inspiration – ART FOR ADAPTATION

The art-science lab “(Re)imagining Regenerative Futures: How will we live together well?” invited early career researchers to share their imagination and interpretation of regenerative futures. Taking place on June 14 and 15, 2024, in Venice, Italy, it brought together young creatives and early career researchers from diverse backgrounds, demonstrating the transformative power of imagination and art to foster regeneration.

Applications for the lab consisted in the submission of a photo and narrative illustrating creative responses to how we can (re)create our futures together. At the art-science lab participants engaged in interactive workshops connecting their creative works to universal values and co-creating a common narrative from the individual works.

This process fostered a deep respect for multiple voices, allowing diverse perspectives to flourish and contribute to a richer, more multifaceted outcome. The Lab encouraged transcending disciplinary boundaries and adopting a holistic approach to building a regenerative future.

This publication features a digital catalogue and exhibition showcasing:

• Shortlisted individual photographs and accompanying narratives, offering unique views from different parts of Europe and the world.

• The collaborative artwork and activities resulting from the Lab’s interactive sessions.

• The reflections from the Lab’s interactive sessions.

The living lab Wisdom and Research Practice invited mid- career and senior researchers who are weaving wisdom into their current research practices. It addressed the questions of how we can co-create holistic practices and ways of engaging with the complexities of current social-ecological challenges. It welcomed researchers from all disciplines that share the vision of a thriving and regenerative future through a holistic and transdisciplinary lens. While formal and explicit knowledge play a key active role in advancing current research, informal and alternative ways of knowing need to play an equally important role by nourishing and guiding research and actions towards a meaningful and regenerative future for all. Embracing them together, they become an interplay of active doing and receptive being. Informal and alternative ways of knowing imbue wisdom through observations, sensing, connecting, reflections, embodiment, creativity and imaginations. This way of being can help shaping and guiding the many diverse ways of doing in art, music, dance, communications, planning, governance, social work, design, architecture, engineering, biology, ecology, quantum physics, agriculture, technology.

The living lab Wisdom and Research Practice took place on 26-27 August 2024 in Basel, Switzerland at the castle Burg Reichenstein and the University of Applied Sciences, Muttenz. Through interactive sessions, workshops and a field trip, this living lab aimed to integrate different perspectives on wisdom and (future) research practice by holding space for open sharing, mutual learning and creative approaches.

Report and full program accessible here