Agents of Alternatives_Learning by Anja Lisa

Agents of Alternatives

Re-designing Our Realities

Edited by: Alastair Fuad-Luke Anja-Lisa Hirscher Katharina Moebus

First edition produced and published by Agents of Alternatives, Berlin, Germany in May 2015

Edited by: Alastair Fuad-Luke, Anja-Lisa Hirscher, Katharina Moebus

This work, copyright ÂŠ 2015 Agents of Alternatives and the individual contributors, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International, available here http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-sa/4.0, with the exception of the essay by David Bollier, which is reproduced here from his book Think Like A Commoner with kind permission from New Society Publishers, copyright ÂŠ 2014

Visual concept & cover: Anja-Lisa Hirscher and Katharina Moebus Editorial design: Anja-Lisa Hirscher Page layout: Anja-Lisa Hirscher and Gaspar Mostafa British-English proofreading: Isabelle Machado Aires Translation: German to English by Katharina Moebus

Font: Brandon Grotesque and Aleo, which is licensed under the SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1 Printed by InPrint, Latvia, 2015. The paper is Multi Design Original Natural, Forest Stewardship Certified (FSC)

ISBN: 978-3-00-049379-9 paperback

Agents of Alternatives e.V. Berlin, Germany www.agentsofalternatives.com

Agents of Alternatives

Re-designing Our Realities

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many people and organisations helped make this book a reality. We give a particularly warm thanks to our contributors who generously gave their time and energy to share their experiences and thoughts. We extend our grateful thanks to our crowdfunding sponsors who funded some of the key production costs via a campaign on Sponsume. We thank them for their trust and patience throughout the project. Some of them, as page or content sponsors, also contributed thoughts and words, which we think enriches the content of the book. We thank the Finnish Cultural Foundation (SKR, Suomen Kulttuurirahasto) for funding the early stage research from September 2012 to September 2013. Also, we wish to acknowledge Aalto ARTS (The School of Arts, Design & Architecture, Aalto University), Helsinki, Finland for the research and writing time we were able to dedicate to this project. Alastair extends his thanks to Lahti Region Development (LADEC) Finland for funding received through Aalto ARTS under the Elite 2 project, and to Riikka Salokannel, Design Development Director, with whom he worked from 2011 to 2014. The editorial team acknowledges the support of Professor Pirjo Hirvonen, Head of the Design Department at Aalto ARTS during that period. We are very grateful to Gaspar Mostafa for his significant contribution to the page layout design and for converting raw diagrams into stylish graphics; to Isabelle Machado Aires for the eagle-eyed dedication she brought to British-English proofreading; to Cathérine Kuebel for her contribution in the early phase of the research and to the two workshops we held in Berlin in October 2013 and February 2014. We give sincere thanks to the founding members of the non-profit association Agents of Alternatives agreeing to publish this book as one of its first activities. In addition to the editors of this book, our co-founding members are Malin Bäckman, Nicholas Torretta, Gaspar Mostafa, and Peter Breuer. We thank our lawyer Julia Breuer for her advice during the formation of the organisation and Tabea Glahs and Sanneke Duijf for their input during the organisation's early development together with Daphne Büllesbach and Cecilia Palmer for their experienced advice. Warm thanks to all the contributors who penned something for the book, and to all the named and un-named contributors to the projects we featured: Amber Hickey, Ana Malalan, Andreas Unteidig, Andrew Paterson, Anna Richter, Antonia Schui, Ben Becker, Ben Pohl, Bernd Kniess, Bianca Herlo, Caleb Waldorf, Cecilia Palmer, Christina Nägele, Christopher Laumanns, Cindy Kohtala, Claudia Garduño, Cordula Andrä, Corinna Fuchs, Daphne Büllesbach, David Bollier, David

Griedelbach, Diana Krabbendam, Elisa Garrote-Gasch, Eric Schuldenfrei, Fiona Geuß, Florian Sametinger, Fotini Lazaridou-Hatzigoga, Francesca Weber-Newth, Frauke Hehl, Frigga Haug, Gabi Sobliye, Gesche Joost, Harald Gruendl, Isolde Nagel, Jennifer Schubert, Joel Rosenberg, John A. Harris, Lisa Gutermuth, Luisa Maria Schweizer, Malin Bäckman, Malte Bergmann, Marcin Jakubowski, Marco Kellhammer, Marisa Yiu, Martin Parker, Maya Indira Ganesch, Michel Bauwens, Otto von Busch, Sam Muirhead, Samantha Riccio, Stefanie Gernert, The Public School Berlin, Thinkfarm, Tiina-Kaisa Laakso-Liukkonen, Trade School New York, Valerie A. Brown, Wendy Brawer and Zoe Romano. Sponsors: Adam de Eyto, Aita Bott, Anna-Miia Suihkonen, Anne Badan, Antti Vaahtersalo, Caroline Lutteri, Carolyn Strauss, Christopher Barlow, Claudia Garduño García, Colin Webb, Daphne Büllesbach, Fahrettin Ersin Alaca, Fernando Lusitano, Gaspar Mostafa, Graham Hill, Helge Mahne, Inês Laranjeira, Ingeborg Zimmermann, J. E. Frost, Jakub Bobrowski, Jenni Väänänen, Jessica Walsh, Julian Lindley, Kirsi Niinimaki, Kristiina Karinen, Larry Hickey, Liam Hinshelwood, Lucero Donaji de la Huerta, Merced Gómez, Malin Bäckman, Matei Cioata, Matti Jäppinen, Michael Moebus, Mike Waller, Mima Pejoska, Ying-Ju Lin, Paula Bello, Peter Breuer, Rebekka Moebus, Lili de Larratea, Ricardo Gonçalves, Sakari Karinen, Sarah Johnson, Selçuk Balamir, Siegfried Hirscher, Susanne Bergner, Suvi Kajamaa, Svetlana Usenyuk, Tabea Glahs and Tom White. We would like to extend further personal thanks: Alastair: I am grateful to all my friends, family, co-editors, students and colleagues with whom I’ve shared many conversations during the preparation of this book and who helped me turn emergent thoughts into words. Anja: I would like to thank everyone from my family and home in the Allgäu — my dear friends there — for inspiring walks and talks, plus my friends, colleagues and co-editors in Helsinki and elsewhere, for great discussions and support all along the way. Katharina: My dearest thanks to my love Peter and our little daughter Ofelia, to my family, old friends and new ones made through this book, my co-editors Anja and Alastair, colleagues and co-activists from Helsinki, Berlin and elsewhere for all the inspiring discussions and perspectives that helped make this book.

