Eiland van Brienenoord

From Beyond Social
Revision as of 15:25, 11 January 2015 by Dennis Wuisman (talk | contribs)

Eiland van Brienenoord


THE CIVIC ECONOMY MASTERCLASS

Hosted and guided by Isaac Monté (Sweatshop Deluxe) and Maurice Specht (De Makers van Rotterdam)Organised by Jessica Bergmann (Pink Pony Express)Location: Clubhouse “De Arend en de Zeemeeuw”, Eiland Van Brienenoord 5 (Van Brienenoord Island), Rotterdam.

In many cities, we are increasingly witnessing the emergence of new forms of ownership: the consumer society is turning into a civic economy. In recent years in Rotterdam, a number of social initiatives and subsidy-free enterprises have been founded, such as Hotspot Hutspot, Leeszaal Rotterdam West and Sweatshop Deluxe. What are the possibilities offered by these new initiatives for the development of new business models?

A public ‘free haven’ for the civic economy Neighborhood initiatives like Zorgvrijstaat Rotterdam West, strive for more autonomy from citizens; They want to make people aware, activate and guide people in creating a network to solve their own problems. Wouldn't it be nice if these initiatives could take some distance from their field of work, live in a different environment with different disciplines, so they can reflect, gain new insights and develop their competences. What kind of infrastructure would it take to help them? In this master class, you will be developing a free haven for ‘makers’, 'thinkers', ‘doers’ and 'dreamers'. The focus is on solving social issues through social, cultural and artistic interventions.

De Makers van Rotterdam[1] and Sandersgeluk are currently managing the clubhouse ‘De Arend en de Zeemeeuw’ on van Brienenoord Island. They plan to use this location as a work space, but more importantly as a public ‘free haven’ with a tremendous potential: a place where the powers of social and cultural imagination are brought together.

A small introduction from the people that are already involved:

De Makers van Rotterdam its mission is to identify and strengthen social entrepreneurship in Rotterdam, and to stimulate discussion on th subject. The team consists of a philosopher, a public administrator and a cultural programmer.

Makerscollectief Sandersgeluk[2] puts together social projects in the broadest sense of the term, and consists of a theatre producer, a visual artist and the same cultural programmer mentioned above.

Sweatshop Deluxe[3] is a Rotterdam-based design label with its own production workshops. The label provides young designers an opportunity to manufacture their designs. Sweatshop Deluxe stands for Design with a capital D, manufactured according to social principles. Each Sweatshop Deluxe product is unique: hand-made, in limited editions, and designed by promising young designers. The products are manufactured by people who are otherwise unable, for a variety of reasons, to participate in the regular labour market. Sweatshop Deluxe uses wherever possible sustainable or recycled materials.

Assignment

Maurice Specht has received a key to the Island van Brienenoord; A place where you can escape from the city life, with a view of the city. Think of a new purpose for this island, without damaging it. In order to do so, reflect on modern day society; Create a haven for thinkers, doers and dreamers.

Concept

Within our society there’s no room for doubt; You’re expected to make convincing decisions. And if you don’t, you’re considered weak. Think about how we judge politicians, scientists and business people.

A lot of contemporary companies and organizations try to solve problems by using old methods. Wouldn't it be nice if they would just admit, that they are facing some problems they can’t solve. If there’s more room for doubt, for “not-knowing” there’s room for creativity, coming from all kinds of disciplines. So that new collaborations can arise in order to search for new methods to tackle these obstacles.

The year of doubt

Within this year there are three steps:

Step 1: Pull Strategy

We want to reach a broad target group containing business people, creatives, politicians, craftsmen and scientists. Our goal is to get these people together on the island, in order to share their knowledge with each other using doubt as a means.

Using the mystery and unfamiliarity of the island, we want to create a hype; By creating an urban-myth, we want to make people curious and allow them to give their own interpretation of what’s going on. We spread three press releases: The first one’s about new valuable material being found on the island, which metaphorically refers to discovering the value of doubt. The next two are also about activity and discovery, which make the mystery more convincing and therefore make the reader even more curious.

PressRelease

Re-openingIsland.jpg

Step 2: The Game, a Kick-off

Start van de game Gameuitleg2.jpg

Time’s ticking away slowly. When the clock reaches “00:00:00”, the bridge will opens and the participants can enter the island. Once they’ve all entered, the bridge rises again, so that no one can leave the island.

The game begins! At the beginning each participant can obtain a controller. The controller will ask you several questions about the island; Once you gave an answer to all these questions the controller will lead you to a place on the island by using vibrations. When the controller lights up, you’ve reached your goal. Here you will meet other participants.

Different structures were built on the island as a metaphor for different kinds of doubts. Physical dynamic structures that changes form to accommodate different kinds of doubt.

Examples: Objects of doubt

Step 3: Themes During the Year of Doubt

Within this year of doubt, we will look at doubts that we think are or should be important;

Economy

We’ve all experienced what the consequences of not doubting within economics have caused our society; For example bankers not doubting themselves and bankers not doubting each other has brought us multiple crises.

Together with economic experts we question modern day economics, to obtain new insights; Themes could be: value, sharing, scarcity and income inequality.

In order to do so, there will be various activities like workshops and games, that will make us empathize with different social/economic roles, make us gain insights and make us think of new possibilities within economics.

Ecology

The van Brienenoord-eiland’s nature might be beautiful, but it’s also very much disturbed by the city’s industry; the ground looks grayish, the ponds have minimal current, the flora isn’t very vital and you can see it’s soil is polluted because of the many blackberry-bushes trying to heal it.

There’s no doubt our society has environmental issues; Is there for example a way we can cleanse this island and also win insights how to change our society’s ecology? Can we use the eco-systems that are present on this island to do so? Or do we need elements from outside the island?

Together with van Brienenoord-eiland’s own forester and various ecologists we will rethink the ecology of our society.

EmbedVideo received the bad id "FweRHHsDdfI#t=21" for the service "youtube".
Relations

When you think about doubt in relation to relationships, you ought to think there’s something wrong. But because of it’s reflective function, doubt can be very powerful within this context; And in order for relationships to grow and strengthen, you will very much need it.

Expressing your doubts within any kind of relation can be hard, it can result in very emotional situations. Can accepting doubt make expressing and receiving doubts more bearable?

Science

There’s been a lot of scientific research by different scientists on similar subjects, with different outcomes. This makes us non-scientists who expect science to be the truth doubt if it is. Is this expectation always realistic?

There’s no doubt scientists strive for certainty and answers, but the road towards it must be full of doubt. We think scientists and non-scientist should get together and doubt about what science is and what to expect from it.

Business Model

In order to develop towards an autonomous think-, make- and workplace for and about the future of the city; We need a business plan. As guidelines for this future plan, we had the following ideas:

  • Extreme cost-reduction: No alarm, no insurance, no electricity, etc.
  • For the exploitation budget, not to be dependent on external funders. We can make profit from renting the location to external parties
  • The office can be ran by a limited amount of people
  • “Artist/writer/thinker in residence”-program: in exchange for rent these people can work/live on the island
  • For the cultural an substantive program we will request cultural subsidies and/or fundings
  • Develop our own products, that create a modest amount of money
  • To function as a breeding place for new civic entrepreneurs; The start-ups have a lasting investment in the island
  • Summer-weekends with catering


The Highline, New York

Doubters inc.[4]

Doubters incorporated geeft een podium aan twijfelaars.