Trees as Infrastructure by EIT Climate-KIC [EU] // EXPERIMENT WORKSHOPS

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Within cities, trees and humans are enmeshed in a rich network of agencies and dependencies sharing intimate relations and mutual obligations towards preserving a common, liveable place. Recognizing urban trees beyond their Aesthetic presence and treating them as city co-inhabitants might offer a better way to attend to our relations and establish a tangled web of links to support living processes. Urban trees can be companions, communities, providers, expert Witnesses, economies, data stories or resourceful Ancestors.

Using the lens of Trees as Infrastructure, we will imagine and identify the most controversi al to pics. For example – what happens when this topic becomes (inevitabl y) political? What happens if the media use it as a ‘greenwashed feel good piece’ without thoroughly discussing the full breadth of the story? How does this apply to marginalized communities? 

In the workshops, participants will develop, refine, demonstrate, prototype, and launch or initiate transformative experiments. All participants are welcome. Leaders from city and regional governments will also be in attendance, alongside artists, business and other thought leaders. As the Deep Dive session on Day 2 will build on context from Day 1, either of the sessions on Thursday are a pre-requisite for Friday’s session.

PLEASE REGISTER TO THE COGNITIVE CITY HERE if you are participating: https://untitled.cognitive.city

Recommended Readings : Reading 1 and Reading 2 . 

EIT Climate-KIC  is the EU’s climate innovation agency, working to Accelerate the transition to a zero-carbon and resilient world by enabling systems Transformation.

Twitter: @ClimateKIC

Website: www.climate-kic.org

 

Related Untitled Agenda Themes : Reimagining the contract, Reimagining climate, Reimagining power, Reimaging human, Reimagining the economy

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Pillow Talks by Ilona Puskas [EU] // Art & Imagination

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We invite you to an intimate check-out session to process and integrate the sparks and triggerings of the day in a group setting, without restrictions as to what topics should emerge. The purpose is connecting, instead of networking. It takes the pressure off cerebral representation and can – paradoxically – result in profound Intellectual contributions. But it doesn’t have to. It is essentially an exercise around liberalizing ourselves and each other from expectations to unlock deeper and personal imaginaries. As importantly, it creates a spacious readiness to find a common rhythm and shape the collective identity of the Alliance.

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Ilona Puskas (she / her) works in Community Activation at EIT Climate-KIC. She is a cultural programmer with a keen eye for irregulars and dormant rebels. She has worked in a variety of contexts from public policy to exponential technology, striving for positive impact. She is a devoted advocate for the revised role of the curator in facilitating sustainability, and solidarity in curatorial praxis.

Twitter: @ClimateKIC

Website: www.climate-kic.org

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New Metaphors by The Imaginaries Lab [US] // ART & IMAGINATION

Metaphors are central to how we imagine and describe the experiences and systems of everyday life, from climate to pandemic, governments to economies, education to care. Once we notice and think about the metaphors we’re using, it can prompt us to understand our situation better, but also to re-imagine, to use alternative metaphors to think in new ways. 

In this fun session we’ll be exploring how re-imagining, through new metaphors, can help us re-imagine the world, and create new ways of thinking and living. We’ll use the New Metaphors cards along with your own ideas and experiences to experiment with and generate ideas for transforming our imaginaries of some major issues for humanity and the planet. 

The session is run by Dan Lockton and Sanika Sahasrabuddhe from the Imaginaries Lab, an international research studio creating design tools to support people’s imagining, with the aim of more equitable socially and environmentally sustainable futures. Bridging research and practice, we work extensively with Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design and Tepper School of Business, and collaborate internationally with a variety of organisations in Europe and North America. 

Twitter handles: @imaginari_es and @soopersawnic

Website: imaginari.es 

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Futures frequency – Reimagine the future by Sitra [FI] // Experiment Workshop

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By 2030 our average carbon footprint should be significantly lower to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. We need to reimagine our Everyday lives, governance, businesses, work – every aspect of our lives to match the earth’s carrying capacity.