the contributors The contributors to this book come from diverse fields including architecture, art, design, landscape architecture, urban planning, education and research, to name a few. They are practitioners, activists, designers, artists and academics. This book would not have been possible without their commitment to challenging the paradigm and their belief in creating alternatives.

Alastair Fuad-Luke

Amber Hickey

Ana Malalan

Andreas Unteidig

Andrew Gryf Paterson

Anja-Lisa Hirscher

Anna Richter

Antonia Schui

Ben Becker

Ben Pohl

Bernd Kniess

Bianca Herlo

Cecilia Palmer

Christina Nägele

Christopher Laumanns

Cindy Kohtala

Claudia Garduño

Cordula Andrä

Daphne Büllesbach

David Bollier

Diana Krabbendam

Elisa Garrote-Gasch

Eric Schuldenfrei & Marisa Yiu

Florian Sametinger

Francesca WeberNewth & Isolde Nagel

Frauke Hehl

Frigga Haug

Gabi Sobliye

Gesche Joost

Harald Gruendl

Jennifer Schubert

Joel Rosenberg

John A. Harris

Katharina Moebus

Luisa Maria Schweizer

Lisa Gutermuth

Malin B채ckman

Malte Bergmann

Marcin Jakubowski

Marco Kellhammer

Martin Parker

Maya Indira Ganesh

Michel Bauwens

Otto von Busch

Sam Muirhead

Stefanie Gernert

The Public School Berlin

Thinkfarm

Tiina-Kaisa Laakso-Liukkonen

Trade School New York

Valerie A. Brown

Wendy Brawer & Samantha Riccio

Zoe Romano

contents

Introduction How to use this book Alternative worlds Map of contributions An evolving lexicon

12 16 18 20 22

THINKING Essays ’Hacking in the name of…’: Agents of Alternatives and Virtuous Vigilantes by Otto von Busch (OvB) A collective mind for a just and sustainable future by Valerie A. Brown and John A. Harris (VBJH)

Interviews Amber Hickey, A Guidebook ofAlternative Nows (GAN) Daphne Büllesbach & Luisa Maria Schweizer, European Alternatives (EA) Tiina-Kaisa Laakso-Liukkonen, Design Driven City (DDC) Case Study Tools for the Design Revolution by Institute of Design Research Vienna (IDRV)

40 46

58 66 78

94 LEARNING Essays Learning by doing - the transformative power of do-it-together (DIT) by Katharina Moebus (KM) Interview Caleb Waldorf, Fotini Lazaridou-Hatzigoga and Fiona Geuß, The Public School Berlin (PS)

108

Case Studies Aalto Lab Mexico by Claudia Garduño (ALM) Women’s Rights Campaigning: Info-Activism Toolkit by Maya Indira Ganesh and Lisa Gutermuth, Tactical Technology Collective (WRC/TTC)) Interjection Starting a Trade School by Trade School New York (TS)

SHARING Essays The Commons as a Different Way of Seeing and Being by David Bollier (DB) Are there Alternatives beyond the market? by Michel Bauwens (MB)

116 128

138

140 142 158

Interviews Maya Indira Ganesh and Gabi Sobliye, Tactical Technology Collective (TTC) Cecilia Palmer, Open Fashion & Code (OF)

172 182

Case Studies Open Green Map by Wendy E. Brawer with Samantha Riccio (GM) Pixelache Festival by Andrew Gryf Paterson (PA) Satokartta by Joel Rosenberg (SK) OpenWear - Collaborative Clothing by Zoe Romano (OW)

190 200 214 220

MAKING Essays Systems of Resilience: A dialogue on digital makers, making and their principles of conduct by Cindy Kohtala (CK) The Joyful Experiences of Making Together by Anja-Lisa Hirscher (ALH)

228 230 240

Interviews Marcin Jakubowski, Global Village Construction Set & Open Source Ecology (GVCS) Elisa Garrote-Gasch, Repair Café Berlin (RC) Case Study Make{able} - Valuable clothes designed together by Anja-Lisa Hirscher (M)

INTERVENING Essays Design activism’s teleological freedoms as a means to transform our habitus by Alastair Fuad-Luke (AFL)

258

268

278 280

Interview Diana Krabbendam, The Beach (TB)

296

Case Studies Bring Your Own Biennale by Eric Schuldenfrei and Marisa Yiu (BYOB) Neighbourhood Labs by Design Research Lab, Berlin University of the Arts (NL)

310 322

Interjection Designing with(in) a community: Sharing insights gained through practice by Malin Bäckman (MB)

WORKING Essays The 4-in-1-perspective by Frigga Haug (FH) The architect and the bee revisited: Managing, organising and agency by Martin Parker (MP)

250

338

350 352 362

Interviews Frauke Hehl and Antonia Schui, workstation ideenwerkstatt e.V. (WS) David Griedelbach and Corinna Fuchs, Thinkfarm (TF)

372 382

Case Studies Anselma: The ‘everything is possible‘ public studio by Ana Malalan (A) Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie by Christopher Laumanns (KNÖ)

