from Hong Kong Airport...the multi-faceted portal between East and West. You are seeing this thanks to free internet and 3 hour stopover...

Two points of interest that are worth jotting down before I forget in the blur of jet lag. One is how many books I am seeing around me that are catering for the sceptically and secularly minded. They are sitting uneasily, or perhaps shamelessly, alongside the latest from His Holiness and Deepak Chopra. Perhaps Hong Kong is more than just a political gateway....it must also bridge chasms of faith?
Second, I have just this minute finished the latest issue of New Scientist (Dec 07). Inside there is a great article on the subconscious called "The Other You". Basically the arguement is that conscious and subconscious thought processes work together, each assuming more or less control depending on the situation. A nice overview is given of how we engage with different tasks...a different take on the unconscoius incomptence, conscious incomptence, conscious competence, unconscious competence matrix. Worth taking a look at the issue.

Oh thought many of you would appreciate the surreal joys I found around the airport: Tongue Cup, Santa Clause Candy Girls and the Giant Bauble Tree...




Am tired...off to plane now...12 hours so far...12 more to go!

long time no speak

Yikes! I have been on the road a while now and have not posted anything. By way of making up for this hear is a potted summary of the highlights of my travels. Updates and comments will no doubt come during the 2 months I am about to spend in NZ!

THE WISDOM OF MAGICAL MYSTICAL TOURS

Back in early July, I attended the Wisdom University New Chatres School, France.

https://www.wisdomuniversity.org/Chartres/the-seven-intensives.htm

Wisdom is making a very brave attempt to bridge between academia and spirituality, and has re-instigated an ancient wisdom school that once operated from within the famous cathedral. I have always found that academic rigour and new age spirituality don’t mix well, so was curious to see if they could manage it. The short answer was no…but as a kind of hybrid spiritual learning experience I found it generally quite informative with some of the speakers listed below being particularly inspirational and worth looking up.

Lynn Bell, a world renowned astrologer, spoke eloquently about collective archetypes and astrology and their relationship to group and societal dynamics. She was a wonderful story teller and had an interesting way of linking seemingly dispirit concepts together.
http://www.whirledwydeweb.com/astrologyinbali/lynnbell.html

Jeremy Taylor, an expert on dream work ran sessions showing us how to dynamically, and ethically work with dreams as a device for personal and group growth. He was deeply passionate about his work and extremely skilled at dream analysis. His connection between psychological projection, and the transformative potential of group dream work was an avenue I intend to follow up in my research. I highly recommend his book: The Living Labyrinth: Exploring Universal Themes in Myths, Dreams, and the Symbolism of Waking Life.

http://www.jeremytaylor.com/pages/jeremybooks.html

Apela Colorado did not do a lot of speaking, but what she did say was worth listening to. I attended a session she ran on dream work and this contained some other of her material on indigenous science.

https://www.wisdomuniversity.org/febintensive-indigenous.html

Carolyn Myss, who spoke about her latest book based: “Entering the Castle – An Inner Path to God and Your Soul” based on the writings of Teresa of Ávila.

The metaphor of travelling through seven mansions in your spiritual growth was interesting…but after reading it I felt a bit worried that I hadn’t even gotten into the hallway of the semi-detached bungalow down the road.

http://www.myss.com/

Attending the course provided unparalleled access to historic and beautiful Chatres Cathedral, and is worth attending simply for that experience!

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING

Back to more recent times, in October I attended the 7^th Annual Transformational Learning Conference in Albuquerque, NM, USA.

http://tlc2007.unm.edu/program.html

The theme was ‘Issues of Difference and Diversity’ which many of you know is one of my professional areas of interest, and a tangential area of focus for my dissertation. Overall I found the conference interesting but noticed that the overwhelming focus was on individual cognitive development. Much of my own work involves working from a variety of perspectives and there didn’t seem to be much integral/multi-paradigmatic exploration present… at least not this year.

However, there were pockets of extremely interesting work. Teachers College - Columbia University, California Institute of Integral Studies and Fielding University sent some very switched on people, a few of whom I have kept in contact.

Also there was a morning session where non-US delegates were given space to discuss their individual areas of research. The speakers, which included researchers from Europe, South East Asia, Latin America and West Asia, came from a much more systemic, holistic perspective… which was refreshing!

A few of the keynotes were very good:

Dr.Arturo Ornelas: http://www.geoec.org/conference/article-ornelas.html and

Dr. Eliseo “Cheo”,Torres: http://www.csun.edu/~naspa/speakers_torres.htm provided and interesting perspective on transformative education. They have been working to acquaint the public on the importance of folk healing/indigenous medicine…and have created an interesting course at the University of New Mexico on this subject. Also they have some great things to say about egalitarian education.

