The Free Radicals CLASH took place on
November 20th 2009 at the London College of Fashion. Over 50 people
attended the event.
The focus of the CLASH was to give attendees a first hand experience
of the collaborative process, and to share the work and process to
date with other universities in order to encourage their own social
innovation.
News of exciting projects emanating from Free Radicals and
Clash will be posted here in early 2010.
Gallery
Evaluation images. Photographs by Jonathan Sanderson
Illustrative Evaluation from CLASH A sketchbook of images drawn by Ken Cox
A general representation of the day's proceedings Photographs by Alex McGuire
1) Badge
poetry
When signing in, we asked attendees to write on their badge a poem or philosophy
which encapsulated their view of the world. Here is a selection of the responses.
We
are all just pissing in the wind.
and we live in unnatural times; and we must make them natural again
My pink half of the drainpipe (separates me from you)
I don’t need money
Today I will walk in hours
This is it
People under pressure, I hope it's gonna be alright
Be the change you want to see
Much madness is divinest sense to the discerning eye
Lots of people with small ideas = big change
Why of the sheep do you not learn peace? Because
I don’t want
you to shear my fleece
They say time changes everything but it's the people that need
to change
When you're absolute beginners it's a panoramic view
If I had more time, I'd have written a shorter letter
Oh lord wont you buy me a Mercedes Benz
Is that all there is? - Peggy Lee '69
Better to lights on candle than to curse the darkness
Shine, just let it shine
Forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that's
how the light gets in.
Hot air for a cool breeze? Cold comfort for change?
2) Quotes for the day
A selection of quotes that were made by attendees as the day unfolded.
What do we need to do to foster more optimism
How can we feed the world safely, sustainably and equally and what
part can education play in this ?
Some students can out think their teachers, how can we empower them.
What’s a university for nowadays ?
Should the best ideas belong to the world and not be patented ?
Carolyn Steel
Use food as a collaborative conceptual and practical design tool to
address the problem of human dwelling.
Aoife Ludlow
A text message tax to raise funds for environmental research.
Hilary Sutcliffe
A network “community of countries” share how new technologies
can best work for us all – people and the environment.
Jeremy Till
The bank of ideas.
Valerie Fitton-Kane
Need a way to get people in developed countries to care about Climate
Change and take action even thought they are not strongly feeling
the impacts yet… haven’t quite conceived of how yet…
Angela Woods
Untap the cast reserves of energy, skill and commitment in Universities.
All staff and students of universities should be encouraged/required
to work for one day per year (at best!) in not for profit organisations,
contributing to existing solutions for the world’s problems.
Clare Brass
Can something as simple as fun help people change their behaviour.
Emilia Melville
Use games to educate and empower people to engage in sensible energy
discussions.
Tony Ryan
Returning to a sunshine driven economy.
Deepa Patel
“How to die well!” Introducing death as a subject in the
school curriculum.
Susan Benn
Introducing a sensory approach to learning across the secondary school
curriculum – supported by scientific evidence.
Simonetta Carbonaro
Shifting from a culture of economy to an economy of culture.
Trish Belford
Better use of empty spaces, containers, buildings. Engage with people
and smile.
Kathleen Rogers
Delivering water dousing workshops in schools and for ‘scientists’ – to
introduce concepts of intuitive modelling and draw attention to subtle
connections.
Sandy Black
Mindfulness of mindlessness
Pete Ferris
How can we ensure that a burgeoning world population can be fed safely,
equitably and sustainably.
Caroline Coates
My idea is we dedicate a day a year to eating less and wasting less,
and we give 50% of each individual saving, donate it to the developing
world as a food money bank.
Helen Storey
’12 Great Minds’? The globalisation of Free Radicals
Catherine Alexander
To Represent the effects of draining trans-boundary rivers across time/space
so as to make water conservation a common project.
Francis McGlone
Fathom the neuro-basis of belief systems.
David Goldsmith
Form follows faction.
Bob Young
How to make social far futures credible near futures!
Phil Sams
Liberate the power of students: Each university to have an annual “open
space” social project.
Victoria Hume
A device for counteracting the politics of fear – fear of terrorism
breeding war, fear of disease breeding anti-immunity etc. Device could
be a thing/game or something more abstract/discursive.
Joe Smith
A global diary of the human story of environmental change 2010 – 2020.
www.open.ac.uk/creativeclimate
Duncan Goose
Nets for nets – direct profit from the sale of women’s
stocking to fund mosquito nets for kids.
Paul Tobin
James Tobin’s “Tobin Tax” to alleviate global poverty.
John McLachlan
Diligence is more important than brilliance.
Martyn Ware
“World Cultural Observatory” To create a global database
of indigenous people’s sound recordings and preserve the sound
ecology of the people of earth.
Richard Jones
We need a positive vision of a sunshine powered future, so people don’t
think we’re going back to a sunshine constrained past.
Celia Spouncer
Intergenerational skill sharing – ‘Runner Beans to Playstations’ – join
the void…
