RCE North East-2012

rce_proj_title
Submitted by RCEcaspar.hewett on Mon, 2012-08-20 00:00
1. General Information
Contact Name(s): 
Ben Holden
Organizational Affiliation : 
Sentient Cities
Role in the project: 
Director
E-Mail Address(es): 
ben.p.holden@gmail.com
Project-relevant information: 
www.sentientcities.org
2. Project Information
1. Project title: 
The Academy for Possible Futures
2. Project Description: 
The Academy for Possible Futures is a practice based learning environment which will attempt to rejuvenate the local economy through the creation of the kinds of jobs which will help bring us closer to an ecologically sustainable culture.
These jobs will include , micro renewable engineering projects, ecological design and manufacture (beginning with aquaponics greenhouses), film making workshops and public debates, web-development and digital design (creation of ecological design tools), scientific research and arts collaborations, educational workshops and arts interventions.
The workshop will be home to the Sentient Cities project whilst being open to other organisations and individuals, beginning locally but with a view to becoming an international place of learning for an ecologically sustainable future.
3. Project Status: 
In Planning
4. Key Words
Key Words: 
Biodiversity
5. Project categories
Project categories: 
Education
Research
Awareness building
Influencing policy processes
Networking and partnership development
6. Expected outcomes:: 
The project aims to generate a qaulitative difference to the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in terms of ecological sustainability and social renewal (i.e. carbon emmissions decreased, energy usage decrease, creation of a small number of jobs within the first five years). The Academy for Possible Futures also aims to co-create a sense of inspiration and hope on a wide scale within the city (we are aiming to animate, inspire and involve 13% of the city's population in the shift to a better future by the year 2017).
7. Duration of the Project:: 
01/05/2012 - 01/05/2017 (Including planning and preproduction)
3. Project Leadership & Vision
8. Project coordination (e.g. teams): 
Directors - Ben Holden and John Whitehead
Supporters and Mentors: Barbara Adam, Glenn Davidson, Andy Goldring
Media and Communications: Fleetfoot Studios
9. Leadership structure
a. Administration: 
5
b. Transactional: 
1
c. Transformational: 
4
4. Project results
10. Project results : 
What are the current results of the project in terms of Outcomes:
Creation of a education toolkit (physical and digital for whole systems and ecological design)
Aquaponics Greenhouse / Transformative Learning Environment that can provide the core Sentient Cities team with fish, mushrooms, fruit and vegetables – a good portion of their diet.
Space and facilities for local ecological businesses to flourish in their early stages. These will be in the fields of micro renewables, urban agriculture, arts practice, education, film and media and others which cannot presently be predicted.
11. Contribution to reforms and innovations: 
Project is in the planning stage, but aims to involve policy makers on a regional scale in Think Tanks and workshops.
13.Core Partners: 
(who are the main partners of your project?) John Whitehead (Sustainable World and New Territories) Ben Holden (Fleetfoot Studios)
5. Partnership and networking
14. Project Network
a. Information network: 
1
b. Knowledge network: 
3
c. Innovation network: 
6
6. Participation
15. Type of involvement: 
People.
Both core partners are involved in planning, facilitation and implementation of the project's constituent elements which involve working with a number of local partners, as well as mentors and funders on the international scale.

16. Participation opportunities
a. Informational participation: 
2
b. Consultation participation: 
2
c. Decision influencing participation : 
6
7. Education & Learning
17. Educational activities: 
Creative Communications workshops (face to face and digital communication techniques including Open Space workshops, social media and filmmaking.

Live Labs workshops (deep exploration workshops taking influence from Phenomenology, Process Oriented Psychology)

Ecological Design workshops (thinking in systems and eco design, inspired by the Centre for EcoLiteracy and Permaculture)
18. Learning activities: 
Learning is primarily practice based, centred around a specific inspirational projects such as the design and build of a closed loop, aquaponic vertical garden.

Practical activites are interspered with sessions for reflection which are focused around facilitating and encourging participants to think in systems and design for pattern (i.e. how the knowledge can be applied to other problems)
19. Educational activities
a. Theory: 
1
b. Discussion: 
2
c. Interactive and Multidimensional "action oriented education": 
7
8. Research Integration
20. Research & Development (R&D): 
All activites are considered an experiment in figuring out how to animate, inspire and involve a critical mass of the city's population in the transition to an ecologically sustainable future. This involves large scale digital media projects and smaller interventions and workshops (some of which are described above).
21. Research partners: 
No formal research partners are part of this project. However, several professors from Newcastle University's architecture deparment and 'Culture Lab' have expressed a strong interest in collaborating.
22. Description of research
a. Disciplinary: 
1
b. Interdisciplinary: 
2
c. Transdisciplinary: 
7
Type: 
Project Reports
Country: 
United Kingdom
Region: 
Europe
Community: 
SCP,Livelihood and Well-being
Issue: 
Transformitive Learning
Country: 
United Kingdom