Town Anywhere: Rehearsing a Future of Multi-Species Flourishing

Saturday October 25th
9.30am for a prompt 10am start. Ends 4pm followed by tea and drinks

"Town Anywhere 'is an extraordinary exercise. It invites us to step into the future, to reimagine and rebuild the world, and to then inhabit it. One of the most magical things I've ever been part of. Give your imagination a treat!”  Rob Hopkins, Transition Network

Kairos is hosting Town Anywhere, a day-long, immersive and participatory experience, facilitated by artist Ruth Ben-Tovim, during which we’ll collectively imagine, build and inhabit a positive vision of the future.

Using future scenarios, large-scale model-making, group work and timed challenges, we’ll imagine and create a flourishing, resilient town ten years in the future, in which both humans and more-than-humans thrive. We’ll play and practice community visioning, ideation and storytelling in an imaginary, but tangible, environment, before returning to the present to harvest the learning.

In this new iteration of Town Anywhere, the concept of multi-species justice - a recognition that humans must work with and alongside the more-than-human in empathetic relationship – will be core.

A Town Called Anywhere

“What we cannot imagine, cannot come into being” - bell hooks

It's often hard to imagine beyond what we’re dealing with now, the systems we have and the barriers we face. A crisis of civic imagination is blocking many of us from envisioning the future we want to strive for.  At a community level we need to imagine and co-design the future together, developing our concept of community to include the other living beings with whom our lives are entangled.

During the course of this day-long workshop experience we’ll create and inhabit a town called Anywhere in 2035.

Working in small multi-species groups, we’ll develop actions and ventures for the whole town across a range of areas including: home shelter and habitats, food and growing, nature governance, justice and decision making, formal and informal learning, health wellbeing and solidarity, open green and wild spaces, economy and exchange, networks and communications, celebration heritage and culture.

By the end of the day, as residents of Town Anywhere, we’ll have created a physical representation of a flourishing new town. By collectively shaping and inhabiting a resilient and just future that cares for the earth, the human and the more-than-human, we can strengthen our imaginative skills, generating enthusiasm and resolve to find our own role in making it real.

To find out more about Town Anywhere, you can watch these short films of Town Anywhere Hull and Town Anywhere Bristol. (This event at Kairos will not be filmed).

Practical details

This is not a drop-in event but a journey that builds throughout the day, so please only book if you're able to commit to the entire event. No experience is necessary. All participants can choose whether to take part as themselves or as a more-then-human being. Those participating as more-than-humans will be invited to join a preparatory workshop on April 11th, the day before the event. Please let us know if you’d like to take part as a more-than-human by emailing events@kairos.london.

Lunch as well as tea and coffee throughout the day and after the workshop are all included in the ticket price. The pay bar will open at 5pm and all are invited to stay on for a drink.

Tickets are on a sliding scale: £25 Standard ticket, £15 Struggling financially, £35 Supporter. We don't want cost to be a barrier to participation so if you're struggling to pay even the reduced price please contact us on events@kairos.london.

Please note that this event will take place in our downstairs space and we do not have a lift. We apologise that our venue is not fully accessible.

The Team

Town Anywhere has been designed by Ruth Ben-Tovim and Lucy Neal and was initially commissioned by Transition Network. This version of Town Anywhere, Rehearsing a Future of Multi-Species Flourishing, has been commissioned by The Empathy Project, with Anne-Marie Culhane as multi-species adviser.

Anne-Marie, Lucy and Ruth are artists and facilitators specialising in designing and delivering participatory arts projects, interventions and processes in civic, community, ecological and educational contexts. These participatory interventions inspire people to unearth their own imaginative and instinctive power to shift how they see the world and their place within it.

The Empathy Project is a cultural project that challenges myths of human supremacy and encourages a re-connection with Nature, including all animals, whether wild, domesticated or farmed. Founded by writer and speaker Bel Jacobs, The Empathy Project believes that multi-species justice is foundational to more compassionate, congruent and resilient futures.

This event was originally due to take place on April 12th, but had to be rescheduled due to health issues. If you booked for the original date, you will have been fully refunded and will need to book again.

Kairos, 84 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4TG

Doors open at 9.30am. Event starts promptly at 10am.

£25 Standard ticket, £15 Struggling financially, £35 Supporter. Food and soft drinks complimentary. (If you're struggling to pay even the reduced price please contact us on events@kairos.london.)

Before requesting a discounted ticket, please consider sincerely: Are you struggling to meet your basic needs? Would you have to make a genuine sacrifice to buy a full priced ticket? Do you have reduced earnings through a lifestyle choice or because you’re dedicating your time to unpaid work relating to the climate and nature crises or as a result of structural inequality?

You can find our returns policy here.