We engage our most profound, imaginative capacities through social play

The most important thing I’ve learned in the last few years of reflecting on transformational creative practices is the importance of vivid co-created imaginaries for the future and the importance of expanding ideas of care in these imaginaries. Expanding and deepening connection with living bodies and living systems that make up the land, the seas and the skies. And learning more about what we need to survive, let alone thrive. There are two very important things to pay attention to in the co-creation of such imaginaries. One is that we respect what is now, that we work together to build the most multi-dimensional view possible of the political dynamics, infrastructures and desires of both individuals and the communities that they’re nested in. We dig, we explore, we document. We uncover together the difficulties, conflicts and the harms. The second strand is that we engage our most profound and playful, imaginative capacities through social play. And here’s the outcome. So this is a dog with two tails, which in the UK was the word vernacular. A dog with two tails is like the happiest dog you will ever meet. And the dog’s imagination was the biggest ball you can imagine.

First, let’s think about imaginaries for the future. So I was listening to David Graeber talk and he made this observation that, like once you think about it, I think it’s really interesting. He said that after the seventies, sci-fi stopped giving us exciting new imaginaries for the future. So, no more exciting social imaginaries. Instead, what we have is dystopias. And if we don’t have visions to work towards collectively, then, we’re stuck in the now and the systems that are given to us that trap us, that keep us in what lots of people now recognize as harmful. Harmful to the environment and harmful to all living things systems. So the importance of a vivid imaginary is something that we might want. Something that we might want to build together. It is that we can all hold it in our minds and in our hearts and know what we’re aiming towards. And the importance of building them together is that it holds our mutual desires. So the desires that cross over, the desires that conflict. And we have a way of understanding how these things might be negotiated. And the more fascinating, strange and exciting it is to our inner children, the harder we’ll fight for it.