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We are honoured to bring to Accidental Gods, a recording of three of our generation's leading thinkers in conversation at the Festival of Debate in Sheffield, hosted by Opus. This is an unflinching conversation, but it's absolutely at the cutting edge of imagineering: this lays out where we're at and what we need to do, but it also gives us roadmaps to get there: It's genuinely Thrutopian, not only in the ideas as laid out, but the emotional literacy of the approach to the wicked problems of our time. Now we have to make it happen. Kate Raworth is a renegade economist, author of the groundbreaking book, Doughnut Economics: 7 ways to think like a 21st Century Economist and founder of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab which is seeing companies, cities and nations around the world working towards an economy that prioritises flourishing of people and planet ahead of growth for growth's sake. Kate is a Senior Teaching Fellow at Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute, where she teaches on the Masters in Environmental Change and Management. She is also Professor of Practice at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.Indy Johar is an architect, co-founder of 00 on behalf of which he cofounded multiple social ventures from Impact Hub Westminster to Impact Hub Birmingham. He has also co-led research projects such as The Compendium for the Civic Economy, whilst supporting several 00 explorations/experiments including the wikihouse.cc, opendesk.cc. More recently he founded Dark Matter Labs - a field laboratory focused building the institutional infrastructures for radicle civic societies, cities, regions and towns. Dark Matter works with institutions around the world, from UNDP (Global), Climate Kic, McConnell (Canada), to the Scottish Gove to Bloxhub (Copenhagen). Indy has taught at various institutions from the University of Bath, TU-Berlin; Architectural Association, University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MIT and New School. James Lock is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Opus Independents Ltd, a not-for-profit social enterprise, working in culture, politics and the arts. Opus works to encourage and support participation, systemic activism and creativity with project strands that include Now Then Magazine & App, Festival of Debate. Opus Distribution, the River Dôn Project and Wordlife. James was on the podcast quite recently - in episode #279 - and we talked about the upcoming Festival of Debate and the fact that, amongst many other outstanding conversations, he'd be talking with Kate and Indy who are easily up their in my pantheon of modern intentional gods. Afterwards, James and I discussed the possibility of our bringing the recording of that conversation to the podcast - and here we are. Enjoy!Opus Independents https://www.weareopus.org/Festival of Debate https://festivalofdebate.com/Kate Raworth https://www.kateraworth.com/Doughnut Economics Action Lab https://doughnuteconomics.org/Doughnut Economics book https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Kate-Raworth/Doughnut-Economics--Seven-Ways-to-Think-Like-a-21st-Century-Economist/21739630Indy Johar https://about.me/indy.joharIndy's blog at DML https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.orgDark Matter Labs https://darkmatterlabs.org/Indy on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/indy-johar-b440b010/Indy on Substack https://indyjohar.substack.com/James Lock on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-lock-964a8014/Rob Shorter of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab on Accidental Gods #41 https://accidentalgods.life/doughnut-economics-action-lab/Indy on Accidental Gods #205 https://accidentalgods.life/becoming-intentional-gods-claiming-the-future-with-indy-johar-of-the-dark-matter-labs/James on Accidental Gods #279 https://accidentalgods.life/now-then-building-networks-of-citizen-power-with-james-lock-of-opus-in-sheffield/What we offer - Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership. This is where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to come along to an Ask Manda Anything hour on Sunday 8th June, you do have to be a member (but you can join for £1 and then leave again!)If you'd like to join our next Gathering 'Becoming a Good Ancestor' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 6th July - details are here.If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here
Here is a narration of my latest ‘a calm presence', inspired by this quote from Indy Johar's May 12th, 2025 Substack posting, The Stickiness of Want - And the Systemic Amnesia Behind It :We—you, me, everyone in this room—are the last generation with viable agency before degenerative volatility locks us into conflict and collapse. The window is painfully small but gloriously open.'This posting was written while traveling in India and Japan in April and May of 2025.The narrated version was recorded in one take on May 21, 2025 on the streets of Hakone-Yumoto, Japan with the Haya River and lively birdsong in the background.See the Transcript of this episode for the complete posting. *END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODESHey conscient listeners, I've been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020 on un-ceded Anishinaabe Algonquin territory (Ottawa). It's my way to give back.In parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and its francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I publish a Substack newsletter called ‘a calm presence' see https://acalmpresence.substack.com. Your feedback is always welcome at claude@conscient.ca and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads or BlueSky.I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible. Claude SchryerLatest update on March 26, 2025
We are living through the death of democracy and the onset of Techno-Feudalism. But this is not a time when linear systems can hold and feudalism was nothing if not linear. So how can we be part of a transformative process that will let us lay the foundations for a future we'd be proud to leave behind?Usually, on Accidental Gods, we talk to guests who seem to exemplify some aspect of the generative edge of interbecoming change that will take us towards the emergent future we need if we're not only to survive, but thrive. But once in a while it's just Manda, reflecting on the moment and offering pointers to things that might be useful to read or watch or listen to or think about. This is one of those, and it feels timely, in part because the Oxford Real Farming Conference too place recently and was immensely heartening - and partly because of the times we're in. This was recorded on Sunday 19th of January 2025 and if you're in the English speaking world listening to this podcast, then you'll be aware that basically democracy dies tomorrow. Though, as you'll also be aware, we never had true democracy of the people by and for the people, and certainly nothing that might have created a generative enhancement of the web of life. We had a kleptocracy at best, a kakiocracy at worst and all of it was working against the kind of future we want to leave as our legacy. So this is a podcast of ideas, most of which boil down to: It's time each of us committed ourselves in service to life. What does that feel like? How does it work and where will it take us? Let's find out. Oxford Real Farming Trust https://realfarming.org/programmes/land-based-wisdom/CFOSA https://consciousfoodsystems.org/Animate Earth Collective https://animate-earth.orgThe Wild with Indy Johar - the whyhttps://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/wild-with-sarah-wilson/id1548626341?i=1000677521024Changing our Civilisational Model - Michel Bauens on Substack https://substack.com/inbox/post/155005488And then at the macro level, Dark Matter Labs on Governance https://media.licdn.com/dms/document/media/v2/D4E1FAQFRu6lmVVqBvw/feedshare-document-pdf-analyzed/B4EZQsP1m3HAAc-/0/1735909140676?e=1738195200&v=beta&t=8kAX6cLW_kf4Lsvw8dYn2_9FG644-bWKa6SZy1QTXKk
Philip welcomes back long time friend and perennial guest Indy Johar. To start off 2025 Indy joins us to discuss what the world can look like when we focus on building a human economy and engage in asking beautiful questions. The Drop – The segment of the show where Philip and his guest share tasty morsels of intellectual goodness and creative musings. Philip's Drop: DI Ray (Amazon Prime/PBS Masterpiece) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15536118/) The Terraformers – Annalee Newitz (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250883001/theterraformers/) Indy's Drop: Multisolving: Creating Systems in a Fractured World – Elizabeth Sawin (https://islandpress.org/books/multisolving#desc) 3 Body Problem (Netflix (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13016388/)) Three Body (Amazon Prime) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20242042/) Special Guest: Indy Johar.
Indy Johar (founder of Dark Matter Labs, systems designer) re-imagines and redesigns systems for a changed world. The architect and Professor of Planetary Civics at Melbourne's RMIT and the University of Sheffield has worked with and advised organisations worldwide. Including the Scottish Government, the Mayor of London and WikiHouse, solving complex, entangled problems. Using complexity, emergence and entanglement theories he is a rare expert in this space to provide the (only) path to fixing the world, which is to say fixing our relationship with the world.This conversation goes to a level I've not been to before publicly. On his modelling, we don't have any choice but to start building the world that comes next, for the current one has no viable pathway. He gives a vision for this this. And he gives a timeframe, too. For this episode, I'm providing a forum where you can talk through how you feel about the ideas and your feelings with others. Indy has offered to chime in too: Join the chat on Substack HERE.SHOW NOTESIf you are new to this collapse topic you might want to catch up via this conversation with Luke Kemp, the one with Meg Wheatley and this one with Corey Bradshaw.There are some previous guests and topics that are referenced in this chat:Nate Hagens on the future of fossil fuelsKate Raworth on Doughnut EconomicsWe talk about zero-sum theory. I talked about this with Liv Boeree, former world poker champion.We also cover the Blue Zones concept. I interviewed the man behind this, Dan Buettner, here. Indy also references the work of Iain McGilchrist, a guest a few weeks back.You can learn more about Indy's work via DarkMatterLabsConnect with Indy on socials @DarkMatter_Labs and @indy_johar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode, Indy Johar, co-founder of Dark Matter Labs, discusses the democratization of city-making and the need to address the structural dark matter questions that impact our society. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the root causes of global challenges such as climate breakdown and biodiversity loss. Indy also explores the need for a different set of language and constructs within business to address these challenges and transform our foundational economy. The conversation explores the need for a radical transformation in our theory of corporation and the role of leaders in shifting from command and control to learning and coaching. It discusses the challenges of the current unsustainable path and the need to change the system and the way we think. The conversation also delves into the role of technology, such as AI and generative AI, in enabling the agentification of the world and driving new ways of dealing with complexity. It emphasizes the importance of curiosity, holding uncertainty, and building economies of discovery. The conversation concludes with the need to shift the flow of capital to invest in the unknown and manage risks in order to create a more positive future. Get your copy of The Curious Advantage on Amazon The Curious Advantage Audiobook is also available on Audible Follow The Curious Advantage on LinkedIn and Instagram The Curious Advantage Podcast is executive produced by Jessica Wickham and Aliki Paolinelis. Audio editing is expertly by Danny Cross. Video editing by Jessica Wickham and John McGinty. #CuriosityInAction #SustainableFuture #TransformingEconomy #CityMaking #DarkMatterQuestions #ClimateAction #BiodiversityCrisis #LeadershipEvolution #AIForGood #GenerativeAI #FutureOfWork #SystemsThinking #InnovativeLeadership #EconomiesOfDiscovery #InvestInTheFuture #Curiosity #CuriousAdvantage #Sustainability #AI #Leadership #Management
(Conversation recorded on October 3rd, 2024) While humans, like all animals, are subject to certain fundamental realities, we also possess the unique ability to shape the world around us through physical infrastructure, laws and institutions, and our economic and social systems. And yet, it's important to remember that, as today's guest would say, what we design designs us back. In short, the systems and structures we build influence our cultures, values, and identities. Today, Nate is joined by architect and professor of planetary civics, Indy Johar, to explore the relationship between system design and human behavior - and what might be possible for transformational change. Along the way, they discuss the impact of sunk costs on our ability to change, the importance of new language to describe and respond to our human predicament, and envision future governance and economies that could enable the full spectrum of what it means to be human. What sorts of unconventional ideas, like self-owning land and technology, could lead to economies that are capable of sustaining humans as well as foster a healthy planet? How do our current societies prevent us from embodying and living into our greatest gifts as human beings? Is it possible to intentionally redesign our systems at the physical, structural, and psychological levels in service of all the entangled life inhabiting the Earth? About Indy Johar: Indy Johar is co-founder of Dark Matter Labs, as well as the RIBA award winning architecture and urban practice Architecture00. He is also a founding director of Open Systems Lab, seeded WikiHouse (open source housing), and Open Desk (open source furniture company). Indy is also a non-executive international Director of the BloxHub, which is the Nordic Hub for sustainable urbanization. He has taught & lectured at various institutions from the University of Bath, TU-Berlin; University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MIT and New School. He is currently a professor at RMIT University. Show Notes and More Watch this video episode on YouTube --- Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future Join our Substack newsletter Join our Discord channel and connect with other listeners
