Be inspired

Creative Sparks

Below are some blogs, videos and books that have inspired us – please let us know if you’d like us to add anything to the collection.

“We do have the capability to effect dramatic change, but we’re failing because we’ve largely allowed our most critical tool to languish: human imagination. As defined by social reformer John Dewey, imagination is the ability to look at things as if they could be otherwise. The ability, that is, to ask What if? And if there was ever a time when we needed that ability, it is now.”

Rob Hopkins, ‘From What Is to What If’ has been a huge inspiration to us.

“If facts and figures changed things we would not be in
the midst of environmental breakdown. We would already be well on our way to creating a greener and fairer planet on which all species could thrive. Our challenge now is to create a longing for something better, to give ourselves the time and space to imagine and visualise what a different, brighter future might look like.”

Nicole Barton, Cambridge Carbon Footprint

“Mainstream culture finds it easy to imagine apocalypses – what would happen if temperatures rose 4 or 5 degrees or AI enslaved humans or even worse pandemics became the norm?

But we struggle to imagine positive alternatives: what our care or education systems, welfare, workplaces, democracy or neighbourhoods might be like in 30-40 years. And we appear to be worse at doing this than in the past.

This lack of desirable but plausible futures may be contributing to the malaise that can be found across much of the world. It’s certainly linked to a sense of lost agency and a deepening fear of the future.”

Geoff Mulgan

Recommended shorts

The Story of Change (6 minutes)

From the Story of Stuff team this 6 min short urges viewers to put down their credit cards and start exercising their citizen muscles to build a more sustainable, just and fulfilling world.

Resocialising Our Imagination (4 minutes)

With all the challenges we collectively face worldwide, we must imagine the future we want together.

A Failure of the Imagination (9 minutes)

Douglas McMaster opened his restaurant Silo hoping to change the unsustainable practices of modern food systems by creating an award-winning menu using zero-waste food. By Matt Hopkins/Progress Films – Silolondon.com.

Two Artists Set Up Their Own Power Station, What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (9 minutes)

Artists Dan Edelstyn and Hilary Powell are aim to build a solar “power station” across the rooftops (streets, schools, community buildings) of North East London

Be inspired

Creative Sparks

Below are some blogs, videos and books that have inspired us – please let us know if you’d like us to add anything to the collection.

Rob Hopkins, ‘From What Is to What If’ has been a huge inspiration to us.

“Mainstream culture finds it easy to imagine apocalypses – what would happen if temperatures rose 4 or 5 degrees or AI enslaved humans or even worse pandemics became the norm?

But we struggle to imagine positive alternatives: what our care or education systems, welfare, workplaces, democracy or neighbourhoods might be like in 30-40 years. And we appear to be worse at doing this than in the past.

This lack of desirable but plausible futures may be contributing to the malaise that can be found across much of the world. It’s certainly linked to a sense of lost agency and a deepening fear of the future.”

Geoff Mulgan

Links

Rob Hopkins Imagination Taking Power

Geoff Mulgan: The Imaginary Crisis

The Imaginary Crisis and how we might quicken social and public imagination

Camden Imagines

Camden Imagines was an 18 month project with Camden Council to build, scale and embed imagination activism in Camden.

Recommended shorts

The Story of Change (6 minutes)

The above were shown at the Haslingfield and Harlton Eco Group’s ‘Reimagining The Future Together’ Imaginarium event (Jan 2023)

Don’t miss a thing, sign up for our Newsletter

Who we are

What we do

What you can do

Contact us