Launching Annotations

About two years ago, I started a dialogue series called Reboot2030. The idea was to engage with transformational leaders, the people in other words who through their thinking and campaigning try to pave the way for the transition to a sustainable, regenerative economy and a better life for all.

Whilst this has been an amazing journey so far (our Reboot2030 fall season starts on 31 October with a dialogue on carbon bonds with Wall Street legend Robert Litterman), the breakthrough projects and big ideas Reboot2030 inevitably focuses on tell only half the story. Without a conscious commitment to a different, a more sustainable, ideally regenerative way of living – I would call it a ‘cultural revolution’, if the term didn’t carry such negative connotations – most of these efforts will be in vain and both the transformation of our economy and the renewal of our democracies/societies won’t happen.

Annotations, my new dialogue series addresses this issue and therefore focuses, not on what people do, but on how they do it, and why. Since I deeply believe that the arts have a critically important role to play in helping us understand what a just and sustainable life and future might look like, I am focusing for this series on cultural practitioners, their strategies and practices.

To this end, I am calling on all producers of culture, on choreographers, musicians and dancers, on artists and architects, on writers, performers and directors, on anyone really, who has developed an integrated and sustained practice or ‘praxis’ within the arts or creative industries anywhere…

… to reflect on both the defining currents and crises of our time, and to share with us how these currents and crises are impacting and, in some cases, are motivating their practice.

Hence, I take great pleasure in welcoming as my first guest Dougald Hine, the author of At Work in the Ruins: Finding Our Place in the Time of Science, Climate Change, Pandemics & All the Other Emergencies (February 2023), who together with his partner created HOME, as a ‘school for culturemakers’ in 2018.

When a few days ago someone asked Dougald whether he actually considered himself a full-time writer his answer was ‘yes’, not because he earns a living entirely from royalties or freelance work, but because he says he has reached a point where all the work he does is part of a weave of activity that feeds into and grows out of writing that he wants to be doing. In this dialogue we will be exploring that further and look at how his practice informs and shapes his life.

So, please do join me for our first Annotations to the writing, politics and life of Dougald Hine on youtube.com/@nnotationz on Tuesday, 25 October at 4:00 PM CET. Should you miss the live-stream, you will find it later also on annotations.art and as a podcast across all leading podcast platforms.

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Note: The launch of Annotations and dialogue with Dougald Hine was originally planned for 24 October, but had to be postponed by a day at short notice because of a technical issues.