We had the distinct pleasure of engaging in conversation with two very special professionals. In their report, Integrating Inner & Outer Systems Change, authors Stephen Posner & Kim Nolan offered us insight into the importance inner perspective within each of us plays in the necessary task of reimagining how we collectively survive and even thrive on the planet. Our conversation was vivid. I have to say I personally enjoyed these interviews, taken over two months this past spring, for many reasons. Our solutions based conversation offers a number of internal and external applications each of us can engage in to make our lived experience together more meaningful while engaging in better systems practice. People mentioned during our conversation Indy Johar post about the Pathways Forum we did with him recently: https://www.garrisoninstitute.org/the-common-good/ Arawana Hayashi: https://arawanahayashi.com Bill McKibben: https://thirdact.org Applied work mentioned in our conversation Federal policy memo on Regenerative Agriculture. https://fas.org/publication/a-national-initiative-to-revitalize-american-farming-and-advance-regenerative-agriculture/ Research papers on natural capital accounting for business: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041621001170 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212041622000304 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212041620300413 https://www.wbcsd.org/Archive/Assess-and-Manage-Performance/Resources/Guide-to-Corporate-Ecosystem-Valuation
We reviewed all the 20 episodes from Season 5, and shared some much needed look back and key highlights. While the learnings are an abundant treasure trove, we handpicked a few and categorized them into 4 sections: Dystopian aspects of current socio-technological trends with Sangeet Paul Choudary, James Currier, John Robb and Jeremiah Owyang Visions that resist the dominance of powerful technological forces with Alex Komoroske, Kelly Sarabyn and Scott Brinker, Jesse Walden , Jason Fried and Arvind Gupta Doctrine and organizing for a multiplicity of teams and products with Craig Strong, Teresa Torres, Charles Betz, Susanne Kaiser and Cliff Berg Visionary perspectives that think beyond the rules and push boundaries with Yolanda Martin, João Rosa and Trond Hjorteland, Indy Johar, Milica Begovic and Giulio Quaggiotto, Mark Lambertz and Amber Case This wrap-up is a quick look back into what happened all season, and will give you a peek what to expect for the next one. We hope that these episodes have brought you value in re-imagining ecosystems as you know it, and trust that you will continue to support us in the seasons to come. Topics /chapters (00:00) Season 5 Wrap-Up - Intro (00:43) Dystopian aspects of current socio-technological trends (05:11) Visions that resist the dominance of powerful technological forces (10:52) Doctrine and organizing for a multiplicity of teams and products (15:41) Visionary perspectives that think beyond the rules and push boundaries (22:50) What's Next: Embrace a Boundaryless Future Remember that you can always find transcripts and key highlights of the episode on our website: https://www.boundaryless.io/podcast/season5-wrap-up/ Get in touch with Boundaryless: Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at https://boundaryless.io/resources/podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/boundaryless_ Website: https://boundaryless.io/contacts LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boundaryless-pdt-3eo Music Music from Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: https://blss.io/Podcast-Music #Podcast #WrapUp #Platform #Ecosystem
This week's guest, Jessica Bockler is one of those people who sparks every fire in my being - and i hope in yours, too. Jessica is an applied theatre practitioner and transpersonal psychologist who co-founded the Alef Trust a globally-conscious non-profit organisation offering online graduate education programmes, and open learning courses for people who want really to step into what Indy Johar so beautifully calls the emergent edge of Inter-Becoming. Jessica is integral to the Nurturing the Fields of Change Programme that brings people together from diverse walks of life to create an emerging community of practice around change - and she's Programme Director for the Trust's academic programmes in Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology. She teaches on a range of topics, bringing spiritual perspectives to activism and social change - so you can begin to see why I find her work so enthralling. She stands at that nexus where transpersonal psychology meets shamanic practice, where being and becoming are an art and a practice in themselves, grounded in modern science - not the reductive, Head Mind science of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but twenty-first century science where complexity and systems thinking lie at the heart of all we do, where we recognise that only by becoming fully present in the moment, can we access the whole, vast intelligence of the All That Is and find what is ours to do. Jessica brings all this into being in social prescribing programmes, in theatre, in change facilitation, in the MSc at Liverpool John Moores University and in her daily life and she shares it in the conversation you're about to hear - including a clip of one of her own practices, that is solid podcasting gold. If you're interested in finding out how we can access our own inner intelligence and build with others to co-create the foundations of that more flourishing future we'd be proud to leave behind, then this is the podcast for you. ALEF Trust https://aleftrust.org Nurturing the Fields of Change https://www.aleftrust.org/alef-applied/nurturing-the-fields-of-change-programme/MSc in Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology https://www.aleftrust.org/academic-learning/masters-degree/Live Event: Healing Humanity, 1st June 2024, Broughton Sanctuary, Yorkshire eventbrite.co.uk/e/healing-humanity-imagination-embodiment-and-community-tickets-887551710057 Workshop: Embodied Imagination for Social Change, 2nd & 3rd September, Oxford eurotas2024.com/pre-post-conference-workshops/towards-emergence-embodied-play-and-sourcing-for-transformation Conference, 4 – 8 Sept, Oxford: Creative Bridges: embodied consciousness, psyche & soul in research and practice eurotas2024.comNational Academy for Social Prescribing https://socialprescribingacademy.org.uk/Inner Green Deal https://innergreendeal.com/
Indy Johar, Mission Steward of Dark Matter Labs, joins the podcast to help us rethink how we organize ourselves and our systems, addressing inadequacies of traditional business models that are no longer sufficient for managing complexities. Bringing light to how “risk management should be localized, with decision-making power and accountability being as close to the problem as possible,” Indy argues for an organization that encourages participants to be citizens rather than employees and fosters continuous and accountable learning among individuals. Tune into this episode and learn from Indy, a veteran in building mission-driven organizations, who has always stayed ahead of the curve. Indy - who joins the podcast for the 3rd time - besides stewarding the mission at Dark has also recently joined RMIT University, teaching no less than “Planetary Civics”, a testament to his influence in the space of social innovation. As always, Indy comes with a profound understanding of designing complex organizations for the 21st century, from his hands-on experience in creating radical innovations in governance, architecture, and social systems, particularly in sustainability and collaborative economy. He starts the podcast with philosophical considerations about the nature of complex organizations and then highlights the need for a radical shift toward a learning-centered organization. In the conversation, we question the traditional metrics of productivity and value, and further advocate for new metrics that account for collective intelligence and systemic contributions rather than individual output. There was no better way to celebrate our 100th episode because this one is a landmark. Grab a notepad and pick a pen, because there's much to pin down. Key Highlights
In this final episode of our short series, host Matt Prewitt speaks with Indy Johar, architect and co-founder of Dark Matter Labs. Together they discuss the topic of ownership through the lens of theories of governance. Indy advocates for decentralized protocols in property governance, emphasizing complex contributions and contextual responsiveness – moving away from control-oriented systems towards ennobling frameworks that empower individuals and foster deeper engagement.RadicalxChange has been working with Indy Johar and Dark Matter Labs, together with Margaret Levi and her team at Stanford, on exploring and reimagining the institutions of ownership.This episode is part of a short series exploring the theme of What and How We Own: Building a Politics of Change.Read more in our newsletter What & How We Own: The Politics of Change | Part III.Links & References: References:The Code of Capital | Princeton University Press by Katharina PistorDaniel Schmachtenberger: Steering Civilization Away from Self-Destruction | Lex Fridman Podcast #191Partial Common Ownership | RxC Wiki[The Bellagio Model: an evidence-informed, international framework for population-oriented primary care. First experiences]Hayekian economic policy - ScienceDirectJames Lovelock - WikipediaThe Economics of Care | Elizabeth Hill Bios:Indy Johar (he/him) is an architect, co-founder of 00 (project00.cc), and most recently Dark Matter Labs.Indy, on behalf of 00, has co-founded multiple social ventures from Impact Hub Westminster to Impact Hub Birmingham. He has also co-led research projects such as The Compendium for the Civic Economy, whilst supporting several 00 explorations/experiments including the wikihouse.cc, opendesk.cc. Indy is a non-executive director of WikiHouse Foundation & Bloxhub. Indy was a Good Growth Commissioner for the RSA, RIBA Trustee, and Advisor to Mayor of London on Good Growth, The Liverpool City Region Land Commissioner, The State of New Jersey - The Future of Work Task Force - among others.Most recently he has founded Dark Matter - a field laboratory focused on building the institutional infrastructures for radicle civic societies, cities, regions, and towns.Dark Matter works with institutions around the world, from UNDP (Global), Climate Kic, McConnell (Canada), to the Scottish Gove to Bloxhub (Copenhagen)He has taught and lectured at various institutions including the University of Bath, TU-Berlin; Architectural Association, University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MIT, and New School.He writes often on the https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.orgIndy's Social Links:Indy Johar (@indy_johar) / XIndy Johar - London, United Kingdom, Project00.cc | about.meIndy Johar – MediumMatt Prewitt (he/him) is a lawyer, technologist, and writer. He is the President of the RadicalxChange Foundation.Matt's Social Links:ᴍᴀᴛᴛ ᴘʀᴇᴡɪᴛᴛ (@m_t_prewitt) / XAdditional Credits:This episode was recorded and produced by Matt Prewitt.This is a RadicalxChange Production. Connect with RadicalxChange Foundation:RadicalxChange Website@RadxChange | TwitterRxC | YouTubeRxC | InstagramRxC | LinkedInJoin the conversation on Discord.Credits:Produced by G. Angela Corpus.Co-Produced, Edited, Narrated, and Audio Engineered by Aaron Benavides.Executive Produced by G. Angela Corpus and Matt Prewitt.Intro/Outro music by MagnusMoone, “Wind in the Willows,” is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)
