#inter disciplinary

[lil-tazo]

[stand-up-stef]

The greatest challenge of our time

I often read things like: climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, poverty is the greatest challenge of our time, cleaning our oceans is the greatest challenge of our time, ... Like it's some kind of competition to win the title of 'Greatest Challenge of Our Time'. This is not very productive and actually creates a kind of behaviour that could be detrimental for solving these problems in the first place.

It's a bit like wanting to build a house and then saying 'the walls are the most important' or 'the foundation is the most important'. They are all important and leaving out any of them or making one of them of inferior quality would have you end up with either no house or a house that is not sturdy enough to be safe enough or at least one that would deteriorate faster than it should.

The same goes with our world problems. What we need to set as a goal is to create a society where everyone can have a good life. Where no one is poor, where there is equality, where everyone can have a life of purpose. Solving poverty, climate change, energy challenges and so forth are like the building blocks we need in order to get there. They are not separate issues competing to be the first one to be tackled though.

Even though with a house you can not add the roof before the walls are set, you can already gather the materials for that roof even before you dig the foundations. It speeds things up once you can start building.

When tackling the problems in our societies we can and should tackle multiple issues at once AND take into consideration the impact of the solution of one issue on other domains. Right now too many solutions are still developed in silos without really thinking about the impact on the bigger system.

Therefore we need to open up our silos and start to have more cross domain, cross disciplinary and cross issue dialogue in order to create this society of tomorrow.

There are, to my knowledge, already two initiatives that have been created from the awareness of this need. One is the New Capacity Building Programme on a European level, the other, which I am part of, is Open Antwerp, which can also be found on Idealist. I'm pretty sure there are more people out there who see this need and more initiatives will be taken. It would be great if we would manage to become aware of each other's existence.

[sillywhatwell-blog]

Farewell Comfort Zone!

Farewell Comfort Zone.  I'm leaving you behind.  A new way for me to perform is starting to form in my mind, and I need to embrace it in order to grow as an artist.  At the moment, I am feeling a little in danger of stagnating.  This cannot,  must not happen.

I often find that when I put an idea out into the world, doors of opportunity begin to open to me.  Last week I put an idea out into the world (admission time; it was in the form of a facebook status update) and doors magically opened.  It's good to know that there are other people who think my rather ambitious, inter-disciplinary performance work is worth supporting.

Now the hard slog begins.  Budget.  Not my favourite word, but I must learn to love it.  One of the opportunity-givers with whom I met yesterday offered this little gem.  Budgets tell a story, help you to solidify your ideas, give you perspective on the trajectory of your project.

She's right.  Best get on with it then, instead of just blogging about it ;o)