Posts

Contracting with the Planet by Indy Johar [UK] // CONVERSATION

, , ,

This was a session at Untitled Festival 2020.

In this discussion, Indy Johar will present a hypothesis that building a new relationship with ourselves and the world around us is both fundamental and possible to avoid the self termination of society.

Indy Johar is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Dark Matter Labs  – a multidisciplinary design team working with partners, clients, and collaborators across the world to develop new working methods for system change. Dark Matter Labs is focussed on the great transitions our societies need to respond to the technological revolution and climate breakdown we face. They aim to discover, design and develop the institutional ‘dark matter’ that supports a more democratic, distributed and sustainable future across five domains of exploration: Cities, Finance, Institutions, Experiments and Education [Source: https://darkmatterlabs.org / Projects]

Twitter: @indy_johar, @DarkMatter_Labs

Website: https://darkmatterlabs.org/projects

Photo: Indy Johar LinkedIn (c)

 

 

/0 Comments/by

Carlo Battisti, Living Future Europe [IT] // PEOPLE

, , ,

Every day we face and witness the dramatic effects of the climate crisis. The construction industry, which still struggles to apply “green” parameters and constraints in the construction of new buildings, has a major impact on the environmental balance. However, it is necessary to reverse this trend as soon as possible and work to reduce emissions to a minimum by implementing Restorative operations, even on the assets already built. What approaches can be developed to push this transformation as quickly as possible?

With a background as an engineer, Carlo Battisti has always worked in the building sector, gaining solid experiences across twenty years in construction companies, with different roles. Since 2009 he has collaborated with IDM South Tyrol as a project manager in Business Development. In 2015, he founded the Italian chapter of the Living Future Institute. Today Carlo holds the office of President of Living Future Europe.

What should be reimagined now? We can consider a building as an assembly of different components both on technical and social aspects. Therefore, we can imagine that this concept represents exponential complexities on an urban scale. Cities are assemblies that we use to call communities. Is it possible to Redefine paradigms and realize sustainable areas within cities? What could look like an entire carbon neutral district? It is fundamental to encourage sustainable approaches in both local administrations and industries. We, in Europe, sit on a huge opportunity to restore our architectural heritage.

How can we experience environments that are closer to the concept of nature and Sustainability even within cities? It is essential to start with raising people’s awareness. Transmitting the value of environmental sustainability. An interesting concept in this regard is that of biophilia. Biophilic nature is an innate experience in mankind but no longer Instinctive. We got used to living in another way. This is why it is essential to bring this dimension back to people. It is possible to bring people closer by immersing them in these concepts, making them directly experience what a biophilic building truly represents. Living and experiencing it, means that the relationship with nature is immediate and within reach. Many studies show how this kind of architecture has strong benefits on the psycho-physical balance of man.

What kind of orientations in climate policies could experience in our cities in ten years’ time? For sure we need bold projects, decisions and actions. We are facing this climate crisis with irresponsible levity. I see cities walking along through this path using backcasting methodologies. What do we expect 2050 to be? Tackling this question, not only do we need to achieve carbon neutrality but we should develop new tools to manage complexities derived from the worsened effects of climate change. We should engage positive competitions and Collaborations among administrations, states and industries that could impact positively on our societies with disruptive improvement. We can no longer stand still but we need radical changes.

Living Future Europe Website:  https://www.living-future.eu/ 

Twitter: @battisti_c , @LFEurope

/0 Comments/by

Imagine a World Where Justice And Clean Energy Are At The Heart of Our Economy by Anchorage Coalition for Change [US] // EXPERIMENT WORKSHOP

, , , ,

This was a session at Untitled Festival 2020.

Climate change and advances in renewable energy technologies have set the foundation for significant transitions to the economy and to accompanying work force skill requirements. As an energy state, Alaska is well-poised for this transition.

Energy security is a matter of justice, equity and resilience. In Alaska, we can build human capacity and energy infrastructure to reduce energy costs and create an inclusive workforce in renewable technologies. We will start in low-income Neighborhoods in Anchorage, Alaska, one of the United States’ most ethnically diverse cities with more than 100 languages ​​spoken in the city’s streets and schools.

