In our last Creative Practice Call we wrote a “Love letter to the future” dedicated to our grand children. Below is a powerful letter by Harry Bonnell.
We are offering our Morning Creative Practice calls every Thursday 7:30- 8:30am (UK). First one starts on the 11th of June until the 16th July. Book yourself for £35.
Know yourself. For only in this way can you know others. And it is through others that we are shaped and influenced. Know whether you are reactive or a planner; love structure or are suspicious of it. None are good or bad, but each means a different life. Know what makes you tick; your strengths and weaknesses; your suspicions, superstitions and simple solutions; your moods and why you have them.
And look for beauty. For you become what you look for. Seek out musicians and dancers, for they usually will develop you. You do not have to be ‘top dog’. Just be important to who is important to you – and if many people, or great people, are important to you then maybe this will drive you on. Know others, for it is only in this way you’ll know yourself. Listen to their lifes, their strengths and hopes and strains. See if they talk fast and avoid silence or whether they are quiet and surprise often, neither are good or bad. Life is long, and if you live well it will have memories which transcend time. Live well. With love, expansive love. Harry
In our last Creative Practice Call we wrote a “Love letter to the future” dedicated to our grand children. Below is a beautiful touching letter by Juliet Cochrane.
We are offering our Morning Creative Practice calls every Thursday 7:30- 8:30am (UK). First one starts on the 11th of June until the 16th July. Book yourself for £35.
To My Darling Grandchild, This is the year 2020 – a number that sounds like the future to me even almost 6 months in (and 8 months pregnant). What year are you alive, now, and reading this love letter to the future, to you my darling grandchild?
Not long before my grandma passed away she said to me: now I understand what immortality is. It is you. It is seeing myself in you, so clearly. We each live on even after our physical form has passed. Do you already feel that sublime connection between your individual self and the whole Self (with a capital S)? You came out of this world, not into it. You are soil, air, water and fire; skin, breath, blood — life. You are beauty. Do you see the beauty around you? What can you see around you, right now? Where can you find beauty? In the trees, the sky, the city scape. All is earth, air, water, fire. All is a part of you and you a part of it. One beautiful whole with all the people in their rooms, on the streets, in the grass, climbing trees. You are each alive and sharing this time and the human condition — your hearts all beating at the same time. Now, do you look inwards and see beauty? Never forget how beautiful you are. Your skin, your blood, your soul — all is beauty. Live beautifully. Love. Love inwardly and outwardly. I am with you always. Your mother and father are a part of you, always. The past future, the past present — all roads lead to the same place: now. Now is when I write this letter to you, my beautiful grandchild. Now is you reading these words like the whispers of a ghost. Like all ghosts whispering, there is a longing to be heard. We all just want to be seen and to be heard. Who sees you? Who hears you? Never shrink. Never make yourself small. You are an expression of life and of beauty. You have a birth right to express yourself and to be seen and to be heard. Spend your time with those who make you feel alive, who see you, who hear you, who tell you: you’re beautiful. Never stop seeing the beauty in things and that which is sacred in the every day. All my love, Your Grandma XXX
Maybe there are projects you always wanted to do but never got around to it. Maybe you tend to procrastinate and overthink things. Maybe sometimes you just need to talk to someone so you can get your juices flowing! Well the Get S*** Done call is for you! You can benefit from our practices if you are doing a massive spring clean or delivering a project to a client. This call is open for all from teachers to musicians, to engineers and business owners.
Join our Getting S*** Done calls, every weekday morning for 25 minutes from Monday 13th of April at 8:30am (UK) for 3 weeks with your host Petronella @Art Earth Tech.
Book yourself for £20 and GET ALL YOUR MONEY BACK at the end if you attend 90% of the calls.
You will be part of a WhatsApp group, where you get to write up what you have accomplished in the last 24 hours, what your game is to achieve and do in the next 24 hours, and what you may be blocked with. This is where being part of a community who has your back helps.
