Workshop / Discussion
At Foyer Hub 1

The ground is shifting, the landscape is changing and new migratory patterns are on the rise. As the effects of austerity are felt, the necessity to dramatically rethink the social and geo-spatial infrastructure that underpins our everyday existence has never been so vital – the hacking and protocolisation of one’s lifestyle could in fact point to an entirely new way of existing in the world.

Emerging from a series of distributed conversations, clandestine working groups and conferences that have taken place over the past two years, a growing network loosely framed under the alias INFRA_LIFE has emerged. As a part of that network, unMonastery has scheduled this session with a view to bringing together those involved to substantially build on what has gone before.

As a starting point, session participants will be invited to examine and project what is anticipated in the next 1 to 5 years within their personal, political and networked spheres - with a view to temporarily aligning perspectives and intent, so that in conversation we can effectively prototype new forms.

From this point, the working group will focus on the culture being built, the facilities being created and how we might collectively advance its development – broadly seeking to collectively answer a set of questions to which future instability gives rise.

How can we re-appropriate existing infrastructure, services and institutions to meet our shared goals, and what will we have to develop ourselves from the ground up?; What are the existing key geographical flashpoints for effectively re-framing the narratives of the next decades?; What are the necessary safeguards required for preventing a rerun of past?

With Noel Hatch
Noel Hatch develops and manages research and design programmes for public services, think tanks and cultural organisations to better involve communities and transform services. He is passionate about social design, ethnographic research and systems change. Noel has co-founded various award-winning civic innovation and social design programmes, including Transformed by You, Creative Campaigns Camp and the Kent MBA Programme. Within European Alternatives, he runs the Making a Living, London Transeuropa Festival, Hack (y)Our Borders, Mapping the Civic Economy programmes. He is currently a Hub Launchpad Scholar, RSA Fellow and writer for New Start Mag.