By Lindsey Colbourne

“Precarity is the condition of our time - the condition of being vulnerable to others. We can’t rely on the status quo; everything is in flux, including our ability to survive. There might not be a collective happy ending.

The only reason this sounds odd is that most of us were raised on dreams of modernisation and progress

As progress tales lose traction, it becomes possible to look differently”

Anna Tsing, The Mushroom at the End of the World

A context

These words of Anna Tsing are in my mind a lot at the moment when the perfect (awful) storm of what is happening in the Ukraine - and similar around the world, Syria, Yemen, Mayanmar - highlights the precarity of the world.

On Thursday night I was part of a small bilingual discussion about Ukraine and what we could do. It illustrated the power of conversation to build community and understanding of complexity and action (and if anyone is wanting to join the conversation, it will continue in Siop Y Garreg, Llanfrothen on Thursdays 6pm).

We found ourselves questioning how and when and why and where we decide to act, and for whom - of what is making people (us) act in Ukraine and yet not in others - Syria, Yemen, Mayanmar - and how not to make things worse?

We talked of the need for - and amazing examples of - solidarity and allyship with the people of the world trying to survive violence, food shortages, food poverty, homelessness, loss of freedom vs the brutal powers of those with most, their control and wars founded on oil, profit and climate change, borders, land grabs and food shortages, hatred and inequality.

One of the ideas we discussed was the need to hear from dissenting Russian and Ukrainian voices, and this resonated for me with the founding idea behind Utopias Bach is that we want to seek out, listen to, learn from and support those that don’t usually have a voice in the ‘mainstream’, those who are most affected by the state of the world and its transition.

Those of us raised in the UK, at the heart of the most domineering culture in the world, one which has extractionism, exploitation and the normative needs of those with most dominating those with least. By design, it dismisses, crushes and coopts all signs of dissent and difference.

You can see this when young leaders such as Txai Suruí, Greta Thunberg, schools strikes are dismissed primarily as naive, when in reality, “What is certain is that we can no longer tell ourselves the same old stories. Suspense prevails on all fronts” - Bruno Latour

Looking differently

What if one of the things we can do is to take Anna Tsing’s challenge “As progress tales lose traction, it becomes possible to look differently”? Can we give space to new ways of being? What happens when we invite young people to dream freely, when we give permission for their radical imagination to fly?

Some of our earliest Utopias Bach ‘experiments’ involved working with young people, in small towns and rural areas including Gwalchmai (Ynys Mon) and Llandysul in Ceredigion. Working with Mark Gahan and Dyfodol Gwledig (Rural Futures), we wanted to find out what would young people create, if we gave permission for their radical imagination to run free. And could we engage adults in their dreams, without smothering and mis-interpreting their visions under our own assumptions...

“I think a lot of good creative place-based practice is going on with children,
it maybe just isn't taken as seriously or seen as important as research with/by adults”

- Teresa Walters, Rural Futures

Our vision of Gwalchmai in the future - Ysgol y Ffridd, Gwalchmai

Gwalchmai is the ‘poorest’ rural Ward on Anglesey with 36.4% of households earning below 60% GB income.

This is what the children at Ysgol y Ffridd (blwyddyn 3-6) dreamt Gwalchmai could be in the future, after taking their time machines to 2050:

“Imagine a future Gwalchmai, one where there are threats - from technology, drones, robots and the weather - but where the community comes together to look after each other, and where necessary to defend Gwalchmai from attack.

It’s a colourful Gwalchmai, with all sorts of different houses, and fruit trees and flowers all around. Everyone has have a place to live. There will be no rubbish. Good food is be available to all, and free for those who can’t afford it. In fact money is not important anymore.

People who make decisions, or who have more than others look after other people. People who behave badly are not able to hurt other people. Children are involved in decisions and in designing things. Learning is flexible, sometimes in school, sometimes outside, sometimes from home, and there are places for outdoor education for adults and children together, and for people new to the area, learning about growing things, food, cooking, nature and the Welsh language.

There is also helpful techology like robots who can make rainbow pancakes, and people have a close and often magical relationship with animals and plants and land. The park includes places to sit and play, places for mushrooms and animals, and ponds for fishing. There are orchards of tropical trees and there will be more (small) farms.

We are able to get around without polluting cars, it will be safe to walk and bike and hoverboard,and we can buy things we need locally, and shops to get treats. We are healthy, and there is no Corona: There are all sorts of places to play and meet and gather and take exercise, for children of all ages, including for teenagers and people with disabilities. And we gather together for parties in small groups and as a whole village.

And there are all sorts of different types of work available, often we do more than one job, not for the money (because that isn’t important anymore) but because they are things we enjoy.

Oh, and Gwalchmai is famous for its time machines, and dragons!”

Working with radical imagination

In the face of a global news media full of dystopian and inflammatory coverage, is this not the radical imagination that we need, to remind us that things could be different … and that we the adults, find hard to access?

All this came back to me recently on discovering the work of Alicja Rogalska, who is using speculative fabulation and utopia as methods of critically addressing crises of imagination. In one of her works, ‘Dreamed Revolution’, she worked with a hypnotist in łodz, Poland… it is striking to me that while hypnotised, adults come up with so such similar visions of an ideal future as the children in Gwalchmai.

I’m not quite sure why I feel the need to boil things down, but these are the common themes I could spot:

1. Integral (magical) connection with nature

2. Through community, everyone has access to what they need

3. Technology in its place

4. Intergenerational relationships, learning, language and culture

5. Dystopia is present too

When we took the ideas of Ysgol y Ffridd to the wider community at “Gwalchmai Ddoe Heddiw Yfory - Past Present Future” at Canolfan Henoed, the adults were very muted on their ideas for the future, and openly recognised the strength of the young people’s vision. They were a lot stronger on remembering, and this was surprisingly impactful combination, because it turned out that if we learn from the past of Gwalchmai, we know some of these things in the children’s vision are possible: See the full report here

Planting the future

Meanwhile, in Gwalchmai, Mark Gahan reports that “A Utopias Bach is starting at Ysgol y Ffridd, planting a food garden with Propagating Dan (who won a silver at the Chelsea Flower Show). The design - completed this week - includes kiwis and grapes, as requested!

Efo diolch i Ysgol y Ffridd, Canolfan Henoed, Mark Gahan, Rural Futures, Seran Dolma a Samina Ali

Update: May 2022: all planted!

With thanks to Mark Gahan for the photos

Other links:

More on our work with schools

Guided visualisations

The Gwalchmai Experiment page

In Ukraine, a Utopian Mindset towards Art