Life has always been uncertain, yet having practices and people around help us accomplish what we want.
What do I get out of these calls?
Our community provides support and accountability which produces powerful results (and better than going at it alone). This is a practice we have tested ourselves internally for several years and it works. Which is why we want to offer it to our broader community. Here are some additional things that will get covered:
Self motivation and self management
Accountability
Validation exercise
Integrity
Get S*** Done Culture of Art / Earth / Tech
Part of creating a wiser world we all want to live in, is in the way we are being and getting s*** done. Art Earth Tech would not exist if it were not for us waking up with a possibility and getting the legwork done. We’re doers as well as thinkers and meditators. We value hard work, commitment, shipping, and getting sh** done. So we can’t wait to be on the call with y’all and share this practice with you. Who’s in?!
Join our morning calls at 8:30am – 8:55am (UK) on Getting S*** Done.
Every weekday for 30min from Monday 13th April to Friday 1st May with your host Petronella @Art Earth Tech. Book yourself for £20 and GET ALL YOUR MONEY BACK at the end if you attend 90% of the calls.
Here are the details of the times and dates of the calls
You can benefit from our practices if you are doing a massive spring clean or delivering a project to a client. This call is open for all from teachers to musicians, to engineers and business owners.
Monday 13th April 8:30-9:30am (UK) our first call will be for 1h, so we can set you up!
Tuesday 14th April 8:30-8:55am (UK)
Wednesday 15th April 8:30-8:55am (UK)
Thursday 16th April 8:30-8:55am (UK)
Friday 17th April 8:30-8:55am (UK) – a review of the week 1 🙂
Monday 20th April 8:30-8:55am (UK)
Tuesday 21th April 8:30-8:55am (UK)
Wednesday 22th April 8:30-8:55am (UK)
Thursday 23th April 8:30-8:55am (UK)
Friday 24th April 8:30-8:55am (UK)
Monday 27th April 8:30-8:55am (UK)
Tuesday 28th April 8:30-8:55am (UK)
Wednesday 29th April 8:30-8:55am (UK)
Thursday 30th April 8:30-8:55am (UK)
Friday 1st May 8:30-9:30am (UK) our last call will be for 1h, so we reflect on our learning and outcomes and celebrate our accomplishments!Order the pastries 🙂
We are offering our Morning Creative Practice calls every Thursday 7:30- 8:30am (UK). First one starts on the 11th of June until the 16th July. Book yourself for £35.
Why does art and creativity matter?Well it is your expression, the one which is unique to you. It is a way of making sense of the world and your life, to integrate different parts of yourself and express them. Our Morning Creative Practice calls are here so we make time to develop our artistic side and explore the depth of our humanity.
“These weekly sessions helped to awaken my imagination in work and everyday life, and to deepen my connection with creative parts of myself that have been dormant.”
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What will I get out of the call?
“I would highly recommend these calls for those who are looking for ways to express themselves, creative motivation and connection with others. I felt truly inspired and challenged by each session. My mind, body and soul were nourished by the creative practices.”
Creativity is like a muscle, the more you practice the stronger it gets. You get to be more intune with yourself and your intuition. You will be part of a Whatsapp group in which you will get to share your art practice. Our community provides support and helps you with motivation, since one of the hardest things is to keep yourself motivated in your creative practice when you are alone. Morning is the best time to activate your right brain, so you will continue your day being more in the flow. Here are some of the practices we will do:
Collages
Spontaneous Writing
Creative Contemplation
Rituals
The creative culture of Art / Earth / Tech
Here at Art / Earth / Tech we value Art, as we see it as a profound expression of our humanity and access to our sense of oneness. The call will be led by Sylvie Barbier, performance artist and co-founder of Art / Earth / Tech.
Our creative side is so precious so let’s make time for it. Join our Morning Creative Practices calls with Sylvie Barbier every Thursday 7:30am (UK). Book yourself for £35.