388 396

LIVING Essay University of the Neighbourhoods – Hotel as Method? by Benjamin Becker, Stefanie Gernert, Bernd Kniess, Ben Pohl, and Anna Richter (UdN) Interviews Cordula Andrä, Centre for Experimental Cultural and Social Design (ZEGG) Francesca Weber-Newth & Isolde Nagel, Community Lover’s Guide to Berlin (CLG)

406 408

430 440

Case Study Year of Open Source by Sam Muirhead (YOS)

450

PRACTICES & REFLECTIONS Stuff that works Afterthoughts Further reading Endnotes

460 462 476 478 480

introduction

You hold in your hands a book which is really a manifestation of an evolving vision to link designing with everyday ‘active-ism’ which helps materialise plausible ‘alternatives’ to the global economy and neo-liberal capitalist practices. This was driven by an underlying belief that we need to ‘re-design our realities’ to better reflect and respond to our pressing contingent challenges about our social, ecological and financial condition. Exploring ‘agents of alternatives’ demands a multidisciplinary dialogue within and between citizens, practitioners and academics who make things happen. So, you will find contributors from diverse fields: design, the arts, architecture, education, politics, economics, urban planning and city administration, social enterprise and the informal sector, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs), experts on the commons, and others. We encouraged activists, researchers, educationalists, strategists and facilitators to share their views. In this book we mix the voices of well-known contributors alongside lesser-known active local agents. We look for emergent ways of learning-by-doing, of designing, of manifesting things differently and catalysing positive change, and we present these ways of thinking and practicing so that others might fruitfully experiment with, explore and generate alternatives for themselves. Agency Our position is that everyone and everything has agency, that is, the capacity to change what happens next. A position reinforced by certain philosophers – for example, Bruno Latour’s human and non-human ‘actants’, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s ‘social material assemblages’, and Jane Bennett’s ‘vibrant matter’.1 We, and our contributors, also adopt more accepted sociological and anthropological views of agency involving the social structures, systems and rules which bind or break them. Those with agency are actors, stakeholders, shareholders, institutions, organisations, diverse communities and other social groups. We would also invoke ‘political agency’ as a healthy form of disagreement and discourse as part of our civic and human condition, not confined within formalised institutionalised practices of ‘politics’. In this sense we see the political agency of this book and its

1 See, for example, Latour, B., 2005. Reassembling the Social. An introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F., 1987. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press; and Bennett, J., 2010. Vibrant Matter. A political ecology of things. Durham, USA: Duke University Press.

contributors as a means to re-examine and explore our social relations and our relations with the wider world so that we might, individually and collectively posit or construct alternatives. The agents Who are these agents of alternatives? They exhibit some common features: they are independently minded, but share a critical awareness of our social, ecological and economic condition; they have a vision but it is adaptive to changing circumstances; they are open and transparent, showing their processes and sharing their expertise; they start their journey with the (often meagre) resources at their disposal and show perseverance; they believe their voice counts and encourage others to add their voices too; they turn rhetoric into action; and they reveal opportunities and possibilities. Most importantly, all our contributors here are ‘making things happen’, they are active not passive, caring not distant, and different not conformist. Read their voices in the essays, interviews and case studies. Alternatives Anyone, or anything, contesting the status quo, societal ‘norms’ or contemporary paradigmatic forces, is, potentially, an ‘alternativ-ist’. To be an alternativ-ist is not a new position but has an illustrious history which embraces daring individuals, collective movements, specialised groups and minorities.2 Here we define our alternatives through a series of imagined worlds –Thinking, Learning, Sharing, Making, Intervening, Working, and Living – worlds which evolved as the content for the book grew (see p.18-19). We see these worlds intertwined, joined by a series of emergent practices (p.462) and expressed through an evolving lexicon (p.22-37). These alternatives are still young, yet they are potentially catalytic and, if scaled-up, can encourage a transition towards more sustainable, equable and adaptable futures. We found professionally organised alternatives that try to bridge policy-making and grassroots activism as well as small initiatives that have spread all around the world, because their underlying ideas are so simple, accessible and welcoming to a wide range of people. There are different ways of changing society, and this book tries to have a closer look at the potential of the informal and formal worlds of change makers. Re-designing Our shared vision for this book was also underpinned with a belief that the field of design is diffusing out into wider society and is no longer just the primary concern of professionally trained designers, but is actually being practiced by other profes-

2 Parker, M., Fournier, V. and Reedy, P., 2007. The Dictionary of Alternatives: Utopianism and Organisation. London: Zed Books.

sionals, professional amateurs and citizen designers. We share and update Victor Papanek’s view that ‘all people are designers’,3 and Joseph Beuys’ political position making all citizens ‘artists’ that shape the ‘social sculpture’ of our society.4 And, we believe that a sustainable way of designing is to work with what is existent in a ‘locale’5 – a diverse array of human, social, public, commercial and natural capitals. In this sense ‘re-designing’ makes more sense than ‘designing’, because it involves re-configuring the potential of what already exists. This might, of course, involve bringing in new ingredients and smartly combining them to create fresh potentialities. The initiatives, projects and ideas collated in this book are representative for a growing global ‘zeitgeist’ (spirit of the time) around openness and sharing. This means making ideas accessible to everyone so that they can be adapted to diverse local conditions. Most of them are open source so individual authorship becomes less important and the positive impacts and potentialities of sharing are emphasised. They bring different communities and places around the world together in a dynamic self-organised and, often, surprising way. To summarise, it is our hope that this book will stimulate you, the reader, to become an agent of alternatives too…

3 Papanek’s original quote was ‘All men are designers’, p.17 in Papanek, V., 1974. Design for the Real World. Human Ecology and Social Change. St. Albans, UK: Paladin. 4 See, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_sculpture and http://www.social-sculpture.org 5 ‘Locale’ has an etymological root in ‘locus’, Latin for place, and is a French word defining local. More importantly, locale, is a combination of unique ingredients or characteristics which differentiate what it means to be local. Locale is a scalable phenomenon that, like the famous Charles and Ray Eames’ film Powers of Ten, can be felt at many scales from one square metre to a hectare or more. It is also a meeting place of various communities, it is the location of specific human ecologies. So each locale has a unique combination of communities of place, communities of practice, communities of interest and communities of circumstance and other types of communities. Source: Fuad-Luke, A., 2012. Locale. Window874, available at http://window874.com/2012/05/29/locale

