Luminous Green Retreat 2007

The retreat (or Expert Gathering) brought together people whose practice already incorporates ecological thinking as its core value. It had ambitious goals - to spawn inspiring propositions, innovative methods and scalable interventions, looking to advance the participants’ practice beyond conservation and sustainability.

During the retreat we all shared the responsibility for creating a dynamic environment of ideas and connected passions. It was up to each of the participants to design and act in the workshop as they saw fit. We all had to keep within the boundaries of the Luminous Green themes: 'change', 'communication', and 'matter', but each of us was expected to know best which issues are most pressing for us personally, as well as how we wanted to share this with others.

Early in the workshop we planned and designed the sessions together. People could propose to lead sessions, or to participate in sessions initiated by others, or they jointly designed one on the spot. The sessions had a wide range of formats - from discussions, to experiments, to presentations, to walks and expeditions on railbikes. The important thing to keep in mind was that the sessions had to remain fluid - people could come and go, depending on their level of interest.