Basics of our work - Weaving together 5 themes

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1. Community - ability

Humans are an integral and inseparable part of the living, dynamic Earth system. We have co-evolved with plants, animals, microorganisms, rivers, mountains and forests. We are an integral part of the Web of Life, of the Earth Community that evolves through intimate and interdependent relationships with every being, every element within this system.
As a part of the greater whole we humans cannot achieve a healthy, happy and sustainable life if we undermine the integrity of this community.
For the major part of the short history of our species, humans have been conscious of being embedded in a living system and have evolved different cultures, well adapted to their ecosystem.
However, the industrial growth system that now dominates the world is based on the belief that human wellbeing can be attained by exploiting the rest of the Earth Community. It has created a profound imbalance of the Earth System and continues to destroy large parts of the Earth Community.

Community-ability is based on an integrated understanding of interconnectedness.
It can be seen as a conscious participation in life's processes.
This means a transformation to a new mode of being.

The main source of inspiration for this process is the Earth herself, as well as cultural traditions that reflect respect and equity for the Earth Community, including human beings.

Community-based Economy
If people are living on the soil, they have the possibility to develop a direct contact with their place and honor 'nature’s economy', meaning the goods and services provided by nature naturally. In harmony with nature they will develop some sort of 'sustenance economy', in which people work the land to provide for their needs and maintain their lives. This is how marketplaces developed. They are social and cultural gatherings where people are in direct contact with other, exchanging goods they have produced or directly need. They are where people meet, discuss and celebrate. Being in direct contact with each other, with their products and the conditions necessary to produce them allows immediate responses, mutual support and creates a base for a resilient system.
People will be able to integrate that they are a part of nature and interdependent. They won't operate detached from the resources they need, detached from the impact they have.

Through our work we intend to help individuals to integrate this knowledge and to develop skills and relationships that enable them to build up their local community and economy in tight relationship with the specific ecosystem they are living in.

2. Music, Dance and Sustainable Cultures

Art, Ecology & Education safeguards, fosters and promotes cultural diversity in music and dance as fundamental ingredients of healthy, lively and sustainable communities.
It sees music and dance as means of communication, as expressions of interdependency and connectedness, as links to a spiritual, integrated understanding of the world, and as roots for community building.
To sum it up: Music and Dance are a celebration of life in all its complexity.
In most sustainable cultures we find a rich tradition of oral story telling, music and dance that serves as the main communicator of how people relate to the place/the world in which they live. Complexity of rhythm, interdependence, improvisation and spontaneity, creativity – all these qualities become integral qualities of the people who are immersed in such a culture.

3. The Acting Process as Tool for Deep Ecological Insight

In acting you can learn what it means to be in the moment, what it means to use all of your senses, to use your imagination, to be open and perceptive, to listen to your body. You find your ways to connect to other human beings, you understand how individual and unique everyone is. You understand the difference between process and result orientation. You learn about empathy, rhythms, impulses, your emotional life, your mindsets, your blocks. You get to know yourself as your own instrument.

We focus on the acting process with its tools for exploration and discovery.
Without the burden of performance you have the possibility to experience and widen the realm of not striving for any result or immediate gratification. You have the freedom to explore and understand process as a way of being.

In the acting process you have the possibility to find out what it means to serve a greater context, you can make the choice to shift perspective/dimensions (in acting you would say you become somebody else) and dive into an experience that can be profoundly revealing, providing you with access to information that could not be accessed by a conventional way of research.
You have the chance to experience the connections between the creative process and the way in which life sustains itself and evolves.
The acting process itself with its exercises and methods can be profoundly satisfactory and informing, and it provides the door for transformation.

The understanding gained in that process and its methods offer a pathway to relate to nature in an intuitive way, meaning in a way that cannot be expressed by thought and language.