Our actions will be simultaneously big and small – designed to take on the urgent needs of now while laying a foundation to build a future economy and opportunities that help transition into a more resilient, sustainable and just workforce. The ten-year vision includes building an innovation space to train local people for local jobs and ensure a Talent pipeline for home-grown clean industries. Our immediate vision Pilots workforce training programs for newcomers that combine vocational skills with language and cultural training to ease integration for immigrants and Refugees resettling in Alaska.

This will be an interactive session using The League of Intrapreneurs Case Clinic Methodology. This method is designed to tap the wisdom of the group to help this team of Alaska-based Dreamers and do-ers to identify tangible actions that help them to realize their vision for a just, equitable and sustainable Alaska. Energy entrepreneurs, newcomers, workforce development specialists are invited to this, however, you don’t need to be a subject matter expert to join – just come with a capacity to listen deeply, to ask challenging questions and to share generously your ideas and resources. Thank you!

Why: To build a fair, just and sustainable city

The Anchorage Coalition for Change, Alaska are a ragtag group of do-ers who come together to share a dream of equity and opportunity in a city located on the traditional lands of Indigenous peoples. We draw ingenuity and resilience from these lands and from the people who have thrived and survived here for Millenia. We seek a better future that honors the values ​​of welcoming, inclusion, resilience and sustainability and see energy as the heart of that opportunity.

/0 Comments/by

Holding Space with Yarrow by Mari Keski-Korsu (FI) // ART & IMAGINATION

, , ,

This was a session at Untitled Festival 2020.

At UNTITLED, Mari Keski-Korsu will enact a performative intervention called ‘Holding Space with Yarrow’. It is a participatory and performative session that engages with yarrow through foot baths, hydro bodies and meditation. Yarrow (Siankärsämö) is one of the oldest plant remedies in Nordic region and is considered to help with many illnesses and conditions. The plant has about 150 names in Finnish, all describing its different features. The names connect linguistically to the Baltic Sea area healing culture that is documented in poems and stories. Yet what may this powerful plant, which many consider merely a weed, mean for us today? How could its voice be heard in human communities?

Images: Ida Enegren / Frame Contemporary Art Finland.

The session can accommodate 15 people per session; 5 on site and 10 online. The sessions are not suitable for anyone allergic to asters (composite plants). If you’re taking part in Holding Space with Yarrow online, please prepare your foot bath in advance. You can consider this as a ritual towards our time together – making something ready for yourself with a lot of positive energy and love.

Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation Licence

Collect about four handfuls of yarrow flowers and leaves from your yard or nearby park. In urban areas, the best places to find yarrow are abandoned sites where grass is not cut. If you can’t find the flowers anymore, search for the leaves. Remember to respect the plant and don’t collect everything, leave something to continue growing, too.

To prepare your foot bath:
– Add the yarrow into a litre of hot water
– Leave it for about 20 minutes
– Pour the hot yarrow water into a washing basin and add enough water for it to reach your ankles.
– Don’t put your feet in the bath right away, let’s do that together
– Have a towel and pair of clean, warm socks ready by the side
– As we start our session, sit comfortably on your chair so that you can see the screen to connect with everyone and your footpath is close to your reach.

Mari Keski-Korsu is a transdisciplinary artist who explores how ecological changes manifest in Everyday life. The work is based on Collaborations with different kinds of communities, individuals and species. Her medium of expression is a hybrid combination of performance, visual arts and live art. Her current practice for several years now, is focused on interspecies communication and care, aiming to enable empathy towards whole ecosystems. She is interested in intersections in between art, activism and science from permaculture and ecofeminist perspectives. In 2020 -2022, she is an artist member of an art & science team working in the Access Abisko program in sub-Arctic Sweden, researching on how climate breakdown affects values ​​and rituals.

More about Mari Keski-Korsu and her art at marikeskikorsu.net .

