The Assembly of Humans and More Than Humans

The Assembly will decide on a rural issue, whether to approve a planning application to build a wind farm in wild hills. All the participants take on a role. Some are indeed ‘More Than Human’: they might be the wind itself, a soaring eagle or a bat. Unlike, say, the COP climate negotiations, More Than Humans are part of the negotiations, on an equal footing with humans. As an Assembly participant noted,

In real world negotiations, More Than Humans don’t have voices at all, so it totally warps the outcome.

The involvement of More Than Humans means that the Assembly comes up with policies that are more radical and more ambitious than politicians ever come up with.

There are two ways to take part:

• Participate in the Assembly itself. There will be a safe online environment, with a facilitator. People need a laptop – mobiles and tablets won’t be enough.

• Alternatively, step out of your home as bat, hawk or air, and participate in the Assembly by sharing your feelings. People also need a laptop, and a Facebook account.

For more about the Assembly, visit the website: https://www.voicingtheair.org/ and watch a short video of a previous Assembly at https://www.voicingtheair.org/the-game/

Facilitated by Perry Walker, Paul Thistlethwaite and Neil Burchell from JUST DUST, a collective of artists, facilitators and many others.

The deadline to register is midnight on 20th September.

The Assembly has been developed by JUST DUST - an intergenerational, multidisciplinary collective of Franco-Anglo-Welsh artists, designers, game inventors, facilitators, farmers, geographers, scientists, engineers and poets.

The co-artistic directors of JUST DUST are Marie-Pierre Leroux and Finn Strivens. Other members include Perry Walker, formerly head of the Democracy Programme at the New Economics Foundation and co-founder of Talk Shop (www.talkshopuk.org), Paul Thistlethwaite, founder of Thinking Box (http://thinkingbox.info/), and graphic designer Katie Brymer.