The world is mad and unrelentingly unstable. Perfect times for utopian ideas. The future inspires our current reality as much as our actions determine its realization. What future do we want? What future do we deserve? What can we do to get there?
A Lab of Im_possibilities is a self-organized, open-ended, transdisciplinary space of collaboration, where questions like these are asked and discussed. A lab spawns an abundance of formats, group discussions & thematic constellations that are established, demolished, reinvented or expanded on a day to day basis.
A Lab of Im_possibilities is a one week format, where participants commit themselves to being fully involved without knowing what they are being offered. It is a commitment to idle time.
A Lab of Im_possibilities is a conscious hiatus from everyday life. It offers a space where participants can take a step aside and reflect on current societal, political and economic developments – and their own stake in and stance on all of this. During the Lab, social expectations of efficiency, competition and the pressure to be creative and produce output are suspended.
A Lab of Im_possibilities faces the future with critical naivety and the courage to self-organize. There is a structured lack of structure: empty days full of possibilities. The main topics and the methodological approaches follow from individual and collective priorities. Everything can happen, nothing must.
A Lab of Im_possibilities has the following expectations:
I Self-Selection and Inclusion
There is no selection process of the participants according to any criteria. There are no extrinsic incentives for participation. All attendees share a culture of inclusion that respects the needs of others.
II Self-Organisation
A Lab of Im_possibilities and its contents are not curated or structured. Only the first day is moderated. Afterwards the hosts and organisation team become lab participants. There’s trust in self-organization. There are no fallback plans, workshop slots, keynote speakers or anything the like. The contents emerge on the spot, according to what individuals and the collective deem urgent.
III Time and Space
The location, shared meals, a daily plenary session and a space accessible to all participants form the structural framework of the lab.
IV Diskurs
Expectations of efficiency, output, competition and creativity are suspended. The lab is not a pursuit for the best idea or the most creative contribution – there are no winners. Open discourse is an end, not a means. Participants are committed to creating a radically open and respectful culture of discourse.
V Openness and Empathy
All formats of the laboratory are open by default. Removing oneself from a group is not an act of judgement. As a collective and as individuals, participants consider others needs and treat one another with benevolence and respect.
VI No output
The purpose of a lab is its process, not its output. Whatever is created in the lab may continue afterwards, but there’s no expectation that it will. The lab purposefully offers wasteful space in which collaborative, utopian and transdisciplinarity thinking is possible.
VII Self-Determination
Participants are free to spend their time however they like. There is no pressure to perform. Formats may take place in parallel. The lab celebrates JOMO – “joy of missing out”.
VIII The Beginning
The first day – which is moderated by the hosts – serves to create a framework for the labs’ self-organization. It has three main goals: First, everyone has some meaningful contact with everyone else. Second, participants reach a consensus on how they want to live together. Third, ideas, themes and priorities of participants are expressed and collected.