Futures Frequency is a 3 hour workshop developed by Sitra . It challenges our assumptions about the future, leads us to imagine preferred Futures and build actions towards it. We will come together to practice Futures thinking and challenge ourselves to see the possibilities for change making. The maximum amount of participants is 20. We will use Zoom and Miro in the workshop. 

Futures Frequency is a workshop method in progress and at the Untitled Festival we test its Prototype to help develop it. We welcome you to this pilot workshop that aims at using the workshop method as a tool to popularize Futures thinking and strengthen the link between Futures thinking and change making. The workshop will be targeted to people and organizations who are interested in these topics, but does not necessarily have any previous experience about them. The workshop is structured around three themes 1) Challenge existing assumptions about the future, 2) Imagine a preferred future, 3) Take action and shape the future. 

Our aim is to use the workshop method as a tool to popularize Futures thinking and strengthen the link between Futures thinking and change making. If we are going to succeed in the transition to a fair and ecologically sustainable society, we need more people to have agency and ownership and to feel that they can have an impact towards the future and to have skills to do that.

We would like to find partners who would be interested in developing the Futures Frequency method further with Sitra. Also, we will make thematic versions of the workshop, meaning Futures Frequency about climate, democracy, data etc, and would love to find partners who work with a specific theme and would be interested in developing these thematic versions with us.

Sitra is an active fund for the future who studies, researches and brings together partners from different sectors in open-minded Trials and reforms. Its future-oriented works are aimed at making Finland succeed as a pioneer of sustainable wellbeing. This session will be Hosted by Jenna Lähdemäki-Pekkinen and Liisa Poussa. Jenna works as a social foresight specialist in Sitra’s Foresight and insight team and Liisa works in Sitra’s Foresight team, producing long-term foresight data in anticipation of the future.

Twitter handle: @SitraFund ,@jennalahdemaki_,@Lillinen
Website: www.sitra.fi/en 

Related Untitled Themes:  Reimagining Human, Reimagining Climate, Reimagining Economy, Reimagining Work, Reimagining the Contract, Reimagining Cities

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Reimagine Rewarding Work by PAM [FI] // CONVERSATION

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What is rewarding work? It is something we think work should be for everyone: that the work each and every one of us does feels rewarding, but just as importantly we don’t forget to reward the work of others.

For us, the concept of Rewarding Work embodies the collective future. A future where we care for ourselves but also for each other. It is through the concept of Rewarding Work that we want to take an open-minded look at the future of work life, society and the role of trade unions in them.

In this session participants are asked to open their minds and step into the shoes of others. We work together in order to form a vision of collective future where Rewarding Work – in all it’s many shapes and forms – is something that belongs to us all.  

Service Union PAM wants to be a strong, relevant, modern union for years to come. We realize that we need to throw many balls into the air and Rethink, redo and maybe even restart our union movement. We want to listen to the views of a wide array of people on the role of the Union in shaping the future of work and society. What concrete steps should we take? How would you define a Union if the movement was created today?

PAM logoWith its 220,000 members Service Union PAM is the biggest trade union in Finland. We represent people employed in the private service sector. So next time in Finland you visit a store, a restaurant or see your office Cleaner, say hi! They are now likely to be a member of PAM. Check out this video for more about PAM’s work.

Twitter handle (s): @pamliitto  @mlaakkonen @AVeirto
Website: pam.fi

Related Untitled Agenda Themes : Reimagining the Contract, Reimagining Economy

 

Image: PAM, pam.fi

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Imagine a Radically Transparent and Traceable Government by TOKEN [EU] // CONVERSATION

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Imagine a society where government operations are totally transparent and processes traceable. Distributed Ledger Technology  (DLT), such as blockchain, is scaling upwards in public administration and is claimed to offer new radical possibilities to increase transparency and efficiency, while decreasing bureaucracy in public operations.

