For our Finnish speaking friends, head to 1hr 20 to listen to Tuuli’s talk in the YouTube link below ✨🎧✨

In this talk, Jaz Choi shared experiences and learnings from CreaTures and reflected on what it means to do design research together in relation to RMIT’s newly formed group, Design for Social Innovation (DSI), at The RMIT School of Design Research Seminar Series.

🌿 The nineteenth CreaTures and Friends seminar will take place on

May 17th, 2022, 12:00-13:00 CEST 🌿

Creative Carbon Scotland spent nine months working with the staff and board of Creative Scotland, Scotland’s development agency for the arts, screen and creative industries, to write a Climate Emergency & Sustainability Plan. Ben Twist will outline the process, the outcome and what it might mean for the creative and cultural sectors in Scotland.

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.

🌿 The eighteenth CreaTures and Friends seminar will take place on

May 3rd, 2022, 12:00-13:00 CEST 🌿

Through a series of open calls, CreaTures has commissioned five new Experimental Productions. The aim of these calls was to enable smaller organisations and/or individuals to participate in the co-creative activities of the research project, by contributing site-specific, small scale projects. This seminar is an opportunity for the creative practitioners that have recently joined the CreaTures family to present their practice and ongoing work. 

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 will share 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, I invite 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 will present 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 will present 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.

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.

🌿 The seventeenth CreaTures and Friends seminar will take place on

April 12th, 2022, 12:00-13:00 CEST 🌿

In this session Cassie Robinson will share the work happening in the UK to seed and grow an imagination infrastructure – a long term investment, with multiple practitioners and partners, to grow capacity in communities to collectively imagine and shape their futures so that many different worlds become possible. She’ll talk about where the work is situated, how it’s being practiced and the ambitions for it as a UK-wide initiative.

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.

🌿 The sixteenth CreaTures and Friends seminar will take place on

March 29th, 2022, 12:00-13:00 CEST 🌿

Given the current atmosphere of social and ecological crises, there is increasing interest in conducing collaborative research across disciplinary boundaries that engages with different publics to tinker with futures. In this session, Mianna Meskus, Associate Professor of Sociology and Science and technology Studies in Tampere University will share her experiences and thoughts about methodological and ethical issues in conducting speculative research events. Drawing from case studies in social science and design research on emergent biotechnologies, she will invite participants to deliberate on what speculative research sets in motion when asking participants to imagine uncertain futures.

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.

🌿 The fifteenth CreaTures and Friends seminar will take place on

March 8th, 2022, 12:00-13:00 CET 🌿

In this talk, Ana proposes an intersectional pivot in climate action to help understand the interconnected forms of social-environmental injustices that drive vulnerabilities in cities. She presents a new conceptual framework for ‘intersectional climate justice’ and illustrates it with examples of ongoing projects in Barcelona, which put gender and climate justice at the fore. 

On the second half of the seminar, we use 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.

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.

🌿 The fourteenth CreaTures and Friends seminar will take place on

February 1st, 2022, 12:00-13:00 CET 🌿

The future of cities, smart or not, depends on the public’s capacity and willingness to stretch their imagination and envision new sociotechnical possibilities. In this session, Roy Bendor, Assistant Professor of Critical Design in Delft University of Technology, will discuss the use of speculative design as a means to disclose the malleability of urban technologies and invite seminar participants to try out an urban futuring exercise called Value Replacement Therapy.

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.

🌿 The thirteenth CreaTures and Friends seminar will take place on

December 14th, 2021, 10:00-11:00 CET 🌿

Dr Vicki Couzens, Keerray Woorroong Gunditjmara creative and research fellow at RMIT will relate insights and stories from her 40+ years actively working in Aboriginal community affairs;  from her early years as a ‘non-creative’,  through her emergence into the arts and creative cultural expression spectrum leading to her focus on language revitalisation;  what this means for her, her family, clan and community now and into the future.

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.

🌿 The twelve CreaTures and Friends seminar will take place on

November 16th, 2021, 12:00-13:00 CET 🌿

Hilary Jennings is Director of the Happy Museum Project. The Happy Museum invites people to think afresh about the role of museums, offering different perspectives and responses and stimulating and supporting change towards its vision: To re-imagine museums for a sustainable future by fostering wellbeing that doesn’t cost the earth. In this seminar, Hilary will outline the framing behind Happy Museum and explore responses generated by the wide range of museums in the project’s Community of Practice. The session will be 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. 

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.

Markéta Dolejšová will present CreaTures project and the Laboratory activities at the Nudos, Jornadas Magallanes ICC para pensar arte, ciencia, tecnología y sostenibilidad event in Seville on Oct 26^th.

Online program & more details here; LINK 🐕

🌿 The eleventh CreaTures and Friends seminar will take place on

October 5th, 2021, 12:00-13:00 CEST 🌿

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 upcoming talk, Christian Fieseler will discuss 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 will be an opportunity to share our initial observations and to learn from each other’s perspectives!

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.

🌿 The tenth CreaTures and Friends seminar will take place on

September 21st, 2021, 12:30-13:30 CEST 🌿

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.

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.

🌿 The ninth CreaTures and Friends seminar will take place on

June 29th, 2021, 12:00-13:00 CEST 🌿

In her talk Laura Pereira will present the latest work from the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) task force on scenarios and models regarding the operationalisation of the Nature Futures Framework (NFF). 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 will explore 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

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.

🌿 The eight CreaTures and Friends seminar will take place on

June 1st, 2021, 12:00-13:00 CEST 🌿

In his talk Professor Maarten Hajer, director of the Urban Futures Studio at the University of Utrecht, will explore the value of dramaturgical analysis for understanding the politics of climate change. He will draw upon the historical example of the Situationist International of the 1960s revealing the omissions in our current thinking about the cultural politics of climate change.

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

Many organisations have challenges in starting required transformations since they lack a shared understanding of the desired futures and how they connect to their sustainability goals. 

In the Dare to Share event, Hellon’s Sustainability Expert and Designer Sonja Nielsen and Principal Designer Kirsikka Vaajakallio discussed how to utilise future-oriented thinking and participatory approaches to address the much needed sustainability transformations within organisations. They presented a case example, the “Sustainable Futures Game”, which Hellon has created together with industry experts and researchers. The game can be used to inspire future-oriented thinking and kick-start conversations about future-proofing strategies within organisations.

Dare to Share is a monthly event series by Hellon. With these events we want to show you behind the curtains of the world’s most awarded service design agency, Hellon, and explore interesting topics and themes they encounter in their work with customer experience design.