Transition Culture

John Jordan is an art activist. He co-founded the direct action groups Reclaim the Streets and the Clown Army, worked as a cinematographer for Naomi Klein’s The Take, co-edited the book We Are Everywhere: the irresistible rise of global anti-capitalism (Verso 2004). Isabelle Frémeaux was a senior lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at Birkbeck College-University, London, until she resigned in December 2011 to escape wage labour and academia. Her action research explores popular education, storytelling and creative forms of resistance. Together they co-founded the art activism and permaculture collective The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination (www.labofii.net) whose infamous interventions continue to erupt across Europe. In 2011 they published the book/film Paths Through Utopias (La Decouverte,2011), after which they set up the community la r.O.n.c.e (Resist, Organise, Nourish, Create, Exist) which lies 70kms from la ZAD, the autonomous area in resistance on the site of the planned Notre-Dame-des-Lan

'SWIMBY ('Something Wonderful In My Back Yard': The Musical' raised over £10,000 on Kickstarter with over 100 individual funders from 5 different countries. We caught up with Thomas Hewitt Jones (composer), Matt Harvey (poet/lyricist) and Chloe Uden (producer) over tea in Matt's composing shed to find out where they are up to, and what comes next. And of course, to hear some of the work-in-progress tunes.

Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey have worked together since 1990. According to their website, "sculpture, photography, architecture, ecology and biology are disciplines that intersect in their work, revealing an intrinsic bias towards process and event". They are one of the contributors to Lucy Neal's book 'Playing for Time'. http://www.ackroydandharvey.com/

Juan is a Transition trainer and activist, and just published 'Guía del movimiento de transición'. It's the first book about Transition written in a language other than English, and represents a fascinating development, especially as a resource for the Spanish-speaking world. We spoke to him to find out more about it.

Prof Chris Rhodes is Director of a consultancy called Fresh-lands Environmental Actions, which deals with various energy and environment issues. He has published over 200 articles and 5 books. He writes and lectures widely, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London. He was recently elected Chair of Transition Town Reading, and recently was our guest Agony Aunt answering a question about cheap oil prices: http://www.transitionnetwork.org/blogs/rob-hopkins/2015-02/transition-agony-aunt-how-talk-about-peak-oil

Sarah Corbett is the founder of the global social enterprise Craftivist Collective: creating universal products and services for people and organisations to do quiet, slow, transformative activism through craft. www.craftivist-collective.com

Lucy Neal is one of the founders of Transition Town Tooting and author of the forthcoming book 'Play for Time: Making Art as if the World Mattered", due to be published in early April by Oberon Books. Here she talked to Rob Hopkins about the book and what it looks like when art meets Transition.

Christophe is currently lead researcher for the Resources and Vectors theme of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). He recently co-authored a paper (with Paul Ekins) called "The geographical distribution of fossil fuels unused when limiting global warming to 2 °C", which is what we discuss with him here.

Pamela Boyce Simms is a Trainer for Transition US, convenes the Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH) a six-state consortium that facilitates the collaboration of Transition Town initiatives throughout the region. She also directs the Woodstock, NY Timebank and serves on the Board of the Hudson Valley Current, a local alternative currency. You can read more about her at http://commonbound.org/speaker/pamela-boyce-simms

Jen and her partner Grant spent a year, from 2008 to 2009, pledges to "try to buy no more 'stuff' and produce zero landfill waste for one year". This meant, as they put it, "no buying clothing or DVDs, no make-up or i-pods, no fancy running shoes, sparkley headbands or duct tape, no plastic patio lanterns, saran wrap or handmade pottery mugs. . . . you get the idea". You can read more about it, and about the film they made, at http://cleanbinproject.com/the-people/

Pandora Thomas is a permaculture teacher and designer, a writer and a public speaker. She is a founder of the Black Permaculture Network, of the Pathways to Resilience training programme, is a co-founder of Earthseed Consulting, and much more besides. See more at http://www.pandorathomas.com/bio/.

On the final day of the Atmos Totnes consultation Hub's current incarnation, we asked visitors how they found it as an experience. www.atmostotnes.org

On Friday December 5th, Rob Hopkins of Transition Network was the subject of an unusual version of Desert Island Discs. He chose 8 songs which were performed live by the Global Harmony and Viva choirs, as well as local band The Bogg Boys. The evening was compered by local poet Matt Harvey as Rob told his life story, illustrated by his chosen songs. The songs were 'Femme Fatale' (Velvet Underground 6:50), 'Friday Night and Saturday Morning' (The Specials 17:05), 'Teardrop'(Massive Attack 25:40), 'Song to the Siren'(Tim Buckley/This Mortal Coil 35:50), 'Da Pacem Domine'(Arvo Part 45:05), 'Place to Be' (Nick Drake 52:25), I'm Shaking(Jack White 1:06:40) and Be My Baby(The Ronettes 1:19:20). The evening raised £1,800 for Atmos Totnes.

A range of voices from the Atmos Totnes Hub on Friday and Saturday 28-29th November 2014.

James Furze has taken a different route to trying to help the Littlehempston cycle path near Totnes a reality, but not as a campaigner, rather as a mediator. How does one mediate in a polarised conflict, and what skills does one need? http://www.littlehempstoncyclepath.co.uk/

Azby Brown is an architect and design theorist whose in-depth study of Japan provides inspiration for the future of sustainable urban living. Raised in New Orleans, Azby originally studied theater and dance until a series of chance opportunities led him to move to Tokyo and build a life and career devoted to smart design. He has written books profiling the ingenuity of space-constrained Japanese architecture and showcasing the bold solutions from pre-industrial Tokyo to fend off environmental and resource catastrophe. Now serving as the director of a design lab and think tank, Azby connects the cultural, creative, and economic dots that illustrate the rich potential of sustainable design. He is the author of 'Just Enough: lessons in living green from traditional Japan'.

Some of the people who attended the Hub on 21st and 22nd November 2014 share how they found the experience.

Etienne de Montlaur, is one of the founders of www.thefoodassembly.com/en, a brilliant new tool for localising local food economies. He told us what The Food Assembly is, and how it works.

We asked four visitors to the Atmos Totnes Hub how they found the experience. www.atmostotnes.org

We asked three visitors to the Atmos Totnes Hub, Richard, Sue and Peter, for their thoughts on visiting...