Participants included people from different Directorates-General around culture and sustainability; people from the New European Bauhaus project, various people from the Joint Research Centre; and people running EU-level networks of creative practices and arts organizations. The session was hosted by Maciej Krzysztofowicz from the EU Policy Lab – a  physical space designed to foster creativity and engagement to develop interactions, processes and tools contributing to bring innovation in the European policy-making. 🫱‍🫲🧰🔧 

The CreaTures team provided an overview of key CreaTures project and framework elements. They also presented a new tool: nine dimensions to reflect on evaluation and learning in relation to creative practice and sustainable futures. Through interactive breakout groups the nine dimensions tool was validated in terms of its relevance and helpfulness to those taking part.

Overall, the feedback was very positive and the process provided valuable insights about the use of these dimensions for funding and policy making. A second breakout session focused on a higher level overview of how creative practice, and its evaluation, can be part of systems level change. A broad ranging discussion identified the need for the role of creative practice as part of governance mechanisms, by creating conditions through local realities and horizontal place based approaches, both in terms of disrupting and inspiring action. Much attention was given to the importance of trust and relationship building as part of the process rather than one-off interventions. Participants reflecting on the session thought it was highly inspiring and many are looking forward to using the 9 Dimensions tool and wider CreaTures Framework. ✨

A small, informal meeting was organized in Utrecht, the Netherlands on December 15^th 2022 with a focused group of 7 funders and policy makers in the Netherlands who had been involved in the development of CreaTures evaluation and impact methods. In the atmospheric environment of local Utrecht print collective KAPITAAL, the group discussed and reviewed the CreaTures 9 Dimensions evaluation tool in depth. 🫱‍🫲

Participants praised the simplicity and accessibility of the tool when many other academic tools are much too complicated to be used in practice – while also seeing how it can capture the richness of creative practice. The 9 Dimensions tool will be integrated into a prominent impact toolkit for creative practitioners, often used by funders to support creatives and which is currently being revised.✨ 

Participation is open to everyone but registration is required. To join, please fill in your details in the registration form and we will email you the link a day ahead of the seminar. 

The seminar will be recorded for archiving and research purposes; by joining the session you consent to the recording. Please read the Participation Information Sheet and Privacy Notice. CreaTures project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870759. The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.

Pixelache – Andrew Gryf Paterson

Pixelache Helsinki is a Finland-based creative association on emerging creative practices with almost 20 years of activity, engaging issues in electronic arts and subcultures, eco-social and technological transformation, with a dynamic community that has produced an annual festival with various formats. This presentation shared our attempts this Spring to consider Pixelache Helsinki’s parallel organisational transformations, engaging with that which remains in our office, using memory recall and narratives towards an audio fanzine.

Yarmouth Springs Eternal project – Genevieve Rudd

Yarmouth Springs Eternal is a community arts, walking and nature project, instigated and led by community artist Genevieve Rudd. The project celebrates and connects with everyday or overlooked aspects of the natural world, whilst recognising the inequality of access to natural spaces, and challenging definitions of ‘nature’.

Visual trace to establish relation – View from the Window and DOMIE: Martyna Miller

Project View from the Window is a participatory process involving neighbors whose windows overlook DOMIE. DOMIE is a ruin, for four years becoming an engaged cultural center. The building looks like a small home in between tall, older tenements around. When photographed from above, due to the unusual shape of the roof, it visually resembles the first photograph ever taken by Nicephore Niepce in Le Gras (France). By playing with this visual connotation, she invites neighbors to evolve the feeling of something dear and beautiful, connected to memories and storytelling, and by this – slowly search for a sense of belonging and caretaking.

The Fallen Clouds – Josefina Buschmann, Daniela Camino

Josefina Buschmann and Daniela Camino presented the ongoing creative process of THE FALLEN CLOUDS, a speculative research-based project that delves into the socio-environmental impacts of digital infrastructures in Chile to break the great myth of cloud computing. The narrative follows a digital cloud searching for its body and origin extended among submarine cables in La Serena, data centers in Santiago, and minerals in the Atacama salt flat. On the journey it becomes entangled with human and more-than-human beings; socio-environmental conflicts; past, present, and future myths.

