(TEXT 1)
CARE, VALUE, PLACE: DESIGN RESEARCH IN CHINA
In April, I began work as an adjunct (visiting) professor at Tongji University (College of Design and Innovation) in Shanghai. As part of the appointment process, I submitted this research statement. It describes the three research topics that will be the focus of my work in China: Care. Value. Place | Urban-Rural Reconnection and Rural Social Innovation | Knowledge Ecologies and Scale. (This research statement text accompanies my recent paper for the journal She Ji, Bioregioning: Pathways to Urban-Rural Reconnection )
(TEXT 2)
RE-WILDING THE BAUHAUS
To mark its centenary this year, the Bauhaus has published Design Rehearsals: Conversations About Bauhaus Lessons. My contribution (which is here) is a proposal for a new Vorkurs, or Foundation Course. It would foster ecological literacy, and a whole-systems understanding of the world.
(TEXT 3)
SOCIAL FOOD FORUM: THE TAKEAWAYS
As a legacy of #Matera2019 in Italy, a meeting of 15 social food curators met in Matera for the launch of the Social Food Forum and Social Food Atlas. We discussed two main topics: how to describe the different kinds of value created by social food projects; and, how to do more of this work, with more partners, and in more places, in the near future. Here are our main findings.
(NEW BOOK)
DESIGN AS A TOOL FOR TRANSITION: THE ATELIER LUMA APPROACH
By connecting the ‘what is?’, with the ‘what if?’, designers and artists at Atelier Luma are discovering new kinds of value among the social and ecological assets of the Camargue bioregion. Their focus is on making connections and supporting relationships at a system-wide scale. For their new book, I contributed a chapter on “Making as Connecting”
TWO MEET-UPS
I’m hosting two week-long meet-ups – in July and August – for designers, project curators, grad students, researchers, or writers. If you’re working on a plan, project or thesis, we have a couple of places left for each week. The dates are:
July: arrive Monday 01, depart Monday 08
August: arrive Thursday 22, depart Thursday 29
Read more about our meet-ups – including the application process :
ONE OFF-SITE
The off-site you may have missed is the one for Your Team! – because it is not yet organised. Starting in September, we’re keen to host single teams, here at our place in France. If you’re working on a strategy, project, or plan, and could use a a change of context to meet, create, and connect, do drop us an email meeting@thackara.com. As an option, I can do project feedback, 1:1s, or crit your pitch.
Back To The Land 2.0 – some recent talks
These videos introduce the annual Back To The Land 2.0 summer school in Sweden that I run together with Konstfack (Cheryl Akner-Koler) and Annika Göran-Rodell. See also my Back To The Land 2.0 Reading List.
Xskool Talk 1: The Metabolic Rift (20m, 2014)
– the big picture: why we have a problem
– industrial food vs living systems vs financial systems
– metabolic rift as collective dis-association from living systems
Xskool Talk 2: Ecological Agriculture (17m, 2014)
– thousands of experiments; new values; new geographies,
– focus on the local > bioregions, foodsheds, watersheds
– ecological agriculture: activities
Xskool Talk 3: Social Farming (24m, 2014)
– food systems are social systems
– growing, distributing, preparing as collaboration
– connecting small actions, rooted in a place, with the bigger picture
– macro systems contain micro-activities
Social Food Forum, Matera, Italy (3m, 2019)
– 15 social food curators meet in Italy
Regenerative City DxCC at Tongji University, Shanghai (25m, 2018)
– cities in a larger context
– health of place = health of people
– urban-rural reonnection
How to connect cities and nature (Aarhus, 2m, 2018)
– look at a carrot in a restaurant
– do you know who grew it? and how?
The skills we need (Elisava, Barcelona, 2m, 2017)
– the most important quality in a designer? curiosity
– a trick to get head? get out of the studio and into the world
Design for a Bioregion (AtelierLUMA, France, 2m, 2017)
– making as connecting – especially with people who are not like you
– making as connecting with the land
– few of the answers we need will be found in peoples’ heads
Commoning Workshop (Museum für angewandte Kunst, Wien, 9m, 2018)
– why we need a new ‘story of place’
– connecting small actions for large-scale change
Future Ways of Living (Milan Triennale, 65m, 2017)
– why we need a new story
– signals of re-connection (with the land, and with each other)
– bioregions as a living ‘frame’ for our work
– co-operation platforms as a way for diverse people to work together
The City and Its Bioregion (IAAC, Barcelona’s FabLab, 35m, 2016)
– why should an architect or urban planner even think about meatballs?
– a ‘smart city’ that does not think about food will soon be a dead city
– design ingredients for “Back To The Land 2.0”
City-Rural Connections (Abadir, Sicily, 3m, 2018)
– what steps could we take to reconnect city and rural?
– how might relational design enhance or multiply these connections?
From Biomedicine to Bioregion: The Geographies of a Care Economy
(UC Berkeley, California, Dean’s Lecture, 1h, 2016)
– why caring for place is a story that reconnects people, health, and context
– from Small to Big: signals of transformation
– going with the flow
Thinking Like A Forest: A Design Agenda for Bioregions
(School of Visual Arts, New York, 50m, 2015)
– what does a “leave things better economy” mean in practice?
– how designers are contributing to this new economy, right now
From Biomedicine to Bioregion: The Geographies of a Care-Based Economy
(UC Berkeley, California, Dean’s Lecture, 1h, 2016, 1h)
– a story that reconnects
– signals of transformation
– from Small to Big
– going with the flow