I am very happy to tell you that we will be offering Online Wise Food & Plant based Cooking Class with Lily Roberts Tuesday 7, 14, 21 April from 6pm-7h30pm (Paris) – £14 for 3 Classes
Wise food Salon Tuesday 7th April 6pm-7h30pm CET . An opportunity to converse with a wise vegan Chef, learn from her philosophy, experience and observation
Enforce your immune system Cooking Class Tuesday 14th of April 6pm-7h30pm CET. “You are what you eat”- Healthy food, healthy body, healthy mind.
Healthy Comfort food Cooking Class Tuesday 21st of April 6pm-7h30pm CET . Be gourmand, be well. Have taste and pleasure with health.
For those who don’t know me I am a real “gourmande”, and I recently felt that I wanted to be wiser with my way of eating, to embrace a more plant based diet so that my action contributed less to the suffering of other beings while being healthy myself. I am vegetarian but still struggle to become vegan because I don’t know how to make my food both healthy and delicious. So I thought I needed a master to guide me in this path. And who better than Lily Joan Roberts!
(Lily cooking for us at La Cheraille to work out our wedding menu)
Lily was our chef at our wedding, she cooked wonderful vegan food for our guests and did it with an incredible spirit and heart. She feed our body and our spirit, and if you meet her, you won’t be able to help it but to have a crush on her, because there is a true grace in how Lily approaches life and food. More than a Chef she is a true artist, she creates tasteful compositions that are delicious to the mouth and the eye. The moving thing about her cooking is that Lily cares for people that is why she always makes sure the food is tasty and healthy.
(Rufus & I, thanking Lily at our Wedding at La Cheraille in 2018)
I am very happy to tell you that we will be offering Online Wise Food & Plant based Cooking Class with Lily Roberts Tuesday 7, 14, 21 April from 6pm-7h30pm (Paris) – £14 for 3 Classes
Wise food Salon Tuesday 7th April 6pm-7h30pm CET . An opportunity to converse with a wise vegan Chef, learn from her philosophy, experience and observation
Enforce your immune system Cooking Class Tuesday 14th of April 6pm-7h30pm CET. “You are what you eat”- Healthy food, healthy body, healthy mind.
Healthy Comfort food Cooking Class Tuesday 21st of April 6pm-7h30pm CET . Be gourmand, be well. Have taste and pleasure with health.
Aware of the recent coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak around the world, we would like to share a few reflections with you.
It is important in these times to put things in perspective and to do that, let’s first breathe and find our calm.
The Chinese word for crisis is composed of the word “Danger” and “Opportunity”. Right now, there is a lot of the conversation in the public space coming from a place of “fear” and focused on the danger and disruption. Here, at Art/ Earth / Tech we would like to emphasize more the “Opportunity” – without in any way diminishing or denying the suffering arising for people – but focusing more on the lessons and reflection that we may take from it?
This is a chance to reflect on our way of life and discover that we could live less busily and more humbly, spend more time with our family, play more with our children. An opportunity to look at our mortality and appreciate the preciousness of life and our loved ones
This is our chance to show that we could live in a way that would limit emissions to 2 degrees C — and that it could even be weller and wiser. Yes, it would mean living more simply — and doing it without the lockdowns! – reflecting on what really matters and what makes us truly happy. If we can enjoy ourselves now, it shows we can enjoy meeting the emissions targets.
Indeed, the Coronavirus shows us that we could meet the Paris agreement. This crisis could even be seen as a test drive before we are to face an even greater crisis: the climate one. In the space of a month we have seen our capability to act in spectacular ways when faced with the direct threat of death to our elderly and more vulnerable. We have shown that we can go beyond our political differences and act collectively on a global scale. This shows that change is possible.
This is an opportunity to think, act and live with a more collective mindset, present to our interdependence. The Coronavirus gives us an opportunity to directly realise the consequences of our actions on each other at a global scale, an opportunity to dream of a different world where we relate to ourselves not as individuals but as in[ter]dividuals.
