A Time for Dreaming Fiercely
Post-election musings, in a holiday season
We’ve just emerged from a momentous U.S. election. As we awaited the results, full of trepidation, we sensed that the outcome, positive or negative, would sweep us in a novel direction.
How true that proved!
We persist in asking: What’s the world we want to live in?
Visions2030 was conceived in the wake of a first election bringing Donald Trump to the presidency (oh so long ago). One inspiration in our founding was bafflement at seeing so many contemporaries, rather than boldly taking action, obsessing at the latest outrage from one individual. (And, for his part, that individual seemed veritably to feed off our collective malice.)
What if we used that energy to dream new futures?
This led to a theory of imagination that we at Visions2030 have been cultivating. “What you hold in your consciousness, you attract” was a 1980s saying. Whether literally true or not, the act of detailing “preferred states”—Buckminster Fuller’s term for ideal scenarios—at the very least opens the mind to new possibilities. And at the very best it may, in some mysterious way (consciously or subconsciously), guide us to envisioned results.
Eight years later, here we are again! In fact, today’s political reality may be scarier: a President, more experienced, gathering loyalists, punishing enemies—the playbook of dictators. Our country hasn’t seen the like. It is vital to remain clear-eyed, even brutally so, about what lies ahead. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t, even now, start planting seeds for forward-looking futures, entertaining even the seemingly impossible.
Bombastic negativity can be oddly mesmerizing; we need to see past its seductions. Believe there is magic. Auspicious corridors await. We gather our strength. There are infinite stories to tell ourselves. Which helps us change the world for the better? The Ferris wheel of dystopia is always turning. If you feel yourself tempted to slip onto it, reach out for a Dreamer. We're right here.
In each moment, we begin again.
—Carey Lovelace
Visions2030 has been busy, the last months of 2024…
The Science of Hope with Activist and Leader Molly Kawahata
In September at New York City’s historic Union Theological Seminary, Visions2030 collaborated with former Obama White House Climate Advisor Molly Kawahata (left), who showed how the science of hope can galvanize the workplace and build leaders. Hope, she points out, is not a wish but an activity. During the two-day session, we were joined by changemakers from the media, arts, tech, VC, and sustainability. Kawahata is an award-winning speaker, strategist, advocate, and the founder of Systemic Impact Strategies, specializing in organizational development, climate strategy, and communications. (On the right, Visions2030 founder Lovelace)
Collective Dreaming, Episode #7: Post-Election Processing
On November 21 in Los Angeles’s Silverlake district, we staged the latest installment of our imagination-opening, future-oriented workshop, Collective Dreaming. A one-day curated experience to collaboratively envision where we want to move as a society, it uses a range of tools, plumbing the imagination and forming psychic connective tissue to foster joined and individual dreams. This particular session, led by Visions2030 team members, focused on working through our reactions to November’s election. Some 20 participants joined. A narrative arc of curated experiences included both the guided meditation (left) and group-design effort (right) pictured above.
Synch.Live: Might We Surpass Language to Intuitively Collaborate?
Synch.Live is a live-action game based on a groundbreaking algorithm. Developed by multimedia artist Hillary Leone in collaboration with scientists at Imperial College, Queen Mary University, and the University of Sussex, it is an exploration of non-language forms of communication, inspired by the natural phenomenon of “emergence,” in which flocks of birds or schools of fish make seemingly spontaneous collective decisions. Generated through Visions2030's Imaginator Start-Up, Synch.Live was featured November 15th-16th at the Los Angeles Music Center as part of IndieCade's Night Games. Participants don wearable technology and follow simple rules. (The Imaginator Start-Up invites artists to conceive a wild idea that can be applied to a societal challenge, pairing them with practical problem-solvers who help bring ideas into fruition.) (For more about Night Games, see this LA TIMES article).
The Immersive Lumisphere and Ideal Eco-Futures
The Lumisphere is set for an international tour in 2025! (More on this soon.) The three-dome environment invites visitors through a spectacular audio-visual journey to envision their ideal eco-futures. It debuted at California Institute of the Arts last year, created in collaboration with legendary design studio Minds Over Matter. In a final dome, a customized AI platform creates a dazzling LED representation of each person’s “eco-utopia,” displayed in a digital gallery. After exiting, participants can also enter a Mentoring Tent where trained guides provide resources to turn dreams into reality. The global itinerary will conclude in 2030 — the target date of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Riffing at Rip Space: Visions2030 Re-Engages Our LA Community
On Saturday, November 16th, we gathered with members of our Los Angeles community in a renegade loft environment in the DTLA Arts District. Rip Space is a radical “third place” that explores technology and radical paradigms (in the spirit of riotous disobedience and disorder). Founded by Visions2030 alums/collaborators John Threat and Vera Petukhova, it showcases experiments with new media, screens, and other emergent art forms. Some 50 guests from many threads of the LA scene reconnected — occasioned by the staging, at the Music Center’s IndieCade festival of Hillary Leone's live-action Synch.Live. Stay tuned! 2025 promises more West Coast events.…
Brilliant climate activist Molly Kawahata, subject of the Patagonia film The Scale of Hope, points to the role of vision in bringing systemic change. “We're all trying to work toward a better future,” she says. “But we have to be able to envision it. Without that, it's hard to motivate people to take action. Being able to show this ‘Promised Land’ can be everything.” Dreams are magnets for hope—and thus for action.
Please have wonderful holidays…from Visions2030.