After a long hiatus due to the pandemic, we are happy to announce a new series of online Republic of Learning workshop events, with the first on Thursday 24th June 3-6pm.
“In the space between the past and future, having and losing, knowing and not knowing, lies an opportunity for awakening” (Prideaux 2021)
Republic of Learning brings people together to learn about resilience in these times of planetary health crisis, uncertainty and environmental change. It presents a unique approach to shared learning that combines artistic and craft making with co-operative thinking – slowing down debate to sideline confrontation and argument in favour of gentle, collaborative deliberation. Our methods have been developed over 25 years of artistic practice and research by facilitators Giles Lane (artist, researcher), Dr Erin Dickson (artist, maker and researcher) and Dr Rachel Jacobs (artist, researcher).
Three workshops will take place in 2021 with a focus on what was normal, whatever comes next and the possibility that somewhere in between these two states sit grief, hope, resilience and the opportunity for some kind of awakening. Our aim is to plant the seeds for building an informal community that could continue to explore these issues into the future.
Workshop 1: Atmospheric Commons (24/06/2021)
In this workshop we will envision our personal, local and global impacts on the Earth's atmosphere. We will seek to imagine whatever comes next... exploring opportunities for reciprocal and imaginative decision making in response to what we discover about our past and present impacts – by combining scientific data with our own questions and narratives about our atmospheric futures.
Workshop 2: Little Earths, Mythical Objects & Human Stories (8/12/21)
What do we love, care for and want to protect? What sadness, grief and despair are we ready to leave behind? How would we feel about the planet, the places and non-humans that we love and that enchant us if we could hold them in our pocket? In this workshop we will make our own Little Earths, stewardship objects that combine craft making, intimacy, scientific data and stories. Sign up on eventbrite here
Workshop 3: Reciprocal Systems (Jan 2022)
AI, robots, driverless cars, machines that enable us to have frictionless lives and satisfy our every needs and dreams... What would a reciprocal system look like in contrast? One that relies on reciprocity rather than desire and consumption, seamfullness rather than seamlessness, embodied knowledge rather than data? Bringing together what was learnt in the first two workshops we will build a new type of reciprocal machine to help us consider opportunities for resilience, co-operation, re-enchantment and intimacy.
All the workshops are free and take place online on Zoom.