Editors' notes: We added editors' footnotes to interview and case study texts where we thought it would assist the reader. In the essays these are marked as such, to distinguish them from the original contributor's footnotes.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

The founding principle of this book is that the diverse content provided by the contributors would drive an emergent structure. We came together in November 2013 in Helsinki to analyse the content we’d already received and to develop the language for the book (Figure 1.). We believed, and still believe, that genuine empowerment happens by locating ourselves within an alternative framework, by seeing positive disruptions to the status quo, by repositioning what designing can do, and by focusing on Our Commons (we use ‘our’ not ‘the’ to emphasise that the default ownership is ‘us’ and ‘we’, not ‘them’) and how we can share in better ways for the common good.

Figure 1. Some emergent keywords from the editors’ conversation in November 2013. © AoA.

In February 2014 the editors came together in Berlin to further explore and understand the content we had already received and do an initial mapping of its relations (Figure 2.). These two meetings led us to create an active vocabulary and initiated a conversation about whether we could analyse and synthesise the content into a more constructive and practical arrangement that would inspire. We understood that people were acting and taking action around different focal areas — we called these areas ‘alternative worlds’ (see next page). They are/were developing [design] practices that help encourage a transition from the existing situation to a preferred situation (to borrow from the words of Herbert Simon1). We analysed these prac-

Figure 2. The editors having a ‘eureka’ moment with Cathérine Kuebel in Berlin, February 2014. © AoA.

tices and have presented them as ‘Stuff that works’ (p.462). These practices range from those based upon eminent common sense to ingenious ways of encouraging transformation. We hope you will recognise some, and add your own. We also observed that people were talking and writing about their ‘worlds’ and ‘practices’ with new language, so we created an ‘evolving lexicon’ (pp.22-37). We hope that these collated ‘insights’, ‘practices’, ‘emergent words’ and, of course, the detailed content from our contributors, will stimulate you, the reader, to reflect and re-think your own position. We hope that flipping between this synthesis of the content and the actual content will provide its own stimulus. In short, we hope that this extra joining of information at a ‘meta’ level, might provide some magic ingredients to generate, nourish and sustain alternatives. Map of contributions Each contribution in this book was assigned to a ‘primary’ world with other worlds as ‘secondary’ influences to see how the different projects, initiatives and philosophies interweave and cluster. The outcome is a ‘map of contributions’ (pp.20-21) which allows a different way of navigating through the book and making sense of its contents. It serves as an addition to the traditional list of contents and invites you, the reader, to experience the book in many different ways: non-linearly, according to chapter, interest, theme, format and so on. Enjoy the journey.

1 Simon, H., 1996 (1969). The Sciences of the Artificial. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

alternative worlds

We believe that alternatives are best created and designed together by thinking differently and making those thoughts tangible by taking action. The diversity of contributions in this book highlights that there are many intertwined worlds with which we can engage. We offer working definitions of these worlds, without asserting them to be either final or complete, hoping that you will add your own. We believe that by combining these worlds in different ways, we can ‘re-design our realities’.

Thinking – the diverse acts and practices of discursive activities, free association, ideation, inquiring, intuiting, philosophising, reasoning, reflecting, ruminating and synthesising individually and/or collectively as a means to nourish our human, social and other capitals.

Learning – the activities of acquiring, giving and exchanging skills, knowledge and experiences by teaching oneself and others, and learning from each other to encourage healthy social discussion, evolution of new wisdoms and activation of hidden capabilities.

Sharing – acts, actions or reciprocal relations between individuals, groups and communities to enjoy and enrich something together (time, objects, experiences, etc.) based on respectful mutuality, interdependency, openness and generosity.

Making – the act of bringing a form, process, service or experience to life, while realising individual and/or collective creative human potential and capital.

Intervening – introducing activities and/or artefacts to engage, by consensus or disruption, to stimulate dialogue and actions towards a common purpose as a means to better our world.

Working – modes of being active, of acting, operating, functioning, organising and practicing to achieve something, to earn or make a livelihood, to be a valued contributor to society, its individual members and to oneself.

Living – human activities of alive-ness, being-ness, existences, livelihoods and other ways of being that affect our individual and collective condition, our thriving and flourishing, and our natural, spatial, physical, mental, spiritual and other dimensions of being in the world.

Thinking

Map of Contributions The initials represent the contributors listed in the contents on p.8 with their respective page numbers.

Learning

KM 96

IDRV 86

TS 138 WRC 128 DB 142

ALM 116

MB 158

PS 108

SK 214 GM 190

ALH 240 OW 220

TTC 172

GVCS 250

Sharing

RC 258 M 268 CK 230

BYOB 310

Making

hinking

VBJH 46

Living

FH 352

GAN 58 UdN 408

TF 382 CLG 440

OvB 40

KNÖ 396 ZEGG 430

DDC 78 AFL 280

MP 362

NL 322

EA 66

YOS 450 A 388

OF 182

WS 372

PA 200

Working

TB 296

MB 338

Intervening

learning The activities of acquiring, giving and exchanging skills, knowledge and experiences by teaching oneself and others, and learning from each other to encourage healthy social discussion, evolution of new wisdoms and activation of hidden capabilities.

Katharina Moebus, born 1984 in Germany with roots in Finland, is an interdisciplinary designer who works at the crossroads of design, art, activism and research. After her studies in Italy, Switzerland and Helsinki, she worked in diverse international design studios, for various NGO's in Southeast Asia, and at Aalto University Helsinki as research assistant and tutor, exploring how design can help tackle socio-political issues. She likes home-made bread and walks in the forest.

