Re-Writing the Future
How can we work on scenarios for the future in such harsh times? Beyond dystopia, beyond the apocalypse! How can we work on the future the way we would really like to, as a community. What would the transition to a low-oil society look like? Sometimes utopian, sometimes real, but always full of imagination.
CANCELLED!
10:00-12:30 / 13:00-15:30 / 16:00-18:30
RE-THINKING FOOD # 4 | How to survive in a city / Edible Brussels - Irma Firma
in English | €10 | please book in advance
With a group of fifteen participants, Irma Firma combs the neighbourhood around the Kaaistudios in search of anything edible. How can we survive in a metropolis on tasty and nutritious ingredients provided by the city itself? Pick, forage and taste!
12:00-13:00
EXTRA WORKSHOP BY BARTAKU | PhoEf! A mini-workshop about the conversion of light into electrical energy
Powered by oignons and cow horns
Photovoltaic technologies, better known as solar energy, transform ancient natural light and artificial light into electrical energy. Whilst awaiting to see if they will provide the world's ever growing hunger for electrical energy, it is time to get in touch with these technologies. Learn in this mini-workshop about aesthetics, efficiencies and functioning of pv-tech, the relation with biodynamic winemaking and witness a demo of solar cells made of oignons.
Duration: 45 min - Participants: max. 15 - based on PhoEf: The Undisclosed Poésis of the PhotoVoltaic Effect. A research project in affiliation with http://fo.am
Free! Please book on t. 02 201 59 59
14:00-18:00
AFTERNOON SESSION
in English | free | please book in advance
Artists, scientists and cultural critics talk about ‘Re-Imagining the Landscape’.
Moderator is critic, dramaturge and curator Jeroen Peeters.
Sacha Kagan – Sustainability and the Arts
researcher and professor at the sociology department of the Leuphana University Lueneburg
Sustainability connects social justice, ecological integrity, and economic well-being. Or, in an alternative definition: biodiversity, cultural diversity, and human well-being. How can we extend this definition an apply it to the domain of culture and the arts, to its themes, practices and values?
Mike Grenville – On Transition Towns
coordinator of Forest Row Transition
A Transition Initiative is a community working together to look Peak Oil and Climate Change squarely in the eye and address this BIG question: "for all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how do we significantly increase resilience (to mitigate the effects of Peak Oil) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (to mitigate the effects of Climate Change)?"
Michaela Crimmin – On the RSA - Arts & Ecology Centre
Head of Arts & Ecology
The RSA Arts and Ecology Centre is an organisation whose role is to catalyse, publicise, challenge and support artists who are responding to the unprecedented environmental challenges of our era. Using their inspirations, RSA Arts and Ecology aims to create a positive discussion about the causes and the human impact of climate change through commissioning, debate, interdisciplinary discourse and a high-profile website.
Eva Meyer-Keller & Sybille Müller – On 'Building after Catastrophies'
“Together with the children we built a series of catastrophe models with simple everyday objects, e.g. matches, sugar cubes, salt, water, leaves, hairdryer, paper. Facts and fictions about catastrophes blend together.”
Jan Ritsema – NO ILLUSION, about the future of art and the arts
19:00-20:30
RE-THINKING FOOD #5 | Local Fair Trade / Lut De Clercq
in English | €10 | please book in advance
The ‘backstage cook’ Lut De Clercq has for the last few years been developing catering based on ‘local fair trade’. Small-scale, specialised farming and close cooperation with local farmers make for a supply of fresh seasonal products.
20:30-22:30
EVENING SESSION
in English | free | please book in advance
A combination of performances, talks, music and film. The full programme will be announced later, but here is a small selection of the evening’s activities:
 | lecture |
 | lecture How can we respond to the challenges and opportunities of Peak Oil and Climate Change? |
 | lecture/demonstration Angelo Vermeulen (Sint-Niklaas) - BiomoddBiomodd is a socio-interactive art project, an installation where game culture and ecology converge. A new version of Biomodd is being created in Singapore in January and February 2009. Angelo Vermeulen reports. |
 | lecture/workshop Bartaku (Brussels) - PhoEf, the undisclosed poetics of the photovoltaic effectA research project into the essence, the use and misuse of the photovoltaic effect – the conversion of light into electrical energy – in science, industry, technology and art. |
 | lecture Biomim-Greenloop (Brussels) - Biomimicry, learning from natureHow can ideas, concepts and strategies found in nature be applied to the search for solutions in our own ‘human’ surroundings? |
22:30-23:30
LATE NIGHT DOCUMENTARY FILM
in English | free
 | Faith Morgan / The Community Solution - The Power of Community, how Cuba survived peak oil When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba's economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half – and food by 80 percent – people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people during this difficult time. |
