Are you passionate about tackling climate change and sustainability? Do you want to explore building bridges between diverse realities, experiences and disciplines as method for imagining and working towards a more inclusive society? Join the CrAFt Student Think/Do Tank: Imagining Sustainable Cities.

During this workshop, you can be part of an interdisciplinary group of students that will speculate about sustainable, beautiful and inclusive cities of the future through weaving their personal and societal pasts and presents together. Interdisciplinary encounters and collaborations are an essential ingredient for imaginations that challenge the global urgency for climate-neutral cities. On the other hand, local specificities are as influential and essential to social innovation as understanding the global conditions. In this workshop you will learn to connect local experiences with a global mind-set, and co-creative methods to explore alternative futures.

Through exercises and mapping of diverse and shared experiences as well as knowledge among participants about sustainability, inclusion and aesthetics, the group will explore collective imaginations of what a sustainable future might look, smell, sound and feel like.

This workshop is a pilot session for the CrAFt student think/do tank initiative, consisting of pan-European conversations across all disciplines about climate neutrality in cities. Powered by the CrAFt Horizon Europe project, contributing to the 112 Climate-Neutral Cities Mission and New European Bauhaus, the think/do tanks promote youth-driven, participatory methods for resilience, sustainability and climate neutrality.

Who is it for?
Are you a BA or MA student at Aalto University or Uniarts Helsinki? Are you interested in interdisciplinary work and climate action and do you want to meet other students with the same interests? Do you want to explore what encounters between diverse local experiences - including your own - can mean for societal change, and find out how the personal is political? Join this workshop!

Practical details

What: Interdisciplinary workshop including shared lunch
Date and time: 22 November 9:00–12:00 followed by a lunch from 12:00–13.00  
Where: Aalto university, Väre building on Otaniemi campus, lecture room Q101
Workshop leader: Sanne Karssenberg

*Registrations for this event are open exclusively to students from Aalto University and Uniarts Helsinki (all disciplines and faculties).

Bio Sanne Karssenberg
Sanne Karssenberg is a programme maker, process designer and educator in arts and design. Her work has a strong focus on design as an interface for enhancing socio-political interactivity between people and their surroundings. Her recent work includes programme making at Bureau Ruimtekoers, a platform for participatory art practices and project coordination for Civic Praxis at art institute BAK, basis voor actuele kunst. She teaches design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, amongst other art institutes in the Netherlands.

In collaboration with ELIA, the globally connected European network of higher arts education, Sanne is involved in CrAFt as process designer and curates interdisciplinary student workshops.

Additionally, we will make available a limited number of free passes for workshop participants to join the interactive session ‘Claiming a Role in Climate Action’ (23 November, 14:30-18:30).

‘Claiming a Role in Climate Action’ is part of the ELIA Biennial Conference ‘No Stone Unturned’, taking place at Uniarts Helsinki, Sörnäinen Campus, from 23 to 26 November. The ELIA Biennial Conference is established as a major event for a large number of institutes of higher arts education from all over the world with over 400 delegates. It is a wonderful opportunity to connect to peers, artists, educators, researchers and university leadership on the topic of climate action and environmental sustainability.

(The number of passes available depends on event capacity. If fewer passes are available than the number of interested students, these will be allotted through a draw.)