Presentation for the stream "Cultures of Unsustainability" at European Sociological Associations conference on "The Making of Worlds", October 2010.

1. Virtual imaginaries of
sustainability
On- and off-line community soliciting and action
generating
Chronotopes of system-change generation
Oleg Koefoed
ESA Conference
Stream on Cultures of unsustainability
Milano
October 8th 2010

2. The outline
 Cultures of sustainability: creating participation and reflection
– Action research / Action-philosophy
– A new culture of things
 Ontologies of participative media and a couple of questions..
 Case: EDUFashion / Openwear / Ethical Economy
 Examples: FakePress: iSee, Picnic, Radiant Copenhagen

3. Action-philosophical conceptscape
New urban and
virtual realities
ubiquitous computing
sociality
complexity
technicity transculturality systems thinking
transdisciplinarity
eventalities
virtual imaginaries
cultures of sustainability
sustensions
chronotopics
sub-subjection co-creations rhiz-culturation
emotive activism
action-philosophy
individuation

4. The horizon: cultures of
sustainability
C of S are the horizon of change and/or the
result of conscious and intended processes
of deep cultural reflection and change, creating a change
on a cross-systemic level and installing a potential 'new order'
in the relations between humans,
between humans and nature, and between
humans and things
..or they could be the results of processes of realization
caused by a series of recurrent crises and
disasters, forcing humans to change the way that
they inhabit the world and relate to it
- always after the act = cultures of
unsustainability?

5. Participation and reflection!
Artists/cultural agents are
channels of reflection
Linking reflection to things, to materiality!
Participation – bottom up change?
Issues of speed and proximity

6. New new media ontology
(Lash, Beer, Hayles, etc)
Technology that goes/is/makes 'everywhere'
- picks up information
- shares it with or without participation
- makes new creative work possible
- works for both companies and artists
- reintegrates the prosthetic element
- allows for community building
- disperses potentiality (post-hegemony)
- what does it do for 'c of s'?

7. C of S → a new culture of things
‘the movement of
computation out
of the box and
into the
environment’ Augmented reality
(Hayles, 2007) Ubiquitous computing
Gadgets, gadgets..
Tools of empowerment?
The relative power
positions change..
presentation>representation
Culture of objects
(Lash & Lury '06)

8. Examples for speculation
”We can transform any space or surface into a
display using electronic devices combined with
location-based technologies, sensors,
augmented reality and innovative visual
surfaces. Furthermore, interactive surfaces are
transforming the world, people and their
activities.
It is progressively more possible – and
accessible – to “write on the world“, layering
contents, meanings, visuals and sensations that
anyone can compose, diffuse and
communicate.”
PROSUMERS?
(from fakepress.it and their presentation CRITICAL MASSES?
yesterday here)

9. Examples for speculation
PICNIC (and penguin armies, etc...)
Lots of creativity
Lack of focus on sustainability – a
trend??
Broad appeal to 'creatives'..
BUT.. creates JOY and COLLECTIVE
ENGAGEMENT
Strong on new media/technicity and
sociality
lack of sustainability

10. Examples for speculation
RADIANT COPENHAGEN
Deeply engaged, very elitarian artistic project
Creates reflection but does not engage to action
– is this a problem?
Sustainability highlighted through futurist reflection
Strong on transculturality, but lack of emotive activism

11. EDUFashion / Openwear
Research & development
Open Source fashion design
Ethical, collaborative platform
Bottom-up education experiments
Ethical economy software tool
Community building cross-cultures
Career-changing engagement
System challenge from periphery

12. (when/how/why) does it work?
direct (personal/P2P) creative action
extensive community engagement
(new media adaptation)
playfulness and unpredictability
action over theory
(but can be virtualizing and imaginary)
sustension (now)
over sustainability (future)
small steps of engagement
...?

13. Discussion