Will we have the ability to identify and monitor all the information and events associated with public policies? How would it affect people, governments and civil servants or institutional trust in the societies? During the conversation we will explore the possibilities, challenges and risks of transparency and traceability in public governance. 

The impact of transparency is tested through four experiments run by the TOKEN project, where public organisations are implementing DLT-based solutions in their services such as public grant distribution, mobility, smart city services and public procurement. 

Launched in January 2020, TOKEN – Transformative Impact of Blockchain Technologies in Public Services – is an EU funded project whose ultimate goal is to develop an experimental ecosystem to enable the adoption of Distributed Ledger Technology and to prove its value, via highly replicable Use Cases, as a driver for the transformation of public services. TOKEN has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Grant Agreement No. 825268. 

 

Twitter handle: @TOKEN_EU
Website: token-project.eu

Related Untitled Agenda Theme: Reimagining power

 

Image: TOKEN, token-project.eu

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Reimagine Data Ownership by TOKEN [EU] // CONVERSATION

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This conversation reimagines models of data ownership: Who has a say on how data is used, collected and made available for others to use? For citizens, companies and NGOs alike, how can we ensure that the data produced by them and about themselves is used in a way that they desire? And what are the consequences of moving away from extractivist data practices, towards an era of data agency?

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and the immutability of the transactions they record offer one possible tool to move forwards: models of data ownership and especially the effects of transparency are explored in four experiments run by Token project, where public organisations are implementing DLT-based solutions in their services such as public grant distribution, mobility, smart city services and public procurement. 

Launched in January 2020, TOKEN (Transformative Impact Of BlocKchain tEchnologies iN Public Services) is an EU funded project. Its ultimate goal is to develop an experimental ecosystem enabling the adoption of Distributed Ledger Technology and to prove its value as a driver for the transformation of public services, via highly replicable Use Cases. TOKEN has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Grant Agreement No. 825268. 

Twitter handle: @TOKEN_EU
Website: token-project.eu

Related Untitled Agenda Theme: Reimagining power, Reimagining the contract

 

Image: TOKEN, token-project.eu

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Kaverikuva – KINSHIP PHOTO // ART & IMAGINATION

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Kinship Photo is a moment of contemplation. It is an exploration of the physical and virtual spaces through a Collaborative photogram. The Kinship procedure creates shadowlike images that turn the power structures of photographing upside down, and broaden the meaning of friendship.

Kinship photo is made for a festival participant who are tired of conference calls and seeks for a way to connect.
With this piece two people meet: one of them online and the other onsite at the festival premises or in a nearby location. With the help of gentle instructions and a material Envelope they explore the physical space of their close surroundings. The aim is to find elements, places, or ways of being that both participants feel kin of. When a mutual agreement has taken place, the two people with the chosen kinships get exposed onto a light sensitive paper. During the procedure, all parties have to stay still and focused. It is an opportunity to breath deep and contemplate on the closeness and distance between themselves and other beings. When the exposure is done, the picture on a light sensitive paper remains as a memory of that shared moment.

With this simple gesture we believe it is possible to create and explore new spaces and places that are not only virtual or physical, but genuinely both. They are experienced, shared Moments facilitated by light within communication technologies, and marked by light being trapped on photographic paper.

We, Dominik Fleischmann, Emilia Pennanen, Jenni Toivonen, Kristiina Mäenpää and Tatu Heinämäki, are from the MA Photography program at Aalto University ‘s School of Arts, Design and Architecture . Together with artist and mentor Maija Annikki Savolainen we have developed a photography-based work for the festival which includes multiple Collaborations between human participants and other beings. Our shared interest in photography is to explore its possibilities as a world-making practice.

