In Search of the Pluriverse

Last September I was invited by Sophie Krier and Erik Wong of the Travelling Academy of the Nieue Instituut in the Netherlands to participate in a co-exploration of the Ross of Mull, to consider how design can reflect a world where diverse worlds exist, in the delightful company of Tim Collins and Reiko Goto from Glasgow, Anne van Leeuwen the Ambassador for the North Sea, Miek Zwamborn and Rutger Emmelkamp from Knockvologan, Mhairi Killin and Hannah Fisher.

Over four days, we were immersed in the ocean, harvested a monster of plastic, fished for alternative futures, delved into a hidden forest, and talked and talked and talked.

This part of Scotland sits at a wonderous confluence of seascape and landscape, of past, present and future, surface and depth. Often mis-described as ‘empty’, places like this, like the moor of Ness, and so many other parts of Scotland are full of interaction and potential, if only we have the eyes to perceive them.

Remote from many things that modern society is attached to, when we see such places in their own terms, we are able to value their abundance and recognise the things that more populated places are empty of and remote from, like balance with nature and awareness of space-time.

The conversations we had there at the fringe of Europe were great. There at the fringe where things unravel and you can perceive the weft and weave, pull at a thread and see where it takes you as the land tumbles into the sea and the sea washes over the land.

We live at a particular time of multiple challenges and points of connection. In order not to be overwhelmed, it is really important to be truly present in space and time, to recognise the past and understand its deep roots but not be burdened by it, to imagine a future of possibilities yet not fill it with fears, to see all this and recognise that our agency is only now in the present, here where we are today. That is surely what we mean by living.

You can listen to a series of our conversations recorded on Mull by Erik and Sophie, including mine here.