It is a chance for us to get off the runaway train which risks leading humanity into an abyss. These past weeks have proven to us that we can not only survive without the futilities of modern life – the Zara clothes, the McDonalds. We can become present to the essential and look deeply, trust each other, our neighbours, and also our governments and institutions.
In gratitude and service, The Art / Earth / Tech Team
Below are the key details to join our call Topic: Community Day – Art / Earth / Tech Time: Saturday March 28 and 4th of April, 2020 6-8PM (CET) 5-7PM (UK) Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/659327540 Meeting ID: 659 327 540 One tap mobile +13462487799,,659327540# US (Houston)
+16699009128,,659327540# US (San Jose)Dial by your location +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US +1 301 715 8592 US +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 646 558 8656 US (New York)Meeting ID: 659 327 540Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aVOqa8HoO
Our European coliving community is growing and we are excited to announce that we will be opening a hub in Berlin in September!
Come join, and help build this new coliving community in the heart Berlin grounded in purpose and presence. Be part of the international network of hubs run by Art Earth Tech, an initiative dedicated to fostering a community of people seeking a wiser, weller world. Rooms available from September 2019 from €600 per month all costs included.
A growing number of us are seeking lives that are meaningful as well as productive, yet we often struggle to find a balance. We need a wiser way of living whilst remaining engaged in conventional society. A way to live in cities whilst being in community, to be present as well as purposeful, that supports us to be the best version of ourselves.
We are building that way starting with co-living communities across Europe.
We seek pioneers and believers in community to be founder-residents of our new hub in Berlin opening in September 2019.
As one of the first residents you will be part of a small, supportive community and get to shape its culture. You will get to live in a shared apartment in a beautiful old building on the tree-lined Gneisenaustrasse in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin. As part of an international network, you will be connected to our other two hubs in London and the beautiful French countryside 30 min from Paris, and be part of a collective that supports you to develop personally and provides you with an opportunity to reflect on what really matters to you.
Requirements:
Basic English
Love of community: you like living in community and contributing to it.
Be a self-starter: you take initiative and can set and manage your own projects.
Open your window onto a tree-lined boulevard in Kreuzberg. The flat is in a 19th Century building with large bedrooms, wooden floors, high ceilings, large windows and a modern kitchen. The bathroom has a shower and a bath.
Art Earth Tech has a strong aesthetic where we honour noble, natural materials. The bedrooms will be part-furnished including a double bed. We provide refrigerator, freezer and a washing machine.
Some words from previous residents in our other hubs:
“Staying at the Art/Earth/Tech London Hub was a lovely experience of living intentionally and in community.”
“The London Hub members were all awesome, and I felt like we had created a warm, open and trusting dynamic and atmosphere.”
“The interior itself was also exceptional, and it adds a lot of coziness and uniqueness to this centrally located space.”
Long – time contributor to Art Earth Tech, Nafees Hamid has written a forthcoming paper for the Royal Society Open Science journal. The paper reveals ground-breaking insights into the psychology of radicalisation and terrorist violence; gained by scanning the brains of men who support a terror organisation associated with Al Qaeda. We are thrilled to share some of his findings with you.
Prior research has demonstrated the pivotal influence of ‘sacred values’ (a potent subset of moral values) in underpinning radical ideologies and the escalation to violent extremism. These values are resistant to conventional forms of moderation, compromise or negotiation and, as such, present a huge challenge to counter-radicalisation efforts based on material incentives and/or sanctions.
Nafees Hamid
Artis has found that this phenomenon is directly represented in the brain, with areas normally associated with rational, utilitarian reasoning showing markedly less activity when the question of violent action in defence of these sacred values is raised.
It has also been determined that more moderate views, when expressed by peers, may help ‘dial down’ the propensity toward violent action. This again directly evidenced by observed changes in brain functioning.