I'm wanting something from art, which I think is much deeper, is a re-imagination of what it means to be human. I feel like we've instrumentalized and trivialized art and actually lost its capacity to expand our thesis of how we imagine ourselves and the world around us. I asked that question because the economy that we've created around art may have actually distorted its capacity to disturb us and to challenge our imagination of selves, which I think is probably at the root of the crisis that we face, a much deeper structural challenge of pretty much how we imagine ourselves and how we imagine our relationship with the world and every route. - Indy Johar, March 20, 2024, conscient podcast e163On March 20, 2024 I had the privilege and pleasure of hosting a conversation on ‘how art can help defeat defeatism' with colleagues from the Transition Innovation Group, an inclusive and generative space for active consideration of societal transition, co-hosted by Michelle Baldwin and Taryn Lucas with the transformation team at Community Foundation of Canada.This group of social innovators meets every two weeks on Zoom and is dedicated to collectively reimagining an equitable and integrated view of the infrastructures needed for long-term societal transition for future generations. In other words, making the world a better place.I've been part of the group since its early days and we often speak about the transformative power of art and culture : art as a form of social innovation. So what you're about to hear is a 50 minute conversation between 20 or so participants from this group. You might know some of them. Present at this session were (and I hope I've not forgotten anyone) : Abdul Walid Azizi, Arlene Macdonald, Barbara Leckie, Carly Goodman, Cheryll Case, Emily Mercy, Graham Singh, Ian Prinsloo, Indy Johar, Jo Reynolds, Joanne Kviring, Laura Cozzi, Lesley Southwick-Trask, Louise Adongo, Malobi Elueme, Michelle Baldwin, Nishan Chelvachandran, Shannon Litzenberger, Stephen Huddart, Taryn Lucas and myself as facilitator (along with Michelle Baldwin who gave a hand when my computer stopped working for a few moments and I continued on my iphone).You'll hear responses to four questions : Is writer Rebecca Solnit right in saying that ‘fighting defeatism is also climate work'?How can art and culture help those who are ‘frightened by the ecological crisis'?How has art helped you personally overcome difficult moments in your social innovation work and what artworks do you recommend to your peers?How can social innovation projects and institutions better integrate artists and cultural workers in their work?Note: Abdul Walid Azizi's response was inaudible in the recording therefore he wrote a similar statement that I have added as a voiceover in this recording. Thanks to Walid for doing this. I appreciate his point about 'viewing art as both a language of representation and a collective memory of society underlines its importance in strengthening the relationship between the individual and society. However, in our society, which is increasingly dominated by material and monetary values, art seems to be on the verge of being sidelined. Nevertheless, one way to keep the arts alive is by incorporating them into different societal initiatives.'As you'll hear many interesting and unresolved issues were raised at this session such as : The notion of permanency with art and how that relates to defeatism and our sense of time constructs and legacy.How do we rebuild the permission space for deeply philosophical art that challenges the core of our being ? Will we recognize art when it shows up that reframes mindsets and how do we measure success ? Life is art. It changes without breaking and allows us to break open and break in and break through without breaking us.What is it that we expect an artist or artists to do? What is the result of their work? And if they do that, are we willing to pay them?I think there's something really important in this conversation where we move beyond the idea of transaction based payment for art. I don't think art is a transaction and it operates across and beyond transactions to an economy of care and entanglements.I suspect that we'll have another session on art and social innovation again soon. As usual, I invite comments on any conscient podcast social media or to me claude@conscient.ca.Some of the links shared in the chat during the episode include :Ben Von Wong (artist referred to in this conversation)Bolder, faster, together: Perspectives on societal transition (co-ordinated by the Transition Innovation Group)Catalyst Community Finance (explainer on social finance)e160 shannon litzenberger - a culture of collective thriving (podcast interview)Indigenous Data Sovereignty & Indigenous Futures (featuring Jonathan Dewar, Sofia Locklear, and Jason Lewis Hosted by: Joanna Redden)Mysteries, Yes (a poem by Mary Oliver that was read during the session)REDISTRIBUTE WEALTH, DEMOCRATIZE POWER & SHIFT ECONOMIC CONTROL (an introduction to Resonance 2nd Edition, a Just Transition guide for philanthropic transformation)State of Emergence: Why we need artists right now (an arts policy essay by Shannon Litzenberger)We can't afford to be climate dommers by Rebecca Solnit *END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODESHere is a link for more information on season 5. Please note that, in parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and it's francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I publish a Substack newsletter called ‘a calm presence' which are 'short, practical essays for those frightened by the ecological crisis'. To subscribe (free of charge) see https://acalmpresence.substack.com. You'll also find a podcast version of each a calm presence posting on Substack or one your favorite podcast player.Also. please note that a complete transcript of conscient podcast and balado conscient episodes from season 1 to 4 is available on the web version of this site (not available on podcast apps) here: https://conscient-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes.Your feedback is always welcome at claude@conscient.ca and/or on conscient podcast social media: Facebook, X, Instagram or Linkedin. I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible. Claude SchryerLatest update on April 2, 2024
In this week's episode of Accidental Gods, we dive into the visionary world of economic transformation with Emily Harris of Dark Matter Labs. Emily, a chartered accountant with an MA in regenerative economics, is not your average number cruncher. She's at the forefront of reimagining our financial systems, exploring the intersection of technology, governance, and the natural world. Join us as Emily unveils the bold concept of life-enabling economics (LEE) and the radical aspiration of establishing bioregional banks — a system where money is no longer a mere transactional tool but a means to foster a thriving web of life. From the Findhorn watershed initiative to the Sheffield River Don project, Emily details practical steps towards making these ideas a reality, including the creation of relationship registers and multivalent currencies like 'river coins'.The conversation also touches on the challenges of aligning current political and economic systems with these pioneering concepts. Emily shares insights into the Net Zero Cities team's efforts, working with 112 mission cities to forge climate city contracts and policy labs that embody a mission-oriented methodology. This episode is a call to action for all listeners to engage with these transformative ideas. If you're inspired by the potential of a future where financial systems are in harmony with ecological and social well-being, then tune in, offer your thoughts, and be part of the change. Emily's work is a testament to the power of collective imagination and the tangible steps we can take towards a regenerative economy.For those ready to delve deeper into the mechanics of these groundbreaking ideas, visit the show notes for links to the thought-provoking blogs and learn how you can contribute to this evolutionary journey. Accidental Gods is the platform where we explore the edges of possibility — and this episode is a beacon of hope for a world in dire need of economic renaissance.As I say at the top of the conversation, these are amongst the most interesting concepts I've ever read - and I spend my life exploring this field. I'd like to read you the opening paragraph of the Concept paper: "Instead of focusing on labour, property, individual or democratic rights, this vision seeks to unfurl the full potential of agrowing planetary consciousness. It is an expression of practical realism embedded in a deep respect for allmanifestations of life; past, present, human, more-than-human, the sacred and the machine. This economyseeks to move beyond the everyday codes of property, labour, capital and private contracts and break freefrom the constrictive dance of socio-political isms. It offers an unbounded understanding of agency, invitingthe full range of adjacent possibilities, thus refuting the exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few."and then a few paragraphs down, "At its core, this is a provocation of the heart. An invitation to cultivate lives of profound collaboration, dignity,psychological and physical freedom. It is a framework meshed in human embodied experience that criticallyincludes machine and non-human systems, integrating them into the same expansive beyond-paradigm ofinter-becoming."The two papers are in the show notes and they're definitely worth reading. In the meantime, this conversation moved even beyond these into whole new areas that, once again with DML, breached the boundaries of my thinking - in a good way. Dark Matter Labs https://darkmatterlabs.org/Life Ennobling Economics Position Paper https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EiU8MQ3JKtuCJIUTrxkl2Fzx0xWBiWDu/viewLife Ennobling Economics Concept White Paper https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hNpgVEyYiERE0Jj3gczUfK9ki9GmrFRm/viewBlog on BioRegional Banks Part 1: https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/towards-multivalent-currencies-bioregional-monetary-stewardship-and-a-distributed-global-reserve-dac459dc844e Blog on BioRegional Banks Part 2: https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/towards-multivalent-currencies-bioregional-monetary-stewardship-and-a-distributed-global-reserve-38ed3849395fBlog on BioRegional Banks Part 3: https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/towards-multivalent-currencies-bioregional-monetary-stewardship-and-a-distributed-global-reserve-951ca09dd76dBlog on BioRegional Banks Part 4: The Swedish Cornerstone prototype was co-developed with Linnéa Rönnquist with the support of SamhällskontraktetEmily Harris in Episode #176 https://accidentalgods.life/bridging-from-the-necessary-to-the-possible-with-emily-harris-of-dark-matter-labs/Indy Johar Episode #205 https://accidentalgods.life/becoming-intentional-gods-claiming-the-future-with-indy-johar-of-the-dark-matter-labs/
The Boring Revolution. The matter of this Better Worlds episode is far from mundane. As advocated by Indy Johar, co-founder of Dark Matter Labs, who visited with Green Planet Blue Planet Host Julian Guderley for this podcast episode, a boring revolution is a fundamental shift in how we as humans perceive ourselves, our relationships, and the institutional frameworks that reinforce those perceptions. The old world view created over time, positions humans as dominion over everything instead of recognizing the agency and aliveness of everything, including objects. This episode explores multiple facets of this paradigm shift challenges us to fundamentally rethink what it means to be human and how we relate to each other and the planet. Indy suggests our current worldview and societal structures are extractive, guided by externalities, and they put humanity at risk of self-termination. In other words, we have constructed a language of humans being in dominion over the world, in control of the world through theories constructed in various ways, including by religions. Next, Indy says, we constructed perspective, which put distance between us and put control into bureaucracy, governance, kings etc. Humans then separated themselves from the world, turned things into objects rather than perceiving them as entanglements in relationship with humans. That led to classifications and language shifts from verb - action oriented terms - to nouns, and finally moved into a thesis of property as a universal means of organizing. The worldview became one of control over, and property - ownership - became an enslavement of things. To hear more about these fascinating and complex theories, tune in now, let us know what you think, like it and share, and then visit us at betterworlds.com for more shows and podcast subjects. About Indy Johar Indy Johar is focused on the strategic design of new super scale civic assets for transition - specifically at the intersection of financing, contracting and governance for deeply democratic futures. Indy is co-founder of darkmatterlabs.org and of the RIBA award winning architecture and urban practice Architecture00 - https://www.architecture00.net, a founding director of open systems lab - https://www.opensystemslab.io (digitising planning), seeded WikiHouse (open source housing) - https://www.wikihouse.cc and Open Desk (open source furniture company) https://www.opendesk.cc. Indy is a non-executive international Director of the BloxHub https://bloxhub.org (Denmark Copenhagen) - the Nordic Hub for sustainable urbanization and was 2016-17 Graham Willis Visiting Professorship at Sheffield University. He was also Studio Master at the Architectural Association - 2019-2020, UNDP Innovation Facility Advisory Board Member 2016-20 and RIBA Trustee 2017-20. He has taught & lectured at various institutions from the University of Bath, TU-Berlin; University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MIT and New School. Most recently, he was awarded the London Design Medal for Innovation in 2022. About Dark Matter Labs Dark Matter Labs is not-for-profit designing and building the underlying infrastructure to support this new civic economy, exploring how ownership, legal systems, governance, accountancy and insurance might begin to change. The boring revolution︎ is designed propel wider societal transition. The team is establishing toolkits and blueprints, pilots, and case studies, supporting communities and institutions with applications, digital products and civic technologies that challenge established thought and demonstrate that an alternative is possible. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/julian-guderley/support
Philip spends time with long time friend and collaborator Indy Johar. This kickoff conversation to 2024 highlights the possibilities of an emergent future and the creation of abundance and boundless possibilities. Special Guest: Indy Johar.
