Saturday, 5 September 2015

Dr. Greg Cajete: Rebuilding Sustainable Indigenous Communities

Dr. Greg Cajete spoke as part of the "Alternative Forms of Knowledge Construction in Mathematics and Science" lecture series in Portland, Oregon which is co-sponsored by Portland State University and Portland Community College. The series features guest speakers who examine forms of mathematical and scientific practice in a variety of cultural settings.


Native Science Presentation by Dr. Gregory Cajete 

 In honor of Native American Heritage Month, join Dr. Gregory Cajete, Native American educator and author of “Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence,” as he examines the levels of meaning that inform Native astronomy, cosmology, psychology, agriculture, and healing arts. Gain insight into the perspectives of indigenous peoples, whose ability to live in harmony with the land could steer us toward much-needed solutions in an age of environmental crisis.

Friday, 4 September 2015

Permaculture Design Course near Barcelona – October 2015

This October we are returning to the magical La Garrotxa, near Barcelona, for our 3rd Permaculture Design Course in Spain.


We are excited to offer a 17-day PERMACULTURE DESIGN CERTIFICATE (PDC) PLUS Course with over 90 hours curriculum, full of practical knowledge, hands-on experiences and design exercises in a place of great natural beauty.

The PDC program integrates with optional daily yoga sessions ,mindfulness practices, Deep Ecology/ Nature Connection exercises, outdoor learning and community living. The course takes place from the 2nd-18th of October 2015 in a wonderful, rural, stone house and stunning natural surroundings of La Garrotxa, near Girona and Barcelona. Participants will be immersed in an inspiring learning environment while living close to nature for the full duration of the course.

We have Rico Zook from the US joining us as the main facilitator. In addition to academic and professional credentials, Mr. Zook has spent more than 25 years living in nature, including long-term residencies in California’s Yosemite National Park, the demanding Sangria de Cristo Mountains of Northern New Mexico, and as a homesteader in Northern California wilderness. For more than a decade as Land Manager for the Lama Foundation, a spiritual community and retreat center North of Taos, NM, Mr. Zook designed and transformed the rugged, semi-arid high-altitude site that had been decimated by wildfire into one of beauty and productivity.

Outdoor learning with Rico during last year's PDC (La Garrotxa)

Using permaculture practices, a lifetime of observation and interpretation of the natural world and the knowledge of how to create human harmony with it, he has built a visible and successful permaculture demonstration and teaching site. It is a model of design, integrating the needs, resources and yields of community and nature in proactive and abundant ways with respectful and restorative impacts on the environment. Mr. Zook is a graduate of Sonoma State University, from which he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies focused on land restoration, with minors in Biology and Philosophy. You can find out more about his work here: www.i-permaculture.org

Kate and Roman from Soil Sun Soul have been involved in organizing and working with Permaculture and alternative education since 8 years in 5 Continents. Visit their blog here
http://soil-sun-soul.blogspot.com/

Our aim with Soil Sun Soul is to design and offer whole person learning experiences which aim to:
  • increase ecological literacy, 
  • empower individuals to design regenerative life systems using ecological principles, 
  • reconnect us to the Earth 
  • encourage holistic thinking and decision making. 
As Warren Brush says in his podcast interview: ¨The Permaculture Design Course is a basic training for living in the 21st century in a way that actually makes sense.¨ This course helps you to awaken to the fundamental patterns in nature and reconnect yourself to the web of life.

Once again, the course location is in the area of La Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park, in Catalonia, northeastern Spain. Some parts of the park, including the best preserved volcanic cones, are fully protected as nature reserves. The mountain landscape, the sun and climate provide a variety of vegetation, with holm oaks, common oaks and beech trees of exceptional value to the landscape.

Breathtaking landscapes of  La Garrotxa

The Mas Pujou Team: Artiz, Narcis, Carmen and Oliver came to this beautiful site in 2014. Their home is an ideal place to enjoy the peacefull nature and sorroundings.They started to work together in the forest, to renovate the old stone house and establish vegetable gardens.

The restored stone masia where we host the course at Mas Pujou


Stunning views from Mas Pujou


They also joined the CIC, Cooperativa Integral Catalan, a Transitional initiative for social transformation from below, through self·management, self·organization and networking.You can learn more about CIC here: http://cooperativa.cat/en/

The local Regenerative Agriculture Farm Planeses usally is our main organic, local food supplier. This project is another amazing initiative in the La Garrotxa area and we had the pleasure of volunteering there ourselves, planting and harvesting vegetables and taking care of chickens.We aim to support the local economy, by keeping money circulating in the neighbouring community and cooperating  with people from our local area.

Overview of Planeses Farm


This farm runs a  CSA project with over 90 custumers and is using cutting-edge direct marketing and regenerative agriculture techniques. During our 17 day PDC PLUS Course we also plan to visit this inspiring project.

Vegetable production at Planeses

This time, the Mas Pujou team will be organizing and preparing much of the delicious, healthy food we serve. It will be sourced from their organic gardens and from a local cooperative they are working with.

This 17 Day experience will give us time for some hands-on experiences on site at Mas Pujou.We also integrate optional morning yoga sessions. some midfullness practises and some Nature Connection excercises during the course. There will be a "Food as Medicine" talk by special guest Martina Wastl from PranaKitchen who will also share some of her delicious recipes to try.

Overall, this will be a one-of-a-kind experience as the Soil Sun Soul team always does its best to take  everyone involved on another transformational learning journey!



Slideshow from one of our past courses with Rico Zook in Spain here:



   
more slideshows here:
Soil Sun Soul Course Slideshows

We are looking forward to be learning,sharing and growing together! 

SOIL SUN SOUL Blogspot : http://soil-sun-soul.blogspot.com/

Thursday, 27 August 2015

Design thinking - Institute fuer partizipatives Gestalten - Germany

The Field-Process-Model

by Jascha Rohr & Sonja Hörster

Abstract
The field-process-model is a theoretical framework the Institute for Participatory Design developed to understand generative design processes as dynamic interactions of forces in a field. The development of this model became necessary after we encountered numerous theoretical and practical problems with the application of our former, more systemic oriented, understanding of pattern languages and design processes.

The field-process-model explores the idea that a field with its forces (as used in numerous pattern languages) is the spatial description of a process, which in turn is the temporal description of a dynamic field. The model gives us a good understanding of how generativity and emergence unfold and how we as designers can foster these qualities in our design processes. Beneath the question of the emergence of new (design) ideas, the model also helps to investigate qualities such as immergence, crisis or bifurcation and of cultivation for generative processes. With the framework the field-process-model describes, we can develop applicable tools and strategies for actual design. The goal is to design in open and flexible processes that are alive and create results that are alive.

http://www.partizipativ-gestalten.de/the-field-process-model/ 

Putting Grasslands to Work - Savory Institute


DARREN J DOHERTY making Permaculture mainstream IPC11 Cuba

DARREN J DOHERTY s talk at the International Permaculture Conference IPC11 Cuba "making Permaculture mainstream" with the regrarians movement as an example.


Darren Doherty: Keyline Design


Presentation on Keyline Farm Design by Darren Doherty of Regrarians - http://www.regrarians.org/. This was presented during Open Source Ecology's Open Source Mapping and Site Design Workshop. http://opensourceecology.org/open-sou...