On 17.-18.1.2020, the HOW TO ACT Symposium at the HBK Braunschweig took place, organised by the MA students of the course Transformation Design at the same university. The course is based on a transdisciplinary approach which aims to explore how designers can contribute to the societal transformation towards more desirable futures. Continue reading
“Questioning the Creative City is a two-day event bringing together artists, researchers and grassroots innovators to debate the role of creative practice and innovation in the life of cities beyond the current obsession with market-oriented growth strategies. How do creative practitioners and grassroots social innovation see their contribution to the city? How can cities support and promote creative practice? Can we envision a city that values creativity for its own sake, rather than as a means to an economic end?” Continue reading
In June 2019, Common(s)Lab was invited by the Rovereto-based design practice Brave New Alps to join a 5 days get-together of artists, designers and economic geographers working with community and diverse economies in their practices as researchers and creative practitioners. The event was organised by Bianca Elzenbaumer as part of her Marie Sklodowska-Curie research project she is currently developing in Bolzano, hosted by the EURAC Research centre. Continue reading
The 8th biannual Nordic Design Research Society (Nordes) conference is going to take place at Aalto University, Finland between 2–4 June 2019. In times of a world-wide crisis of care in its many dimensions, the conference poses the timely, and also, self-critical question ‘who cares?’, well worth exploring in design research and beyond: Continue reading
At the end of last year, we initiated a new project called Common{s}Lab in Schillerkiez, a neighbourhood in Berlin-Neukölln near Tempelhofer Feld. With this project, we aim to co-develop a platform for action and research around the urban commons, diverse economies, and sharing practices in neighbourhoods. Continue reading
An interdisciplinary conference of interest entitled ‘Social Solidarity Economies & the Commons: Envisioning sustainable and post-capitalist futures’ will be taking place in Lisbon, Portugal between Nov 21-23rd 2018. Continue reading
End of June 2017, a 5-day gathering of alternative movements called MOVE UTOPIA took place for the first time on Kulturkosmos Müritz, a festival site in rural Eastern Germany. The main aim of the get-together is to join forces with each other in the struggle for similar goals: “a world according to needs and abilities” that leaves the current capitalist system and market logic behind. Continue reading
On 19th June 2017, at the Institute of Sustainable Management, the University of Ulm in southern Germany, there is one day interdisciplinary Sustainable Fashion Consumption Symposium aiming ‘to bridge the gap between the niche of sustainable fashion and everyday fashion consumption’. Continue reading
AoA and all of our book’s contributors were invited to curate the program of the closing night of an international theatre festival in Riga, Homo Novus, together with the organisation Cape Farewell. The festival ran throughout fall between 9.9.-12.11.2016. Continue reading
Take Back The Economy by J.K. Gibson-Graham, Jenny Cameron and Stephen Healy is a practical guide for the transition toward a postcapitalist society suited for amateurs, students, citizen, and activists alike. Through tools, tips, and examples from around the world, the book engages its reader in a very accessible way, dismantling the idea that the economy is separate from us and better left to experts.
As our first project, AoA independently published the co-edited book ‘Agents of Alternatives – Re-designing Our Realities’ in 2015; an open book exploring the visions, actions, tools and impacts of change agents, thinkers and ‘happeners’ (those who make things happen!). It shows the creative processes and tools for designing positive societal transitions. These transitions are revealed by showing the new hybrid relationships being forged between alternative approaches to learning, living, making, socialising, thinking and working. Continue reading
Essay by Malin Bäckman, published in Agents of Alternatives – Re-designing Our Realities (AoA Berlin, 2015)
I wanted to gain understanding of how to involve residents of a neighbourhood in a design process through a series of initiatives, referred to as ‘explorations’. These explorations were carried out between October 2011 and August 2012 in Kannelmäki, a suburban area of Helsinki, and formed part of my Master’s Thesis at the Creative Sustainability programme, at Aalto University. Continue reading