In the last session of the conference: Stephen Brookfield: http://www.stephenbrookfield.com/ and Terrence Maltbia

http://www.icwconsulting.com/our_associates.html#maltbia

gave a great in their no holds barred look at “diversity” programmes and education. They were great at naming some dysfunctional dynamics that occur when engaging in (well meaning) discourses related to ‘white privilege’.

Overall it was useful to make contact with people who are extremely reflective and engaged practitioners, and if any of you want to know more please let me know as I can refer you to certain papers and references.

MUTAMORPHOSIS IN THE LAND OF KAFKA

Next I visited Prague, Czech Republic to learn what is happening in the interstices of art and science.

Part of the 40^th Anniversary of Leonardo www.leonardo.info, the Mutamorphosis Conference: http://www.mutamorphosis.org/conference was an interesting exploration of art and science collaboration and engagement.

If you take a look at the link you will see some mind bending papers on topics as varied as: Exo-Botany, Nano Art, Eco Sonifications, Memory Extension etc.

Highlights, for me were:

A panel discussion between the group I work with here in Brussels - http://www.fo.am/ and some other artistic contributors around human/plant interfaces was very engaging and asked us to consider communication in its most expansive sense.

An artist called Stelarc who gave a very disturbing seminar on Alternate Anatomical Architectures, climaxing with an unveiling of a human ear he has grown on his arm (I kid you not!) http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/

Roy Ascott(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Ascott) who gave a talk entitled: “Terror Incognito: Steps to an Extremity of Mind” which I’m sure many of you will resonate with. The following is a quote from the abstract but nicely summarises the general gist of his current thought:

“Just as earlier societies approached the terra incognito of the unmapped planet with fearful caution, and our emergent military/police state uses for its own dominance the hostility of its ideological antagonists to exacerbate a climate of terror, so we are encouraged by our scientists and institutions of learning to fear the extreme conditions of mind, to see altered states of consciousness as a threat to the orthodoxies of being, and the stabilities of social norms. This fear prevents research into mind at anything beyond the crudest form of reductionism. The paradox is that the most extreme, unnatural and hostile territory of mind is actually within us, at the simple, everyday level of thought and behaviour. For it is here that we find the most impenetrable barriers to expanded consciousness, and an ecology of mind blighted and laid barren by the constraints of fundamentalist rationality, which has led to the death and extermination of scientific idealism. As global warming accelerates, it is as much the ecology of the mind as of the earth that needs attention."

Roger Malina, an astrophysicist who talked about dark matter. This wasn’t particularly new material, but I liked the user-friendly language he used for that context. http://www.leonardo.info/rolodex/malina.roger.html

http://www.uoc.edu/artnodes/espai/eng/art/malina.html

Victoria Vesna and James Gimzewski, who talked about lots of different things including their investigation into extra-terrestrials, giant tesla coils in at Joshua Tree National Park and Blue Morph Butterflies. Probably the most interesting, and risk taking stuff I saw there…none the least that they actually dared to mention E.T.s!

http://c-lab.co.uk/default.aspx?id=5&blogid=841

See the conference abstracts at http://www.mutamorphosis.org/upload/files/2007/10/28/Bookofabstractsv1.0.pdf

Mutamorphosis was smaller part of the Enter 3 Festival, ttp://enter3.org/index.php?lang=en&node=114 which was taking place in various locations around Prague. Frank Malina’s Kinetic Art/Electric Paintings were one of the featured exhibits and I found these absolutely mind bending as works of art. Particularly since they were created in the 1950’s and 60’s but even now look like something out of a futuristic sci-fi movie set. More about Malina and his work can be found at http://www.olats.org/pionniers/malina/malina.php

CHANGING CLIMATE, CHANGING MINDS

My most recent jaunt was to the ‘Be the Change’ conference at Westminster, London. http://bethechange.org.uk/

Best described as a large gathering of people working for positive change, the conference has now been going for several years. In the past the general themes have centred on ecology, consciousness and spirituality. This year it narrowed and deepened the focus onto climate and environmental issues. (Perhaps with larger corporate sponsorship in mind!).

Many of the speakers here are worth mentioning, and I have provided links to most of their websites. I must say that this conference had the highest impact on me. The material provided was stark, and shook me at quite a deep level that I am only just now coming to terms with. It was all very well for me to have fun with artists and scientists and educators, and learning lots of things on a conceptual level. But it was here that the reality of what is being faced around the planet really hit home.

