Livable Futures cultivates creative responses to unpredictability and crisis on a planet in need.

Livability instead of sustainability emphasizes social justice and an ecological ethics recentering who survives and who gets to thrive in our communities—human, biological, and artificial.

Resisting dominant narratives of apocalypse, the projects of Livable Futures foster intention and support participants finding ways into action and well-being. The tactics we offer come directly from the intrinsic practices of artists and make the leap of assuming that art matters and that creativity is a serious and meaningful response to crisis.

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The often-told story of Pilgrims and the ‘First Thanksgiving’ with the Wampanoag tribe in 1621 is a harmful historical fiction and erasure of Native American experience and voices. This Thanksgiving, let’s reflect on and uplift Nat
“There is no single, final solution to climate change. Rather, there are countless processes that we repeat, reiterate, begin again, to which we return.” -Climate Gathering #ClimateGathering #ArtistsForChange #FeelingIntoAction #livable
“Sense what remembering feels like. Can you send all that you know now back to that younger self? What messages are your ancestors sending you right now?” Collage, dance, write, sing and create a message to share -Climate Gathering
“Each repetition is also an opportunity to do it differently. Notice where you observe cycles, repeated processes, and endings that are also beginnings in the world around you” -Climate Gathering #ClimateGathering #ArtistsForChange #Fee
Spend a minute or two simply holding #climatecrisis in your awareness. Notice what you notice. Share in the comments or on your own social media feeds #ClimateGathering #artistsforchange #FeelingIntoAction #LivableFutures #TogetherForOurPlanet #Cli
The scientific data and the bad news are important to face. We are in a crisis. But at the same time, the rhetoric of doom and gloom can leave us feeling paralyzed, afraid, and powerless. In turning toward my fears, I also make the leap of assuming t
Turning towards climate crisis Tightening with pressure Softening into the magnitude of the issues Seeking ground #ClimateGathering #ArtistsForChange #FeelingIntoAction #LivableFutures #StrongForOurPlaner #ClimateAction #zerowaste
Take time to dwell with climate change today as the UN Climate Talks #COP29 unfold. Consider googling COP29 and see what’s happening and what’s not happening. Give the activists present at the talks your solidarity through your attention

Idea Archives

Blog
Learning from Pawpaw to Live in Diaspora
Learning from Pawpaw to Live in Diaspora

The pawpaw, Ohio’s tropical fruit tree, grows in the understory along the Olentangy River, but feels out of place. Its broad leaves hide fist-sized fruits, like little green mangos that camouflage at the tops of flimsy trunks. The best way to find them is to give the trees a gentle shake.

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Reflective Visual Journaling
Reflective Visual Journaling

What is a visual journal and how might this type of journaling open possibilities for reflecting and documenting our experiences differently? Visual journaling is a form of journaling that combines visual and text-based mark making. It opens the possibilities for creatively processing experiences through arts-based ways of knowing and doing.

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Mapping the Unseen
Mapping the Unseen

Think of a space that is typically invisible or overlooked, like reified borders, redlined neighborhoods, landmarks removed and covered over by colonial infrastructures, lava tubes, or subterranean waterways. Call this hidden space into being, ideally in a non-2D, non-visual way. How might you represent a map of this space through movement, generational (and) body memory, sound, breath, texture, physical and/or emotional feelings, or narrative and storytelling? 

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Toward an Expansive Solitude
Toward an Expansive Solitude

A common myth about writing: It’s a solitary art. But I’ve never been very good at writing alone and while the image of the lone writer in a secluded cabin might be romantic, it’s appeal starts and stops in my imagination. Functionally, writing is always an act of reaching outward: to the anticipated reader, a future self, a time unknown. I write because I’m trying to understand the world, what I owe it, and how to love it.

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What is the palpable sense of feral fringe?
What is the palpable sense of feral fringe?

my process often feels like a wandering-wondering mode not led by a concrete intention, but more out of little impulses and curiosities. via inviting pores, pauses, porosity and permeability in human actions, my practice asks: how may human move with and to be moved by the more-than-human world where livable actions such as deep listening, entangled agency, symbiotic relations, and odd kinship are already implicated in their dailiness? how do human become with, participating in the livable relations happening in the more-than-human world which we are a part of?

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SEEDS: An Approach to Earth-Centered Design Education
SEEDS: An Approach to Earth-Centered Design Education

 SEEDS is a project that stands for Social and Environmental Exercises for Design Beyond Sustainability. I learned from working with Norah in Livable Futures that sustainability too often means sustaining extractive practices. In a time where the term sustainability has become overused, but fails to strengthen our connection to the Earth, I found the opportunity to look at design practices beyond sustainability. These are practices that invite us to remember our part within the intricate systems of the Earth, creating personal and professional action that integrate life of all beings, minerals, plants and unseen forces into our work. I call this way of being (and thinking) Earth-centered, meaning that it shifts our perspective from prioritizing the human species to considering the totality of the Earth when making choices in our lives. Through this intention, SEEDS was born, offering activities that inspire us to take Earth-centered action towards a better collective future for all. 

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Events

Featured
MOCO'24 9th International Conference on Movement and Computing
May 30
MOCO'24 9th International Conference on Movement and Computing
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Climate Gathering: Transmedia Performance Rituals for Livable Futures
May 18
Climate Gathering: Transmedia Performance Rituals for Livable Futures
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Solar Eclipse Viewing
May 8
Solar Eclipse Viewing
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Final Showcase of YANA: An Andean Journey into Darkness, Immersive Performance by Ati Cachimuel and Collaborators
Apr 23
Final Showcase of YANA: An Andean Journey into Darkness, Immersive Performance by Ati Cachimuel and Collaborators
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Mar 2
Composting Dreams: A Dance Party!
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Jan 1
Livable Futures Courses
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Community