Compass Article: “And then there was light”

For my first piece in Compass, the magazine of the Association of Professional Futurisits, I spoke to Joey Eschrich at Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination and author Andrew Dana Hudson about the emergence of a sci-fi genre imagining worlds after the energy transition.

Article in Compass, p 26 →

May 15, 2022 Solarpunk APF Compass Images

Five young dancers wearing blue and red pennies and vibrant tights are falling to the floor DaNCEBUMS in our first performance. Photo: Farrington Llywen

DaNCEBUMS’ 7 Commandments for Collaboration

Earlier this week I was looking through my digital memory box. My heart was warmed when I found these seven commandments for collaboration DaNCEBUMS wrote when were were just starting our journey in 2013.

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May 10, 2022 DaNCEBUMS Collaboration

Group of dancers and media workers in rehearsal for IN THE RIVER Dancers and media workers in rehearsal for IN THE RIVER. Photo: Eben Kowler

From Prophecy to Foresight, Reflections on IN THE RIVER

Last month, I wrapped production on a show I was working on called IN THE RIVER. This was a unique project that dealt with themes related to foresight. How do we understand the past? How do we to interpret the present? How do we create pockets of a a desired future in the present?

Kaleidoscopic view of people riding an escalator and exiting into a concrete plaza. Photo: Chris Barbalis, Unsplash

Why Foresight?

Foresight, also called futures research, is a unique field that brings together omnivorous research, systems thinking, analysis, and creativity. But to what end? What are the benefits of this practice?

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December 20, 2021 Foresight Process

Digital collage of a family in a victory garden with agricultural robots added to the background, and sketch of a mixed-used urban farm, and a vertical farm on the facade of a building with a drone. Digital Collage: Eben Kowler

Local Food in 2035: A final project

It’s here, the end of the Fall 2021 semester. In this post, I’m sharing my final project for Futures Research.

The concept for this project is that I was “hired” by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service to help them explore the Future of Local Food in 2035. As a class, we were challenged to go beyond your typical slide deck and present our findings in a more engaging format. I created a micro website exploring two scenarios — Big Brands Green Up and Integrated Abundance.

Flock of sheep grazing in a green pasture. Photo by ArtHouse Studio from Pexels

Is The Tragedy of the Commons False? Questioning a Systems Archetype

A couple of weeks ago I saved an article for later: “The tragedy of the commons is a false and dangerous myth.” (Aeon.co) I am a sucker for most headlines that question widespread assumptions. But this one especially caught my eye.

The concept of The Tragedy of the Commons has been disseminated far and wide as a systemic explanation for why we fail to address many of the challenges we face at the intersection of ecology and economics. In my very first semester as an undergrad, Garrett Hardin’s original essay “The Tragedy of the Commons” was assigned reading in my favorite class — Fish & Wildlife 1002: Ecology, Values, and Human Impact. This summer, I was in a graduate seminar where The Tragedy of the Commons came up again. I’m not alone. According to Google Scholar, nearly 48,000 people have cited Hardin’s idea in their own research.

Is the real tragedy that we were misled from the beginning?