What is Age of Wonderland?
Age of Wonderland is a platform and change agent for social innovation and cross-cultural collaborations, founded by Hivos, Baltan Laboratories and Dutch Design Foundation, with Design Academy Eindhoven as a partner. The experimental program is based on joining knowledge, resources and networks of creative innovators. Age of Wonderland wants to boost social change, influence policymakers and have a lasting effect on innovation worldwide.
In 2017 Age of Wonderland will present itself at the World Design Event in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
Since 2014 Age of Wonderland functions as an incubator for the research and development of interdisciplinary ideas. It facilitates tailor-made collaborations between (young) creative innovators from the Hivos networks in Africa, Asia and Latin America and practitioners within The Netherlands.
The Age of Wonderland program revolves around the understanding that we need a more robust collaboration between creative makers and thinkers -innovators, scientists, engineers, designers, artists- from all over the world. When it comes to secure a livable, inclusive society and planet -the great challenges of our time- we need to act on a global scale .
Curator Arne Hendriks: “We should not just tackle Western mistakes with Western solutions. We should work together on a global scale. Age of Wonderland is just a small project if you look at it, but certainly inspiring to many more places.”
For the last three years Age of Wonderland aimed for the increase of collaborations between creatives from the global north and south in their research and development of interdisciplinary ideas. By creating a space for co-operation, we were able to create new and fruitful collaborations and emphasize the importance of including knowledge from all corners of the world, if we are to deal seriously with global challenges.
The 2017 edition of Age of Wonderland is all about developing methods, tools and ideas for knowledge transfer, based on commonalities rather than potential differences. What sets this edition apart from previous years (which were located in the Dutch city of Eindhoven) is that we are not constrained by time and space. Instead we are inviting artists, researchers, front-runners, social entrepreneurs and designers to take part in 100 DAYS OF LEARNING, executing their contribution within their own city, country or somewhere else, at any time throughout the whole year. There will be DAYS OF LEARNING organized during the World Design Event (21–29 October), and through the four Hivos regional offices in Nairobi, Harare, Costa Rica and Jakarta. Additionally, DAYS will be linked to programs at both Baltan Laboratories and Hivos.
Age of Wonderland believes that improving our overall quality of life is not only based on a product, service and system level, but also on the way we value knowledge as developed by creative practitioners around the globe. Age of Wonderland wants to be that place where potential ideas are criticized and improved and where understanding is turned into concrete action. More information is available at ageofwonderland.nl/about/aowl.
