MoE (aka Map of Emergence)

[moe]

Hi everybody,

my name is Stefano Cieri and I’m an Italian designer and VFX artist (as I briefly mentioned on my profile page when I joined EdgeRyders, literally years ago).

Since I joined, I’ve been silent but I read a lot of what was happening here. I always felt a mix of awe, for such a top-notch example of collective intelligence at work, and true frustration, for being horrible at actively contributing to online discussions.

The reasons why I’m that “elusive” (as @Alberto once described me ) are many; I won’t bother you with those, but please trust me: it is not lazyness.

Being a designer involved in sustainable development, and passionate for complex systems, my interest for Edgeryders is some way self-evident. What I can add to what you’ll guess already, is that I really appreciate the Novelty of the practices which the Ryders are experimenting (and the subtlelties they imply).

I feel I share that enthusiasm, the vision (and the concerns), and truly believe in many of the ideas discussed and promoted here, the good way.

In my daily life I work as a VFX artist, trying to surf the inconsistencies between the pointlessness of the markets I contribute feeding, and the difficulties in actualizing an alternative and constructive way of dealing with my profession.

In a cached, parallel life, I work on a hyper-long-term project, experimenting non-real-time forms of collaboration and knowledge collection.

This sounds cryptic (and a bit silly) but all it means, really, is:

I think and discuss with friends a moltitude of projects and ideas, whenever we have time; meanwhile, we figure out ways to work on those as part of a single higher-level project about plausible, sustainable futures.

The broader focuses of the project are: research and interviews about the inter-disciplinary and critical aspects of our common future; responsible forms of architecture, design and engineering, capable of embracing and serving the principles of sustainable development; a serious and thorough investigation on the potential of cinematography and storytelling, in conveying contents that matter; strategies and tools to let people make and maintain collaborative projects.

The project is called Futuro Anteriore and is currently in Italian only. I know this sounds naive but, for the time being, I have a good reason; I’ll find an appropriate room to say more, if anyone’s interested.

More sparse stuff about me:

twitter.com/mapofemergence

uk.linkedin.com/in/stefanocieri

plus something I did ages ago:

itgoesgreen.org

If you read until here, thank you: that’s why I love this place

Best,

s  t  e

[nadia]

Welcome onto the stage Stefano

Hi,

it 's nice reading you. This is one of the things I love about this space, you have no idea who is here till they choose to present themselves

In a sense we have similar trajectories. It became impossible to stay in advertising because of the struggle to reconcile how I was making my money, and the shift in lifestyle/consumption/ingenuity associated with building sustainable futures. I made an extreme choice that had an uncomfortable impact on my economic situation, but there were enabling factors there that made it feasible.

In any case the storytelling is important. And I think there are many ways in which we could improve how we present and make sense of the stories and experiences shared in Edgeryders. Are you planning on coming to LOTE?

[moe]

similar and diverse trajectories

Thank you for your welcome, @Nadia.

In reading you here and around the web, I felt we have similar trajectories too; and yet, I always considered mine a bit more twisted, unraveled, and in a way un-directed (or at least less-directed). No weirdo-claims intended, in saying this: I just tend to make distinctions, and in a place like this, where diversity flourishes like orchids in the rainforest, I believe it’s a good excercise.

I’ve been studying as an industrial designer (I still believe that’s the truest me), and have been involved in sustainable design for a long time. I know that expression is considered almost meaningless, nowadays, but it definitely had (and still has) a clear interpretation and meaning to me.

I’ve tried to make a profession out of that, and mostly failed. That made me re-define my priorities and ambitions many times, and that is what I’m still doing.

I’m not sure if by “enabling factors” in your case, you mean EdgeRyders or something anyway related to it. I feel it could become such a thing for me, even if not exclusively, nor immediately.

It’ll probably take “some” time, for me to figure out how/where I fit in ER. But, at the end of the day, exploring and building something is way more exciting than getting to a final destination or product, at least for me. It’s not too bad; is it?

My current job doesn’t let me plan too much, really. But I’m definitely considering LOTE (I was a hair’s breadth away from coming to LOTE3), and Master of Networks too.

It’s just too early for me to know how swamped will I be with my deliveries, then. Nonetheless, this time I’ll do my best to stay in touch, on track, and to earn my ticket, while hoping to happily join you in Brussels.