Speakers I recommend looking up:

Maude Barlow:

From the Blue Planet Project is working to stop commodification of world's water. She had some very scary stories of what is currently happening, and inspirational stories of what has already been done to conserve what we have all too long taken for granted.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2005/01/maude_barlow.html

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020902/barlow

www.canadians.org

Blue Gold: The Battle against corporate theft of the world’s water. 2003

Julia Hausermann

Founder of an international movement for the promotion and realisation of human rights and responsibilities. She promotes an innovative and very effective human rights approach to development and environmental issues.

See www.rightsandhumanity.org.

Frances Moore Lapp.

Is the Co-Founder of the Small Planet Institute, the Centre for Living Democracy and the Institute for Food and Development Policy. She has put together a lot of diverse material in an interesting way relating to the way humans engage together, the way we see the world and why, what causes us to be so destructive, and things that we can do to change this.

Take a look at http://www.smallplanetinstitute.org/

and http://www.gettingagrip.net/

She also cited Eric Fromm in her talk and his material was also quite interesting on the theme of what causes humans to go bad: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/fromm.html

Vandana Shiva

She does inspiring work with a particular interest in changing paradigms of agriculture and food. Her books include Violence of Green Revolution and Monocultures of the Mind both of which challenge non-sustainable, reductionist agricultural practices. Her recount of Indian farmer suicides due to Monsanto’s GM seed (mal) practices was heart wrenching…and her very practical and successful response was totally inspirational.

http://www.navdanya.org/

Rob Hopkins

Started the Transition Towns Movement, which is a community led approach to peak oil planning. Rob and his group are doing very innovative and successful community development work. They are developing combinations of tools that wake up large groups of people to important issues and are having a great deal of success at grass roots level.

www.transitionculture.org

www.transitiontowns.org

George Monbiot

An eloquent and extremely knowledgeable speaker who presented not only the reality of what is being faced re climate change and energy, but also very clear and tangible solutions that will deal with the problem.

www.monbiot.com

Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning. Allen Lane 2006

Stewart Wallis

Executive Director of the new economics foundation. http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/

nef, carry out many different initiatives to challenge our dominant global economic model. Several years ago I used nef’s social accounting model to help one of my client organisations to be more accountable socially and environmentally, as well as financially. http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/newways_socialaudit.aspx

nef are an interesting group and it is worth squirreling down into their website.

……………………………………………………………………………………

PEOPLE I HAVE TALKED WITH RECENTLY:

In addition to conferencing I have talking to a number of interesting people recently. I will put more detailed notes on the site about my interviews but for now two highlights are:

F. David Peat, noted physicist and writer (author of twenty books including Synchronicity: The Bridge between Matter and Mind, Blackfoot Physics, Superstrings, The Blackwinged Night: Creativity in Nature and Mind and From Certainty to Uncertainty). Last year I stayed at his centre in Italy and can strongly recommend it as a retreat space. Go to his site and take a look http://www.paricenter.com/ ...he also regularly runs extremely interesting conferences and workshops on the meeting points between indigenous and western epistemologies, art and science, religion and science and all things in between.

Tassos Stevens. Actor, Director, Guerilla Theatre and Alternate Realty Game Creator. A mysterious character who is working in a kind of trans-genre gap that subverts reality while at the same time building community and organisational cohesion in a very interesting way!

BOOKS

I am currently reading a bunch of great books that I will review in the months to come..in the meantime… I strongly recommend getting a copy of The Shift Report, 2007 by the Noetic Science Institute. http://www.shiftreport.org/

It is a document that puts together all of the most interesting breakthroughs and future trends in most major areas of interest: education, business, neuroscience, biology etc etc. IONS do some interesting stuff and are well worth supporting by becoming a member.

FINALLY AFTER ALL OF THIS I HAVE SOME AREAS FOR EVEN FURTHER INQUIRY

What are the most effective, creative, ethical and sustainable ways to facilitate growth in consciousness?

How can we best encourage and facilitate transdisciplinary collaboration, that builds bridges over the chasms of language, epistemology, territorialism and ego centeredness?

What the most effective ways to increase agency, participation and pro-activity on a mass scale?

the strange case of the mccanns and the disappearance of the witness.

Many of us have followed the stories about the couple whose child was abducted in Portugal. If you have been on the planet in the past two weeks, you will also have noticed that the stories are now turning into fables of unprecedented betrayal.

I read an article by Viv Groskop (http://www.newstate sman.com/200709130024)in the New Statesman recently about this strangely inevitable turn of events.

