How can we visualize an economy built on solidarity, sustainability, and survival—instead of exploitation, extraction, and extinction?
Given multiple interconnected crises, there is an urgent need to devise new kinds of structures that let us weave resilient relations with each other and the world we live in. Data visualisation is typically used to represent what is, but rarely how things could and maybe should be.
This project takes on the challenge to visualise organisational structures that hardly exist yet, but are foreshadowed in the experimental configurations of cooperatives, projects, and initiatives. To seek inspiration we visit organisations that are committed to social-ecological transformation and operate on principles of social and environmental justice. These organisations share their experiences and offer opportunities to see innovative ways of working together, making decisions, and cultivating cooperation in critical times.
A nomadic course encouraged reflection about work and the economy.
Each session was defined by a key topic accompanied by a key reading and a range of visual materials.
WIGWAM eG - Kommunikationsagentur
INFOTEXT - Agentur für Content & Grafikdesign
SMartDe eG - Genossenschaft für Selbständige
Regionalwert AG Berlin Brandenburg
Backstube Vollkornbäckerei
gruppe F Berlin - Freiraum für alle GmbH
Regenbogenfabrik e.V. - Kinder-, Kultur- und Nachbarschaftszentrum
SuperCoop Berlin - This is not a SuperMarket
Madia Potsdam - Gemeinschaft, Café und Familienwohnzimmer
„We‘re tired of trees. We should stop believing in trees, roots and radicals. They‘ve made us suffer too much. All of arborescent culture is founded on them, from biology to linguistics.“
– Deleuze und Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus
The extension of alternative working structures and its influence on our way of thinking
In a work environment majorily defined by traditional companies organised in hierarchical ways cooperatives emerge as alternative working structure. Due to their individual characteristics their growth process is as unique as every organisation that follows these structures. The evolving of these new forms of work not only affects our current working environment, but also shapes our way of thinking on different levels with collective values and principles such as responsibility and autonomy, ownership, equity as well as democracy.
Interactive solution
As main result I decided to create an interactive data visualisation allowing a playful approach to the topic of coops.
Large format poster as analogue result
Additionally to the digital version, a huge poster in the size of 49cm x 180cm to convey the insights gained during the course, was designed.
