In our second session, Andy Stirling (STEPS Centre/SPRU, University of Sussex) came to talk to us about transformation.
The System Change Hive is exploring how big, radical changes might happen in technology, economies, environments and culture. But the word ‘system’ sometimes makes us tempted to think of the world as something that can be controlled, with the powerful people in the cockpit flying the plane.
What if there’s no cockpit, and powerful actors are just taking advantage of events, boosted by their privilege? What if we think of the world (and each other) as things to care for rather than control? Examples from radical movements of the past and the pioneers of sustainability show more emergent, bottom-up forms of transformation.
Slides: From controlled transition to caring transformations
Virtual Reality, creativity and transformative art
We also discussed how Virtual Reality could be used to communicate complex ideas, inspired by patterns in nature.
(Animation: Mia Underwood)
And Felix gave us some guidance on how to film each other using a mobile phone to create short reflective videos on the creative process.
We also discussed what kind of artworks we had experienced that felt transformative in some way. A lot of people named pieces of art that involved interaction between people and the artworks, or art that invited people to interact with each other in some way. Sometimes this kind of art feels disturbing, but it can also be very moving.