This helps validate ongoing efforts to incorporate the sacred values paradigm into counter-radicalisation strategies, while also indicating that a peer influence approach may be most effective in moderating extremist violence.
Global research organisation Artis International has been conducting in-depth studies into contemporary armed conflict for over a decade with a focus on the cultural and behavioural factors that drive violent extremism. The established anthropological concept of sacred values has been successfully applied in research relating to a variety of conflicts: from Israel-Palestine to the rise of ISIS.
While previous studies have shown de-radicalisation to be extremely difficult, the escalation of radical beliefs into actual violence may still be curtailed with an improved understanding of the neurocognitive underpinnings of the process.
To this end, the brains of 30 radicalised men were scanned while they answered questions pertaining to the defence of sacred and non-sacred values. This sample, recruited from Barcelona’s Pakistani community over a two-year program of intense ethnographic fieldwork, were all self-avowed supporters of the radical Jihadist organisation Lashkar-et-Taiba; previously responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament.
Mumbai attack in 2008
Once inside the brain scanner, each member of the sample group was presented with a set of value-laden issues; some established as sacred to the individual in question (such as the depiction of the Prophet Mohammed or the status of Kashmir), and the rest being non-sacred. All were asked to signify the extent of their willingness to fight and die in defence of each value, while their corresponding brain activity was recorded in real time.
While this initial series focused purely on establishing the neurocognitive operations involved in the processing of sacred vs non- sacred values, a second experiment expanded the paradigm by examining the effects of peer influence on the level of willingness to fight and die, and the corresponding brain activity.
The participants were now presented with the same ‘values survey’ however additional data was added; purporting to show the average willingness to fight and die as stated by the wider Pakistani community. As such, each participant was faced with a (fictitious) group opinion that variously conflicted, matched or exceeded his own propensity to fight and die in defence of each given value.
Again, answers and brain activity were recorded for later analysis.
As expected, participant’s willingness to fight and die over given issues was markedly higher when sacred values were invoked. However, as per the hypothesis, scans showed differences in brain activity depending on whether participants were processing sacred or non-sacred values while formulating their willingness to fight and die.
Specifically, areas of the brain previously established to handle deliberative, cost-benefit decision making, namely the ‘Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (dlPFC), Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG) and Parietal Cortex, showed reduced activity when sacred values were invoked. Answers to sacred values questions were also provided faster.
The cogitation of sacred values therefore appears to diminish the brain’s deliberative faculties while simultaneously promoting a faster response; yielding more rapid decisions with a less basis in conventional calculation and consideration.
The peer influence study, meanwhile, found that the level of willingness to fight and die moderated toward that given by peers when a lower level was attributed to this wider group. Additionally, scans detected associated activity in the aforementioned dlPFC brain area, suggesting that peer influence can stimulate an increase in deliberative decision making that yields a reduced propensity toward violence and self-sacrifice.
These experiments provide a clear, neurocognitive insights into the radicalised mind’s adoption of violent action and the evident limitations of resolution measures rooted in cost-benefit persuasion (economic inducements, custodial penalties or other cost imposition approaches). Scans show that such approaches appeal to areas of the brain that are subdued during sacred value decision making.
While sacred values are known to be resistant to peer influence, the peer influence component of this study indicates that this factor may well help reduce the overall instances of violence in the defence of sacred values. That the brain’s deliberative faculties reassert themselves when peer attitudes are invoked suggests a path toward reduction and mitigation rooted in family, peer and community groups.
Yip Thy-Diep has released her book called Beautiful Brains change tomorrow… today, which is a collection of personal conversations with young and old change-makers from business and society. Diving into their personal transformation stories, this book goes beyond the ever-present call for more compassion and globalized ethics in today’s world full of chaos and fear. You can read below a extract of the interview with Sylvie Barbier.
Here is a little excerpt from our interview for the book:
What topic is currently on your heart?