More about Holding space with Yarrow at www.artsufartsu.net/akantupakilla-lahirohtola

Twitter: @real_mkk

Photos: Ida Enegren / Frame Contemporary Art Finland.

Related UNTITLED Agenda Tracks : Reimagining Human, Reimagining Climate

 

/0 Comments/by

Cultivating Seeds for Delightful Interspecies Futures By Papana & Norkko (Metsäesitys) (FI) // ART & IMAGINATION

, , ,

Papana & Norkko are two fictive Siberian Flying squirrels (ie Flying squirrels!) Living in Solkivuori forest, Tampere, Finland (that is Solkivuori’s Collaborative Flying squirrel care and protection forest). They are professionals of forestry, legislation, bureaucracy and unconventional co-operations.

In their own words:

“During the festival days we are having a round table discussion with human and other-than-human experts. On our discussion agenda we have common-to-many-species-things that shape our shared Futures, such as hunger, roots / flying and sustainable livelihoods.

We have done research for the discussions by making some future-leap-Flying-Orientation-interviews for Untitled community and participants. You can see some digested fragments on our internet-influencing-channels Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Twitter. We will continue in making the interviews after the Festival. If you wish to be interviewed by two Siberian Flying squirrels, please contact them through metsaesitys@gmail.com

Our mission is to stop the ongoing mass extinctions threatening both squirrels and humans. To further our goal, we have started developing ways for human–Siberian Flying squirrel -co-operation. One way is to learn to use human platforms to create spaces for interspecies utopian conversations. We believe this will commit to nourishing the political imaginations of our multispecies societies.

“Anything is possible for a squirrel with an agenda! Everything is possible for a squirrel who has an agenda!” “Kaikki on mahdollista oravalle, jolla on esityslista!”

***************************************

Papana & Norkko are created by the Metsäesitys collective (Milla Martikainen and Katri Puranen).

www.forestation.wordpress.com

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube

Related UNTITLED Agenda Tracks : Reimagining Human, Climate

Photos: Flying squirrels Papana alias Milla Martikainen and Norkko alias Katri Puranen (c)

/1 Comment/by

Sustainability Standards and Green Building Initiatives Are Holding Us Back by YLVA // CONVERSATION

, , ,

Sustainability standards and green building initiatives are holding us back. Green building initiatives and Sustainability standards are masking the problem of over-consumption and as such, only Accelerating the Destruction of our livelihood. We need buildings that are not just sustainable or even net-zero, but ones that actually balance out the massive construction boom of this decade. We would like to explore the idea of ​​moving to regenerative real estate and urban development. One where each building would contribute more than it takes on all aspects of its existence. 

YLVA focuses on real estate and financial investments along with the hotel and restaurant sector. It is owned by the Student Union of the University of Helsinki and its profits are used to promote student activities. [ Source: ylva.fi ].

This session will be done in partnership with Living Future Europe. Living Future Europe (LFE) is a non-profit association with the mission to make the world work for 100% of Humanity. LFE will play an active role in championing  The Living Building Challenge in Europe, which is the world’s most rigorous standards for green buildings.

Website: https://ylva.fi/

Twitter: @YlvaHelsinki

Images: YLVA (c)

/0 Comments/by

Imagine ‘Lifestyle Housing’ for Zero-Carbon by Y-Foundation [FI] // CONVERSATION

, , , , ,

Our idea is to create large lifestyle housing for people that want to go to zero-carbon and live with nature with gardening as well as produce food with modern aquaponic methods. This would increase the speed of sustainable lifestyle change due to peer-learning and innovation and less need for leisure travel. This idea has transformative capacity as it can bring together people and thus speed up innovation to jump to sustainable lifestyles. And we believe this can be done at a mass affordable scale with a carbon-neutral wooden construction.

The idea can be experimented with choosing a few existing housing companies primarily people who have a desire to live ecologically and with nature and using that as the Testbed for things to have in new developments. This session should be interesting for anyone in architecture, construction, food production, property, city or urban planning, as well as people who want to live in the zero-carbon future.  

The Y-Foundation is a Developer and Global Forerunner of the Housing First principle. The Y-Foundation offers affordable rental housing in Finland. 

