In the fall of 2022, I participated as a fellow in the online course Practical Utopias: An Exploration of the Possible, hosted by Margaret Atwood and Disco Learning. In this 8-week course with 200 diverse fellows from around the world, we immersed ourselves in building practical utopias: future societies to strive for, that are built on technologies that already exist today. In our cohort of 25 people, we discussed and constructed our world, Rhizome-Up, according to 16 themes:
- 🏘️ Shelter: Where might we live?
- 🍎 Food: What might we eat?
- 🚰 Water: How might we source water for drinking and daily needs?
- 👕 Clothing: What might we wear?
- ⚡️Energy: What might be our electricity source(s)?
- 🚲 Transport: What might be our main mode of transportation?
- 🗑️ Waste: How might we relate to waste? What might we do with waste?
- 🪦 Death: What might we do with human remains after death?
- 🩺 Healthcare: What might we want from a healthcare system?
- 🎓 Education: What might we want from an education system?
- ⚧️ Gender equality: How might we promote enduring gender equality and create a just practical utopia for all?
- 🎭 Arts & Culture: What might be the role of arts & culture?
- 🏛️ Governing: What might be our governance model? Who makes decisions and how?
- 💬 Communication: What might be our modes for communication? How might we navigate the tension between safety and surveillance?
- 💰 Money: What might we want from our financial systems?
- 🛐 Faith & Spirituality: What might be the role of faith and spirituality?
Interested in what we came up with? Watch our video showcase: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/769886511
All illustrations were done by Maiky Kalhöfer-Köchling
