First Masterclass of 2023: Diving Deep into Systemic Change: The Last 10 Years

Yesterday Indy Johar led our first Masterclass of the year. Exploring how the world is transforming and how we must adapt to move forward. The lecture, led by the co-founder of Dark Matter Labs, noted that the world we will eventually move into will be massively different from the world we have lived in the last 40 years, as such we will experience a significant scale of disruption. The worldview of seeing the world through objects is being transformed,  thus there is a need to develop a new reality of planetary entanglement.

Indy highlighted the crisis of divisionality that the world is facing and how we are no longer operating in an age of control. Diving into how he sees the current economic and political systems as not working, proposing an exploration of optimistic alternatives that have a deep democracy of agency, a new consciousness of inter-dependence and a freedom to care instead of one to escape.

Dark Matter Labs focuses on systemic change, looking at the “boring side” of innovation, such as contract and employment law and the way we use regulation for control instead of enablement. Emphasising the need to change our societal understanding of the system-level costs of things, and where system-level benefits attribute. Giving interesting examples on how our current economy is constructed is favouring the wrong products.

Indy also noted the need to move towards an implicate order to transform our foundational structures. Concluding that a decade of deep transition requires moving from a ‘socialization economy’ to a ‘co-benefits economy’ to finally reaching a ‘care economy’. To do this, he explained, there is a need to de-center Western default and re-imagine how we see the value of self-governing entities and nature, and that we must develop a different relationship with nature.

Following the presentation, participants took part in a discussion with Indy Johar, where they further explored  the sheer scale of change required. Discussing the practical steps needed to implement systemic change and what role individuals, organizations, and policymakers can play. Overall, the Masterclass provided an insightful exploration of the challenges facing our world and the need for a new approach to create a sustainable future.

We want to thank Indy Johar for his though provoking lecture and all the participants who took part in this first appointment. We remind you that the next Masterclass will be on Thursday, March 2nd with Elena Silvestrini on Design Justice and More Liberating Futures.  Applications are open!