Presentation and Award received at the 2018 ATLAS T3 Conference “Being Transdisciplinary”

In June 2018, I was invited as guest speaker (with a presentation on “Artful Sustainability in Transdisciplinary Spaces of Possibility”) and moderated a Round-Table (on “Being Transdisciplinary in Sustainability Studies and Actions”) at the 2018 ATLAS T3 (Transdisciplinary, Transnational, Transcultural) International Conference “Being Transdisciplinary”, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Rumania.
The conference gathered many inspiring insights from international transdisciplinary researchers, including philosophers, artists, religious and spiritual scholars, diplomats, engineers, social scientists, etc., who find inspiration in the works of Basarab Nicolescu and of other theoreticians of transdisciplinarity.

Video of my presentation:

 

At that conference, I was also most honored to receive the Basarab Nicolescu Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering Award 2018, awarded by the Academy for Transdisciplinary Learning and Advanced Studies (ATLAS).
It was not merely an academically and intellectually  important recognition, but also a much more deeply felt joy to receive this strong symbolic gesture coming from the members of the ATLAS and most especially from Basarab Nicolescu himself, whose axioms of transdisciplinarity, together with Edgar Morin’s qualitative complexity, have become cornerstones of not just my academic work but my thinking and practice in general over the past 9-10 years.

Dr. Sacha Kagan being handed the 2018 Basarab Nicolescu Award. Prof. Dr. Raymond Yeh is handing the award.

 

 

 

 

 

Find out more at the Conference Website: http://www.atlas-conference.org/

Find more videos from the conference here: Youtube Channel of the CIRET

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Video from lecture: “Cultures of Sustainability: Transdisciplinary Research Cultures” (2014)

I’ll be posting over the next couple of days a few posts with videos from different talks I gave. I start here with an older video from 2014 that I just re-uploaded now. I am re-uploading this video because it disappeared from the website of Telemark University College already a while ago, so that people lost access.

‘Cultures of sustainability: transdisciplinary research cultures’. Keynote by Dr. Sacha Kagan at the international Symposium: “Cultures of Sustainability in the Age of Climate Crisis”. (Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Telemark University College, Bø, Norway, 13th–15th May 2014). The event was part of the European COST Action “Investigating Cultural Sustainability”.

The video URL on Youtube is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljdIIQn-JyM

Overview of Sacha Kagan’s professional activities in 2017 and early 2018

Please find here a chronological overview of my professional activities (besides my daily university work, i.e. my ongoing research in Hannover for the “SaM” project (“The City as Space of Possibility”) and teaching at the Leuphana University in Lüneburg, which both ended in February 2018) in 2017 and until April 2018:

• In Oslo, Norway, in January 2017, I was invited by Karen O’Brien and her team, as Guest Speaker: “Art & Sustainability: Culture of Complexity and Artful Sustainability”, at the “AdaptationCONNECTS project kick-off meeting: Lysebu Workshop”.

• In Berlin in March 2017, I was invited  as Guest Panelist to a panel discussion entitled “Reduction or Reform: Conflict and opportunity for a modern society”, which was part of the “DeLight Sustainable Light-Art Festival”.

• In Hannover in May 2017, I was invited  as  Guest Panelist to a panel discussion in German language: “Stadt. Vielfalt. Entwicklung”, as part of an event by the German Commission of the UNESCO: “14. Konsultation der Bundesweiten Koalition Kulturelle Vielfalt. Deutsche UNESCO Kommission.” the event was held at Kulturzentrum Pavillon.

• In Hannover, also in May 2017 (and as part of the “SaM” project, i.e. the “City as Space of Possibilities” research project), I gave a workshop entitled “Village Triangles (systems thinking & qualitative-complexity games)”, within the workshop series on “Positiver Aktionismus” organized by “Das Wundersame Aktionsbündnis der Tante Trottoir / Theater an der Glocksee”.

• On the Island of Vilm (Germany) in June 2017, I was invited to give a talk (in German) on the theme of “Forschung statt Vermittlung” (Research instead of Mediation), at the “Auftaktworkshop: Neue Ansichten! Kunst – Kultur – Wissenschaft – Nachhaltigkeitspolitik im Dialog.” This was part of an artists residency program by the Projektbüro Friedrich von Borries, Umweltbundesamt & Bundesamt für Naturschutz.

