!!  Invitation  !!

Laboratory of Visionautics „From vision to reality“

A fully funded workshop within the EU-Grundtvig programme of lifelong learning, Ref. Nr.: 2011-1-DE2-GRU13-08093
February 13th -24th, 2012 in Lehnin, near Berlin
Application deadline: January 13th

You are willing to make a change towards a more humane, sustainable, enjoyable and healthier society in your neigbourhood, your region, your country?
You don’t know what to do and how to start, you got stuck, you lack of courage, bright ideas, money, power, knowledge or contacts?

In this Laboratory of Visionautics you will experience 10 days of creative space, support, expertise, help and feedback from others, encouragement and learning in order to be able to turn your unhappiness with a situation, your vague idea or your vision into a tangible project and a real change. You will have no costs, we organize board and lodging, your travel costs will be refunded up to 200€.

For further information and application until January 13th  see http://www.visionautic.org/events

In an informal atmosphere, the education innovators introduced themselves and the work they do. This includes supporting individuals, and organizations that start new initiatives or impuls transformation processes with different focus:
- SOL, Hungary, on systemic thinking and organization development;
-  Knowmads, The Netherlands, on social entrepreneurship;
-  Embercombe, UK, on environmental awareness and change agent skills;
-  Youth Initiative Program, Sweden, on inner trasnformation and initiatives for social change;
-  Art of Monastery, Italy, on art in-residency and community-builing;
-  Plenum, Austria, on responsible leadership.

The programm of the evening included speed-dating, songs and energizers and other socializing activities and networking opportunities.

Dieser Beitrag existiert leider nur in englisch.

It seems long ago when the Visionauts Jutta, Boris and Valentina were writing the application for the EU Grundtvig Learning Partnership in January 2011. Then, faster than you would expect, the grant is won, the logistics are organized, and the gathering is already happening. On the 17th of November, the 19 partners walked in the door of K-Saloon, in Bergmannstrasse, Berlin. Here is where the Academy of Visionautics hosted for 3 days the first of seven meetings that will take place in each of the countries of the partners’ organizations.

Over a period of two years (2011-2013) the learning partnership aims to collect and reflect upon best practices on facilitating sustainable innovation and active citizenship, while creating a strong network between the organizations involved in different fields of adult education (visit the blog post “Ready for new partnerships”, if you want to know more about our partners).

Beside their diversity, the participants share the feeling that “it is my responability… …to live my call and help others to do the same…”, as Molly, from the Art of Monastery- an in-residence art project that works in the intersection between creativity, contemplation and collaboration- says. Indeed, the participants are moved by the passion for facilitating the transformation of individuals, business, and organizations in order to contribute towards a more deeply democratic, creatively self-expressive, and sustainable way to be, live and work together. They meet during the Learning Partnership to get better in what they do.

In Berlin the participants focused on getting to know each other, also facilitated by the Visionauts in this by the informal atmosphere of the organized dinners, and by bike rides in the city and to the local initiatives.

On the 17th, the meeting opened with the seeding of the intentions of each partners for the next two years: “what do we want to see growing together?”.

During the next two days, intervaled by warm ups, singings, and energizers, the participants introduced themselves by telling about their passions, their specific approaches (multisensorial learning, non violent communication, art of hosting, systemic thinking, deep ecology, learning journeys, expressive arts, empowered fundraising, journaling, etc.) their educational offer, and their burning questions. The participants were following the principle of using “stories as transformational tools” (Kanada, Embercombe).

And with the stories, the questions that are at the core of the action and of the inquiry of each organization, come to surface: “What does it mean to live in this time and what are we being called to be?” (Kanada, Embercombe); “How to sustain the process of the youngest so that they find their more autentic self and their internal trust?” (Pernilla, YIP); “How do we faciliate the unlearning process for our students so that they find intrinsic motivation and feel free to act in the lack of structure?” (Jord, Knowmads); “How can we create a new picture of the system and build concrete alternatives to the one we have now?” (Sylvia, Plenum).

Overlapping interests emerged from the circle of stories allowing an easy decision on the direction to take in the next meeting happening in Amsterdam from the 26th of February until 1st of March 2012.

On Wednesday evening, during the open event “Eat and connect”, each organization gave a short introduction to the local public and further connections have been established.

The last day of the program was dedicated to the closing ritual and final arrangments:  the participants broke arrows as a symbolic act of overcoming challenges that might arise along the way.

