Wow, I never anticipated this project to continue into the summer! I want to thank everyone for watching and listening, and take a moment to revisit what The Mission Log is all about.
When I attended the BFI Spacecamp: On Climate Stabilization I did not have time to join a mission, but I noticed that both the mission introductions and the mission share outs at the end were only 5 minutes per project, and I had some phenomenal conversations with other attendees during the camp. I was speaking with Mark Roest and it’s like he and I had had the exact same idea at the exact same time. “Why don’t you start a podcast where you interview the leaders from each of the missions in a longer format so we can get to know everybody better?” he said, mere moments after I’d thought it too.
I’ve had some incredible conversations in the last 6 months, and I still have more ground to cover: I am now 10 missions in to a total of about 18 missions listed on Airtable, and have to consider if I might begin to reach into past and future Spacecamps. Please let me know if you find this valuable and worth continuing.
I want to also remind everyone that I post both the audio episode and the video version at the top of these emails, and that is the main content of the work. Numbers seem to suggest that some people are reading the show notes (what usual goes here, and will be contained below) but may not be watching the interview. Again, thank you for your continuing support of the work, and I hope you get much value out of it. Please consider supporting the work as a paid subscriber if you’d like, and I do plan on keeping this content up for free to make these conversations available to the community. If you find an episode particularly relevant, please share it with a friend or colleague. Also, please reach out to each other if you are a member of the community and want to participate in a relevant collaboration!
Episode notes:
This is a special Mission Log episode and a continuation of the Design Science Synarchy Mission series (Stephen Bau, Mark Smith… Veronica Anderson).
Veronica Anderson is a member of the Design Science Studio and also a member of the Design Science Synarchy mission. The Synarchy was created to support the founders of the DSS and synarchy is a form of joint-governance.
I open the show by inviting Veronica to lead a centering meditation, a practice that has been a part of Design Science Studio meetings and was a welcome addition to the latest Space Camp. Veronica studied Zen Buddhism for over 15 years, and was a student of the late Thich Nhat Hanh.
As an architect, Veronica notes that only 10% or 15% of architects are women. She wonders how that influences our built environments and if, in turn that might be influence how we collectively think, feel and act? In her work she aims to design structures that work in partnership with nature. “I was studying sustainability in architecture school, and they're teaching us that this was an alternative to development practices. And I thought, that's crazy. Why would we do anything that's not sustainable? How could we perpetuate something that we know to be unsustainable and detrimental?”
Her project submitted to the Design Science Studio called Home Dash aims to provide a platform to see Earth’s heartbeat so that people can collaboratively design regenerative global systems, help communities and their makers optimize local actions for maximum positive impact, in climate action and sustainable development. (This reminds me a lot of The Flywheel Project.)
We also talk about how our measurement of time has been a tool of colonialization fueling trends like hyper-productivity. Veronica shares a little about living in Costa Rica, and about the healing process she works with calls “ensoulment.” (A bonus episode called Ensoulment on my other podcast, The Language of Creativity).
Veronica’s life and work are inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s quote: “You don’t belong to yourself, you belong to the universe.”
Veronica Anderson:
veronica.earth
Substack: The Regenerist
IG: @vero.earth
IG: @visionaryarch
Studio Sanadora
Home-Dash
GaiaTica (via YouTube)
Other Design Science Synarchy episodes:
Stephen Bau: Design Science Synarchy (YouTube)
Mark Smith: Electrons + Protons + Consciousness (YouTube)
The Design Science Studio
https://www.designscience.studio
The Buckminster Fuller Institute
https://www.bfi.org
Trimtab Spacecamp Community
trimtab.substack.com
Scott Thrift’s Clocks
https://thepresent.is
Stephen Bau’s Circular Calendar
theapocrypha.substack.com
Veronica Anderson: Inner and Outer Architecture