“It is possible to meet many people at the moment who claim to "know" the truth about what happened (whether sympathetic to the McCanns or not) - and to have "known" it from the beginning. They stick to their story irrespective of anything reported in the media, only choosing to believe reports that confirm what their initial instincts already told them. There is almost a sense that any real conclusion might be disappointing: they may still hope for the best or fear the worst, but really they just don't want to know that they guessed wrong”.

The article goes on to note that when people have a hunger for a story, they want to know the "truth" about what happened. And when the truth is not forthcoming - or is heavily delayed - they can't stand it and impose their own narrative, which once it is repeated often enough becomes the story in itself.

The McCann situation is an interesting example of our attachment to story, our attachment to the notion of ‘real’. It illustrates how, as a society, we impose frameworks of meaning making onto situations and stay attached to these stories about stories.

Here is a classic case of unfiction rapidly unfolding with no apparently clear designer or producer. Baudrillard would be weeping with joy at the material generated in this situation. Conspiracy theories abound. Stories are made up about stories as in the article cited above. Even the protagonist/villains are feeding off themselves… David McCann apparently has his own blog for goodness sake?!

And amongst all of this there is witness missing. Not the witness who really saw what happened to Madeleine. But the witness who talks about the mess around this mess. The UK print and online media have gone a little way toward reflexively examining their role in this situation. But this seems to be more than a wiff of snooty detachment in all of this. The ‘its not us..its them’ syndrome.

Where is the bigger Witness? The level of consciousness that asks how the media is feeding this frenzy? How is this part of the current bigger debate about the integrity of media? Television has been embroiled in discussions about ethics for months as a result of the Channel 4 and BBC debacle. But is this not part of the same bigger issue?

Relating this back to hybrid media. It is all very well to critisice traditional media forms…but what degree of reflexivity exists within hybrid storying? Is there a level of witness involved? Of personal awareness?

And where are issues of integrity and ethics discussed and debated? That is my one of my next threads of inquiry.

musings and beginnings

One of the reasons for starting this project is that I believe that the key to finding solutions for global mess lies up another layer of consciousness. And, that one of the key ways to get there is through blurring traditional lines and boundaries, and spawning hybrids and mixes that will solve issues at another logical level. (No offense to Wilbur but lines, quadrants and levels are not very blurred!)

It also seems clear to me that true transformation comes from making what we were subject to, object. By this I mean developing the capacity to detach ourselves from our reality enough to work creatively with it.

Many of us (and I am the worst culprit of this) are very attached to the illusion we have socially constructed . It is hard to imagine radical interventions environmentally and socially, because we are so in the matrix we simply don't know what we don't know. What interests me is what happens when we distort, interrupt and disconcert our minds to enable us to understand just how much we can control and shape this so-called life. This can happen through guerilla theatre, alternate reality games, responsive environments and installations, drugs, breathwork …basically anything that blurs what we consider to be 'real' enough for us to be shaken out of complacency.

The key is not to indulge in these for their own sake (and I am guilty of this)…but to actually process the experience within transdisciplinary workshops and use the material to create solutions that will work. This is something in which [Æ’oam] specialises.

Fortunately (or unfortunately), I believe it will become more and more difficult to sustain the illusion of seperateness as we carry on into this century. The divine mother and trickster archetypes are using environmental and economic forces to forcefully collapse the boundaries between us on every level (personal, professional, ideologically, nationally etc etc). As this happens, creative integration will happen as a matter of fact rather than as an innovation. As will integration in many other ways.

Personally I would rather be starting now..than when I am scrambling to network for a cup of water!

bees, beasts and batman ..welcome to your alternate reality

Adrian Hon is a leading Alternate Reality Game (ARG) designer, producer and all round specialist. I recently talked with him about the world of unfiction tale telling….

The origins of ARG’s are found in several different formats: role playing games, viral marketing, flashmob campaigns and story telling. In essence they involve several elements: a website, other print media (e.g. magazines and newspapers, brochures, posters), telephone numbers via internet or landline, and of course, people.


Originally ARG's were created to market products. For example ‘The Beast’ was generated to market Spielberg’s movie Artificial Intelligence. Another famous game ‘I Love Bees’ was produced to market a Microsoft (virtual) game product called Hallo 2. Recently more games have been created to raise environmental and social awareness around particular issues such as energy consumption. World Without Oil gives players a chilling dose of a world where the price of a barrel of oil has trebled and players need to work together to co-construct stories that will help them survive. [I hope to interview the creators of this game soon!]