Open Urban Forest – Michal Mitro

Michal Mitro of ssesi.space presented the practical and conceptual background of the layered artistic research taking place in and about nature-reclaimed community garden in Brno, Czech Republic. Stacks, more-than-human actants, hyperobjects, as well as bees, retired gardeners and bonfires are all on the menu.

CreaTures project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870759. The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.

CreaTures project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870759. The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.

CreaTures project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870759. The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.

On the second half of the seminar, we used these learnings to collectively design a “climate refuge” for our neighborhoods or local communities. Climate refuges are local spaces where vulnerable populations can take shelter during extreme weather events – but they can be much so more than that! Let’s collectively unravel their full potential to be truly inclusive, engaging, and transformative spaces in our cities.

CreaTures project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870759. The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.

CreaTures project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870759. The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.

Participation is open to everyone but registration is required. To join, please fill in your details in the registration form and we will email you the link a day ahead of the seminar. 

The seminar will be recorded for archiving and research purposes; by joining the session you consent to the recording. Please read the Participation Information Sheet and Privacy Notice. CreaTures project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870759. The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.

In this seminar, Hilary outlined the framing behind Happy Museum and explored responses generated by the wide range of museums in the project’s Community of Practice. The session was an opportunity to discuss the role and potential of museums and other cultural organisations in relation to the wellbeing and sustainability of their communities.

In addition to her work with Happy Museum Hilary works freelance across the arts and cultural sectors with a focus on sustainability, leadership and facilitation. She is an Associate of the Clore Leadership Programme and Extend Leadership Programme and is a steering group member of the Co-Creating Change Network. She is Co-Chair of the Transition Network which supports an international movement of communities coming together to reimagine and rebuild our world. 

CreaTures project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870759. The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.

Artsformation, one of the sister projects to the CreaTures projects, is concerned with understanding and improving pathways through which the arts can be a powerful voice and agent in the digital transformation, through the development of knowledge, toolsets and participative experiments. As part of the project, we are interested in the potential participative and empowering role the arts may play for the socially disadvantaged.

In his talk, Christian Fieseler discussed some of the project’s initial work with socially engaged artists and initiatives in Europe, who use diverse artistic methods to explore, investigate and understand the digital transformation as a driver of our future as society. Despite the often ephemeral nature of socially engaged arts, they foresee an interesting new stream of more ‘organised’ artists working with projects that have designed to have more lasting impact over time – a form of ‘social artrepreneurship’. This seminar was an opportunity to share our initial observations and to learn from each other’s perspectives!

CreaTures project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870759. The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.

Cultural policy refers to social activities concerning culture. There are different views on culture in the field of cultural policy. Culture can be more narrowly defined in terms of artistic and cultural heritage or more broadly as a human activity that has socio-political implications beyond the boundaries of administrative sectors. In the current social debate, the objectives of cultural policy relate in particular to the arts, the promotion of creativity, cultural heritage, well-being and the economic importance of cultural sectors, and, more broadly, to social development.

Cupore’s research pays special attention to the themes under the Ministry of Education and Culture’s administration but is not limited to these research topics and extensively concerns the cultural policies implemented by various parties. Cupore’s strengths include knowledge of cultural policy governance structures, sector knowledge, a strong understanding of cultural policy developments, the academic substance of research and knowledge of networks.

Directing such a multidisciplinary research environment means being in the middle of a polyphonic community of researchers and practitioners. The task is to produce and disseminate research information, studies and evaluations on cultural policy for decision-making and civil society. My vision is that Cupore actively acts as a producer and mediator of information as well as a conversation opener. There needs to be a dialogue and some degree of understanding between the different actors.

CreaTures project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870759. The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.

The fashion system causes and carries a number of complex issues, beyond sustainability matters. Yet, the market-driven discussion overshadows alternative narratives. Different narratives, as ideas, actions and perspectives, would contribute to change the way these issues are created and addressed. Fashion Lab intends to expand the voice of the alternatives by inviting diverse actors–anyone who make, sell, buy, wear, and throw away clothes–to come up with new narratives of becoming and living with fashion.

Join us two-day event in which you are invited to reflect on ​experiences and relationships with fashion, and to collaboratively speculate alternative narratives for individuals and communities.