4. Holistic Science / Living Systems Thinking

‚Let’s face it, the universe is messy. It is nonlinear, turbulent, and chaotic. It is dynamic. It spends its time in transient behaviour on its way to somewhere else, not in mathematically neat equilibria. It self-organizes and evolves. It creates diversity, not uniformity. That’s what makes the world interesting, that’s what makes it beautiful, and that’s what makes it work.’
Donella Meadows, biophysicist, environmental scientist and author

Holistic Science and Living Systems Thinking as we are seeing and integrating it, could be described as branches or developments of science that do not aim at a complete understanding and mastery of nature, but rather strive for a genuine participation with nature.
They provide knowledge and insight into the way how life sustains itself and develops and thus offer the opportunity to develop an ‚ecological literacy’, which we consider a crucial skill for the survival of humanity in the coming decades.

The two fundamental themes of the systems view of life are the universal interconnectedness and interdependence of all phenomena, and the intrinsically dynamic nature of reality.
Evolution is presented as basically open and indeterminate, without goal or purpose, yet with a recognizable pattern of development.
The more we are able to recognize these patterns - in ourselves and in our environment - the more we are able to recognize ourselves as integral part of life’s evolution.
Thus, Holistic Science offers insight and a framework for exploring new possibilities of living harmoniously with the Earth.

The term ‘holistic’ derives from the greek word ‘holos’ which means ‘all, entire, total’.
To regard the human being in a holistic / integral way means to integrate the connections between the intellectual, physical, emotional and spiritual levels, as well as his connections to the physical and social environment.

The development of a holistic / integral world view is further being supported by the emotional and physical connection to a specific place and its natural processes.

5. Permaculture

Permaculture is based on observation of nature, how life evolves, organizes and sustains itself. From this process it derives design principles and tools which one can apply to any kind of system, let it be a garden, a farm, a career or a social system.
It is a broad-based and holistic approach that has many applications to all aspects of life.
The permaculture journey begins with ethics and design principles and moves through the key domains required to create a sustainable culture.

At the heart of permaculture design and practice is a fundamental set of ‘core values’ or ethics which remain constant whatever a person's situation, whether they are creating systems for town planning or trade; whether the land they care for is only a windowbox or an entire forest. These 'ethics' are often summarised as;

* Earthcare – recognising that the Earth is the source of all life (and is possibly itself a living entity- see Gaia theory) and that we recognise and respect that the Earth is our valuable home and we are a part of the Earth, not apart from it.

* Peoplecare – supporting and helping each other to change to ways of living that are not harming ourselves or the planet, and to develop healthy societies.

* Fairshare (or placing limits on consumption) - ensuring that the Earth's limited resources are utilised in ways that are equitable and wise

The core of permaculture has always been in supplying a design toolkit.
This toolkit helps the designer to model a final design based on an observation of how ecosystems themselves interact.

Permaculture designs evolve over time, and can become extremely complex mosaics of conventional and inventive cultural systems.
While techniques and cultural systems are freely borrowed from organic agriculture, sustainable forestry, horticulture, agroforestry, and the land management systems of indigenous peoples, permaculture's fundamental contribution to the field of ecological design is the development of a concise set of broadly applicable organizing principles that can be transferred through a brief intensive training.

‚Sustainable development to provide for human needs, within ecological limits, requires a cultural revolution greater than any of the tumultuous changes of the last century.
Permaculture design principles can never be a substitute for relevant practical experience and technical knowledge. However, they may provide a framework for continuous generation and evaluation of the site and situation specific solutions necessary to move beyond the limited successes of sustainable development to a reunion of culture and nature.
Permaculture is a dynamic interplay between two phases: on the one hand, sustaining life within the cycle of the seasons, and on the other, conceptual abstaction and emotional intensity of creativity and design. I see the relationship between these two as like the pulsing relationship between stability and change.’
by David Holmgren: ‘Permaculture - Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability’

Permaculture Links
More texts & excerpts on permaculture
'Essence of Permaculture' / download it here