2021 Science Fiction Economics Lab - Keeping track

Hello @alberto, @bojanbobic, @hugi, @Joriam, @MariaEuler, @nadia, @yudhanjaya, @giacomo.pinaffo, @Rainer.

Following the update from a couple of weeks ago and after the succesful presentation of Wintess on 9 March, I would like to frame the open discussions, directions and the steps to take.

Project Witness waterfront

  • @nadia and @yudhanjaya have recorded their interventions presenting the Lab and the Project Witness for the Istanbul Innovation Days. The first session where they will participate is scheduled on 24 March. Nadia will present the research of the Lab on the mutant economies and Yudhanjaya is giving a brief on its speculative aspects and its collaborative nature.
    This event will introduce the project to the public interested in climate challenges and solutions such as small island states etc. There is a second appointment hosted by Giulio Quaggiotto in April (date TBC) regarding specifically the Project Witness.

  • We are in process of recording the podcasts for Europarama presents Witness with @porcarorama and almost all the dates have been confirmed.

  • We have promised Claire, @SaigentFuturist from The Futures Forum an essay (500-1500 words) on the use of Science Fiction in exploration of economic futures to be published in the Human Futures magazine - ping @alberto, @yudhanjaya, others (petussing, nightface?)

  • On Tuesday 16 March, @alberto, @hugi and I are meeting Globus Opstart’s team and in the meantime we are starting to organise the Messina residency with @giacomo.pinaffo. No great news here, just a consideration that if the dynamics of the pandemic follow the last year’s pattern - travel should be possible in June / July. Waiting for updates there and solving some practical questions in the meantime.

  • @Rainer from FdCM, with some friends and researchers in France is organising a french version of a new minor district “La RĂ©publique des communs” and with FdCM an Italian version of a fiction based on the history of the “distretto sociale evoluto” to nurish the strategic plan of the FdCM. We would love to hear more.

  • Same goes for the succesful pitch @yudhanjaya made for After Progress. Project timeline here was

    • 5th March 2021: Signing up for Discord (optional).
    • 16th May 2021: Draft Stories
    • 16th August 2021: Final Stories.
    • September 2021: Launch of the exhibition
  • There is also this cli-fi writing competition we have been invited to join. Looks like a nice opportunity to explore (@joriam, @yudhanjaya, others?)

  • @alberto was invited to write an essay on the ways speculative fiction and economics can work on imagining possible futures for the Mayday Magazine published by BOZAR (Brussels) and Are We Europe. We have accepted and the piece should be ready by the end of March and published in the next issue of Mayday.

Webinar with DG REGIO:

  • We are in the final phase of scheduling the webinar named Looking for Transition Pathfinders: Urban and Regional Experimentations Engaging Citizens.
    We would like to put in a spotlight the territories which are already experimenting in citizen engagement on green and digital transition.
    This webinar gathers academics, DG REGIO, interested citizens and starting from the presentation of 2-3 cases of “grassroots” transition pathways, reflects on whether, and how, EU policies can engage pathfinding cities and regions to experiment more and better, with a specific focus on citizens engagement.
    Working date - first two weeks of May, to be confirmed.

New European Bauhaus:

  • After a positive meeting with Alessandro Rancati from JRC, Aurora (FEBEA) and Giacomo (FdCM), we have been invited to open one or more conversations between NEB and ER (& our network) to better present the things we work on, develop themes and proposals and in parallel start looking at the calls for proposals.
    Blivande is already on the ball. Next week we are preparing an internal meeting to frame the whole perspective.

EIT C-KIC

  • We are waiting for the response from EIT on the reporting of the 2020 work and on the acceptance of the 2021 platform (Kava 2021). Updates will follow.
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So, cycling back to updates:

Bunch of stuff happening over this week and the next, so I’m going to focus on:

  1. integrating changes to Dandelion Republic
  2. prepping for 24th (Istanbul Innovation Forum).
    After that, 3) After Progress, because while I’ve thought about different ways of presenting this, none seemed to really click.

The cli-fi writing competition from Grist is on the radar but not a priority on my end. I will try my hand at it, but only if I manage to come up with an idea that doesn’t seem half-assed.

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When are we having this meeting? I’m on vacation for a few days starting Wednesday at 15:00 and back on Wednesday next week.

I’ve sent you a calendar invitation Friday (16 March at 16:00)

Ah, right. No, that’s during my vacation I’m afraid and I’m not available at that time. Normally I’d try to adjust but it’s not possible this time.

I thought you were on vacation from Wednesday. Because of that I placed the meeting on Tuesday 16

Yes, you know what - sorry. I must have been completely confused yesterday - I am indeed available this afternoon. I read your reply as if the meeting was on Friday at 16.00 and didn’t look more closely at the date. I will be there.

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