Our guest this week is host of one of my must-listen podcasts - one I've been following since the spring, when Dr Simon Michaux mailed me and said, you need to listen to Rachel - and he was right. Rachel Donald is host of Planet: Critical one of the world's top-rated podcasts on the poly-crisis and systems change. She interviews some really big players on the world stage with integrity and panache - her conversation with Alastair Campbell where she never lets him off the hook is an absolute exemplar of how to hold power to account and I think we're seeing the change in real time on his podcast with Rory Stewart. When she's not podcasting, Rachel is a climate corruption journalist who investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it. With world exclusives in major papers, Rachel investigates the gaslighting which props up our broken systems. She travels the world talking on - and off - the record to heads of government and oil industry executives, to the people who make our current system tick and who are often just as afraid as we are about the direction and speed of travel towards the edge of the extinction cliff. Rachel has an almost unique insight into the nature of the systemic catastrophe we've built for ourselves and therefore of the ways we might address it. This was a bracing conversation. There are no easy answers and I had some of my rosier tinted lenses broken along the way. But in the end we came to the place we often get to with this podcast - that building communities of place, purpose and passion where we value each other, and our capacity to love bravely is what might - perhaps - bring us to the emergent edge of inter-becoming that Indy Johar spoke of a few weeks ago. So brace yourselves, this is not an easy podcast, but we need to know where we're at so we can let go - again - ever more completely - of our assumptions about business as usual and do whatever we can, wherever we are, to be that emergent edge. Planet: Critical podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/planet-critical/id1545009586Planet: Critical website https://www.planetcritical.com/Rachel on Twitter https://twitter.com/CrisisReportsRachel on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-donald/Diem25 - Democracy in Europe Movement https://diem25.org/en/
Join us for an enthralling conversation with Indy Johar, the creative force behind Dark Matter Labs and Wiki House Foundation. As an architect and strategic designer, Indy has persistently challenged societal norms, urging us to reevaluate our approaches to language, finance, and ownership. His innovative work and perspectives have garnered him the prestigious London Design Medal for Innovation.In this episode, we explore the critical role of leadership in transitioning to a new world and the bravery required to confront established systems for impactful change.Sabine Gromer and Indy Johar (chronologically) cover these topics:~ 00:15 Brave Leadership and Innovative Projects~ 16:20 Navigating Leadership and Detachment During Transition~ 24:00 The Entangled Economy and Paradigm Shift~ 36:45 Addressing the Climate Crisis~ 51:45 The Need for a Paradigm Shift~ 01:02:50 Creating Conditions for Leadership Transformation
My guest this week is someone who is both right at the edge of the emerging futures and in a position to exert leverage at some of the highest points of the scale at which change happens. Sophia Parker is the Emerging Futures Director at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a philanthropic organisation with a long history of progressive work, aiming for social and cultural equity. It is still committed to the research that sheds new light onto the nature and scale of poverty and injustice in the UK. It is still advocating for change and supporting the people who are making it happen - but newly it is supporting those who are at the leading edge of paradigm shift, exploring all the myriad ways we could break out of late stage capitalism and towards that more flourishing future our hearts know is possible. And there are so many ways - one of the many things I took on board from this conversation was the number of people and organisations around the world who are working in and expanding the radical spaces we've touched on recently with Indy Johar and then Alnoor Ladha and Lynn Murphy. In her role as the Director of the Emerging Futures Programme, Sophia is working at the heart of the change, connecting ideas, exploring how best to support them in ways that will grow us forward and not just keep propping up the old system and the old narratives. She's delving deeply into ways to change the narrative, the levels at which that happens, where are the tipping points in our culture and how do we support and entire ecosystem of transformation. Near the top of the hour, we talked about hope and truly, I came away from this conversation a lot more hopeful than when we started. Bio:Sophia Parker was CEO of Little Village, the London-based charity she founded in 2016 that works to tackle child poverty. Now, she is the Emerging Futures Director at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a philanthropic organisation with a long history of progressive work, aiming for social equity. The Emerging Futures programme was set up to imagine and grow radical new approaches to tackling poverty, in collaboration with partners and people with lived experience of poverty.Previously she has held senior leadership positions in think tanks and charities, as well as working in government locally and nationally, and was a Research Associate at Harvard's Kennedy School). Share your ideas for future Gatherings: https://accidentalgods.life/ideas-for-gatherings/ Sophia's Blog Emerging Futures at JRF - two years in, the story so far | JRFJoseph Rowntree Foundation https://www.jrf.org.uk/JRF Emerging Futures https://www.jrf.org.uk/society/emerging-futures/Little Village https://littlevillagehq.org/Geoff Mulgan Another World is Possible https://www.geoffmulgan.com/another-world-is-possibleMeg Wheatley - Two Loop theory https://transformationallearningopportunities.com/two-loop-theoryEF/JRF Imagination Infrastructure Event https://www.imaginationinfrastructuring.com/imagination-infrastructure-initiatves/iievent-pw8gjThe Onion Collective: https://www.onioncollective.co.uk/The Onion Collective: Liminal economics paper - https://medium.com/onioncollective/liminal-economics-swimming-at-the-edge-of-the-economy-f16fb476daa4Centre for Public Impact https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/europeCanopy https://www.canopy.si/Center for Economic Democracy https://www.economicdemocracy.us/York: New Constellations https://newconstellations.co/journey/york/Opus in Sheffield https://weareopus.org/CoLab Dudley https://dudleyhighstreet.uk/colab-dudley/SuperFlux https://superflux.in/Cassie Robinson Emerging Futures, Patterning the Emerging Horizon https://videos.theconference.se/cassie-robinson-emerging-futuresLankelly Chase https://lankellychase.org.ukThirtyPercy https://thirtypercy.org/Dimple Abichandani https://www.ncfp.org/people/dimple-abichandi/Nkem Ndefo https://lumostransforms.com/team/nkem-ndefo/
Indy Johar is an architect and a co-founder of Dark Matter Labs, an organisation focused on building the novel institutional infrastructures necessary to make societies centred on interdependence, equality, and justice a reality. He has lectured at various institutions including University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MIT, and has held various positions, such as Advisor to Mayor of London on Good Growth. He also cofounded 00 (project00.cc) a collaborative studio that innovates in the design space, for example by creating an open source solution to housing, their wikihouse. Through 00 he has also co-founded multiple social ventures such as Impact Hub Westminster and Impact Hub Birmingham. Today we focus on his work on civic infrastructure that could underpin a future of flourishing for humanity.
