sanctuary
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laboratory
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unschool
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fellowship
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playground
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dancefloor
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experiment
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sanctuary 〰️ laboratory 〰️ unschool 〰️ fellowship 〰️ playground 〰️ dancefloor 〰️ experiment 〰️
for systems transformation
we know the time has come for us to transform our systems.
yet our current context of urgency & scarcity has us constantly running the risk of reinforcing the logic of the systems that we are trying to transform.
we fall back on habitual patterns of knowing, making sense & taking action.
the time has come to transform ourselves.
personal, collective & systems transformation are not separate from each other.
when they come together, we have a real shot at discovering the radical innovations needed for life on planet earth to thrive for generations.
the uncertain futures institute is an unschool / laboratory / experiment / fellowship of scenius¹ grants (collective basic incomes) for deeply diverse collectives of activists, artists, and philanthropists to create a new playing field for personal, collective and systems transformation.
¹scenius aka communal genius.
scenius is like genius, only embedded in a scene rather than in genes. brian eno suggested the word to convey the extreme creativity that groups, places or "scenes" can occasionally generate. his actual definition is: "scenius stands for the intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. it is the communal form of the concept of the genius."
Sterling, Bruce; (2008) "Scenius, or Communal Genius"; WIRED Magazine.
core elements
nature has its innovation labs at the margins of ecosystems, in river deltas and at forest edges, where different species meet, cross-fertilize, and create symbiotic relationships. similarly, we seek to gather unlikely allies from the center and margins of the current power system to shift our sense-making capacities and unleash our collective change capacity.
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in large part, our current challenges can be traced back to humanity’s belief that our design is superior to and capable of controlling “Nature”. in contrast, biomimetic design is an approach to innovation that recognizes nature’s genius, emulating its time-tested patterns and strategies.³
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in humanity’s chase for the ‘quick fix’, we have broken many backs and hopes. collective healing takes time. each cohort commits to a 3 year deep-dive, to keep showing up fully rather than putting on a show. this is how we nurture deep connection and trust, the basis for the kind of re-imagination that we need.
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our world is longing for inspiration in how we can show up for today’s most pressing challenges. each cohort will serve as an embodied story of how our futures can look. storytelling is our main lever to engage millions of people in claiming our power over our uncertain futures.
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our cohorts will be assessed before, during and after their participation in the UFI’s programme. rigorous scientific investigation will allow us to identify what shifted in behaviours, attitudes and values at the individual, collective and systems level.⁴ so the insights from our experiments can inform the system transformation sector at large.
