On January 24th, the Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision in Hilversum hosted a Dutch New European Bauhaus (NEB) event, focusing on building local ecosystems that envision and implement more sustainable and equitable ways of living.
During this event, participants explored the significance of imagination, storytelling, and heritage as foundational elements for fostering communities of care amidst the climate crisis.
The program featured projects from the Climate Imaginaries at Sea program, ekip, and CrAFt – Crafting Actionable Futures.
During the event, we hosted the fourth iteration of It happened tomorrow (Reflections on Water), a workshop that invites participants to imagine a future Netherlands impacted by rising sea levels and climate change, starting from a special audiovisual collection from Sound & Vision to draw speculative landscapes related to specific environmental and societal scenarios.
The imagined landscapes were then narrated (with the help of AI) from the point of view of Valeria, a south European traveler doing a Grand Tour of the Netherlands in 2174, writing letters to her brother Luca about the wonders and struggles of the Dutch adapting to sea level rise and climate change. These fictional sketches and field notes will be used in future NEB events to prompt experts in different fields to discuss viable adaptation strategies for future ways of living.
This workshop is part of the larger program titled Climate Imaginaries at Sea, where the Visual Methodologies Collective (AUAS) and its partners explore how artistic research can open up people’s current visions, fears, and hopes for a future with a changing climate.
What makes you feel that you belong in the city?
When addressing diversity in urban planning and urban policy there is a tendency to look at social issues in isolated ways. But identities are complex, intricate and interwoven. If someone is for instance both gay and disabled, their urban experience might be a lot different from people who are queer and able-bodied, or heterosexual and disabled. To understand these intersections this research folds into it Data Feminism; practices of intersectional feminist theory and critique.
First, participatory methods rethink citizen engagement as a process, redefining who is invited to the conversation and suggesting alternative and more sensitive ways of engaging under represented communities. Second, the way that data is used to tell stories about people’s urban experiences is redesigned. It is also crucial that the binary pink-and-blue gender diagrams are replaced, and a more nuanced data visualisation language is introduced that captures the intersectional complexity of social issues.
To do so, this research experiments with making maps and visualisations that break hierarchies, challenge binaries and exposes power dynamics that shape feelings of belonging in cities.
This research is apart of the Urban Belonging project initiated in 2021 by a collective of planners and scholars in Copenhagen with the ambition of mapping lived experiences of under-represented communities in the city. Collaboration partners include Techno-Anthropology Lab, Service Design Lab at Aalborg University, Center for Digital Welfare at IT University of Copenhagen, and Gehl Architects.
A look at the rich history of local media-making in and around the Bijlmer neighbourhood in Amsterdam-Zuidoost.
Amsterdam-Zuidoost has a long tradition of media-making as a way to be heard, represent themselves, have influence, and create a feeling of home. From the pirate radio stations of the 1970’s all the way to the podcasts and digital radio stations of today, the practice of making and listening to radio strengthens a community identity and contributes to a sense of belonging. Thinking through the broader issue of auditory culture in Amsterdam-Zuidoost, participatory exercises and workshops within the community take a closer look at the listening needs of the local community.
What is being listened to, and why? And does radio still have a place in the listening behaviour of the young people?
Explore the outcomes of these exercises and workshops at the Research Station itself this spring, where its various drawers contain research materials for each line of inquiry.
Other partners:
ImagineIC