If we're at the moment of choice between flourishing and destruction, what would you choose? We are at a moment of decision: We either step forward into our own Great Destruction, which could theoretically see us wipe out all of humanity and most of the More than Human World…Or we could step into what Indy Johar calls 'The Great Peace', claiming our birthright as the Interstitial Generation between the old paradigm of extraction, consumption and pollution—and the new one that could arise where we accept the interbecoming of all things, where we as individual humans take our place in a community of care and experience that encompasses all of the world. This is our potential, laid out in clear terms, by thought leader and evolutionary, Indy Johar of Dark Matter Labs. Indy is an architect by training and a maker by practice; he is a Senior Innovation Associate with the Young Foundation, and, amongst many other things, he co-founded Impact Hub Birmingham and Open Systems Lab, was a member of the RSA's Inclusive Growth Commission, and was a good growth advisor to the Mayor of London. He is an explorative practitioner in the means of system change & the dark matter design of civic infrastructure finance, outcomes, and governance. Indy is a co-founder and Director of 00 and Dark Matter Laboratories - a field laboratory focused on building the institutional infrastructures for radicle civic societies, cities, regions and towns. Dark Matter Labs says, 'Around the planet, we're feeling the consequences of outdated institutions and inadequate infrastructures incapable of coping with planetary-scale challenges. At Dark Matter, we believe in taking on these challenges via a new, civic economy.'Their many strands of work include the Radicle Civics experiments (where 'Radicle', is the first part of a seedling to emerge from the embryonic seed of a plant), which explores, amongst other things, how we could re-imagine houses as autonomous beings, not things we own . One of the many exciting things about Dark Matter Labs is that they create these experiments on the ground: I've put a link to their blog post on Repermissioning the City in the show notes and really, if you have time, I encourage you to read it for ideas of things that are actually happening as we speak. Beyond that, Indy and Dark Matter explore so much of what this podcast is about: governance systems, economics, management, the nature of the world if we were able to take our place within it as fully conscious beings in a fully conscious web of life. This took me right to the edge of my thinking, which is such an exciting, enlivening place to be: walking the knife edge between what we know (or think we know) and what might yet be possible. Both Indy and I had various viruses so there's some coughing and some rough-speaking, particularly from my end, but if you can manage that, I think this is one of those episodes that has the power to change worlds. So people of the podcast, please do welcome, Indy Johar of Dark Matter Labs. Dark Matter Labs https://darkmatterlabs.org/Radicle Civics https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U9LXY3CTN2upEG38oz4j4vW8Vb0Yq21u/viewProject 00 https://www.project00.cc/Dark Matter Blog https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.orgRepermissioning the City https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/re-permissioning-the-city-unlocking-cities-growing-underutilised-spatial-assets-for-an-emergent-1550997714a4Indy on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/indy-johar-b440b010/Dark Matter on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/darkmatterlabs/Dark Matter Labs on Twitter https://twitter.com/DarkMatter_Labs7Gen Cities https://www.7gencities.org/7Gen Cities CiFi Gathering Report https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/6462104f72fa898a55556e56/651ec633d3229a3920f0c03a_CiFi_Report_7GenCities_0410.pdfEmily Harris, AG podcast #176 https://accidentalgods.life/bridging-from-the-necessary-to-the-possible-with-emily-harris-of-dark-matter-labs/Systems change needs Democratic change https://ddc.dk/why-systems-change-will-lead-to-democratic-renewal/#
Dylan and Kulja sit down with Indy Johar, architect and founder of London-based Dark Matter Labs, who unpacks the thinking behind the organisation's way of approaching global challenges and crises ahead of his keynote at Now or Never 2023.Louise Milligan, award-winning investigative journalist, chats about what went into her investigation on the silence about homosexuality in the AFL for ABC's Four Corners, amid queer sexuality in sport being spotlighted and celebrated by the Women's World Cup.Plus, Dr Rod Davies, convener and lecturer at Monash University, gets into the calls to address the inequity in payment for session musicians in Australia, and why the country is lagging behind the rest of the world on the issue.
In a time of poly crises, uncertainty and peaking distrust, governance systems are facing immense pressure. In this episode, we delve into the world of complex ideas about transformational change of our governance systems. What is transformation, what does it entail for decision making and systems of governance in the 21st century, and what systemic changes are required for the survival of democracy and the planet? Fortunately, we have two distinguished experts with us to reflect upon these questions, Lindiwe Mazibuko and Indy Johar.
Indy Johar at Dark Matter Labs address some of our most pressing planetary needs and we talk about their work. This is a fascinating conversation where we touch upon objects, our relationships to them and how that is important to rethink bureaucracy to and allow it to harness our increased computational capacity. We also talk about ownership and for pathways towards custodianship, how we can orient towards letting life find a way, how work could be part of liberating us in the new paradigm, why direct redistribution is most likely not the path forward and why all of this fundamentally is an invitation to rethink what it means to be human. This is a mind blowing conversation. Enjoy! Host: Amit Paul
Continuing the conversation series, “The Edges in the Middle,” presented in collaboration with UC Berkeley's Othering and Belonging Institute, For The Wild is delighted to share Báyò Akómoláfé in conversation with Indy Johar of Dark Matter Labs. Speaking on the theme “A New Theory of the Self,” Báyò and Indy dive into the milieu of life forms entangled together on earth. The conversation asks listeners to reconsider the objective nature of self and the word around us that has been so deeply ingrained within the architecture of society. Rejecting these notions of completion and singularity, Báyò and Indy engage in a conversation that calls attention to the aliveness of the world, to the agency and intelligence of our entangled minds, and to life as an ongoing process. How might we move beyond constraining ideas of order, power, and control in order to recognize and take part in relational ecological emergence?“The Edges in the Middle” is a series of conversations between Báyò Akómoláfé and thought companions like john a. powell, V, Naomi Klein, and more. These limited episodes have been adapted from Báyò's work as the Global Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley's Othering & Belonging Institute. In this role, Báyò has been holding a series of public conversations on issues of justice and belonging for the Institute's Democracy & Belonging Forum, which connects and resources civic leaders in Europe and the US who are committed to bridging across difference to strengthen democracy and advance belonging in both regions and around the world. Báyò's conversations encourage us to rethink justice, hope, and belonging by sitting amidst the noise, not trying to cover it up with pleasant rhythms. To learn more about the Democracy & Belonging Forum, visit democracyandbelongingforum.org. Music by Sitka Sun, generously provided by The Long Road Society Record Label. Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.Support the show
Indy Johar, an architect who specialises in re-imagining institutions and envisioning different economies and relationships, argues that we are vastly underestimating the scale of the challenges we face. According to Indy, the next few decades will completely redesign everything around us, including our material world such as our clothes, food, and furniture, as well as some of our concepts, including those of value, pricing, ownership, and work. He sees us on the threshold of a structural transition that will fundamentally change society and our relationship with energy. Indy believes that civilisation is coming to the end of a 400-year-old vision of our world based on Cartesian dualism, where object and subject have been separated, and we are beginning to witness a re-entangling of the world around us in terms of interdependencies and externalities. Indy predicts that this transition will lead to a reassessment of philosophical, material, social, risk, and costs, bringing about a new vision of the world that is more interconnected and holistic. Indy Johar is an architect and the co-founder of Dark Matter Laboratories, an organisation dedicated to developing new support frameworks for collaborative system change.Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at SystemShift@greenpeace.orgThis episode of SystemShift comes from Greenpeace Nordic and is hosted by Greenpeace campaigner and former Swedish politician and Green MEP, Carl Schlyter, and produced by Alexia Fridén, with additional support from Ariadna Rodrigo, Juliana Costa, Christian Aslund and Attila Kulcsár at Greenpeace. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Our cities are inherently unequal by design. They were often designed by tall, white, able bodied men. So what have they overlooked? Can we reduce inequality by designing a better world? In this episode Gail and Loyiso explore the Global Goal to reduce inequality (Goal 5) and are joined by famous youtuber Molly Burke, who happens to be blind and has a load of helpful tips for designing better accessibility offline and online. And architect turned big thinker Indy Johar calls for a fundamental overhaul of an old system that perpetuates inequalities in all its forms. Guests:Molly Burke, Speaker, Digital Creator, Author, and Advocate. Indy Johar, Architect, co-founder of project00 and Dark Matter Labs.For more information go to www.globalgoals.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What would it look like to reimagine the systems of a whole city? To really involve citizens in addressing the huge challenges we face today? Imandeep Kaur reflects on what she has learned in the last ten years from being part of an ecosystem of social entrepreneurs in Birmingham who are cultivating ‘radical reimagination'. From TEDx Brum, to Impact Hub Birmingham, to Dark Matter Labs and finally as the director of CIVIC SQUARE, where she has been greatly influenced by Kate Raworth's work on Doughnut Economics, Immy shares some deep insights and big questions from her journey about systems change and leadership. Resources: CIVIC SQUARE's website The Doughnut Economics website Blogs and other resources related to Dark Matter Labs' #BreakingTheRules project More Dark Matter Labs provocations from their Medium blog Indy Johar, one of Immy's key influences, in a video conversation with Jordan Hall about the need for a new organisational theory and practice Related Leadermorphosis episode: One of my favourite conversations with friend of Immy, Meg Lightheart
In this episode Philip is joined my long time friend and contributor Indy Johar. The first episode of the new year has become a tradition on The Deep Dive as Philip and Indy create space for a wide ranging conversation tackling our emergent and entangled future. Special Guest: Indy Johar.
This week we meet with Indy Johar from Dark Matter Labs to discuss why and how our systems of governance should be reformed and why we need all professionals, including lawyers, joining this “Boring revolution”. We, of course, look things from the legal (design) perspective so we concentrate on what role (legal) design has in making our societies fit for the needs of the 21st Century. Global crises will become more frequent in the future, due to climate change escalating other phenomena, we need to create new, agile ways to manage unpredictable force majeure type of events. There might be situations where governments have only a few hours to react in order to protect their citizens, or just 24 hours to pass a new law. The new reality will demand us to change also the way we design regulation - or what we think a regulation is in the first place. There is a tremendous need for law to change and the required work might seem overwhelming, but Indy puts us back on track and reminds us that there are examples of gigantic systemic change. We also cover some big topics like democracy and talk about the need for creating better legal concepts and models, such as property right or legal personhood, to transform governance. Indy Johar is focused on the strategic design of new super scale civic assets for transition - specifically at the intersection of financing, contracting and governance for deeply democratic futures. Indy is co-founder of darkmatterlabs.org and of the RIBA award winning architecture and urban practice Architecture00 - https://www.architecture00.net, a founding director of open systems lab - https://www.opensystemslab.io (digitising planning), seeded WikiHouse (open source housing) - https://www.wikihouse.cc and Open Desk (open source furniture company) https://www.opendesk.cc. Indy is a non-executive international Director of the BloxHub https://bloxhub.org (Denmark Copenhagen) - the Nordic Hub for sustainable urbanization and was 2016-17 Graham Willis Visiting Professorship at Sheffield University. He was also Studio Master at the Architectural Association - 2019-2020, UNDP Innovation Facility Advisory Board Member 2016-20 and RIBA Trustee 2017-20. He has taught & lectured at various institutions from the University of Bath, TU-Berlin; University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MIT and New School. Most recently, he was awarded the London Design Medal for Innovation in 2022.
What would a new economy that serves the future be, look and feel like? Who must be part of this new economy, and of making it happen? In September 2022, the funder collaborative Partners For A New Economy brought together 90 thinkers, funders and change-makers working in myriad ways across different places and systems to transform our economies. In this encounter you’ll hear dreams and reflections from some of those participants, painting a collective picture from an expanding field of a new economy that allows all people and nature to flourish, and how we might start building it. Made by Jo Barratt with Gemma Mortensen, Iris Andrews, Lily Piachaud, Hadeel Elshak and Sophie McKechnie and featuring the voices of, amongst others, Alexander Barkawi, Fran Boait, Kelly Clark, Leslie Harroun, Indy Johar, Immy Kaur, Till Kellerhoff, Lynda Mannson, Melissa Mean, Johannes Nuutinen, Alastair Parvin, James Vaccaro. Episode transcript Discover more at newconstellations.co, and join us on Instagram and Twitter @newconstells Find out more about Partners for a New Economy at www.p4ne.org
In this episode of, In Line with Nature, Hannah MacInnes talks to Indy Johar, an architect, co-founder of 00 (project00.cc) and most recently Dark Matter, Studio Master at AA. He speaks with Hannah to discuss why there is such a pressing need to rethink current norms in construction in order to design and create a healthy, resilient and sustainable built environment for our growing population.