Essay

Learning by doing – the transformative power of do-it-together (DIT) by Katharina Moebus

For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them. Aristotle1

There are certain things you only learn through direct experience. Roughly four years ago, I had the chance to go through an experience which entirely changed the way I look at problems. At that time, I was in the process of graduating from my design studies in Helsinki and was planning to organise a do-it-yourself (DIY) workshop to collectively build a public outdoor oven. I was looking for help from professional brick-layers, but none seemed to be willing to teach their skills to a bunch of beginners. Just before, a friend had introduced me to the online platform The Public School, a ‘school without curriculum’, where anyone can propose classes on anything to try and find like-minded people and potential teachers.2 I gave it a try and posted my request. Quite soon, I received an answer by a lady named Salla Kuuluvainen, a food activist and active urban gardener. She had once participated in a cob oven building workshop and suggested that technique instead of using bricks for the oven construction. Cob is a rather simple, cheap and ecological way of building.3 The thread between the two of us continued until we agreed on a meeting in a small café in Helsinki. Salla brought a friend along, Tanja Korvenmaa, who had experience in mediation and facilitation and, also in building with cob. A month later, the workshop was scheduled and a group of about fifteen people from various professional backgrounds, ages and nationalities gathered around the planning and making of a cob oven in an urban location. With the help of an open-source online manual (passionately provided by Simon Brookes on his blog

1 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 2 The Public School, http://thepublicschool.org 3 ‘Cob’ is a mixture of clay soil with straw, stone and other materials which strengthen the matrix on drying. It is a well known construction technique for vernacular buildings worldwide.

The Clay Oven4), the oven was built during a sunny weekend in the late summer at the former fish harbour Kalasatama in Helsinki. Kalasatama was a vacant construction site at that time and, so, open for cultural activities and projects.5 We used only found materials from the direct environment such as clay from the riverbed of a nearby forest, old bricks and sand from a construction site, and water from the Baltic Sea. Only the baking surface needed to be safe for food, so we crowd funded the purchase of a few special bricks from the hardware store amongst the building group. After the weekend, the oven was built and almost ready for use; it just needed a last layer of clay and a few days drying until we could fire it for the first time. And it worked! Its first official use was during the harvest festival of the local environmental organisation Dodo,6 when it produced many delicious pizzas topped with vegetables from the nearby urban gardens. Amongst many other events, another highlight was our participation in Restaurant Day,7 where we organized a DIY pizza afternoon with wild ingredients foraged from the local woods. With more than 100 pizzas baked, an estimated 200 people participating, and everything eaten up, the event proved a big success. The empowering dimension of learning from each other how to build something rather technical by simply doing it swept all of us off our feet. It did not only generate pride in each one of us, but also created social bonds amongst the group that have continued over the years until today, even after the oven had succumbed to the Finnish climate after two years of heavy use.

Busy bees collecting material for the

Half-way done! The building group celebrating

4 The Clay Oven, http://clayoven.wordpress.com 5 Kalasatama Temporary, http://kalasatama.blogspot.de 6 Dodo ry is a Finnish environmental organisation founded in Helsinki in 1995 focussing on sustainable lifestyles in the city. More info: http://dodo.org 7 Restaurant Day is a pop-up food carnival taking place every three months all around the world. It started in 2011 in Helsinki and has grown internationally ever since. More info: www.restaurantday.org/en

To make the oven publicly accessible, we set up a blog called Stadin Uuni8 (meaning 'The City's Oven'), where people could make reservations through an online calendar and check instructions on how to use the oven. It quickly became known across the city and was used by many different groups and individuals. It also inspired several other ovens in the city, such as the oven at Dodo's urban garden in the Pasila district9 and the one in front of the new food court Teurastamo near Kalasatama.10 Different and new members of the building group took care of answering emails, doing small repairs to the oven, upgrades, and refilling firewood.

New communities of mutual exchange All of this was only possible by combining the knowledge and experience of many different people who found themselves through the simple support of an online platform. It complies with the early vision of Ivan Illich, a radical thinker and educational theorist who talked about ‘deschooling’ in his book Deschooling Society:

8 More info: http://stadinuuni.blogspot.com 9 More info: http://kaantopoyta.fi/info 10 More info: www.teurastamo.com/en

‘A good educational system should have three purposes: it should provide all who want to learn with access to available resources at any time in their lives; empower all who want to share what they know to find those who want to learn it from them; and, finally, furnish all who want to present an issue to the public with the opportunity to make their challenge known.’ Ivan Illich11

According to Illich, the institutionalisation of education was doing the exact opposite, institutionalising society and working against self-directed learning. He proposed so-called ‘learning webs’, where people would become part of a peermatching network and find their suitable learning partner by describing their activities of interest. Illich’s thoughts were prescient. The internet, social media, and platforms such as The Public School are making exactly such learning webs possible. It enables the rise of new neighbourhoods and creates local communities in cities. In his essay 'A buzz between rural cooperation and the online swarm', Helsinki-based Scottish researcher Andrew Paterson12 explores the Finnish term and social concept 'talkoot', neighbourly help, and its connections to collaborative web platforms and digital network culture.13 Paterson quotes Tapani Köppä, research director of Cooperative Network Studies at the Ruralia Institute, to describe what 'talkoot' means in more detail: “People getting together for joint work efforts, based on voluntary participation, and collective reward through hospitality and enjoying of the shared work performance.”14 Paterson draws further connections to the concept of 'mutual aid' in village community structures as described by Peter Kropotkin in 1902, which was, according to Kropotkin, suppressed by state-based institutions, similar to Illich's critique of the institutionalised society: ‘The village communities were bereft of their folkmotes, their courts and independent administration; their lands were confiscated. Political education, science, and law were rendered subservient to the idea of State centralization. It was taught in the Universities and from the pulpit that the institutions in which men formally used to embody their needs of mutual support could not be tolerated in a properly organized State; that the State alone could represent the bonds of union between its subjects; that federalism and “particularism” were the enemies of progress, and the State was the only proper initiator of further development.’ Peter Kropotkin15