And now that all the arrows have been broken, we look forward to hit the goal of a partnership full of learnings and transformations!

Wie kann man aus der idealistischen Initiative „Akademie für Visionautik“ ein tragfähiges Social Business mit hohem gesellschaftlichem Impact machen?

Dieser Frage widmeten sich am Sonntag, den 29. Mai, fünf interdisziplinäre Teams im Rahmen eines Design Thinking Workshops in den Räumen der „digital service design company“ Fjord in Berlin und entwickelten 5 Prototypen. Danke an alle Beteiligten, die durch ihre Ideen dazu beigetragen haben, die Visionautik weiter voranzubringen. Hier geht es zu einem ausführlichen Artikel von Antje Berheide, die an dem Workshop teilnahm.

The Art of Transformation is a self-organized community of practice who believes that change starts from taking action, from learning by doing and by sharing knowledge between peers. Monthly, on rotating basis a team takes care of developing and organising a participative workshop on facilitation methods.

The second Lab, focused on the participants experiences and ideas about “Harvesting: how to collect and share the meaning of  (learning) experiences”.

What does harvest mean to you? When do we need start planning the harvesting? What are the methods and the tools? How to grasp the larger meaning of an experience in a group setting? How do we share our learning?

Through brainstorming and exercises, 12 facilitators, community leaders, designers, visionaries, educators, and coaches shared opinions, methods and tips to collect the meaning (the atmosphere, the lessons learned, the results) of an experience (of learning, of visioning, of sharing, of co-creation…).

We asked ourselves how to bring the harvesting of meanings to a multisensual and tactile level?

This was our proposal:

Harvesting apples with a leaf summarizing the learning of the day!
The topic of Harvesting will be further explored during the next Lab, on the 11^th of May.

If you want to participate to the Lab, send an email to aot.lab@googlemail.com or join the FaceBook group.

In February, the Academy of Visionautics applied for EU funded Learning Partnership within the Grundtvig programme of lifelong learning.

The Learning partnership’s topic is “Hosting Transformation: Best practices on facilitating sustainable innovation and active citizenship”. It will take place over a period of two years. During this time, a set of laboratories and exchange meetings will bring together some of the most inspiring and innovative European realities in the field of adult education:

-the NGO Learning Organizations for Sustainability “SOL” (Hungary)

-the association for holistic sustainable development “p l e n u m”  that brought up the pioneers of change year (Austria)

-the social entrepreneur training programme “International Youth Initiative Program” (Sweden)

-the educational centre for sustainability “Embercombe” (United Kindom)

-the entrepreneurs school “Knowmads” ( Netherlands)

-and the secular community of international artists “Art Monastery Project” (Italy).

The main mission of this EU-Learning partnership is to explore and come up with innovative solutions to the bottlenecks and challenges that changemakers face in their processes of transformation. How can we support in the best possible way active citizens along their pioneering path from the first idea to the implementation of social change?

Keep fingers crossed that we get the funding!

During ten days in January, fourteen personalities from all over Europe gathered in the Workshop From vision to reality – Laboratory on self initiative at the Academy of Visionautics in Berlin. Although coming from very different backgrounds, countries and disciplines, what they all connected was the wish to change issues that were not going well in their surroundings and to contribute to a more humane, sustainable, enjoyable and healthier society.

The Academy of Visionautics supported in finding and implementing innovative solutions

They came to the Academy of Visionautics to tackle these issues, to find innovative and creative solutions and to gather strength in order to implement their changes. What they found in the workshop was free creative space and a inspiring, artistic surrounding, workshops, coachings and expert consultings to further their projects and strengthen their personalities and all kind of group activities to share experiences, give feedback and gather confidence.

Strengthened personalities tackling challenging projects

The following examples give an impression of the participants and the range of challenges that have been worked on during the workshop:
*Emina from Bosnia, living in Sweden, is setting up a wool business for Bosnian shepherds who are burning their wool because they don’t have a market to sell it.
*Jennifer, a British activist from Carribean-Russian heritage, uses the principles  of the Earth Charter and her own experience as an ethnical minority to help youth with migration backgrounds to gather perspective and confidence.
*Mark from the Netherlands is creating a business of ecological skis produced in local self-organized units.
*Elena from Italy is setting up a car-pooling system in the polluted and jammed Rome.

Working on vision and implementation

In the first half of the workshop, the participants worked on understanding the problem and their own value systems, creating a vision and creative solutions. In the second half they worked on the strategy of implementation, gathered expertise for their projects and practised to spark others with their ideas.

