Conference

On the 5th of May 2023, an exciting event took place at the transvangard October Gallery’s library clubroom in Bloomsbury, London. The students of The New School of the Anthropocene (NSOTA) were in for a treat as they gathered, both in person and virtually via Zoom, to listen to a captivating talk by Thrity (3t) Vakil.

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3t shared her incredible 23-year journey and experiences in sustainable forestry and rainforest enrichment. The focus of her talk was the remarkable Las Casas de la Selva project in Patillas, Puerto Rico, which has been flourishing for over four decades. Founded in 1983 by the visionary elders of the Institute of Ecotechnics, www.ecotechnics.org , Las Casas de la Selva has been at the forefront of sustainable forestry in the Caribbean. She told the story of the Institute’s Research Vessel Heraclitus, that sailed up the Amazon on an ethnobotanical expedition, where the crew came away having experienced first-hand the effects of deforestation and illegal logging. On arrival to Puerto Rico, 3t elaborated on the early days of the project, emphasizing the crew’s urgent need to “do something necessary that was not being done.” After many meetings and discussions the idea to start a sustainable forestry project in Puerto Rico was conceived.

3t spoke passionately about her life in the rainforest, including the many years of scientific studies, wood-harvesting, tree-growing, endangered tree conservation, nurserywork, and her own artwork that became an integral part of the initiative.

Despite facing numerous challenges over the years, including hurricanes, earthquakes, the COVID-19 pandemic, and most recently, calamitous landslides from Hurricane Fiona, Las Casas de la Selva has persisted. 3t shared stories of resilience and adaptation, highlighting how Puerto Rico Hardwoods, an essential outcome of the project, has thrived, and pioneered efforts to rescue wood destined for landfill after the devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017.

The talk provided a platform for NSOTA students to engage with 3t directly. Questions and answers flowed, creating an informative and thought-provoking afternoon. The students, both present in the clubroom and joining from various locations worldwide, gained valuable insights into sustainable forestry and the importance of environmental stewardship. The event left the audience inspired and motivated to make a positive impact on the planet. 3t Vakil’s engaging storytelling and profound experiences at Las Casas de la Selva served as a reminder of the power of vision, determination, and collaboration in creating sustainable solutions.

“The New School of the Anthropocene is an experiment. But it is also an act of repair. In partnership with October Gallery in London, we seek to reinstate the intellectual adventure and creative risk that formerly characterised arts education before the university system capitulated to market principles and managerial bureaucracy.

The pause enforced by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 afforded a unique opportunity to rethink the wider basis of our educational practices, against a context of unimaginable climate catastrophe and irreversible species extinction; of economic depression and sanctioned inequality.  

The New School was the response: founded by an ensemble of experienced academics from the higher educational world alongside artists and practitioners, none of whom regard education as a business and their students as customers.  

We recognise the pitiless financialisation of the university world and the dismal situation of the student-consumer, for whom vast debt is a passport for crossing the threshold to adulthood and social participation. We observe the demoralisation of exploited teachers within a casualised workforce whose energies are drained by a technocratic culture of audit and administration. We witness the purposeful and systematic dismantling of adult education, the crude instrumentalisation of learning and a joyless culture of accreditation.

Collectively we can do better. We see that higher educational institutions in their current form are ill-placed to foster the new critical and creative ways of working collaboratively that are necessary for social renewal and ecological recovery. 

The New School explores radical new possibilities – affordable, flexible, transparent – for non-residential degree-level education. We wish to explore how higher education can shift away from reproducing the destructive practices of the present and preparing students for what David Graeber termed “bullshit jobs,” and instead forge a viable future for the generations to come. “

https://www.nsota.org/curriculum

Thanks to Michael Hrebeniak (R), and Gessie Houghton (L) of https://www.nsota.org/home for the invitation.