11 Illich, I., 1971. Deschooling Society. New York: Harper & Row. 12 Andrew has worked with this concept with Camp Pixelache, see http://www.pixelache.ac/pages/camp-2014 13 Paterson, A., G., 2009. A Buzz between Rural Cooperation and the Online Swarm. Affinities. A Journal of Radical Theory, Culture, and Action, 4(1), Summer 2010, pp. 83-109. Available at: http://journals.sfu.ca/affinities/index.php/ affinities/article/view/51/140 14 Köppä, T., 2009, Remarks on rural co-operation in Finland. Keynote presentation at the Alternative Economy Cultures seminar, Pixelache Helsinki Festival. Helsinki: Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art on 03 April 2009. 15 Kropotkin, P., 2008 (1902). Mutual aid: A factor of evolution. Charleston, SC: Forgotten Books.

100

Dialogues of learning It is likely to connect the concept of 'mutual aid' and 'talkoot' to the idea of 'mutual learning', a term still being defined.16 The definition that is closest to my understanding of 'mutual learning' is, perhaps, that of 'dialogue education', an educational approach first described by educator Jane Vella in the 1980s.17 Amongst others, it draws on the theories of Brazilian educator Paolo Freire, to whom I will come to shortly. The basis of the dialogue approach is, according to Vella, mutual respect and open communication. Learners and teachers meet each other on an equal level, both actively engaging with the learning content instead of the student being dependent on the teacher’s instructions. It can be a means to 'transformative learning', a learning theory founded and developed by American sociologist Jack Mezirow. The transformation of one's perspective is at focus, with the following three dimensions: ‘psychological (changes in understanding of the self), convictional (revision of belief systems), and behavioural (changes in lifestyle).’18 Mezirow describes the relevance and impacts of transformative learning as such: ‘A defining condition of being human is that we have to understand the meaning of our experience. For some, any uncritically assimilated explanation by an authority figure will suffice. But in contemporary societies we must learn to make our own interpretations rather than act on the purposes, beliefs, judgements, and feelings of others. Facilitating such understandings is the cardinal goal of adult education. Transformative learning develops autonomous thinking.’ Jack Mezirow19

Furthermore, Mezirow believes that the transformation of perspective occurs at major life transitions or disorienting dilemmas,20 which, I was happy to read, can also be less dramatic, such as those created by a teacher.21 This goes line in line with what Roope Mokka of Demos Helsinki, an independent think tank with foci on societal change and environmental sustainability, once said in an interview for the blog window874.com:

16 Googling this term, there does not seem to be a consistent definition, being used in many different, not necessarily suitable contexts, so it still seems to be a term in emergence. 17 Read more on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialogue_education 18 Clark, M., C., 1991. The restructuring of meaning: an analysis of the impact of context on transformational learning. Thesis EdD. University of Georgia, 1991. 19 Mezirow, J., 1997. Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 74, pp.5–12. 20 Mezirow, J.,1995. Transformation Theory of Adult Learning. In: Welton, M.R. ed. 1995. In Defense of the Lifeworld, New York: SUNY Press. pp. 39–70. 21 Torosyan, R., 2007. Teaching for Transformation: Integrative Learning, Consciousness Development and Critical Reflection. Unpublished manuscript.

101

‘Another thing that changes our attitudes is a change of perspective. This however happens only a couple of times in your lifetime. Sometimes, they become very spiritual moments, but they don’t actually happen that often.’ Roope Mokka22

The need to position ourselves Mutual education seems a very potent tool for social change. It enables people to understand and, beyond that, participate actively in changing the conditions of our lives. This liberating process is founded in the theories of Paolo Freire who I mentioned above. His learning theory is known as critical or radiMutual education seems cal pedagogy, which combines education with critical a very potent tool for theory – a school of thought that puts forward the social change reflection and critique of society and culture. Freire emphasises the students’ ability to think critically about their social and historical context to understand how it was connected to their individual problems. He coins this ability as 'critical consciousness', the ability to 'read the world' in order to become active subjects in the creation of a democratic society.23 Critical consciousness is a crucial ingredient that supports self-determination and self-directed learning — how are we to know what we need and want to know in order to understand the world if we are used to prescribed curricula by the state? The activist group Trapese Collective, who published the book DIY – A handbook for changing our world24 puts forward the concept of popular education, which they describe as: ‘An education where we relearn co-operation and responsibility, that is critically reflective but creatively looks forward- an education that is popular, of and from the people. Popular, liberatory or radical education aims at getting people to understand their world around them, so they can take back control collectively, understand their world, intervene in it, and transform it. There are many examples of groups that can organize their own worlds without experts and professionals, challenge their enemies and build movements for change.’ Trapese25

Popular education draws heavily on the theories of Freire, and is never politically neutral as its aim is social change – it is at the crossroads of politics and education, a self-organised grassroots approach that relies on and aims at individual and col-

22 Mokka, R., 2012. Out of the tank. Interviewed by Katharina Moebus [blog] window874.com, Helsinki, 12 Dec. 2012. Available at: http://window874.com/2012/12/07/out-of-the-tank 23 Freire, P., 1973. Education for critical consciousness. New York: Seabury Press. 24 Trapese Collective ed., 2007. Do It Yourself: A Handbook for Changing Our World. London: Pluto Press. 25 Trapese Popular Education Collective, 2013. What is Popular Education. Available at: http://trapese.clearerchannel.org/whatispop.php

102

lective emancipation. Other than the traditional education provided by the state, critiqued by philosopher Alan Watts in 1967: ‘Our educational system, in its entirety, does nothing to give us any kind of material competence. In other words, we don’t learn how to cook, how to make clothes, how to build houses, how to make love, or to do any of the absolutely fundamental things of life. The whole education that we get for our children in school is entirely in terms of abstractions. It trains you to be an insurance salesman or a bureaucrat, or some kind of cerebral character.’26