Please sign up to take part in the project through this Google form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc_NvujGdO1t-T4Eh_TGGYTvuUymKhIjpm0jIh6Orq7zDOXgg/viewform

Website: instagram.com/kinship.photo.gram/

Related Untitled Agenda Theme : Reimagining human

 

Photos: Kinship Photo Group (c)

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Ancient wisdom as a way of reimagining the future by Hajira Qazi [US] // CONVERSATION

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The story of the Evolution of Man involves a forever-forward march towards progress, which inherently implies the abandonment of a less-enlightened past. We are made to believe that the only way is the one forward, and that those who cling to traditions are less-evolved: developing, still in progress, in need of guidance and aid. In this story all other ways of knowing, being, and thinking are marginalized and disregarded as irrelevant and as having nothing to offer to modern, industrialized societies walking through the path forward.

On the other hand we see how colonization, limitless growth, and industrialization have wreaked havoc on our planet and our societies. Instead of a utopia, we are experiencing an increase in natural disasters, violence and political unrest, loneliness and depression. We need another way ahead, one that is open to exploring alternative ways of knowing, being, and thinking.

Undoubtedly, innovative ways of addressing these global problems are needed. But perhaps insights may also be gained by looking at our abandoned past.
What can we learn from civilizations that respect and lived in symbiosis with nature?
What can be replicated of a world without borders, which witnessed a free and fair exchange of resources, ideas, and people?
How might we recenter our cities and societies around that which is held sacred, as ancient people did, rather than on profit, progress, and consumption?
What does it mean to be a human who carries the wisdom of millennia, rather than one who is constantly re-inventing anew?
These are ideas we will discuss and explore together in order to arrive at more concrete ideas about how ancient wisdom can inform our visions for the future.

Hajira Qazi is a PhD Researcher in Transition Design at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA. Her research is centered on how conceptions of the Sacred can inform an alternative worldview that moves away from the consumeristic aspects traditionally associated with design towards design that Fosters resilient and Cohesive societies. Past work and research interests include participatory design, decolonization, and design for political change.

 

Twitter handle: @arijah_q
Website: maymoon-design.com

Related Untitled Agenda Theme: Reimagining human

 

Photo: Hajira Qazi (c)

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Reimagining Our Roles in the Fight for Tomorrow by Reboot [US] // CONVERSATION

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The multiple, overlapping crises of 2020 have magnified the deep fractures at the heart of our social and political orders, both within countries and across borders. There are now countless working groups, task forces, and commissions to “build back better” and to reimagine our world anew. But the truth is these efforts are led by those who least understand the pain of injustice and the trauma of broken systems. To reimagine our world, we must center the voices and imaginations of those who have long suffered. This requires those with power to reckon with their privilege, and to understand their complicity in sustaining this broken world. Only by doing that can we help right historical wrongs and realize a future where all can thrive. 

Understanding the fights we should fight and the roles we should play requires understanding the elements that comprise our identity (personal and professional) — and how they are constructed or sustained within structures of oppression. This is deep, personal, searching work, and it’s not easy.

But in this session we will create a safe space to do this together, and will respect wherever you are in the process. So whether you want to actively participate, or just to listen, we welcome you and celebrate your willingness to do this work. 

This conversation is for anyone invested in a future where all humans can lead dignified, joyous lives, and especially recommended for those in positions to shape our world—from the hyperlocal to the transnational levels. We are in a period of righteous reckoning, and the tensions playing out in 2020 will only continue to grow in momentum. Those with privilege must be true allies and accomplices in revolutionary transformation. 

Panthea Lee is the Executive Director of Reboot. She is passionate about driving unlikely collaborations between communities, activists, movements, and institutions to tackle structural inequity—and working with cultural institutions to build momentum for courageous change.

Panthea has led multi-stakeholder processes to tackle social challenges in 30+ countries. Her work has been featured in Al Jazeera, The Atlantic, New York Times, MIT Innovations Journal, Stanford Social Innovation Review. She serves on the boards of Development Gateway and People Powered: The Global Hub for Participatory Democracy. 

 

Twitter handles: @PantheaLee @theReboot
Website: www.reboot.org

Related Untitled Agenda Theme: Reimagining power

 

Photo: Panthea Lee, reboot.org

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