Conference Theme: Future Nature, Future Culture[s]

The 2013 conference theme: “Future Nature, Future Culture[s]” aims to challenge our expectations of Earth, provoke our understanding of nature and inspire our actions for a sustainable future. 

What we will be calling nature in 20, 50 or 100 years? How we will live in the future? What do we foresee for the future of human kind? How could creativity help us shape a society of understanding and interconnectedness? What role could transdisciplinary thought and action play in reimaging a sustainable future? Will there be a future with peaceful knowledgeable societies and a rich variety of cultures? What can first nation knowledge teach us about our future? There are infinite questions and limited answers, but we have the opportunity to use our intelligence and creativity to make positive changes. 

Balance-Unbalance asks us to consider what we want for ourselves, our families, our friends, and for the future of humankind. This complex universe, vastly unknown, has been revealing that all is interconnected. Timothy Morton states that everything is connected into a vast, intertangling “mesh” that flows through all dimensions of life. No person, no animal, no object or idea can exist independently. Our limited knowledge of life can be expanded, but to do so we need better ways to understand each other. This includes a deeper awareness of how different human societies can comprehend cultural differences and synergies. There is a dramatic need for a paradigm shift and we need to act now if we are going to survive as a species. 

We want to inspire explorations of how artists can participate in this major challenge of our ecological crisis. We need to use creative tools and transdisciplinary action to create perceptual, intellectual and pragmatic changes. We want to discuss our proposals for the future from a diversity of cultural perspectives and socio-economic situations with open minds. 

Balance-Unbalance seeks to bring artists together with scientists, economists, philosophers, politicians, sociologists, engineers, management and policy experts with the intent of harnessing creative thinking to facilitate a paradigm shift for a sustainable future. This future is not an indulgent utopia we desire, but a matter of survival.

Header Image: Floating Land 2011 - Ship of Fools - James Muller & Kris Martin - Photographer: Raoul Slater