---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Doors of Perception <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Sep 3, 2014 at 5:17 AM Subject: Tasting like a Forest To: [email protected] [image: logo] AUTUMN NEWSLETTER from John Thackara - Tasting like a forest - UnBox in India - Forthcoming events FROM SYSTEMS THINKING TO SYSTEM SENSING Fifty designers, artists and architects spent a week at our Xskool on Grinda last month to explore the subject of food systems and design. Once on the island, we focused on two questions: What does this food system taste like? and, How does this forest think? One team invented a Soil Tasting Ceremony. They made infusions from ten different berries on the island and displayed them next to soil samples taken from each plant's location; the soils were displayed in wine glasses. We were then invited to compare the tastes of the teas and soils in silence. It was a powerful moment. (There are images here <http://https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.558136864292578.1073741828.349523758487224&type=1> ). Ahead of the event I thought soil as a living system, and soil health, would be a hard to sell to a cerebral group of (mostly) grad students. Today's designers think far more about connecting with each other, I assumed, than about connecting with the soil. Why would they? Fewer than half of us ever see or touch the stuff. My concerns proved unfounded. It was like pushing at an open door. Xskoolers went scrabbling around the forest of Grinda like so many voles. They found ways to catch the taste of the forest and put it in a pot. They made cookies with forest berries and bartered these with tourists. They created tactile pathways so we could we feel the forest through our feet. A Latvian designer made pine cone syrup and gave it to Teacher, who was mightily pleased. This positive energy was welcome, but unexpected. In searching for an explanation, I came across a wonderful book called Soil and Soul <http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/soilandsoul.htm> by Alastair McIntosh. "We yearn for connection with one another, and with the soul" McIntosh writes, "but we forget that, like the earthworm, we too are an organism of the soil. We too need grounding". Otherwise stated: Resilience and systems *thinking* will never be transformational in the absence of systems *feeling*. But how to achieve that? Asking researchers to empathise with earthworms feels like a big ask. For every designer learning how to think like a forest by tasting one, as we did on Grinda, thousands more spend most of their time in studios, online, or within the rarefied walls of the research economy. Perhaps my search for a 'solution' to the ecoliteracy 'problem' <http://www.doorsofperception.com/art-perception/desert-of-the-real/> is old-fashioned. If McIntosh is right, and we all share a latent need to be grounded, then it probably makes no sense to demand changes to professional curriculums. A better way is to meet in life-rich places without an agenda. See you at a future Xskool. Here is the Xskool Facebook page <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Doors-of-Perception-Xskool/349523758487224?ref=stream>. I also gave this year's Xskoolers a Food Systems Reader <http://www.doorsofperception.com/food-systems-design/food-systems-and-design-a-reader/>. Xskool was a partnership between Doors of Perception, Konstfack <http://www.konstfack.se/>, and FuturePerfect Festival <http://http://futureperfect.se>. This event builds on a series of experimental Xskool encounters <http://doorsofperception.com/xskool/> over the last three years including Xskool Grinda 2013 <http://designobserver.com/feature/between-sorrel-and-supertanker/38057>. UNBOX FESTIVAL For this year's UnBox Festival <http://www.unboxfestival.com/> in New Delhi (12-14 December) I'll be joining Mansi Gupta <http://www.core77.com/blog/kickstarter/trmtab_how_buckminster_fuller_and_one_companys_leather_waste_inspired_two_students_27012.asp> for a workshop to develop the programme of the Kanpur Design Innovation Lab. The project embodies, in Mansi's words, “a new story about the leather industry and the people who work in it”. The Lab, situated at the heart of India's largest leather-producing region, will develop products and services that combine clean forms of leather making with direct connections between between producers and customers. If I have any say in the matter, I'll also be re-visiting the subject of cycle commerce <http://designobserver.com/feature/cycle-commerce-as-an-ecosystem/37905/> and my modest proposal for the de-motorisation of Delhi <http://doorsofperception.com/notopic/caloryville-the-two-wheeled-city/>. MY TALKS THIS AUTUMN - Reyjkjavik, 11 September <http://www.nbo.nu/bdh_filearea/Bo_och_forvalta_i_Norden.pdf>, Nordic Housing Association - Reyjkjavik, 12 September <http://lhi.is/english/programmes/ma-programmes/ma-design/research-and-collaborative-projects/>, Iceland Academy of Arts, MA Design Workshop (Tel +354 552 4000) - Eindhoven, 15 September <http://www.natlab.nl/programma/2365/Club_Natlab_I_Lezing_John_Thackara/%20>, Plaza Futura at Club Natlab - Växjö, Sweden, 24 September, <http://lnu.se/education/programmes/daid2?ec_vt=English&l=en> Linnaeus University - Oslo 15 October <http://www.systemsorienteddesign.net> System Oriented Design Conference - Dundee, 22 October <http://www.dundee.ac.uk/research/main/news/> Chiasma, Sustaining Rural Scotland - Buenos Aires, 28 October <http://www.fidbsas.com/programacion2012>, International Design Festival - Amsterdam, 20 November <http://www.dezwijger.nl/104618/nl/joint-venture-2014-dag-1-de-energieke-samenleving>, Pakhuis de Zwijger, De energieke samenleving CONTACT Contact me (John Thackara, Doors of Perception) by Email [email protected] *Blog* *doorsofperception.com* <http://www.doorsofperception.com/> *Twitter* *@johnthackara* <https://twitter.com/johnthackara> *LinkedIn* *www.linkedin.com* <http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=139933&trk=tab_pro> * Unsubscribe * To unsubscribe please visit http://list.doorsofperception.com/unsubscribe/be9d04d2-bed1-4d2e-8a92-f80739... / <http://list.doorsofperception.com/unsubscribe/be9d04d2-bed1-4d2e-8a92-f807398cc8ba/> -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/