Climate change is a symptom of the failure of our systems: systems in which humans have constructed a theory of dominion and viewed the planet as an infinite resource to be exploited. In a fast-paced and provocative talk, Indy Johar presents a worrying overview of the climate crisis and global systems which have resulted in a fundamental transition in the way we relate to the world around us. But don't be alarmed, Indy presents a range of opportunities and provocations to help create a ‘planetary civilisation' in which resources are valued differently, new governance models emerge, and principles of ownership give way to ideas of stewardship. Finally, Indy leaves us with an invitation to acknowledge the massive scale of the problem and to act today. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Living Cities Forum is an annual assembly exploring the role of design, planning and architecture in shaping our society. In July 2022 it returned to Melbourne with an impressive array of international and local architecture and urban design leaders—featuring keynote addresses from globally renowned thinkers including Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Elder Dave Wandin, British architect and co-founder of Dark Matter Labs Indy Johar, Canadian landscape architect Jane Mah Hutton, British architect and educator Joseph Grima, Ghanaian educator and architectural scientist Mae-ling Lokko, Vietnamese architect Vo Trong Nghia, and Chinese architect Xu Tiantian. For as long as humanity has traded, materials have flowed. The 2022 Living Cities Forum theme ‘Material Flows' examined the global material flows that underwrite our growing built environments. Within the 2022 theme, Living Cities Forum delivered its fifth program of keynote lectures, with cross-disciplinary talks over the course of the day by globally renowned thinkers from around the world. While there has been increased awareness into the impacts of our material use in recent times, our approach to building construction continues to reflect short-term commercial interests over long-term environmental sustainability. These short-term interests are most evident in the material flow of pollution. Against this backdrop, the forum explored if the current global disruptions to material flows—as a result of the global pandemic, wars and other destabilising factors—might well be our chance to rethink the materials we have taken for granted. Can we seize this moment to accelerate our first steps towards a genuine circular economy? Can we support those who are decarbonising our supply chains, while also breathing new life into smaller footprint manufacturing? The forum was an opportunity to rethink logistics as ethics and to reframe scarcity as the catalyst for new abundance. The Living Cities Forum is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and Development Victoria. Living Cities Forum is the sister event to MPavilion, and is presented by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit: livingcitiesforum.org Subscribe to the MPavilion YouTube channel for our latest videos and live streamed events: http://bit.ly/subscribempavilion Explore our Living Cites Forum video & podcast library: https://livingcitiesforum.org/watch #LivingCities22
In this summative discussion, Mel Dodds is joined by Dave Wandin, Indy Johar, Jane Mah Hutton and Vo Trong Nghia, as together they crystalise the common themes throughout the morning's presentations. Emphasising our need to examine our relationship to materials, panellists discussed how to re-orient our focus from ideas of ownership towards ideas of material stewardship and responsibility towards the land. Although the scale of both the projects and the ideas presented differed greatly between speakers, they all discuss how the greatest challenge is in the conflict we currently have in our relationship with the environment. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Living Cities Forum is an annual assembly exploring the role of design, planning and architecture in shaping our society. In July 2022 it returned to Melbourne with an impressive array of international and local architecture and urban design leaders—featuring keynote addresses from globally renowned thinkers including Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Elder Dave Wandin, British architect and co-founder of Dark Matter Labs Indy Johar, Canadian landscape architect Jane Mah Hutton, British architect and educator Joseph Grima, Ghanaian educator and architectural scientist Mae-ling Lokko, Vietnamese architect Vo Trong Nghia, and Chinese architect Xu Tiantian. For as long as humanity has traded, materials have flowed. The 2022 Living Cities Forum theme ‘Material Flows' examined the global material flows that underwrite our growing built environments. Within the 2022 theme, Living Cities Forum delivered its fifth program of keynote lectures, with cross-disciplinary talks over the course of the day by globally renowned thinkers from around the world. While there has been increased awareness into the impacts of our material use in recent times, our approach to building construction continues to reflect short-term commercial interests over long-term environmental sustainability. These short-term interests are most evident in the material flow of pollution. Against this backdrop, the forum explored if the current global disruptions to material flows—as a result of the global pandemic, wars and other destabilising factors—might well be our chance to rethink the materials we have taken for granted. Can we seize this moment to accelerate our first steps towards a genuine circular economy? Can we support those who are decarbonising our supply chains, while also breathing new life into smaller footprint manufacturing? The forum was an opportunity to rethink logistics as ethics and to reframe scarcity as the catalyst for new abundance. The Living Cities Forum is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and Development Victoria. Living Cities Forum is the sister event to MPavilion, and is presented by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit: livingcitiesforum.org Subscribe to the MPavilion YouTube channel for our latest videos and live streamed events: http://bit.ly/subscribempavilion Explore our Living Cites Forum video & podcast library: https://livingcitiesforum.org/watch #LivingCities22
Phoebe Tickell is a biologist and systems thinker developing methodologies and approaches suited for a better world. She is an innovator with a background in the biological sciences, technology, social entrepreneurship and systems design. She left the scientific academy with the knowledge that an understanding of complex systems could be applied to real world pressing issues and that bridges were needed to stretch from theory to practice. She works across multiple societal contexts applying a complexity and systems thinking lens and has worked in organisational design, advised government, the education sector and the food and farming sector. She is a co-founder of the DGov Foundation – a community of distributed governance practitioners – and Member of Enspiral, a community that innovates in decentralising power and developing decentralised tools and technologies to do so. She also created Moral Imaginations in 2020 to push the frontier of research and implementation of research-backed collective imagination exercises and training to inspire change and find new solutions in an era of unprecedented disruption and potential for transformation. It's clear that society needs direction when it comes to change, and in today's episode we explore how imagination gives us the ability to think beyond traditional frames. Join us as we delve into training a new breed of activists, mapping unintended consequences, how to coordinate at a massive scale – and accounting for future generations with the choices that we make. A full transcript of the episode can be found on our website: https://boundaryless.io/podcast/phoebe-tickell/ Key highlights we discussed: > Why imagination has become central to building the future > The moral elements of new ways of organising > How diverse teams or communities can work from shared principles > Why we need to stay connected to our local communities > Why coordination is not ‘everything' for DAOs To find out more about Phoebe's work: > LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phoebetickell/ > Twitter: https://twitter.com/solarpunk_girl > Website: http://www.phoebetickell.com/ > Moral Imaginations: https://www.moralimaginations.com/ > Moral Imaginations Twitter: https://twitter.com/moral_imagining > Moral Imaginations Substack: https://moralimaginations.substack.com/ Other references and mentions: > Indy Johar, A Development Future: https://medium.com/hub-engine/a-developmental-future-21bf6412625e > The Manifesto for Moral Imagination: https://medium.com/moral-imaginations/a-manifesto-for-moral-imagination-dbf62f0cb7aa > Trans-contextual Organizing: Shifting Perceptions — with Nora Bateson: https://boundaryless.io/podcast/nora-bateson/ > Daniel Schmachtenberger: https://civilizationemerging.com/about/ > Kevin Owocki, The Green Pill, with Phoebe Tickell: https://greenpill.substack.com/p/12-solarpunk-girl-phoebe-tickell?s=r > L. M. Sacasas – Building a convivial society: autonomy, tools, scale and capabilities: https://boundaryless.io/podcast/l-m-sacasas/ > MetaGov: https://metagov.org/ > Colony: distributed organizations that actually work – with Aron Fischer and Jack du Rose: https://boundaryless.io/podcast/colony/ > Samantha Slay, Going Horizontal: https://goinghorizontal.co/ > New Citizenship Project: https://www.newcitizenship.org.uk/ Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at https://boundaryless.io/resources/podcast/ Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: https://boundaryless.io/podcast-music Recorded on 19 April 2022.
In this first episode of the new season, I have the pleasure of speaking with Indy Johar, the founding Director of 00 and Dark Matter Labs. An architect by training, Indy is a Senior Innovation Associate with the Young Foundation and a visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield. Having co-founded the Impact Hub Birmingham and Open Systems Lab, he was a member of the RSA's Inclusive Growth Commission and is one of the leading voices in the world of system change, the future of urban infrastructure finance, outcome-based investment, and the future of governance. Whether you're interested in how our societies might transition and respond to climate breakdown, or you're curious about understanding the interconnected ways in which we could foster systemic change, this conversation offers an exploration of both past and present, and what steps we might take to create a more democratic, distributed and sustainable future. Recorded on 3rd March 2022.
Jon Alexander began his career in advertising, winning the prestigious Big Creative Idea of the Year, before making a dramatic change. Driven by a deep need to understand the impact on society of 3,000 commercial messages a day, he gathered three Masters degrees, exploring consumerism and its alternatives from every angle. In 2014, he co-founded the New Citizenship Project with Irenie Ekkeshi to bring the resulting ideas into contact with reality. Since then, they have been on a mission to figure out how to use our skills - not just to sell stuff - to Consumers, and involve people in the decisions that affect their lives as Citizens. In this engaging conversation, Jon shares some great insights from his latest book Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us. We also explore how we can move away from being a passive consumer to being an active agent, how collective power leads to exponential results, the responsibility we have to build our own systems, and what a Citizen democracy means for the government. A full transcript of the episode can be found on our website: boundaryless.io/podcast/jon-alexander/ Key highlights We discussed: > Defining Citizenship > The Subject and Consumer stories versus the Citizen story > How leaders of organizations can help to empower people to be Citizens > Becoming active agents of change and investing in the future To find out more about Jon's work: > Twitter: twitter.com/jonjalex > Website: www.jonalexander.net/ > New Citizenship Project: www.newcitizenship.org.uk/ > Jon Alexander, 'Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us', 2022: www.amazon.com/Citizens-Why-Key-…ing/dp/191245484X Other references and mentions: > Ouishare Fest: www.ouishare.net/fest > Arlie Hochschild, The Deep Stories of Our Time: onbeing.org/programs/arlie-hoch…tories-of-our-time/ > Dark Matter Labs: rethinking organizing #BeyondTheRules - with Indy Johar and Annette Dhami: boundaryless.io/podcast/dark-matter-labs/ > Gov0 in Taiwan: g0v.asia/ > Rob Davies, Phasing out Russian oil: how UK consumers can help the war effort, 2022: www.theguardian.com/environment/202…-the-war-effort > Better Reykjavik: citizens.is/portfolio_page/better_reykjavik/ > The Liège Food Belt: communitiesforfuture.org/get-inspired…elt-belgium/ > Why Blockchain should be plural: Cosmos and Inter-Blockchain Communication - with Ethan Buchman: boundaryless.io/podcast/ethan-buchman/ > Rebecca Solnit, 'A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster', 2010: www.amazon.com/Paradise-Built-He…es/dp/0143118072/ Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at boundaryless.io/resources/podcast/ Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: boundaryless.io/podcast-music Recorded on 13 March 2022.