Twitter handles:  @JKaakinen  @lassyj  @kimmoronka

Website:  https://ysaatio.fi/en/y-foundation

Images:  The Y-Foundation (c)

/0 Comments/by

How Can We Create An Alliance of Green Digital Cities? by The New Institute [DE] // CONVERSATION

, , , , ,

THE NEW INSTITUTE  is a mission-driven Institute of Advanced Study and a platform for change.  It is based in Hamburg, privately funded and aims at combining the energy of academia and activism to create Meaningful change, Addressing the most pressing ecological, economic and political challenges, developing concrete solutions. One central project is The New Hanse, supporting the city of Hamburg in its attempt to become a green and digital model city in Europe. We want to present this project, led by Francesca Bria, former CTO of Barcelona. We want to workshop this project. And most of all we want to listen to you and learn from your experiences, pool ideas, connect initiatives and Forge new alliances. We cannot do this alone.The goal is to create an Alliance of green digital cities in Europe. Anyone interested in urban / digital / ecological Transformation should attend this session.

The hosts of this session are:

Georg Diez, Editor-in-Chief of THE NEW INSTITUTE, is a writer and long-time journalist.

Geoff Mulgan, Professor at UCL and Senior Advisor at THE NEW INSTITUTE, is a social entrepreneur, policy-maker and author.

Luisa Neubauer , German climate activist, is one of the main organizers of Fridays for Future .

Nina Rismal, Researcher at THE NEW INSTITUTE, is an economist and philosopher.

Website: thenew.institute

Image: The New Institute (c)

 

 

/0 Comments/by

Reimagining Climate Mobilisation by Jyri Engeström [FI] // CONVERSATION

,
This conversation will be based on Saul Griffith and Alex Laskey’s recently published ‘Rewiring America’ ( rewiringamerica.org ) – a significant call to action for electrifying and decarbonizing the US economy. We’ll discuss their plan and ask, should other countries (including Finland) respond with similar initiatives; and what might they replicate or do differently?
Jyri Engeström is a Partner at Yes VC , a San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm focused on companies connected with social movements. He founded two internet companies, Jaiku (acquired by Google) and Ditto (acquired by Groupon). He has invested in many companies including Iceye, monitoring the effects of climate change with Radar satellites. Together with his partner Caterina Fake, he helps produce the Should This Exist? podcast about Humanity and technology.
Twitter: @jyri
Photo: Jyri Engeström (c)
/0 Comments/by

Imagining Culture As a Dimension Of Long-Term Environmental Policy by Javier Guillot [COL] // CONVERSATION

,

One fundamental axis of debate in the conservation movement and in the formulation of environmental policy originates in the framing of the relationship between ‘nature ’  and ‘culture ’. Should we conceive of ‘culture’ as (epistemologically and ontologically) distinct from nature, or should we reject this dichotomy, Integrating or reconciling the ‘natural’ and the ‘cultural’? Despite its apparently abstract character, this question plays a critical role for designing and mobilizing environmental policy because the answer shapes how humans are understood and engaged with to explain and respond to environmental challenges. And if it makes sense to recognize that there are elements of ‘culture’ (or ‘cultures’?) That are more compatible or consistent with Sustainability and regeneration than others, how should this be translated into policy approaches across sectors, both globally and locally?

Participants will be invited to share their views on this debate on the basis of their own experiences, and to discuss its impact by grounding it on particular fields of action.

Javier is a public and social entrepreneur. He currently serves as the Environmental Culture Lead at the Directorate of Citizen Culture at the Secretariat of Culture of Bogotá. He recently worked as director of the Colombian Public Innovation Team (EiP-DNP), and as cofounder of Círcula, a social enterprise that creates more engaging and consistent ways to deal responsibly with the challenge of trash. In 2018, he was recognized in apolitical’s global “100 Future Leaders” list.

Twitter : @jeguillot 

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/javiguillot

Images: Javier Guillot (c)

/0 Comments/by

Contact us

untitled@untitled.community