Video Archive – The Conference by Media Evolution

Q&A - Enacting Care

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 09:33:46 GMT

Q&A from the session Enacting Care – Putting Sustainability Into Practice with Deb Chachra (Olin College), Becky Lyon (Artist) and Ledama Masidza (Oceans Alive)

Ledama Masidza – Weaving a Tapestry of Community for Ecological Care | The...

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 09:32:34 GMT

“We can only manage what we know.”

Ubuntu is a concept that embraces the interconnectedness between all living things. No one is independent of the fact that our existence is directly dependent on the care between human and nonhuman communities. Ledama shared a story of hope, the case of Kuruwitu, a fishing community in Kenya that managed to heal itself from impacts of overfishing, coral bleaching and climate change. They did this through collaborative care, and harnessing the collective intelligence of their community.

Ledama mentioned some key success factors that led to Kuruwitu healing the devastation of marine life they had experienced, one of which was knowing the community. Understanding who lives there, allowing everyone to contribute, and harnessing the knowledge of their shared environment. Opening a dialogue with marine ecology through ocean data as well as having a sensitive understanding of the incentive models of the human community in Kuruwitu created caring approaches for both. Holistic solutions require collective intelligence, which in turn requires multiple experiences to be heard.

Debbie Chachra – How Infrastructure Works

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 09:32:22 GMT

“Energy is general purpose freedom.”

“The earth is in a void, every atom has to come from some place, and go somewhere.“

Infrastructure might not be the first thing we think of when we hear the word “care”, but these systems are manifestations of how we ensure quality of life as a society. Debbie Chachra refers to a quote of Amartya Sen - “We want wealth not because it's desirable on its own, but because it gives freedom to actually do what gives life value.” In her talk Debbie pointed out that the wealth of a country can be measured by the amount of money put into infrastructure. In fact a satellite image of the earth in some ways reflects wealth simply by showing the amount of artificial light present. Debbie Chachra sees artificial light as pure agency as it allows us to do things we would otherwise not be able to do.

If we take it a step further, energy is a general purpose freedom as having access to it allows you to exist with ease in your day to day. The issue is that the main source for energy we have harnessed are fossil fuels bringing us in the state of climate crisis we find ourselves in today. The speaker invited us to take a look at our lovely planet as a place that gets an immense amount of energy from the sun every day and also a place that exists in a void. Meaning every atom has to come from some place, and go somewhere. Debbie Chachra asks us to rethink the idea of energy that is limited, and the ideas of material resources that are not. To create caring infrastructure futures we need to commit to decentralized infrastructure for regenerative energy and build careful relationships to material flows.

Becky Lyon – A Carrier Bag for Care-Full, and Co-flourishing Decision Making

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 09:31:01 GMT

“The master's house cannot be rebuilt with master's tools.“

“A physical shift with our bodies can shift how we think about a problem.”

In her talk, Becky Lyon reminded us that we need to get back to our bodies, in order to create a world where we can thrive. In the dominant European American system the body has been estranged in favor of the rational, the evidence-based and the narrow. It caused us to step outside of ourselves, placing the notion within us that nature is outside of ourselves. What Becky encourages us to do, is to return to the body. If we reintroduce the body to make the change that we want to see, it can return our intuition closer to our core selves. Perhaps this can alter the gated and guarded power structures that currently exist.

As a part of the toolkit for care that Becky presents, she encourages you to map the “enmessments”, meaning to map all the interconnections, flows and entanglements surrounding you. Understanding the complexity allows for more care-full decisions. The audience was at one point invited to act out an act of care, opening space for lightness, humor and laughter. Embracing joy and play brings us back to our bodies, and helps us enact care into our daily lives. Lastly, as Becky said, practice here is key, so go out and do it.