Sustainable Futures Academy: Workshop

The University of Cambridge and Berlin's Natural History Museum have collaborated on an international public engagement project bringing social scientists and young people together to explore creative responses to sustainability. I am one of seven creatives invited to facilitate a course throughout October as part of the academy where we will be creating our own fictional visions of a sustainable future through creating 'our future islands', exploring map-making in history, sustainability and fiction. Find out more below and here.

VIEW THE PROJECT MAP HERE

About: Sustainable Futures Academy

In an era of increased uncertainty, pandemics, climate change and habitat loss, of unmitigated exploitation of natural resources amid conflict and poverty – how can we think about, plan and implement sustainable futures? Complex problems require responses that lie at the intersection of different disciplines, generations, cultures, social and political lives and practices.

The Sustainable Futures Academy (SFA) is a joint project between the University of Cambridge, the Berlin School of Public Engagement and Open Science, the Museum für Naturkunde and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. This innovative project connects young people, researchers, and creatives across borders to grapple with the challenges and opportunities of developing a sustainable future.

It does so in a uniquely collaborative format that channels questions, ideas, and solutions into a variety of co-produced artistic outputs. These outputs allow exchange and interaction with wider audiences at the Berlin Science Week and the Economic and Social Research Council Festival of Social Science in the UK.

SFA Participants are trained by experts from Berlin and Cambridge in the processes and practice of audience centred public engagement and research communication. They are then matched based on their preferences and ideas into six interdisciplinary and inter-generational teams that collaborate with a creative trainer towards a research-informed output that speaks to the theme of sustainability and designs of the future. The SFA and the teams are moderated by a group of expert facilitators and the project process is documented by a film crew. All outputs and the film are showcased as part of a joint event between the 7 and 10 November 2020 as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Sciences and the Berlin Science Week. All training and workshops take place in a digital space, defying any restrictions or physical limitations during the pandemic.