Spreading the new ideas and gaining supporters

The ideas and projects were presented on a public event, the “Vision Exhibition”, that gathered interested persons, potential mentors, partners and stakeholders as well as radio, press and television.

Active citizenship to relieve societies’ pressing problems from the inside

During ten days in January, fourteen personalities from all over Europe gathered in the Workshop From vision to reality – Laboratory on self initiative at the Academy of Visionautics in Berlin. Although coming from very different backgrounds, countries and disciplines, what they all connected was the wish to change issues that were not going well in their surroundings and to contribute to a more humane, sustainable, enjoyable and healthier society.

The Academy of Visionautics supported in finding and implementing innovative solutions

They came to the Academy of Visionautics to tackle these issues, to find innovative and creative solutions and to gather strength in order to implement their changes. What they found in the workshop was free creative space and a inspiring, artistic surrounding, workshops, coachings and expert consultings to further their projects and strengthen their personalities and all kind of group activities to share experiences, give feedback and gather confidence.

Strengthened personalities tackling challenging projects

The following examples give an impression of the participants and the range of challenges that have been worked on during the workshop:
*Emina from Bosnia, living in Sweden, is setting up a wool business for Bosnian shepherds who are burning their wool because they don’t have a market to sell it.
*Jennifer, a British activist from Carribean-Russian heritage, uses the principles  of the Earth Charter and her own experience as an ethnical minority to help youth with migration backgrounds to gather perspective and confidence.
*Mark from the Netherlands is creating a business of ecological skis produced in local self-organized units.
*Elena from Italy is setting up a car-pooling system in the polluted and jammed Rome.

Working on vision and implementation

In the first half of the workshop, the participants worked on understanding the problem and their own value systems, creating a vision and creative solutions. In the second half they worked on the strategy of implementation, gathered expertise for their projects and practised to spark others with their ideas.

Spreading the new ideas and gaining supporters

The ideas and projects were presented on a public event, the “Vision Exhibition”, that gathered interested persons, potential mentors, partners and stakeholders as well as radio, press and television.

Überzeugt euch selbst! Am 24. Januar von 21.45-22.15 (8.45pm GMT) wird auf der deutschen Welle (Kurzwelle 3995 kHz oder livestream www.dw-world.de) der Bericht über den Visionautikabend gesendet. Viel Spaß dabei!

Nachtrag: Inwzischen könnt ihr den Beitrag auch hier hören: Bericht der Deutschen Welle

Außerdem ist dazu auch ein Onlineartikel erscheinen.

Martin Häuser and Aldo Berti will be guests of the Salon of Courage (Mutsalon) during the 2^nd Laboratory of Visionautics on 1 September 2010. Visionautic Salons of Courage allow insights into the emotional and professional life of experienced visionaries who will share their experiences with others to encourage visionary actions and strengthen stamina and endurance. Apart from successful visionary outcomes, they will especially emphasise on their personal journey to success. They will talk about what helped them to re-vitalise their vision to overcome and bid defiance to hard times, barriers and obstacles in order to faithfully and courageously stick to their path. Salon or Courage’s participants will get substantial information and valuable advice related to their individual challenge.

Martin Häuser, author of the book “The true visionaries of our times”, portraits visionaries worldwide. Thanks to his experience in visionary’s characteristics he will highlight and define the patterns of a typical visionary way.

Aldo Berti, healer and former opera singer, is one of these portrayed visionaries. He will share his experience of an extraordinary way, similar to Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey.

Furthermore, the Salons of Courage of the following days will be enriched by another two outstanding personalities. Madeleine Porr will allow a deep insight into her Cuban project “El Pan Alegre”. She will also contribute by a detailed description of her brave and consequent fight to push her ideas forward. Johannes Heimrath will energise us with his alert, inventive mind and unshakable will-power – the same attributes that helped him to build up various initiatives and made him one of the role models within the culture-creative movement.

The Salons of Courage are taking place during the Summer Laboratory of Visionautics in Lehnin close to Berlin. Application closing date is 30 July 2010. Furthermore, it is possible to only take part in one or more of the following evening events:

1 September 2010, 18:00, Salon of Courage with Martin Häusler and Aldo Berti

2 September 2010, 20:00, Salon of Courage with Madeleine Porr

3 September 2010, 18:00, Salon of Courage with Johannes Heimrath