Somewhere beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
– Rumi
The Cloud of Unknowing is an innovative new speaking platform developed in collaboration with an emerging community of thought-leaders including the Schumacher College and United Diversity.
Off Grid’s conference will feature six three hour sessions over four days of open communication, discussion and debate, encouraging 100% participation and promoting an integrative approach to knowledge, where a diversity of expression is balanced by a shared commitment to deep listening.
By honouring the richness of every unique opinion – as well as our radical interdependence within an organic web of life – the Cloud of Unknowing will hold an experimental and non-oppositional space which promotes co-creativity and playfulness.
This emerging format will feature three 20 minute talks in the TEDx format from expert thought-leaders in relation to specific topics, before Q and A sessions give way to participatory group break-out discussions based on Open Space Technology. Facilitators will observe themes and capture ideas as they emerge, ready to be fed back to the whole group in a final circular discussion; a process guided by Way of Council-inspired facilitators. This entire process will be recorded live by Permanent Culture Now, with discussion notes and any relevant supporting links made available online following our 2014 event.
Please visit our Line Up A – Z for more information on every speaker or workshop facilitator listed below.
THURSDAY
This is Off Grid
Uncivilisation or an Age of Reunion?
With Nick Rosen, Nicola Peel, Mike Thomas, Chris Deojee, Dan Britton and many more.
IS THIS IT?
A diverse and reflective group discussion of the ‘Off Grid’ concept, and others like ‘Uncivilisation,’ which have informed the cultural narrative adopted by this event and by extension, our shared experience as a community of interest.
Q: To what extent is ‘Off Grid’ a transitional signifier?
Q: How might we a) recognise the power that flows from it’s inherently oppositional nature, while also b) accepting it’s limitations and embracing the abundant space for New Stories created by this important dislocation of meaning?
FRIDAY
The Hero’s Journey
With Claire Milne, Chris Paradox and Jon the Absurd.
WHAT’S THE STORY?
The Hero’s Journey is a universal myth re-told throughout our history, informed by the archetypal patterning of our collective psyche. Observable on every level of human experience – from our cellular biology to daily life – this shared evolutionary epic is the process by which all organic life unfolds.
Join us on the threshold of adventure as we discover the essential nature of this voyage of struggle and crisis, self-knowledge and transcendental insight.
Q: How might we integrate this universally experienced pattern and process into our daily lives, through the New Stories we tell one another?
The Other Campaign
With Tamsin Omond, David Taylor and Delegate Zero.
ARE WE THE 99%?
Politics is essentially relational. It concerns the ways in which people live together and find common meaning in order to inform shared cultural narratives.
In an era of widespread disillusionment, three political pioneers invite our audience to engage anew.
Q: What is the nature of citizenship in the 21st century?
Q: To what extent can we create shared cultural narratives which are inclusive of 100% of our diverse interests and perspectives?
SATURDAY
New Stories for New Times
With Jonathan Dawson, Amrita Bhohi and Iwan Kushka
“The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born”
– Antonio Gramsci
Our old stories are like a pair of too-tight shoes – painful and constricting. They are steeped in moods of separation, isolation, scarcity. They tell of people stranded in an empty, inanimate and meaningless universe, where our only consolation lies in consumerism and hedonism.
Yet, new (old!) stories of connection are springing into life all around us. They form part of a counter-narrative that speaks of connection and belonging within in an interconnected, and vibrantly animate Earth.
However, thinking alone is not enough to enable us to truly and powerfully occupy these new stories. They need to be courted – gently, patiently, playfully. They need to be embodied. This will be a morning of gentle and patient courtship – exploring the new emerging regenerative narratives through art, imagination, storytelling and convivial conversation.
Common Futures
With Josef Davies-Coates, Annemarie Naylor and Alex Lawrie.
TOGETHER WE HAVE EVERYTHING
Our economic models are being outmoded by new forms of collaborative design process, community ownership and open source everything. But while these new tools for self-organisation already exist for an emerging minority of cultural pioneers, they remain distant possibilities in local contexts where incumbent (and yet outmoded) forms of organisation remain embedded.
So where is the tipping point? How can we translate this new world of possibilities into more practical open source models, to be created and shared more widely and more densely within local contexts?
Join experts in fields of open and community organisation as they navigate through many of these emerging potentials, and particularly those relevant HERE and NOW.
Q: How might Off Grid itself become an open cooperative, co-owned and run by it’s diverse community of stakeholders including event participants?
Q: How might best practices from around the world be embedded in Frome’s local community and economy, where an independently run Council is already pioneering many policies designed to empower local people and build a resilient, sustainable and abundant One Planet Community?
SUNDAY
One Planet Communities
With David Parkes, Anna Francis, Bioregional and Stefan Cartwright (One Planet Council)
This session is a 100% participatory workshop designed to engage stakeholders interested in One Planet principles developed by Bioregional and WWF.
Experts (and enthusiasts!) will guide our audience through the principles and it’s growing community of interest, before inviting participants to engage with transformational processes already under way in the local context.
Q: How might One Planet Communities in Frome and Thoulstone use Off Grid – as the UK’s first One Planet Community Festival – as a common platform to experiment with new ideas and share successful policies inspired by the One Planet principles?
This is Thoulstone Park
With James Hughes-Hallett, Dan Hurring (Thoulstone Sustainable Events), Shift Bristol and Marcus Letts (Off Grid Festival).
Join Thoulstone’s emerging community of interest for an introductory and exploratory Q & A in relation to the developmental potential of this incredible 150 acre site.
Q: What opportunities might exist for community engagement or cooperative access on Thoulstone Park? To what extent might perennial issues concerning access to land and resources in this local context be overcome through the ongoing cooperation of a diverse community of interest, well informed in relation to emerging tools and successful models as implemented around the world?
Q: How can Off Grid’s diverse community of stakeholders support and assist in this developmental process? What might these first steps look like? Where might caution be exercised?
So there you have it.
With less than 30 Early Birds left and only one week ’till this year’s Off Grid, now is the time to grab your tickets, folks.
Just like Rumi – we’ll see you in the field!
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