The recent documentary alphabet by Austrian filmmaker Erwin Wagenhofer27 in 2013 leaves the impression that not much has changed since then, depicting an educational system that kills creativity and trains our children to become part of a competitive production force. He emphasizes the importance of playful failure to be able to look for new solutions. Wagenhofer does not blame the system, but every individual, saying that it is up to us to position ourselves on how we want to live, but that we need to live differently.28 The documentary Lottery of Birth from the same year by filmmakers Raoul Martinez and Joshua van Praag29 explores the forces that determine who we become and in what structures we think, which also determines the society we create. The awareness about the forces which come from our families, schools, culture and professional work can be a starting point to rethink the way we live. It requires learning new skills and ways of thinking which lay at the heart of the current world-wide movements of sharing knowledge, collaborating, and very simple and practical making.

Amateurism, the Great Reskilling, and DIT The 2013 German book Stadt der Commonisten ('City of Commoners') by the three sociologists Andrea Baier, Christa Müller and Karin Werner30 beautifully compiles and portrays the many different and colourful forms this new sense of 'commonism' may take, from Repair Cafés31 over urban gardens to open-source cargo bike collectives to maker labs.32 What they all have in common is the open trial-and-error-attitude Wagenhofer thought was lacking in our schools and

26 Watts, A. et al., 1967. The Houseboat Summit. The San Francisco Oracle, issue 7. San Francisco, CA, available at: http://www.vallejo.to/articles/summit_pt1.htm 27 alphabet. 2012. [Documentary] Directed by Erwin Wagenhofer. Austria: Prisma Film. 28 Kaever, O., 2013. Alles nur geföhnte Bubis und Barbies. ZEIT Online [online] 1 Nov. Available at: http://www.zeit. de/kultur/film/2013-10/dokumentarfilm-alphabet-erwin-wagenhofer 29 Lottery of Birth. 2012. [Documentary] Directed by Joshua Van Praag and Raoul Martinez. UK/USA: Independent Production. 30 Baier, A., Müller, C. and Werner, K., 2013. Stadt der Commonisten. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. 31 See interview in this book with Elisa Garrote-Gasch 32 See essay in this book by Cindy Kohtala

103

an endless curiosity to explore unknown fields without having a problem with being amateurs. Amateurism is usually associated with bad and clumsy work, even though the etymology indicates the word stems from 'love'. To explore an unknown field with love and passion can be more fruitful and inventive than being stuck with one's professional expertise. And, in uncertain times, what if there are no professionals (yet) because new fields first need to be explored in order to find new ways of living together? And, what if we actually need to 'reskill' ourselves and re-learn many of the things that were natural to our grandfathers and mothers to face the future after constant growth and environmental depletion? Many of the current transitional movements focus on the very basic things of life, such as growing food, sewing clothes, making jam, baking bread, or foraging for wild herbs. The Transition Town movement calls it 'the Great Reskilling',33 learning some of the practical artisan skills from the past that are more sustainable and require slower lifestyles. It is critiqued as going back to medieval times, and as having a naïve and blue-eyed romanticism — but why is it so attractive nowadays in a world of connectedness, smartphones, urban life and thriving developments of technology? Why are there thriving movements about slow living, slow food, slow working, urban gardening, a re-emergence of country life and traditional artisan knowledge?34 Maybe, it is the human scale that is missing in our globalised world, the very essence of what makes us human — to do things with our hands, to know how things are made and what from. Sociologist Richard Sennett's book The Craftsman35 describes how making things with our hands is crucial for us human beings to ‘enrich our lives’ and ‘be in touch with the world around us’. His later book Together36 depicts how cooperation is something embedded in human nature and highly relevant for societies to flourish. The learning initiatives popping up all around the world go beyond online manuals and open access to knowledge – they create community by physically bringing people with similar interests together, creating new possibilities of mutual learning experiences. DIY has become do-itwith-others (DIWO) or do-it-together (DIT).37 People from all ages, backgrounds and nationalities meet up to share their knowledge with others – not motivated by money or competition, but by the rich exchange of knowledge, the new insights and experiences, and, last but not at all least, the social networks and community arising around it. Taking up different roles at the same time, the one of a teacher, of a learner, of an 'experimenteur' and collective researcher is the foundation of mutual learning. Those roles are fluent and exchangeable, putting all on the same

33 Hopkins, R., 2011. The Transition Companion. Making your community more resilient in uncertain times. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing. 34 Slow food movement: www.slowfood.com, acknowledged by all of the other ‘slow movements’. 35 Sennett, R., 2008. The Craftsman. New Haven: Yale University Press. 36 Sennett, R., 2012. Together – The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation. New Haven: Yale University Press. 37 See also: Pixelache, 2012. Do It With Others – D.I.W.O. is the new D.I.Y.. Pixelache blog, [blog] 7 May 2012. Available at: http://www.pixelache.ac/blog/2012/do-it-with-others-d-i-w-o-is-the-new-d-i-y

104

eye-level. It is empowering to realise that everybody has something to share, to be part of the whole that is greater than the sum of its parts,38 no matter how small one's contribution. As Mezirow describes, such learning experiences can be transformative, or as Mokka said, almost spiritual moments. This was certainly my experience during the cob oven building, for me and my fellow builders.

