I speak on the mainstage of TEDGlobal 2017 held in Arusha, Tanzania on the need to recognize the creativity and dynamism of the micro-entrepreneurs who are the engine of social and economic value creation in much of the world.
Between 1992 and 2016, forest cover in Nepal almost doubled, from 26% to 45% due community-led forest management practices.
Indigenous Knowledge is making a comeback. It is being promoted by development organisations and Western governments alike, particularly in the field of environmental stewardship
This is a new role that I am currently exploring for myself. The idea emerged from a recent era analysis I was doing as part of curating work examples from more than 30 years of professional practice.
“Imagine art which is capable of rekindling values of care, kindness, compassion, action-taking, social justice and cooperation.” ~ Carmen Salas, 2020
Creativity
is the heart and soul
of our philosophy
Ymmärrys ry believes that creativity is an innate quality of every human being, which can be expressed through experimentation and practice. Given the right tools and the right encouragement and guidance, one can develop and cultivate the ability to use this innate quality. We collaborate with groups and communities to nurture and harness their own capacity and agency for creative expression, by engaging with storytelling practices, oral histories, narratives of change, intangible heritage, and local knowledge. All of the different ways of knowing, making, doing, and creating can be manifested tangibly through participatory and inclusive activities informed by art and design. All we need is a little helping hand to uncover and make visible our own stories and share them in various creative ways.
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HEX Tampere researchers introduce the concept of “communities of experience” – people bound together
“The annual Hand & Lock Prize for Embroidery was established in 2000 to promote
We’re actively seeking out collaborators and cooperators to codesign novel and impactful social interventions
Agency
Agency is the motive driver of our collective creative practices: we believe that experiencing a sense of our own capacity for creativity and innovation fosters agency for self-determined changes. Through our projects and activities we are motivated by the experience of sharing the creative spark and energy of collaboration; collaborative sensemaking guides and directs the roadmap of our transformation journey, while exploration and discovery of our creative selves in a safe space brings to light our own stories.
We are the agents of our own transformation journeys.
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Excerpt from the peer-reviewed visual essay “Yearning for Kinship: An Artistic Exploration of Moss
As a project and thought experiment, cognitive justice realises that democracy needs a wider
Innovation
We conceptualize sustainability as collective social change (Aguilera et al., 2007; Hargrave and Van de Ven, 2006), and have developed social processes that are place-based and community-centric. In our projects and activities we aim to introduce creative practices for collaboration and cooperation to foster capacity for learning and experimentation. Our aim is to accelerate our capacity for transformation in a resilient and sustainable manner on an individual and communal level, through custom-designed methods and tools, to bridge the knowing-doing gap.
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Futures
In building a positive future, art and design plays an integral role in social harmony and innovation thinking. Our collaborative and cooperative creative practices and innovation methods provide the social infrastructure for self determined roadmaps for transformation.
Cognitive Justice: the right of different knowledges to coexist so long as they sustain the life, livelihoods, and life chances of a people. (Visvanathan, 2021)
Creative practices allow us to manifest the unseen and the unknown, the embodied and experiential knowledge, the senses and the emotions: they make visible and tangible a narrative of change that meets our deepest needs and reflects our own, self-determined vision of a better future.
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HEX Tampere researchers introduce the concept of “communities of experience” – people bound together through sharing their experiences and relating to each other through them.
It’s about putting a different perspective forward. It’s about putting the voices of marginalised people first
Elaíze Farias (co-founder & editor)
Between 1992 and 2016, forest cover in Nepal almost doubled, from 26% to 45% due community-led forest management practices.