Yanira Matienzo

“The exercise of imagination is dangerous to those who profit from the way things are because it has the power to show that the way things are is not permanent, not universal, not necessary.”

— Ursula Le Guin ― The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination

art is the medium to convey a feeling that has yet to be put into words. ‘Art is the relief from the duty of coherence,’ says Dr. Joost Vervoort, Associate Professor of Transformative Imagination at the Copernicus Institute of Sus- tainable Development, paraphrasing John Law

Where arts and culture are particularly great is in cre- ating the space for other things to happen.

– Annette Mees, Artistic Director, Audi- ence Labs at King’s College London

Climate crisis is also a crisis of culture, and thus of the imagination. – Amitav Ghosh, Author.

The times are urgent; let us slow down.

– Dr Bayo Akomolafe, Philoso- pher, Writer, Activist, Professor of psychology, and Executive Direc- tor of the Emergence Network.

“The world, the values of the world, are shaped by the choices each of us make. Which means my thinking, my actions, my relationships, and my life create a front line for the possibilities of the entire species. Each one of us is an individual practice ground for what the whole can or cannot do, will or will not do…. We live (and die) inside of sys

Like a railway network or an electricity grid, the infra- structure of the imagination requires long-term invest- ment and maintenance for it to continue functioning well and serving its com- munity(ies). This kind of patient, slow investment in spaces, places, relation- ships and the digital and social infrastructures of the imagination will build

‘The main thing artists can do is demonstrate possibilities,’ says the civic practice artist Fran- ces Whitehead. By asking questions, breaking rules, designing intentional spaces and expos- ing people to other possibilities, artists prepare the ground for alternative ways of being and doing and provide the sense that the world we exist within is n

‘How do you work for another world while living in the one you are trying to change?’

Imagination as a team sport – that’s when the world changes.

– Ed Finn, Founding Director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University.