Nolita Mvunelo: Why a residency and where did the idea come from?

Evgeniya Altukhova: The idea itself is far from new. With the emergence of participatory art in the 1960s, artist and other placements in different contexts have been used widely since. A Nobel prizewinner, biologist and geneticist Paul Nurse in his book “What is life?” argued that despite all the knowledge we possess now, we only scratch the surface of understanding how abstract and imaginative thoughts are generated, and by extension what self-awareness and consciousness are. Since we cannot rely only on traditional sciences to grasp these mechanisms, a poet, a novelist or an artist can help us understand what it really means to be creative.

In the current situation, where the complexity of challenges in our societies is driving us further away from acknowledging solely the individual but instead pushes us to have to think and solution at the global level, we need all intellectual backgrounds to come together to teach us new ways of knowing that transcend our short-term timelines and individual perspectives. So, in an innovation space, like the Beyond Lab, it seemed only right to have a Resident from a scientific background, namely a chemical engineer. We are also currently discussing how to integrate more artists and philosophers into the Lab’s work on affective sciences.

With the Club of Rome you already do a lot of interdisciplinary work, so what interested in you in joining this project specifically?
‍

Nolita: At this point in my career, I’ve had several opportunities to develop and implement projects, businesses, or initiatives with high-ambition goals. I am deeply invested in ideas that I believe could significantly advance long-term sustainable prosperity in Africa. My experiences have equipped me with the skills to transform ideas into tangible processes and organisations. This often involves bringing together individuals and organisations that represent different skill sets and knowledge. At the Club of Rome, I’ve learned how this significantly enhances the relevance and quality of projects. However, I have yet to stretch my own ability to create compelling ideas. This presents an opportunity for me to invest time exploring what it would take to challenge some of my deeply held assumptions about making progress on the issues I observe in the community and beyond.

Having someone from the outside, has it changed how you view and do your work?

Evgeniya: The United Nations is often criticised that its mandate is too meta, the impacts on the ground might not be visible or quick enough. For me personally, diving into artistic and scientific research on complexity, uncertainty and adaptive systems revealed that very often such work also cares for the micro level work such as ethnographical research, looking into local and communal cultures. Working with you made me realize that the most immediate, accessible and potentially the most transformative level of impact is indeed local.

Can you tell me what you are working on at the moment within the Residency?

Nolita: We are evaluating whether cross-sectoral partnerships at the local governance level can facilitate prosperity despite the ever-increasing crises.

When trying to get a grasp of all the challenges that we are facing, especially those dealing with sustainability, it is hard not to be meta. Sustainability is systemic and complex, and the impacts are not evenly or equitably distributed. The institutions and mechanisms that exist to coordinate or help make sense of these issues are often at risk of losing the nuance necessary for implementation at the local level. In other words, they can be far removed from the being and doing. On the other side, over the past two years, I’ve had discussions with local officials and other leaders who are deeply concerned about how to make the correct decisions in an environment of never-ending problems and crises. Actually, you and I, have both spoken to leaders who have expressed this anxiety.

Curiously, there are many initiatives working to support local governments with this particular problem. So, the real question we aim to explore here is: what’s missing?

What do you think of this work? Why do you think it's pertinent today?

Evgeniya: The balance between solving both the pressing issues of ‘now’ and those ‘in the future’ is quite hard to maintain in both policymaking and business. I don’t think anyone has cracked this challenge yet and maybe we do not actually need that. What I gather from conversations in my professional and personal life is that there is a certain level of anticipation, a feeling that ‘something is coming up”. It is hard to plan in a crisis, for both what we should do and how we should be. Which means that we certainly need more opportunities and better conditions for a new version of “us” to potentially emerge. In other words, we need better conditions to foster new ways of mutual learning, and to carry deeper levels of understanding of systems we are part of. Better capacities to navigate complexity and uncertainty will foster a whole different generation of practitioners.

What are your hopes for this work, what change or impact do you wish to see?

Nolita: That depends on what we learn through our enquiry. If what we learn is within my means to implement (i.e. within the scope of the Club of Rome’s Fifth Element Platform’s activities) then I plan to start implementing it.

At the very least, I hope to contribute to the general knowledge of local governance and societal innovation in a situation of polycrisis. The opportunity of bringing together the Beyond Lab and the Club of Rome ensures the insights reach the right people who will find utility in these findings.

‍