"Voicing The Air" is a game which asks us to imagine humans and non-humans together in an assembly, jointly deciding green futures
From The Parliament of Things website
We received a stimulating mail this week from Perry Walker:
I've just been reading your Daily Alternative piece about Hanno Burmester. I'm in Berlin at present, so got to hear him speak at Innocracy, the conference he started. He talked about the need to create safe spaces in which people can experience bringing the well-being of future generations and More Than Humans into everyday thinking.
We tracked down the text of Hanno’s speech online, and the relevant passage is below. It was triggered by an exercise where Hanno had to imagine looking back from the 22nd century:
The human civilisation of the 21st century humans mastered a fundamental reconfiguration of how they related to life itself. A paradigmatic shift: in the 21st century, humans had given up the mistaken notion that they were superior to other life on earth.
In this moment, the Great Transformation of the 21st century showed itself as something that was far bigger than the mere realisation of radical political reforms. To me as future citizen, it presented itself as a new paradigm, even more fundamental than the so-called Enlightenment from early modern times. The 21st century changed how humans saw the world, and themselves in it.
if things go well, the history books of the 22nd century will describe the 21st century as an era of reconciliation. An era when human society re-integrated itself into the boundaries of the eco-system. An era when, for the first time since the beginning of modernity, humanity successfully balanced its immediate needs with those of non-human life and future generations.
Looking from this perspective, democracy has a historic moment to seize. In the coming years, it can become a driving force in reconciling our societies with the overall needs of humanity and non-human life.
For the first time in the history of modern democracy, we could create a balance between short-term interest and long-term needs, nations and human civilisation, human- and non-human life.
Grand words, I know. But I do indeed believe that, ultimately, this is what is at stake. When we discuss the ecological and social transformation we are currently facing, we discuss the fundamental rebalancing of short-term material and long-term systemic interest. A fundamental shift, not only in structure, but also in culture and worldview: how we as humans see us, our context, and how we relate to it.
Over the past decades, democracy (very successfully) focused on the individual, geared to facilitate individual liberty and happiness. It becomes increasingly clear that it must transcend this focus. What our time asks for is to give equal value to the collective and the systemic perspective: to ensure the long-term wellbeing not only of individuals, but also of mankind as a whole, as well as other life on earth. [More from Hanno here]
Our emailer continued:
This is exactly the aim of the Assembly of Humans and More Than Humans. I work on this with my wife, Marie-Pierre Leroux, an artist, who conceived the Assembly. We’ve run the Assembly in many contexts, including a school and with a group of artists in Indonesia. All online so far, but would work equally well face to face.
The Assembly is a role-playing game, titled “Voicing the Air”, which (as you’ll see from the embed below) gets participants to “voice” a range of actors in an environmental situation - anything from the wildlife, to the company itself, to other forms of agent. In the video, we’re in the midst of this scenario:
EDF, the multinational energy company, applied to construct a wind farm in rural Wales.
Energy constructions around the world encroach on wildlife.
Can Humans and More Than Humans come to a shared decision?
The aim is:
To co-imagine the story of air: learn and go away with a new set of skills
Discover a radical other point of view.
Observe, listen and learn of the complexity of energy and climate issues.
Bob Bollen’s Talk Shop elaborates on the rules:
Each participant chooses an Ambassadorship, an entity that they would like to represent. We have developed briefings, each around 300 words, for 20 possibilities from which they can choose. These include bats, eagles, the atmosphere, the earth and rare metals, alongside human entities and organisations such as future generations of the Inuit in Greenland, murdered Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, and EDF renewables. We also have 20 ‘context cards’ to provide further background.
Each Ambassador uses this material to decide their negotiating position. They then identify potential allies and negotiate alliances, as a prelude to seeking to reach agreement in the whole group. Each group is facilitated and consists of around six people, to make it possible to hold the event over two hours. There is time for groups to share their results at the end. Participants are sent the results after the event.
We’re wondering whether this Assembly has been informed by Bruno Latour’s idea of The Parliament of Things, as defined below:
What if we welcome all things, plants and animals to our parliament? The Parliament of Things is a speculative research into the emancipation of animals, plants and things.
We can no longer maintain the distorted dichotomy between culture and nature. We share this world with many. Law should not be centred around Men, but around Life. We are just one party, among all animals, plants and objects.
What if we welcome all things into our Parliament? What would be the plight of the planet? The reasoning of a fish? What claims would trees make, and what future would oil see for itself?
The Parliament of Things is an open space. We at Partizan Publik started building the Parliament after an invitation of Bruno Latour in 1991, and are playing the role of clerk by bringing it to you. You are invited to join.