Luminous Green

Reflecting on the role of the arts, design and technology in an environment of turbulence, Luminous Green is a series of gatherings about a human world that is enlightened, imaginative, electrified and most importantly – living in a fertile symbiosis with the rest of the planet. The series was initiated in 2006 by FoAM in Brussels, with a call to the creative sector to enrich the public debate around environmental sustainability, ethical living and eco-design. Discussions about these topics tend to revolve around mitigating the effects of climate change, carbon emissions, or terrorism. With Luminous Green, we want to broaden the topic, looking at preparing for and adapting to a life in turbulent social, economic and environmental conditions.

Luminous Green provides an opportunity for artists and designers to become proactive in these discussions and truly become the engaged avant garde that many claim to be. From the position of respected discussion partners, we can work together with other sectors to design our way out of the current mess. We don’t expect everyone to agree with each other, but a respectful questioning of each other’s practices is a healthy thing – it heals arrogance, isolationism and xenophobia. With this in mind, we have designed the Luminous Green workshop to enable artists and designers to put their skills into practice, as well as learn new approaches and visions, through discussion and collaboration with dedicated practitioners from a variety of other fields.

The series is envisaged to promote transdisciplinary discussions and collaborations between the creatives, industries, academia, grassroots initiatives, business and policy leaders. Luminous Green brings together people whose practice incorporates ecological thinking as its core value, or as a major concern. The objective of Luminous Green is to spawn inspiring propositions, innovative methods and scalable interventions, looking to advance participants’ practice beyond conservation and sustainability. Using novel facilitation techniques based on OST (Open Space Technology) and ARG (Alternate Reality Gaming), Luminous Green encourages participation, interaction and commitment between everyone involved.

• http://lib.fo.am/luminous/
• http://luminousgreen.org