According to Adrian, stories are at the heart of this genre. They form the base from which everything emerges. Then, once you have the story, you need a great designer. Someone who understands not just the technical but social aspects the web. You also need a lot of people who not only understand the art of showmanship, but are skilled at very fast product turnaround. They need to be able to manage the complexity of working with sometimes thousands of players at one time, and be able to improvise story and technical aspects. As ARGs have a very strong emergent aspect, it means that at any time the story can go in many different directions. Given that players are actually physically moving from location to location, phoning fictional/unfictional phone numbers and engaging with ‘real’ people on the other end of the line this can be tricky to manage. If team members don’t react and cope with this degree of uncertainty things can get very messy very fast.

The resources for work like this are often vast. Because the genre has most been used by media moguls to publicise blockbusters (think Batman) there is often six digit money involved. However it is possible to work with ARGs cheaply if people are committed and have the time (most games need a run up of at least three months or six months to do them well).

Typical of many hybrid designers Adrian came into his current reality through a roundabout journey. His original training was in neuroscience. While working hard at university, like many of us he enjoyed a very active student life. It was within this subterranean world that he first encountered: The Beast, one of the very earliest ARG games. As a result of his visibility in and around that game he was headhunted in 2004 by an ARG developing company called Mindcandy. He now has his own company specialising in this genre and is considered a leading expert on the subject.

When I speak to Adrian I feel impressed by his enthusiasm and his real sense that there is a deeper purpose than just having some fun, in fact he says;

“Some moments it is incredible what we are doing. Really touching people’s lives in ways that other games didn’t do before. We often do stuff online AND in real time… talking to thousands of players and writing as we go. Nobody is doing that!For writers that’s an incredible experience.

As for the people playing the game, well they are learning all sorts of new things, Egyptology for example. Also it helps them to learn about how to work together, to solve problems, to connect, to make friends from very different areas of life they wouldn’t normally encounter. Basically it gives people an excuse to try the extraordinary”.

I find ARGs interesting because they form a completely new genre. I believe that that they touch something deep inside of us that craves the chance to quest for something more than a bottle of milk in the morning. They may also have a role in helping people understand that, epistemologically speaking, that it is possible to co construct reality, and that the stories we tell to ourselves and each other actually matter. ARG’s also have implications for use in business for managerial development, strategy building and team cohesion. They also carry an important potential to raise awareness on social issues in a way that relates rather than alienates. I intend to do more research on this subject from all these angles so watch this space...

Check out out Adrian’s article:

http://gamasutra.com/features/20050509/hon_01.shtml

and his websites:

www.mssv.net and www.sixtostart.com

labyrinths for the marginal

..an interview Iwan Brioc, Artistic Director of Cynefin Sensory Labyrinth Community Theatre.


Imagine yourself beginning a journey into darkness. Your senses are hightened..your body on high alert, watching, noticing. Slowly you wend your way through a juxtaposition of smell, material and sound encountering and noticing yourself, and others who may come into your path.

I am describing the world of sensory labyrinths, the speciality of a community theatre organisation called Cynefin. Working within marginalised communities Iwan and his colleagues have found new ways to connect people to themselves, each other and their environment. Local artists are brought together to create large labyrinthian structures made with different materials that are meaningful within the community and environmental context. Then local members of the public are invited to enter and experience the labyrinth on their own terms, and in their own way.

What originally drew me to Iwan's organisation was a quest to find hybrid forms where people, community, and some sense of the 'transpersonal' form the core of the design and intention. You cannot engage with the labyrinth as a spectacle to be viewed at a distance, in fact the very design prevents distant disinterest. In order to engage, you need to physically enter. You have the opportunity to feel, smell and meet other people. And, while Iwan occasionally uses professional actors to engage with participants, they are there to assist, not distract participants from the mindful sense of the present moment.

Another element that sets them apart is that the emphasis on generating awareness and mindful attention, rather than imposing a 'story' or 'idea'. The story unfolds within the minds of the participants using the shell that he and his collaborators create.

Participants enter the space one at time engaging with the different sensory portals, including thought and feeling. They experience themselves, and their relationship to 'The Other' in whatever form that takes, soft architecture, colour, sounds, artefacts of different kinds.

People often start terrified (or at least very unnerved) but then this leads to curiosity..the interaction between fear of curiousity triggers a childlike state that opens up many other possibilities..

Cynefin funds itself through grants and commissions, assisting them to work in edge space contexts rather than more commercial environments. They facilitate transdisciplinary connections between local artists, the public and their local environment and for this reason I find their work extremely interesting. It has implications for community building, intercultural engagement, and a number of other areas. I encourage you to take a look at their site and watch here for future developments and interviews...

Visit Iwan and Cynefin at http://www.cynefin.org.uk/cynefin.htm