In this conversation, Philip talks to long time friend of the show Indy Johar. Indy Johar is an architect, co-founder of 00 (project00.cc) and most recently Dark Matter, Studio Master at AA. Indy and Philip spend time reflecting on 2021 and looking forward to 2022 and the necessity for us to foster deep hope and build a society based on care. Indy shares his vision for what he calls “The Big How” and what it means for the emerging future(s). The Drop – The segment of the show where Philip and his guest share tasty morsels of intellectual goodness and creative musings. Philip's Drop: My Name (Netflix) (https://www.netflix.com/title/81011211) Red Oaks (Amazon Prime) (https://www.amazon.com/Red-Oaks-Season-1/dp/B08B49T61C) Indy's Drop: Children of Men (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206634/) The Dawn Of Everything – David Graeber & David Wengrow (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374157357/thedawnofeverything) Special Guest: Indy Johar.
Dark Matter Labs is a multidisciplinary design team developing new working methods for system change. Today we're joined by Indy Johar and Annette Dhami to discuss their mission of discovering, designing and developing the institutional ‘dark matter' that supports a more democratic, distributed and sustainable future. Indy Johar is a founding Director of 00 and Dark Matter Labs. An architect by training, Indy is a Senior Innovation Associate with the Young Foundation and a visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield. He co-founded Impact Hub Birmingham and Open Systems Lab, and was a member of the RSA's Inclusive Growth Commission. He is a thought leader in system change, the future of urban infrastructure finance, outcome-based investment, and the future of governance. Annette Dhami spent over a decade building, operating and driving mission-led (and often place-based) organisations and networks, including Impact Hubs (Brixton and Islington) and the Plymouth Social Enterprise Network, exploring how we organise, finance, use buildings, build networks and create economies for shared benefit. Annette joined Dark Matter Labs in 2020 to focus more deeply on how we organise and operate (in theory and creating this in practice) for transition. She holds the organising and operational work of the international Dark Matter Labs ecosystem (read more about that here), and explores these organising questions more deeply in the multi-partner #BeyondtheRules project. A full transcript of the episode can be found on our website: https://boundaryless.io/podcast/dark-matter-labs/ Key highlights: We discussed: Dark Matter Labs' ambitions for creating a real learning organisation. Governing by building learning capacity inside organisations. The theory of genius to make people accountable through care and learning. The ability to work diagonally across local and global dimensions. Creating markets and new theories of value. The tension and spectrum between “patronising” governance and fostering autonomous (almost autocratic) entrepreneurialism. Making space for care and innovation at every point in the system. To find out more about Annette Dhami and Indy Johar's work: > Website: https://darkmatterlabs.org/ > Annette's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annette-dhami-1735554a/ > Indy's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/indy-johar-b440b010/ Other references and mentions: > DM Notes Series: https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/ > The Beyond The Rules project: https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/beyondtherules-e3ab44f0dc3 > Organising #BeyondTheRules series: https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/organising-beyondtherules-at-dark-matter-labs-e59e4f5dd32f Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at https://boundaryless.io/resources/podcast/ Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: https://boundaryless.io/podcast-music Recorded on 26 October 2021.
Global crises cause big changes and reveal deep structural weaknesses. In this special interview series from the RSA its chief executive, Matthew Taylor, puts a range of practitioners on the spot - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - by asking for one big idea to help build effective bridges to our new future.Indy Johar is an architect and co-founder of Dark Matter, an organisation that focuses on redesigning the bureaucratic & institutional infrastructure of our urban spaces. A Tempo & Talker production for the RSA. In this time of global change, strong communities and initiatives that bring people together are more invaluable than ever before. The RSA Fellowship is a global network of problem solvers. We invite you to join our community today to stay connected, inspired and motivated in the months ahead. You can learn more about the Fellowship or start an application by clicking here.
"I think at the centre of it, is a new recognition of who we are as human beings." In the first episode of series 2, creative studio Accept & Proceed’s founder David Johnston meets with Indy Johar, architect and co-founder of Dark Matter Laboratories. The duo discuss Sikhism, running Dark Matter Labs, the values and rationale behind running a business in an untraditional way and reconfiguring the ‘normal’ structures that exist within a company.
In this conversation, Philip spends time with Indy Johar, Co-Founder Project 00 and Dark Matter Labs. Indy and Phil discuss our current reality as we wrestle with COVID-19, a finalized Brexit and rising anti-democracy and insurrection in post election America. With this as a backdrop they discuss what is necessary to create a viable future that operates with a different value system. The Drop – The segment of the show where Philip and his guest share tasty morsels of intellectual goodness and creative musings. Philip's Drop: Bartees Strange (https://barteesstrange.bandcamp.com/album/live-forever) Indy's Drop: Listen for the post-pandemic signals in music and culture. Special Guest: Indy Johar.
"I think at the centre of it, is a new recognition of who we are as human beings."In the first episode of series 2, creative studio Accept & Proceed’s founder David Johnston meets with Indy Johar, architect and co-founder of Dark Matter Laboratories.The duo discuss Sikhism, running Dark Matter Labs, the values and rationale behind running a business in an untraditional way and reconfiguring the ‘normal’ structures that exist within a company.
“Our actions in the next decade will determine the future of civilisation.” (Indy Johar, Dark Matter Labs) The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown our world into disarray. Far more than a public health crisis, the pandemic has triggered an economic crisis, a social crisis, and a governance crisis. It has contributed to a long overdue reckoning on deeply rooted systemic racial injustice. Meanwhile, extreme weather events signal the increasing urgency of our unfolding climate crisis. All of these challenges predated Covid-19. But the pandemic has exposed and exacerbated flaws in our systems. While we all long for a return to normality after months of loss and sacrifice, is “back to normal” really what we want?In Reimagine Series 2: Systems Reset, we’re seizing this moment to reimagine systems that are fit for purpose, and fit for everyone. Meet the visionaries who are revolutionising the story of who we are, and how we engage with the world. We’ll be talking about how to thrive in an entangled ecosystem, redesigning public health and economic systems, the kind of leadership we need in the 21st century, and more.It’s time for a declaration of interdependence.In the first episode of the new series, we explore what it means to think in systems. We’re going to go deep, exploring their invisible architecture, and then we’ll go long, discovering how radical long-term thinking can unlock innovation in the here and now. Peter talks to two great thinkers who say that in order to bring about change on the scale required, we first need to rethink how we see the world, and how we connect to it.Indy Johar is an architect and institutional innovator who is working to radically redesign our future. He is a founding director of Dark Matter Labs, an analytics and design team that is developing new working methods for system change.Dark Matter refers to the invisible architecture of our systems, which we tend not to notice until something goes wrong. But when systems fail, it’s usually catastrophic. That’s basically 2020 in a nutshell. Indy says our systems have errors in the deep code, and that it’s time for some reprogramming.Roman Krznaric is a public philosopher whose book, The Good Ancestor, offers us tools to flip the script and cultivate long-term thinking in a world beset by short termism.Reimagine is a podcast about people who are inventing the future. Presented by Oxford Answers and the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. New episodes on Thursdays.Featuring:Indy Johar (@indy_johar)), founding director @DarkMatter_LabsRoman Krznaric (@romankrznaric), author of The Good AncestorHost:Peter Drobac (@peterdrobac), Director of the @SkollCentre for Social Entrepreneurship, Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford.Resources:Dark Matters LabEmpathy MuseumWant to learn more about the show? Check out www.reimaginepodcast.com.Have a question for Peter? Email him at peter@reimaginepodcast.com.Credits:Producer/editor – Eve Streeter for Stabl
The world is interconnected and multiple perspectives allow us to see deeper connections and relationships. Indy Johar, the founder of Dark Matter Labs, brings this multitude of perspectives to every challenge, and helps organizations to "radically redesigning the bureaucratic & institutional infrastructure of our cities, regions and towns for a more democratic, distributed great transition". In this conversation, we talk about how we can understand chaos and complexity.
The latest in the series of Jericho Conversations podcasts finds Jericho founder Robert Phillips in thoughtful discussion with Indy Johar, widely celebrated as one of the UK’s foremost system designers and thinkers. This is not a recession, argues Indy, but a trigger-point for a much wider systems re-set that challenges centuries-old orthodoxies of economics, politics and leadership. There is an urgent need for true leadership to emerge beyond just the reactive nature of what we have seen in the crisis so far – because “not leading is not an option”.“This isn’t a voluntary transition moment, I think it’s actually whether you’re viable in the next economy. This is not a moral crusade, it’s an operational model in a new society where interdependence is more valuable and more critical”.Indy is an architect by training and the creator of multiple Impact Hubs. Dark Matter, his latest venture, is a field laboratory focused on radically redesigning the bureaucratic & institutional infrastructure of cities, regions and towns for a more democratic, distributed great transition – with offices and teams advising governments in Canada, Sweden and South Korea as well as the UK. Indy brings a truly global perspective – and scenarios and future models – to the current crisis.
In this conversation, Philip spends time with Indy Johar, Co-Founder Project 00 and Dark Matter Labs. Indy and Phil discuss the meaning of dark matter, the powe of invisibility and how to best rethink and explore new ways of unlocking societal value. The Drop – The segment of the show where Philip and his guest share tasty morsels of intellectual goodness and creative musings. Philip's Drop: The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private sector myths by Mariana Mazzucato (https://marianamazzucato.com/entrepreneurial-state/) Indy's Drop: Read those who's views are in opposition to our own. Understand their narratives, language and branding. Ex. Peter Thiel (https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian) Special Guest: Indy Johar.
