Table of Contents

Luminous Green retreat 2010

At: Les contes de Salme, Vielsalm, Belgium
From: Monday 26th of July, 6PM
To: Wednesday 28th of July, 4PM

Organiser:
FoAM, Koolmijnenkaai 30-34, 1080 Brussels, Belgium
http://fo.am

Luminous Green 2010 Harvest

Memories, documentation & testimonials can be found here:

Why Luminous Green?

Luminous Green is a series of gatherings (workshops, retreats, symposia) for people who are committed to and engaged in creating a 'luminous green world'. What do we mean by that? FoAM's vision of a thriving future is firstly green - fresh, lush & flourishing. It includes humans living in symbiosis with the rest of the planet. The 'luminous' suggests 'illuminated, electrified and imaginative'. Illuminated in the sense of enlightened, where we can act from a place of considered reflection and awareness of the reality around us. Electrified as in sparkling, energetic & vigorous, as well as literally producing & consuming electricity to feed an open, connected and clean technological development. Finally, a human world becomes truly luminous & radiant by drawing upon the imagination of everyone involved.

A luminous green world is a place that FoAM is committed to cultivating, through our various activities. The gathering in which you are participating is one of these activities, inviting a diverse group of people to briefly step out of their daily maelstroms and help us look at what's around us today, as well as thinking about various paths that we could take, to make our lives more luminous - as individuals, organisations, communities & even species. We emphasize the importance of the involvement of artists, designers and other cultural creatives in transdisciplinary strategies.

What is the purpose of Luminous Green 2010?

Keeping in mind our aim to cultivate a luminous green world, this year we want to look at how to maintain flexibility and resilience in turbulent times. How do we keep our options open in the face of uncertainty? Whether environmental catastrophes, economic downturns, illnesses, miscommunication, or any other obstacles can become opportunities to increase luminosity. This ability to face the unknown by observing & absorbing, to respond, adapt and transform is what we understand as resilience.

During the retreat, we are interested in exploring ideas & techniques to help us cultivate resilience in individuals, societies and cultures. On the other hand, we'd like to dissect the concept of 'resilience' and question it from multiple perspectives.

We have designed the retreat around four main questions:

We'd like to explore these questions across different scales (from human scale to planetary scale), from perspectives of different disciplines and cultures, using the mental, manual & ephemeral skills at our disposal. In other words - we would like to stimulate a diversity of ideas, approaches and methods, to help us untangle the complexity of our present condition, in a playful and inspiring manner. Vague? Complex? Ambitious? Perhaps, but we invited you to participate, because we think you can shed light on vague things, clarify complexity & have the ability to implement ambitious plans. We thought you could help.

Event flow based on adapted hosting methods and the “U Process”

Who is participating?

Connections between participants and their FoAM contact persons

Why does FoAM organise Luminous Green?

For FoAM, Luminous Green is a way to broaden our views and question our assumptions, to be able to make our activities relevant and interesting to people. One way of achieving that is to have good documentation that we can look back on and share with people we work with. A less tangible outcome, but in a way much more fundamental, is that we hope the participants will take something away that is meaningful to their work & life. What that something is, we can never say in advance. In the past, this has included ideas for new projects, new friendships, and new directions. Others found unexpected answers to old questions or opened up new questions. Finally, we especially hope for the participants' continued contact & involvement with FoAM.