novang

As part of the campaign “Together we can quit!”, The Swedish Public Freedom Service is holding a workshop with the same title in Jönköping, where the Freedom Service’s new Unit for Discontinuation Management will present a practical guide for the art of quitting.

Today, we are all obliged to constantly start anew, accelerate, consume and in various ways increase growth, as well as speed. This behavior is rapidly creating a climate collapse, while simultaneously preventing society from developing in a direction of greater care, empathy and thoughtfulness.

Learning to quit is therefore reason necessary. Together we need to rid ourselves of mandatory employment, compulsive activity and mindless consumption.

The workshop follows a carefully structured and playful method where we explore methods to stop everything from small-scale habits to institutionalized behavioral patterns. The workshop is held September 3rd, is about 90 minutes long and relates to permaculture principle number six “Create no waste”. No pre-registration or preparation is needed. The workshop is part of the project “Jorddyrkare” at Österängen konsthall.

For more information visit
> Jordyrkare at Österängen Konsthall

On June 22, I participated in Gylleboverket’s Temadag Vatten, a day filled with workshops, discussions, installations, film screenings, etc, on the role and importance of water on our planet.

Lars Novang, representing the Liquid State as Envoyé for Fluidoria | photo: Pia Ohlson

I was invited in my capacity of Envoyé for Fluidoria, and after having given a lunchtime presentation of  the Liquid State, I had the privilege of inaugurating the world’s first Fluidorian Consulate. I was also able to grant formal Confluenceships to a great number of human Fluidorians, who from now on are going to speak up for fellow Fluidorians that lack a voice.

Etta Säfve & Jona Elfdahl, appointed consuls and responsible for the Fluidorian Consulate at Gylleboverket

> The Liquid State of Fluidoria (website)
> Gylleboverket
> Event info

As a response to the workshop “Designing the Parallel Society”, held by Frihetsförmedlingen in Minsk in June 2019, Elisabeth Kovtiak has written an article describing the thoughts and ideas of the participating group and the founding of the new Ministry of Uncertainty in Belarus.

“The Ministry of Uncertainty is an alternative organization that replicates some technical characteristics of ministries. It will have a website, official agenda and visual identity just as any ministry. Why those? Basically, that is with what citizens can encounter once they are interested in a ministry’s activities. The real activities of ministries in Belarus are quite opaque: hidden behind the bureaucracy. Unlike the ‘real’ ministries, the Ministry of Uncertainty initiates and fosters public discussions that do not aim to come up with a certain solution. This alternative institution is both a criticism of the passivity of a bloated bureaucratic system and the unwillingness of public authorities to take responsibilities. Another function of the Ministry of Uncertainty is to create a meeting place for the citizens where they can discuss the facade stability and an uncertainty and anxiety that exist behind it.“

Participants in the workshop and creators of the Ministry of Uncertainty:
Alina Dzeravianka, Elisabeth Kovtiak, Christin Wahlström Eriksson and Sophia Sadovskaya. The workshop was led by John Huntington and myself as part of the STATUS Project.
Logo design: Valentine Duduk

In December, the Supervisory Unit of the Swedish Public Freedom Service carried out a freedom inspection in Gothenburg

This unannounced inspection targeted the Public Transport System in the City with a special focus on the travellers’ perceived and factual freedom of movement and freedom of action. At the same time a survey of the general freedom environment on a number of different vehicles was conducted.

Photo: Andreas Torstensson

> More info on the Supervisory Unit (Swedish only)
> More images (FB post)