My heart… I’ve recently embarked on a powerful personal transformation journey. I have come to realize that what I wake up for in the mornings is to find ways of transforming fear into unconditional love in myself and all around the world. To see people being united. Not only united in the sense that I bring people into my heart, but also physically united — united with family. I put families first because how we relate to our parents, brothers, and sisters is often the blueprint of how we relate to other human beings. When you can transform families, you can transform anything. It’s a miracle, and as long as we’re alive, miracles are possible. I went to meet my brother for the first time in fifteen years of separation. His relationship with our dad was strained, and I remind him of our dad. I grew up feeling incomplete, because part of my family had disappeared from my life. It always felt like something was missing, and I felt powerless, not knowing what to do about it. I would tell myself: “One day, some day, my brother and father will heal their relationship and then I’ll get to see him.” But that one day became one year, two years… and before I knew it, it was fifteen years. So about three years ago, I was experimenting with my self-development, and I attended this course called “Landmark Forum.” There I literally saw how people would transform and begin talking to family members for the first time in a long time. This struck me. If they could do that, there was hope that I could do that too! To be fair, my breakthrough moment didn’t just happen overnight. It was a challenging journey. After the forum, I started to write letters to my brother. What made it difficult, was that I had this mindset, “It takes two to tango.” We hear this everywhere, this 50⁄50 mindset: We expect that we only do 50% of the work, and that the other person will chip in the other 50%. This is not how life works! Besides, I find it to be imprisoning. It implies putting our freedom into the hands of others. With this mindset, if I wrote a letter, and my brother didn’t answer, the natural reaction for me would be to stop my activities. But I had been longing to be reunited with my brother, and I didn’t want to be stopped. So I was looking for something that would enable me to go all in. I needed to find a way that would allow me to still feel complete, even if my brother wouldn’t answer. And I started by declaring that I’d go all in with this relationship. And I had to understand, if I wanted to have this extraordinary wish fulfilled, I’d need to stop being normal and step up to become extraordinary.
So I wrote a letter to him that said: “Hey, I do want to know you. I want to be in your life. I want to get to know you. And so I’m coming.” When I rang the doorbell, my sister-in-law opened the door, and she was surprised. I saw three little girls running around joyfully; three beautiful souls that I had never met because I had always been so scared. I was overwhelmed by the emotions that came when I realized I had missed out on six years of their lives, and on fifteen years of my brother’s life, because I had waited for the tango to start. What is even more powerful is this experience has also helped me heal the relationship with myself: I now know I am fearless. Just the mere fact that we stood face to face is something I consider a miracle. It was a tangible experience — not a whimsy of my mind. For the past few decades, it has been my biggest fear to see my brother. And now, having gone through it, it feels like whatever comes next in life will be easy.
Live in our new space in Hoxton in the heart of London, and connect to a growing network of rural-urban hubs across Europe. Our residency program at the London Hub is open from the 1st of August.
Come be part of a lovely community in the heart of London in Shoreditch for a residency of 1-3 months at the Art / Earth / Tech London Hub. The flat has been entirely renovated by artists and is only 10min walk from Old Street Station ( Northern Line). A single room is available from the 1st of August and we are keen to welcome people who are open minded, into mindfulness and co-living. Art / Earth / Tech is an international community who want to foster a weller wiser world.
The residencies are open to people of all backgrounds, professions and ages.
ESTEBAN RUSELER Esteban is inspired by the possibilities that a more conscious and wholesome relationship with tech can bring to society; he writes, consults and creates in this space. He’s also passionate about fostering real community and how we can create a wiser world together.
TOM MANWELL Tom is a fully qualified Architect with and an interest in Coliving. He is co-founder of WooWoo, a website helping Londoners discover well-being practices. Tom is also a mindfulness practitioner, composer and Ecstatic Dance DJ.
CECILE EMBLETON Cecile is a freelance photographer and award-winning documentary filmmaker based in London.