Everyone can teach their passion In 2012, the independent think tank Demos organized 'Koulu', an experimental open school festival in Helsinki.39 People were invited to teach their skills in short sessions during the festival. No limits were set in advance about the teaching content, so there were classes ranging from life drawing to ukulele-playing and programming. What is particularly interesting is that people were enthusiastic to sign up to become a teacher even though they did not have any previous teaching experience. The open invitation to teach your skill had an empowering dimension simply by expressing the idea that everyone can teach their passion. Another interesting learning project which supports this impression is Trade School,40 an open-source concept that originated in New York in 2009. Here, learning is exchanged against barter items that the teacher can wish for preliminary of the class. Those items can be anything from a bottle of red wine to a hug, a cup of coffee, advice on best places to see to homemade cookies. In less than five years, Trade Schools have expanded all over the world. This expansion is facilitated by it being an open source concept for which a manual, an online platform and direct support from its founders are provided. At the time of writing, there are fifty Trade Schools around the globe, from New York to Montreal to Mexico City, the Philippines, Vietnam, most European countries and many more. If there isn't one in your city, why don't you start your own chapter?41 I got involved with Trade School (TS) Berlin by a lucky coincidence: I learned about its existence through Amber Hickey's book Guidebook of Alternative Nows42 and then met Vanessa Buth while participating in the bike ride book launch of the Community Lovers' Guide to the Universe,43 organized by European Alternatives as a part of the Transeuropa Festival.44 Vanessa had been part of the TS Norwich and was eager to get involved with the Berlin chapter having recently moved to Berlin. We got in touch with the founders of TS Berlin, two young women from New York – Harley Aussoleil and Jes Walsh, who are also part of Boys Club, an

38 39 40 41 42 43 44

Referring to the infamous quote by Aristotle from his Metaphysica: ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.’ See more: http://kouluschool.wordpress.com See more: http://tradeschool.coop See the manual on how to start your own Trade School in this book See the interview with Amber Hickey in this book See interview with Francesca Weber-Newth and Isolde Nagel, Community Lover’s Guide to Berlin in this book See interview with European Alternatives in this book

105

open project space that combines living and working, it being their own living room with a large front store window. Harley and Jes were happy to get support from other organisers, and after a few meetings of planning and discussing, we set up an open event to reintroduce TS to the neighbourhood. We also invited other similar initiatives from Berlin, such as the Tauschring Neukölln45 (a barter community) and the Bürgeruni46 (Citizen University), which is inspired by another learning experience, The U,47 from England. Other TS chapters from Milan and Halle also joined to present their activities and stories, which all differ depending on the people involved and local circumstances at hand. We kicked-off the season with a first class on internet security, which was followed by three intense months of diverse lessons ranging from dance, philosophy (e.g. How to change your life forever), open design, cooking (e.g. Chinese Dumplings, Italian Pizza, Finnish Cuisine), bike repair, help with German bureaucracy, and many other, mostly very practical classes.

Establishing new systems of exchange Trade School and all of the other initiatives described above demonstrate that value is subjective and diverse. These initiatives encourage cooperation by people wanting to give back something to someone that goes beyond the usual value of money.

45 www.tauschen-ohne-geld.de/neuköllner-nachbarn 46 http://buerger-uni.de 47 http://the-u.org.uk

106

They establish and explore a new kind of solidarity economy that emphasises the fact that everybody has something to give. They create an alternative system of mutual exchange, redefining and expanding the term capital to the social, hopefully shaking off the negative sound it still carries along to establish a new and healthy alternative economy based on mutual respect and collective interests. Beyond that, they create new local communities and knowledge specific to a place which can be shared globally via the internet. And finally, they redefine the term 'amateur' and make it something positive again: people engaging in an activity for the love of it, with an open mind unrestricted by formal training and financial pressure. So, hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s my honest recommendation as a DIY/DIWO/DIT enthusiast: If you ever get the chance to create or make a learning experience with any of the initiatives described in this book, grab it. Get involved. Share your knowledge. Create a local community. Or simply start your own initiative. You will love it.

A Trade School class about computer security. ÂŠ Katharina Moebus.

107

Agents of Alternatives explores the visions, actions, tools and impacts of ‘alternativ-ists’ who are applying creative practices to forge plausible, alternative ways of working and living. It presents an integrated framework for navigating a collection of essays, interviews and case studies from well-known international contributors and local activists. These originate from diverse fields, including design, the arts, architecture, education, politics, economics, urban planning and city administration, social enterprises, non-governmental organisations, and experts on the Commons. They show how to engage with the locale, communities and distributed diasporas. Through their voices and actions they enable professionals, amateurs and citizens to understand the rich possibilities of creating and designing together in open, participatory and imaginative ways. This book is an essential reference for anyone who wishes to become part of positive societal change. We hope it inspires teachers, students, activists, alternative life-stylers, and citizens who wish to re-design our realities. Featuring the following projects and organisations in interviews and case studies: Aalto Lab Mexico, A Guidebook of Alternative Nows, Anselma, A year of living Open Source, Bring Your Own Biennale, Community Lover’s Guide to the Universe, Design Driven City, European Alternatives, Global Village Construction Set, Institute of Design Research Vienna, Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie, Kuutio, Make{able}, Neighbourhood Labs, Fashion & Code, Open Green Map, OpenWear, Pixelache Festival, Repair Café, Satokartta, Tactical Technology Collective, The Beach Amsterdam, The Public School, Thinkfarm, Trade School, workstation ideenwerkstatt e.V., and ZEGG Centre for Experimental Cultural and Social Design. With essays by: Cindy Kohtala, David Bollier, Frigga Haug, Michel Bauwens, Martin Parker, Otto von Busch, University of the Neighbourhoods, Valerie A. Brown & John A. Harris and the editors. Editors: Alastair Fuad-Luke is a sustainable design facilitator, educator, writer and activist and currently Professor of Emerging Design Practices, Aalto ARTS, Aalto University, Finland. Anja-Lisa Hirscher MA is a graphic designer, researcher and activist for open and participatory fashion and clothing design, working in Germany and Finland. Katharina Moebus MA is an interdisciplinary designer, organizer, researcher and activist with a focus on socio-political issues, based in Berlin. Agents of Alternatives, Berlin, Germany. www.agentsofalternatives.com ISBN: 978-3-00-049379-9 paperback