Storytelling-wise, there’s always space for improvement

I’ll figure out the best way to participate to such a discussion. Is there already a thread where you discuss such things, more or less in general?

[noemi]

Great dashboard.

Stefano, well done in resurfacing! It would be a pity not to get to know each other, all of us doing work out there. And reading a little on the Futuro Anteriore website it seems you are growing an online community yourself! What a nice discovery, and also to see you have inventored ER and unMonastery quite thoroughly

Would love to follow back, and hope to stay in touch this time. And maybe we get to work in Italy again… <sigh>

And kudos for a great Edgesense dashboard!

[moe]

similar and diverse networking

Thank you @Noemi, and sorry for not having found (yet) a way to better frame Futuro Anteriore (#FA for short).

In its present, chaotic form, it is hard to explain the project in a way that makes sense to a newcomer, without being too long or risking to be more tedious than interesting.

But you guessed right, there’s more than one aspect which makes #FA very similar to ER, even if some of the core ideas are quite different.

I’ve always been interested in the power of social networks “with a purpose”, and have been following especially @Alberto, as we share visions in this sense, in very many ways.

I’m confident that, staying in touch this time, I’ll be able to expand on that in the future, and find a way to bridge what I’m trying with that project, and what I could do to constructively participate here.

I believe the Edgesense dashboard is a first, good excuse. But there’s much else I’m (loosely) working on, which might be of interest to some of the peers gathering here.

Let’s see if I’ll be able to be on top of it, this time

[alberto]

I have some hope

…of involving @MoE in Masters of Networks. I promise to chase @melancon around and nail down a more definite program by early January.

An interesting anecdote: Stefano, @Michele_Baron and myself met in the context of a serious game called Urgent Evoke, back in 2010. That was a major influence in building the first Edgeryders, though the gamification elements we built in the first iteration did not have any detectable impact in our context.

Why interesting? Because I think Evoke nailed the vague, yet pressing (“urgent”) motivation that pushes the best Edgeryders forward. It’s about being part of a story: for me, certainly, but apparently for many others. Turns out Nietzsche had foreseen this, and our ability to spin the chaos surrounding us into navigable stories might be the only source of salvation available.

“It is your destiny to join us”, said Alchemy. We joined, and here we are still.

EVOKE trailer (a new online game) from Alchemy on Vimeo.

[moe]

and to make the anectode even more exquisitely interwoven…

Evoke AND Edgeryders AND Kublai were all major influences in conceiving and building Futuro Anteriore

Additional fun fact: one of the friends I’m considering to join MoN with, was on Evoke too.

For what concerns serious games and gamification, Evoke was quite disappointing on many levels. Still, I believe a powerful intuition layed behind those concepts, which still has potential to make a mark, some day.

In the meanwhile, ER is defintely a better game, more meaningful and more fun

A final note to back (and answer to) @Alberto: Evoke definitely had something. No matter how one names it, destiny was there, playing with us

In finding such a catalyst of emergence, the guys over there did some good Alchemy, indeed.

Regarding the article you posted, I look forward to take some time and follow up on that specifically, at some point. Juicy, sound thoughts, the ones over there…

[michele_baron]

Future Anteriore and the game of future ‘perfect’

No matter how widely our individual paths diverge, or how we digress from the seminal urgencies which do bind our lives, it is always interesting and invigorating to see a familiar face or two near the latest horizon

@MoE and @Alberto, yes, Evoke was, perhaps, framed by the included about the disincluded, by the accessed in terms of challenges which held an ostensible distance purchased a priori. We may view this age as a threshold crossing into an anthropocene, but, in so many ways, that border was framed and durably fenced hundreds, if not thousands of years ago, in the very pathways of gain-centered development.

Not that there is anything inevitably “wrong” in striving for a better existence–nor would any sustainable “global citizen” movement deny comfort to each to gain subsistence for every. But we entertain those battles which we can affect, and in the interim, write, develop games, create art, anything to capture the eyes, minds, hearts of a population lulled into the treadmill of obsolescent consumption while the machine it powers seems to have outpaced its makers in repeating the outdated habits of a past so imperfect as to have torn down borders of civilization even as it opened borders to the exchange of information, learning, communication, tolerance… and possibly, improvement.

Perhaps we are all miners of a sort, searching for ingots of relevance, of sustenance in an increasingly tenuous world–but, once reaching the core of things, is there anywhere to go, but up?