• Opening session: Mon. 13th September, 17-18.30 EEST
• Closing session: Mon. 20th September, 17-18.30 EEST

Where: Online (see the link)

*Participation is open to everyone but registration is required. To join, please fill in your details in the registration form and we will email you the link. REGISTRATION FORM: LINK

*The opening day participants will be asked to return to the closing day. More info will be presented at the opening. 

*The events will be recorded for archiving and research purposes; by joining the session you consent to the recording. Please read the Participation Information Sheet and Privacy Notice.

*This event is organized as part of Creative Practices for Transformational Futures (CreaTures) project. CreaTures project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870759. The content presented represents the views of the organizers, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.

*The event is also part of Aalto University’s Designs for a Cooler Planet / Helsinki Design Week 2021.

Creative practices hold huge transformational potential in fostering social- ecological sustainability because they are uniquely able to help people explore shifts in basic worldviews and paradigms. However, creative practices tend to be poorly resourced and badly understood in terms of their benefits. Understanding how creative practices achieve their goals by making use of the limited resources at hand can contribute to better assessment of their potential, to help them focus their efforts more effectively, and suggest policy recommendations that account for the merit of creative practices. 

CreaTures and AMASS are organising a joint public seminar that brings together research concerned with mapping resources and processes utilized by creative practitioners already mobilizing ideas for social and ecological sustainability, understanding their limitations and challenges, and demonstrating how they can be optimized, tested and evaluated. 

Meet the Panel:

Joost Vervoort – Associate Professor of Foresight and Anticipatory Governance at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University.

Sofia Lindström Sol– Lecturer and researcher at the Swedish School of Information and Library Science at the University of Borås.

Ann Light – Professor of Design & Creative Technology (Engineering and Design) School of Engineering and Informatics, University of Sussex.

Andrea Kárpáti – Professor and Head of the Visual Culture Research Group at the Institute of Communication and Sociology, Corvinus University Budapest.

Ruth Wolstenholme – Managing Director at Sniffer

Raphael Vella – Associate Professor in Art Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Malta

Moderator:

Tuuli Mattelmäki – Associate professor of Design, product service systems at the Department of Design, Aalto University

🪄 Stay tuned for more details!

Creative resourcefulness for sustainable futures is co-organised with the H2020 project Acting on the Margins: Arts as Social Sculpture (AMASS) and is part of the Designs for a Cooler Planet event at the Helsinki Design Week 2021.

The event will be recorded for archiving and research purposes; by joining the session you consent to the recording. Please read the Participation Information Sheet and Privacy Notice. CreaTures project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870759. The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.

The NFF is a heuristic in the shape of a triangle that captures diverse, positive values for human–nature relationships in a triangular space. They consider three main ways of valuing nature at each of the vertices (nature for nature, nature for society and nature as culture). The NFF builds on the three values of nature (intrinsic, instrumental and relational values, respectively) identified by the IPBES and repurposes it to make it actionable for the modelling and scenarios community. The NFF triangle illustrates how it is possible to emphasize a complex mixture of values for appreciating nature depending where in the triangle you are situated and thus allows for a plurality of perspectives to be held in different times, contexts and spaces. As such, the NFF approach and the triangle can be used both as a boundary object for continuously opening up more plural perspectives in the creation of nature scenarios and as an actionable framework for developing consistent scenarios and models across multiple scales and levels. She explored in more depth the latter process and the set of guidelines that are in development for operationalizing the NFF for the development of a new generation of nature future scenarios and models.

Suggested Reading:

Pereira, LM,  Davies, KK,  den Belder, E, et al.  Developing multiscale and integrative nature–people scenarios using the Nature Futures Framework. People Nat.  2020; 2: 1172– 1195. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10146 

Laura Pereira, Jan J. Kuiper, Odirilwe Selomane, et al. (2021) Advancing a toolkit of diverse futures approaches for global environmental assessments, Ecosystems and People, 17:1, 191-204, DOI: 10.1080/26395916.2021.1901783

Bio

Based in South Africa, Laura Pereira is a researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and a senior researcher at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University. She sits on the IPBES Task force on scenarios and models as well as the Earth Commission’ working group 4 on transformations. 

CreaTures project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870759. The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.

CreaTures project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870759. The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.