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University of the Trees for Ecological Citizenship

Ecological citizenship’ is the focus of the evolved UOT, firmly connecting its enquiry into our relationship and ways of engaging with the world ‘out there’ with questions of citizenship. Its form -a mobile, alternative ‘university’ whose approach encourages the generation of transdisciplinary micro-projects,’- shares many motivations with Beuys’ ‘Free International University’ and the free universities movement and reflects the ‘educational turn in aesthetics’.

Its core questions: ‘What is knowledge, and how do we know?’ and ‘What and how do we need to learn to enable internal and external shifts, and to develop new capacities to respond creatively to today’s challenges, including climate crisis, progress, growth, the commons, and viable forms of community?’ are explored through participatory, embodiment practices and social sculpture based dialogue processes. A central aim is -in the language of Goethean, phenomenological methodology- to develop ‘new organs of perception’ that promote holistic understandings and increase empathy, internal mobilization and connective action.

Partners of many kinds reflect UOTs varied uses and constituencies. Arts, cultural, activist and sustainability organisations active in UOT’s evolution, its methodologies and its micro-projects, serve as dialogue partners, both trialing new forms and training ‘responsible participants/facilitators’ (i.e. Climate Fluency Exchange, South Africa; CCANW, Exeter; Citizen’s Art Days, Berlin). Other collaborations (e.g. Transition Towns-Kassel; the European Permaculture Convergence; Nobel Laureates Climate Symposium; MCA Think-Tank, Zagreb) invite and host micro-projects such as Earth Forum, furthering the micro-project itself or forming a UOT group [Berlin, Kassel, Bangalore] to use the methodologies to co-create new UOT programmes and practices.

Through Earth Forum, in particular, we have witnessed the value of connective aesthetic practices across sectors and cultures, understood how to scale-up such methods without undermining individual experience and evaluated the capacity of such work to mobilize people internally, demonstrating the connection between aesthetics and response-ability: enlivened imagination and an ability-to-respond.