Venturing BEYOND for future inspiration
Last week our Good Life 2030 team visited Cardiff to join researchers, policy makers, creators and artists at the annual BEYOND Conference. Sustainability was the focus of this year’s carefully curated programme, with speakers asking what role cutting-edge creativity can play in helping us imagine a future we want to live in and work towards.
Co-founder Lisa Merrick-Lawless was part of a panel ‘Can the Creative Industries Lead the Climate Transition?’ Her panel, packed full of insight is available on-demand HERE.
We have been reflecting on the groundswell of support for imaginative storytelling in the creative industries, and it’s growing recognition as a powerful tool to tackle environmental and social challenges. After two lively days of interdisciplinary talks, we were introduced to powerful ideas and projects that are redefining what audiences are able to experience and how. Here are just a few flickers of inspiration.
Galwad is a week-long story told in real-time across broadcast and social channels. At the heart of the story is protagonist 16-year-old Efa who is swapped with her middle-aged future self from 2052 to bring vital messages and conversations to Efa’s community. It is a boundary-pushing example of how audiences can be placed in a story world and witness events unfolding across multiple platforms; a visionary approach to storytelling.
Poet, playwright and one of the writers behind Galwad, Owen Sheers, highlighted the need for more stories that allow us to connect with the future. Honest facts are important to counter misinformation — like in Owen’s screenwriting for BBC 1 drama ‘The Trick’ (now on Netflix), but we also need stories that allow audiences to feel there are opportunities and possibilities. He is the co-founder of Black Mountains College, a creative learning community in rural Wales dedicated to confronting the challenges facing future generations with new imagined realities, and tackling what he calls a ‘failure of narrative’.
The needs of future generations were woven into the fabric of Beyond, with Sophie Howe, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, noting why we need to set our sights on creating a world we want to leave behind. The Future Generations Act for Wales is a radical commitment to long-term thinking which integrates creative and cultural work into service design and policymaking.
Another project that captivated our attention is creative experiment Our Place in Space, which asks: If we could look back at Earth from the vastness of the solar system, what would we feel? Wouldn’t violence seem senseless squabbles look stupid from Saturn or Venus? Artist Oliver Jeffers and Nerve Centre have created an awe-inspiring multi-platform experience on the wonders of our solar system.
If you’re interested in experiential design you might also appreciate Cubes of Perpetual Light — an exhibiting tour of vertical farming cubes and Incense Road Suppers, a multi-sensorial dining experience bringing ancient history to the present (what if we would do this with the future?!). Pollinations, a giant architectural urban oasis in Birmingham City Centre is also spectacular.
We were reminded that solid research and development work sits at the heart of these projects, prototypes and iterations. It was great to see leading universities and schools of thought championing immersive and interactive storytelling at BEYOND, including Royal Holloway, University of London’s StoryTrails, University of York’s XR Stories and University of Portsmouth’s Enabling XR Enterprise.
Finally, we continue to be inspired by the RSA’s ongoing inquiry which asks how collective imagination and creative collaboration might help shape better futures for people and the planet. You can read the fascinating insights from their journey so far here.
Thanks Beyond, to the wonderful cross-section of the wider creative industries, we left with happy, buzzing brains.
Ceri, Purpose Disruptors
