How can humanity truly transform its future? In the text below, Jenny Grettve, EIT Culture & Creativity’s Head of Transformation, outlines her vision for the best path forward.
As a human, it’s sometimes easy to fall into narrow perspectives. Through both space and time, we tend to move around in fields we recognise and where we understand which methods or processes to use for problem solving. However, if we aim to transform society on a scale that can have true impact, we need to step out of our comfort zones and look at both ourselves and the work we do with new mindsets and visions.
To think about change and transformation is not a new topic. Throughout times humanity has pondered on potential possibilities and ways of improving our lives. Innovation and creativity have existed within humans since the very first dawn. And through the shift of society, humanity has been shaped equally. We are intertwined; our inner lives and the outer landscapes we keep building. It is within this merging of spaces that culture and creativity have a powerful role. It is the space where what we feel, and what we construct, can truly meet.
In October 1554, the book of poems ‘Rime di Madonna Gaspara Stampa’, was published posthumously. The author, Gaspara Stampa, is considered to have been the greatest female poet of the Italian Renaissance, many even regarded her as the greatest of any age. While reading her lyrics, it’s easy to understand her views of the world, the pain and the joy she seem to live through is in many ways the same pain and joy we experience today. The societal transformation we wish to see comes in many shapes, but the core remains the same. A safe and beautiful life for everyone.
This Spring, EIT Culture & Creativity’s Transformation team has laid a few important building blocks. We have worked hard to shape including and collective pathways building on previous work done by the organisation while at the same time moving forward towards meaningful projects with high impact for European social cohesion. We have requested services to help us scale deep and better support the aim of us being a learning organisation. And for the upcoming autumn, there are a large amount of exciting spaces to be explored. Through our work with Transformation Agents we hope to create experts that can change societies through culture and creativity. This will be explored during a 3 month long course for 30 agents and they will receive coaching, facilitation and lessons in a broad holistic way. Our Cities & Regions Network is steadily growing and will have an important gathering in Amsterdam in October during the World City Forum. The Strategic Topic Groups are expanding, the work together with New European Bauhaus is in deep development and our work on resilience through the Resilience Roadmaps will be activated in the autumn with an important conference in November.
But before we get there, let’s embrace summer. Most of the time, it is in the quiet spaces that creativity truly thrives. When we step out of the persevering everyday life and slow down, our systems often seem to have a chance to reveal the best within us. Many famous thinkers, Einstein being one of them, promoted stillness as a key factor to their work. We hope that we can all acquire some of that tranquility, even when the world is shaking, to find the creativity needed for transforming society.
Rime 111
By Gaspara Stampa
Place me where ocean breaks with angry roar,
Or where the waters lie serene and calm,
Place me wherever sun shoots sparks that scorch
Or where the ice pierces with sharpest pain,
Place me beside the frozen Don, by Ganges
Where the sweet dew and manna are distilled,
Or where the bitter air sparkles with poison,
Wherever people laugh and cry for love.
Place me where cruel, heartless Scythians strike,
Or where the people live in peace and quiet,
Or where one lives and dies, too soon, too late
I shall live as I’ve lived, be what I’ve been,
As long as my two faithful stars still shine
And will not turn their light away from me.