• In Berlin in July 2017, I curated again (for the second time) the “Xplore Symposium (Shifting Backstages and Frontlines of Embodiment)” for its second edition, organized within the Xplore Festival Berlin. Besides curating the symposium as a whole, I also gave a lecture + workshop myself at the Symposium, entitled “BDSM Sagacity: embodying complexity”.

• In Athens (Greece) in August-September 2017, I coordinated the Sociology of the Arts Research Network (ESA RN2) sessions (130 papers), at the 13th Conference of the European Sociological Association, entitled “(Un)Making Europe: Capitalism, Solidarities, Subjectivities” . (I was the chair of ESA RN2 from 2015 to 2017.) During the ESA conference, I chaired 4 sessions, and contributed 2 Papers presentations: “City as Space of Possibility – Alternative and Artistic Initiatives Towards Urban Sustainability” (together with Volker Kirchberg) + “BDSM as a playful and artful way to experience several realities and complexity at the ‘Xplore Berlin’ festival of arts, sex and bodywork” (together with Regine Herbrik).  The ESA Conference was held at Panteion University + Harokopio University.

• At my home university in Lüneburg, in September 2017, I gave a workshop (“Trans-Place-Making: A ‘walking with video’ workshop”) as part of the “International Transdisciplinarity Conference: Transdisciplinary Research and Education – Intercultural Endeavours”, organized by td-net & the Leuphana University Lüneburg, under the coordination of Ulli Vilsmaier.

• In Nancy (France), also in September 2017, I contributed a paper (together with my colleagues Ursula Weisenfeld and Antoniya Hauerwaas, from the SaM project team) entitled “Assessing and enhancing the potential of design thinking for sustainability: the case of a Sustainability Jam in Hanover”, at the 2^nd Organizational Creativity and Sustainability International Conference (ARTEMOCC), organized by the Nancy Business School on the ARTEM Campus.
• In Grenoble (France), still in September 2017, I gave an invited presentation on “Urban Spaces of possibility: the case of Hanover (Germany)” (based on the SaM research project), at an international congress entitled: “Creative Mobilities International Forum”, organized by “Culture et Développement”.

• In Geneva (Switzerland) in October 2017, I was invited as Guest Speaker, on “Urban spaces of possibility and imaginaries of sustainability”, as part of “The Anthropocene Atlas of Geneva (TAAG) International Symposium”, organized at the HEAD-Genève/Geneva School of Art and Design. (I am also a member of the advisory committee of the TAAG research project)

• In Sao Joao del Rei (Brazil), also in October 2017, I was invited as Keynote Speaker (“Art in urban Spaces of Possibility for Sustainability Transformation”), at the “Art, Urbanity & Sustainability International Symposium (SIAUS)” at the Federal University of Sao Joao del Rei. I also gave a workshop (“Village Triangles” – a corporeal game to learn systems thinking and qualitative complexity) at the “PIPAUS Postgraduate Program in Arts, Urbanities and Sustainability”.

• In Hannover, in November 2017, I gave a guest lecture (“Sustainability Research, Culture and Music”) at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover.

• Still in Hannover and in November 2017,  I gave a workshop, together with Antoniya Hauerwaas, entitled “Spielerisch Lernen für Nachhaltigkeitsprojekte durch Systems- & Design Thinking”, at the 5^th Utopianale Film Festival, held at Freizeitheim Linden. Our workshop was part of the SaM research project.

• In Cape Coast (Ghana), in March 2018, I was invited to give a guest lecture on “discourses on culture and sustainability” and two workshops on applied sensory ethnography (walking with video) and on systems thinking games, at the SDG Graduate School “Performing Sustainability. Cultures and Development in West Africa” (which is DAAD-funded and organized by the Hildesheim University). The event was held at the University of Cape Coast.

• In Geneva (Switzerland) in March 2018, I was a guest speaker (“Artful Sustainability: The Artistic Turn in Sustainability Research”) at the “Along Ecological Lines” Symposium (held at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève); and a participant  at the “Along Ecological Lines” workshop  on environmentally engaged art, held in Zurich by Barnaby Drabble of the Ecole Cantonale d’Art du Valais, with the ETH Zurich.

• In the first half of 2018, I finalized my documentary film Hanother: Urbane Möglichkeitsräume für nachhaltige Stadtentwicklung (original German language version). The English version (Hanother: Urban spaces of possibilities for sustainable futures) is still in preparation (i.e. English subtitles) and will be available in the late summer 2018. Preview versions of the German orginal version were showed on February 28th 2018 at the ‘Konferenzwoche’ of Leuphana University Lüneburg, and on April 21st at the Zukunftswerkstatt Ihme-Zentrum and again at Platzprojekt, both in Hannover. The finished film has not yet had its Premiere, neither in German nor in English version. For more information about the film HANOTHER and updates about future shows of the film, see especially  http://www.facebook.com/hanother.film (most up-to-date) ; or else http://hanother.wordpress.com (less often updated).

