‘WE CAN CHANGE THE WEATHER: 100 CASES OF CHANGEABILITY’ & PECHA KUCHA BRUSSELS #14

On Tuesday 21 September, at Recyclart¹⁾, a collection of one hundred tangible and local initiatives were published in the form of book titled ‘We can change the weather’²⁾. Part of a series called crosstalks³⁾ which aims to develop a space for interdisciplinary exchange, each case is presented as a two-page spread. This includes not only text but images, information about the author(s) or group, and various websites for further reading. FoAM & partners’ entry, #38, can be found on pages 90-91 and attends to the related notions-projects-experiments of resilience and resilients. One of the recommended websites⁴⁾ takes you to a curious and unsettling image, of two resilients perhaps, with an unexplained mathematical equation below. The book is interesting to flip through, as there is always the chance of stumbling across an arresting image or interesting title. Indeed, it was described by the editor, Marleen Wynants as a sort of street art on recycled paper. The book-launch itself was a fairly muted affair, with perhaps fifteen contributors asked to speak about their respective pieces. Although I had not been involved in the writing of the text, I prepared a short introduction. In the end, though, I was not asked to speak! Those who attended were provided with a complimentary copy of the book and invited to free drinks.

The fourteenth Pecha Kucha in Brussels followed on from the book-launch and, as with these sorts of events, provided a variety, not just of content but also of style and delivery. The full list of presenters-performers is available online⁵⁾, but the order changed from that which was planned. Notable highlights include: Allie Pasquier’s presentation on pedagogy and play, Jean-Yves Wilmot’s discussion of the working practices of his pâttiserie, and Théâtre Carbonique’s witty enactment of the difficulties of understanding and explaining environmental change. The micro-lectures were in both French and English, and took the traditional Pecha Kucha format of 20 slides, and 20 seconds for each one (resulting in talks under seven minutes long). The tagline, {creativity * conversation}, seemed rather apt.

–Thomas Jellis

some complementary personal observations: (fyi - i made an audio recording, with trains as interpunction)

Danny Venlet & Stefano Costacurta - design w/ Glassiled light de-gravitated in glas: http://www.glassiled.com/products/nl/

Sebastian Moreno Vacca - a2m, bePassive “we only do passive housing' (concept that brings back a workshop I once attended, where the premise was energy abundance within the next 20 years (isolation? forget about it! renewable energy and storage systems will be mature and running) with Swiss Dr. Ludger Hovestadt, Dr. Vera Bühlmann / ETH Zurich / CAAD - Institute for Technology in Architecture ITA (CH))

Jean-Yves Wilmot - Pâtisserie Wilmot, Mettet (grounded guy with deep love for nano. - http://www.patisserie-wilmot.be/nl/moleculaire.php

Zahraa Zawawi - cosmopolis.be urban research superpresentation and reflection: the fountain in the cirkel or roundabout, in a 'dynamic' palestinian city throughout times of harmony, violence and mayors… www.cosmopolis.be

and a ps:

CROSSTALKS' new publication is out! “We can change the weather - 100 cases of changeability” http://crosstalks.vub.ac.be/publications/changetheweather/intro.html

it contains texts by tangle-people: