5 Themes

Art, Ecology & Education -
Input and Impulses for Life-Sustaining Cultures

The Basis of our work - Weaving together five themes:

1. Community-ability
2. Music, Dance and Sustainable Cultures
3. Transformative Learning
4. Holistic Science / Systems Thinking
5. Permaculture

This is where we research and share...

1. Community-ability

Humans are an integral and inseparable part of the living dynamic Earth system. We have co-evolved with plants, animals, microorganisms, rivers, mountains, forests.
We are an integral part of an Earth Community, and thus have an intimate and interdependent relationship with every being, every element within this system. As a part of the greater whole we humans cannot achieve a healthy, happy and sustainable life if we undermine the integrity of this Community.
For the major part of the short history of our species, humans have been conscious of being embedded in a living system and have evolved different cultures, well adapted to their ecosystem.
The globalizing industrial system that now dominates the world is based on the mistaken belief that human wellbeing can be attained by exploiting the rest of the Earth Community. This unviable system is now in crisis. Human transformation to a new mode of being is required. The main source of inspiration is the Earth herself, as well as cultural traditions that reflect respect and equity of the every living being.

We intend to help individuals to integrate this knowledge and to develop skills and relationships that enable them to build up their local community and economy in tight relationship with the specific ecosystem they are living in.

2. Music, Dance and Sustainable Cultures

We support, foster and promote cultural diversity in music and dance as fundamental ingredients of healthy, lively and sustainable communities.
We see music and dance as means of communication, as expressions of interdependency and connectedness, as links to a spiritual, integrated understanding of the world, and as roots for community building.
To sum it up: Music and Dance can be a celebration of life in all its complexity.
In most sustainable cultures we find a rich tradition of oral story telling, music and dance that serves as the main communicator of how people relate to the place/the world in which they live. Complexity of rhythm, interdependence, improvisation and spontaneity, creativity – all these qualities are likely to become integral qualities of the people who are immersed in such a culture.

3. Transformative Learning

Transformative learning involves experiencing a deep, structural shift in the basic premises of thought, feelings, and actions. It is a shift of consciousness that dramatically and irreversibly alters our way of being in the world. Such a shift involves our understanding of ourselves and our self-locations; our relationships with other humans and with the natural world; our understanding of relations of power in interlocking structures of class, race and gender; our body awareness, our visions of alternative approaches to living; and our sense of possibilities for social justice and peace and personal joy.

4. Holistic Science / Systems Thinking

Let’s face it, the universe is messy. It is nonlinear, turbulent, and chaotic. It is dynamic. It spends its time in transient behaviour on its way to somewhere else, not in mathematically neat equilibria. It self-organizes and evolves. It creates diversity, not uniformity. That’s what makes the world interesting, that’s what makes it beautiful, and that’s what makes it work.

The new way of looking at reality is based on the realization that all phenomena - physical, biological, psychological, social and cultural - are basically connected with each other and dependend from each other.

Holistic Science and Systems Thinking as we are seeing and integrating it, could be described as branches or developments of science that do not aim at a complete understanding and mastery of nature, but rather strive for a genuine participation with nature.
They provide knowledge and insight into the way how life sustains itself and develops and thus offer the opportunity to develop an ‚ecological literacy’, which we consider a crucial skill for the survival of humanity in the coming decades.

Perceiving the world in a holistic or systemic way (we use these terms synonymously) means to be conscious the same dynamics and patterns of change are to be found universally and that on all scales of life we find systems nesting within systems.
Perceiving in such a way, man experiences himself as embedded in the network of life and thus as a part of and dependend from the Earth, which functions as a self-regulating living system / living organism. This understanding of being an integral part of the whole can be comprehended intellectually, as well as intuitively. We consider it necessary to integrate these two aspects of understanding, if we want to learn how to live sustainably. Also we know from our experience that the intuitive comprehension of us being embedded in the processes of nature creates a consciousness which hightens our quality of life significantly.

For an intuitive comprehension it is important to realize that the abilities of our conscious thinking are limited and that it is not possible for our intellectual understanding to grasp the complexity of life. However, we do have a possibility to understand and realize in an intuitive way. Such an experience is in its depth and by its nature unspeakable / impossible to express. Being conscious about the intuitive comprehension of the world / the universe as 'unity' spiritual masters call 'enlightenment'. Most of us have already experienced such moments (intense experiences with nature etc., maybe as a child - the feeling of 'being one with all things'), but did not make ourselves aware of them.

The development of a holistic / integral world view is further being supported by the emotional and physical connection to a place / to the earth and its natural processes. To regard the human being in a holistic / integral way means to integrate the connections between the intellectual, physical, emotional and spiritual levels, as well as his connections to the physical and social environment.

5. Permaculture

Permaculture is based on observation of nature, how life evolves, organizes and sustains itself. From this process it derives design principles and tools which one can apply to any kind of system, let it be a garden, a farm, a career or a social system. It is a broad-based and holistic approach that has many applications to all aspects of life. The permaculture journey begins with ethics and design principles and moves through the key domains required to create a sustainable culture.

more on permaculture...