The Town That Could Be – A time travel journal from Reading 2045
A project aimed to empower the citizens of Reading to imagine the sustainable future of the town and to map out its Just Transition through co-creation workshops, storytelling and speculative design
Reading | Started on 08/01/2021 – Concluded on 30/09/2021
“The Town That Could Be. A Time-travel journal from Reading 2045”, is a Transition Bounce Forward project aimed at getting the people from Reading thinking and imagining together what they want the future of their town to look like and mapping out the steps to get there. TBF is an initiative of Transition Towns Network financed by the National Lottery Community fund aimed at helping communities bounce forward in their transition path towards a sustainable, just and inclusive future.
The project involved people from different backgrounds in a series of imagination workshops, delivered via Zoom for now, where they could express through oral narratives or other media their wishes for the future and engage in productive discussion with other interested people. Between March and June Commando Jugendstil held a total of 6 workshops on topics ranging from Housing to Green Spaces and from Food to Disability Rights, two topical workshops on Reading Gaol and BBC Caversham Park, plus a special event on Food and Abundance at the Lavender Place Community Garden.
The results from the workshops and events have been weaved together into a book: a series of short stories and illustrations by the professionals of Commando Jugendstil, supplemented by a selection of contributions from local experts and activists, which together form a sort of “Travel Diary from the Future”, describing what the town envisioned by the participants could look like. The aim of the book is to inspire the residents of Reading towards engaging with the Transition by re-interpreting their wishes, hopes and needs into something more concrete which they can experience through words and images. The book has been distributed freely to schools, faith groups, and local activist groups and associations involved in the Just Transition or in related fields.
More info & Social Media
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G7lyit5I4ZVj_aWKhix3rHn-cCzUIUWV/view?usp=sharing
https://twitter.com/CJugendstil/status/1468175410991144967
Editor’s Note: All information published as submitted by the author(s). Minor edits may have been made to increase readability and understanding.