MOOC videos (from 2015) are online again

I just noticed by ‘accident’ that my MOOC videos from 2015 are online again, i.e. the 6 video-clips (2 series of 3) where I am talking:

• On this page you can find my 3 videos about arts organizations and sustainability (as well as several great videos by other colleagues, e.g. Nishant Shah on co-creation).
• On this page you can find my 3 videos about shaping spaces of possibility at arts organizations (as well as several other videos by e.g. experts in cultural marketing).

These videos were part of a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) “Managing the Arts: Marketing for Cultural Organizations” at Leuphana University Lüneburg, for the Goethe Institute, which was developed in 2014-2015, took place over 14 weeks in 2015, and again in 2016 with new elements and a new theme.

I was involved at that MOOC as member of the scientific coordination team and as online lecturer.  The project leader was Nishant Shah. Our MOOC was attended by about 8000 online students in 2015, had a very high retention rate of the students across the 14 weeks (unlike many other MOOCS), and was awarded with the Comenius-EduMedia-Seal 2015.

More details and resources (including more videos by great colleagues we selected back then!) on the website of the Goethe Institute: https://www.goethe.de/en/uun/auf/dsk/mooc.html

Further information:

• 2016 MOOC: http://digital.leuphana.com/courses/managing-the-arts-2016/
• 2015 MOOC: http://digital.leuphana.com/courses/managing-the-arts-2015/

Overview of (and online resources from) my activities in September-November 2016

(Sorry, this was another semester without enough time to write more frequent, detailed and/or personal posts…) Please find here a chronological overview of my public activities (besides my daily university work, i.e. the ongoing research in Hannover for the “SaM” project (“The City as Space of Possibility”) and the teaching in Lüneburg) in September and November 2016:

• September 5 to 7, Museu Municipal de Espinho (Portugal): I coordinated together with Nancy Duxbury, the CES (Center of Social Studies, University of Coimbra) and ESA RN2 (Research Network Sociology of the Arts, European Sociological Association) Summer School “Artistic and other Creative Practices as Drivers for Urban Resilience”. The core team of the summer school was also constituted of: David Haley (Manchester Metropolitan University), Nathalie Blanc (LADYSS, UMR 7533 CNRS) and Verena Holz (Leuphana Universität Lüneburg). More information: on the summer school website
• September 8 to 10, University of Porto (Portugal): I chaired and coordinated together with Paula Guerra (University of Porto) the 9th Midterm Conference of the Research Network Sociology of the Arts at the European Sociological Association (ESA RN2): “Arts And Creativity: Working on Identity and Difference”. More information: on the conference website ; programme ; book of abstracts
• September 28, Gängeviertel, Hamburg: Invited speaker at “Art and Culture Fostering Urban Futures” (Podiumsdiskussion) as part of URBANIZE!
 INTERNATIONALES FESTIVAL FÜR URBANE ERKUNDUNGEN: “URBANI7E!
 Housing the Many – Stadt der Vielen”. More info here
• November 3, Institut d’Estudis Catalans / Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain): Keynote Speaker: “Artful Sustainability: The artistic turn in sustainability science”, as part of “Realizing Potentials: conversations and experiments at the frontier of art-based sustainability” (flyer)
• November 11, University of Bern (Switzerland): Invited paper: “The Arts and the Cultural Dimension in Transdisciplinary Sustainability Research: Towards Artful Sustainability”, as part of the Workshop ‘Cultural Dimensions of Sustainability’ (webpage)
• November 16, University of Exeter (UK): Paper presentation: “Emergence, Complexity, Design, Planning, Control – Approaching issues of emergence in urban sustainable development through the lens of qualitative complexity”, at “Emergent Culture”: 6th midterm Conference of the European Sociological Association’s Research Network Sociology of Culture (ESA RN7) – conference website
• November 25, CCA (Center for Contemporary Art), NTU (Nanyang Technological University), Singapore: Guest speaker: “Imaginaries of Sustainability, Critical Imagination and Urban Spaces of Possibility”, at the conference: “The Impossibility of Mapping (Urban Asia)”, as part of NTU CCA Ideas Fest 2016-2017 – event webpage