In this boundaryless conversation we speak with Indy Johar, architect and co-founder of Project 00 and most recently Dark Matter Labs (see his full bio here: https://about.me/indy.johar).Indy is really a great thinker when it comes to going beyond “corner shop” size social transformation initiatives to explore the next generation of institutions - living at the edge between public, open and private. We explore what he thinks will happen to organising, institution-building and human potential, as we move beyond an information age towards an era where building capabilities for antifragile institutions is key.Find out more about Indy and his work:>About Indy Johar, https://about.me/indy.johar > Dark Matter Labs and its distributed team: https://darkmatterlabs.org/Team> Dark Matter Labs collaboration with EIT Climate-KIC on Longtermism: Reorienting mindsets towards long-term thinking and acting: https://darkmatterlabs.org/Longtermism-Reorienting-mindsets-towards-long-term-thinking-and-acting > Medium series of Longtermism, https://medium.com/futures-in-long-termism/futures-in-long-termism-95f64710f9b2> “Letters from Amsterdam” on how they’re organised: https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/amsterdam-2019-2020-letter-to-our-future-dbd67a035ffe> Indy Johar, Good work is the answer…: https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/there-is-nothing-wrong-with-the-consumer-society-as-an-idea-3c408b17ce > Trees as Infrastructure, https://darkmatterlabs.org/Trees-as-Infrastructure-Rewilding-urban-forestsOther Mentions and References:> John Vervaeke, Ep. 1 - Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - Introductionhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54l8_ewcOlY> Danny Dorling, Slowdown (2020): The End of the Great Acceleration—and Why It's Good for the Planet, the Economy, and Our Lives: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B086LK5KSL/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1Music by liosound.Recorded on April 29th
Pakhuis de Zwijger season opening 2019 with special guest Indy Johar. Johar is an architect who re-imagines an alternative, sustainable and democratic urban ecosystem for all of us. On september 2nd 2019, the evening started with Natasja van den Berg interviewing Johar.
What is the great rotation and how will it affect the built environment in the years to come?Indy Johar is an architect, co-founder of Project 00 & Dark Matter Labs and Senior Innovation Associate at the Young Foundation. Dark Matter Labs is a field laboratory focused on radically redesigning the bureaucratic & institutional infrastructure of our cities, regions and towns for a more democratic, distributed great transition.Project 00 is a collaborative studio of architects, strategic designers, programmers, social scientists, economists and urban designers practising design beyond its traditional borders. Through 00, Indy has led on multiple social ventures from Impact Hub Westminster to Impact Hub Birmingham to HubLaunchpad.net; he has also co-led research projects such as The Compendium for the Civic Economy, whilst supporting several 00 explorations/experiments including the wikihouse.cc, opendesk.cc. He is now leading 00 on HubEng.in a development engine for a next generation of Impact Hubs.Indy is a Director of Data Science London, an Advisor to the Earth Security Initiative and a non-executive director of WikiHouse Foundation. He is a regular writer on Medium.com and speaker at Ted Talks.In this podcast:How is real estate connected to ideas like political polarisation, climate change and conscious consumerism?The great rotation of capital - what role does the built environment have to play?Should assets be based on productive utility rather than floor area?What alternative finance & capital forms are emerging in the built environment?Have we yet seen truly transformative technologies in the build environment?Indy’s recommended book for the BUilding Our Future reading list is:Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society, Eric A. PosnerIndy’s favourite building more of moment; in terms of the feelings emoted by walking through Manhattan, New York. His technology to watch is smart property rights.
Climate change, poverty, hunger, division — these global challenges are all symptoms of a larger root problem, says Indy Johar, co-founder of Dark Matter Labs. To solve them, we need to move in a meaningful way from an individual worldview to a collective one. Subscribe to Future of Good's Edge & Main.
In the 41th episode of the Pakhuis de Zwijger Podcast, Maurice Seleky interviews four guests at the WeMakeThe.City festival. In the first interview, Anni Sinnemäki, deputy mayor of Helsinki tells us what Amsterdam can learn from Helsinki and the other way around. Digital rights activist Bianca Wylie calls upon us to use our power to strengthen local democracy in the next one. Trendwatcher Farid Tabarki introduces us to the latest city-trends. And lastly, Indy Johar shows us that we first have to change how we perceive ourselves before we can save our planet. For more information, check out https://wemakethe.city/en/ or https://dezwijger.nl/ Editor and producer: Emma van Veenen
Part of our Architecture series, this conversation looks at the effect of today’s technological revolution, on what it means to be human and how we can reshape London in response. Acclaimed economist Kate Raworth joins architect and Dark Matter Laboratories founder Indy Johar as as they explore how technology can enable the visualisation and transformation of the values and parameters defining contemporary cities, and proposing new models for a more equitable urban environment. Please note, the event was held in connection with an RA display which is now closed: https://roy.ac/2H5ViOq
We are living at the beginning of a necessary bureaucratic revolution – challenging the ideological roots of modern society – from sovereignty to the very notions of public & private. Indy Johar will share these conceptual underpinnings & frameworks behind Dark Matter Laboratories work around the world – with world class organisations from the Greater London Authority to UNDP
We are living at the beginning of a necessary bureaucratic revolution – challenging the ideological roots of modern society – from sovereignty to the very notions of public & private. Indy Johar will share these conceptual underpinnings & frameworks behind Dark Matter Laboratories work around the world – with world class organisations from the Greater London Authority to UNDP
If you were at our Good Deals and Beyond Good Business conference in March, you may have witnessed some of some of the biggest brains in social enterprise meet at our Where Capital Meets Purpose plenary session, hosted by Hatch Enterprise chair Jessica Brown. The British Council’s director of social and creative economies Dr Mairi Mackay, Baroness Glenys Thornton from the House of Lords, Dark Matter Labs co-founder Indy Johar and Social Finance co-founder Toby Eccles met to speak on the theme of combining capital with social purpose, followed by a Q+A with audience members. If you missed the conference or would like to hear their pearls of wisdom again, don’t worry. Pioneers Post recorded every word and have packaged it up in this podcast just for our listeners. P.S. This video is brought to you by the team at Pioneers Post – a social enterprise set up to deliver great journalism to support social entrepreneurs, impact investors and mission-driven businesses. Good journalism like this costs money, and we rely on subscriptions in order to keep delivering the social enterprise news. We’d love you to support us – have a look on our website: www.pioneerspost.com/subscribe.
We are living at the beginning of a necessary bureaucratic revolution – challenging the ideological roots of modern society – from sovereignty to the very notions of public & private. Indy Johar will share these conceptual underpinnings & frameworks behind Dark Matter Laboratories work around the world – with world class organisations from the Greater London Authority to UNDP
"When we create a precarious society, fear becomes a very powerful political device."In order to build, create and maintain a sustainable future, we need to start a boring revolution. Believing that talking only about the cool parts of science (like AI, new technology and robots) is not going to help us form this revolution. We need to go back to basics. We need to go over things like bureaucracy, governance och the principles of democracy to create trust. Without this trust simple things go wrong. Democratizing the means of production and innovation is all about building towards a counsciousness. We need to empower people in order to form a new type of government. We need to reinvent the concept of governance, and we need to do it now. To have this, as it were, “boring” conversation is really critical.
Will we be jobless in the future? Is there a role for designers in re-imagining public services? How can we get the most out of machines whilst unleashing human potential? How can we democratize city-making? Enter Indy Johar. Indy is a London-based architect and co-founder of Architecture00, focusing on the role of design in complex system change and social investment. As well as this, he is Senior Innovation Associate with the Young Foundation and Visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield. Most of Indy’s day-to-day is occupied with Dark Matter Labs, which he founded a few years ago to apply complex systems science to urban & regional renewal, turning what is generally perceived as a threat of our time – spill-over effects across borders, boundaries and silos – into a resource to solve the wicked challenges society faces in the 21st century. Dark Matter Laboratories utilizes an experimentation method typical of a fieldwork scientific laboratory, undertaking real-world research and prototyping in order to seed the next generation of institutional infrastructure. The studio is currently working on a series of initiatives from developing a new class of System Change – Impact Funds, Town Halls for Social Innovation, a new generation of Polytechnics, and the transformation of numerous existing institutions.
Bringing festival and podcasting together, we included some festival programming especially for the podcast - listen to a conversation between Indy Johar, Hank Haeusler and Dr Sarah Barnes on digital placemaking and platform urbanism. https://about.me/indy.johar https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/ics/people/researchers/dr_sarah_barns https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/associate-professor-matthias-hank-haeusler
Indy Johar spoke with architect and commentator, Stuart Harrison during the 2016 Sydney Architecture Festival on a new approach to architecture for social impact
This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 14th September 2017 A decade after the global financial crisis, deep scars remain. Despite recent data signalling a closing of the income inequality gap between the highest and lowest earners, this has been accompanied by mounting economic insecurity, wage stagnation and – particularly since Brexit – rising inflation. The shock of the financial crisis might have been weathered by buoyant employment, particularly at the low end of the labour market, but this too has been accompanied by rising in-work poverty. Is ‘inclusive growth’ a utopian oxymoron, or the means to fairer, more sustainable economies? How can it be achieved locally and nationally? What are the implications for global capitalism and the process of globalisation? What are the economic choices and trade-offs we might need to face if we are to respond to the ‘politics of the left behind’? Speakers: Gabriela Ramos, OECD Chief of Staff; Hon Wayne Swan MP, Former DPM and Treasurer of Australia; Indy Johar, architect, co- founder of 00, and member of the RSA Inclusive Growth Commission Chair: Rowan Conway, Director of Innovation and Development, RSA Discover more about this event here:https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/09/towards-inclusive-growth
Introducing the next industrial revolution A conversation exploring the emergence of the maker movement in all its forms and the factors that are fuelling its rise – from the arrival of cheaper tools, to the revival of making in popular culture, to the growing consumer appetite for domestic goods. Panellists: Liz Corbin, Institute of Making and co-founder of Open Workshop Network; Julie Madigan, Manufacturing Institute; Indy Johar co-founder of 00; Rosy Greenlees, executive director of Crafts Council Chair: Peter Marsh former FT journalist and author of The New Industrial Revolution