- the chronicles of ECOTOPIA - click here PLEASE

NPFlint consultancy

I have restructured and started NPFlint Consultancy which is now open for business and creative gigs. The company is an entirely webbased networking consultancy with expertise in Radical Sustainable Innovation, Design and “lifestyle” issues -  or what I call “Rethinking Modern Life”. Its a “new” approach since I am focusing on doing more “hands-on” creative gigs which I call DESIGNSTALLATIONS - a way of visualizing the issues I have worked with the past 25 years. Ill be doing various DESIGNSTALLATIONS  or maybe you want to call it exhibitions or performance art or art installations the coming year. The first this year happened at the 2009 BURNING MAN in Nevada, USA in September. The next will be in Le Mans, France opening October 3rd. The other dimension of me or of NPFlint Consultancy will be doing regular advice and as something entirely new - SUSTAINABILITY COACHING. You will be able to read more about the new company and the activities at the new website www.npflint.com.

I will still be teaching and doing workshops and lectures - anywhere on the planet (most recent France, India, Mexico, Denmark). Please contact me through www.npflint.com reg. lectures and workshops.

Niels Peter Flint on REBOOT -

NPF is on REBOOT and you can see the lecture + all the other talk on the REBOOT site.

THE RADICAL SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION ALLIANCE

- opening event June 19th Copenhagen

The Micro Macro Monde b-logs

Welcome to The Micro Macro Monde (MMM) B-logs hosted by Experience Design Lab (EXDL).

EXDL was established by me Niels Peter Flint and its still the platform from where the MMM is operating. On this page as well as on the B-logs linked from here you will find materials developed by EXDL, myself as well as people related to MMM.

You will find out more about EXDL by clicking here and MMM by clicking here - otherwise please go ahead and cruise around in a world dedicated to RADICAL SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION.

Activities at Micro Macro Monde

– summer 2009

MMM “retreating & workshopping” for the establishment of micro living concepts & the development and design of Micro Macro Macro products concepts and communities

IF YOU WANT TO GO STRAIGHT TO THE MICRO MACRO MONDE Camps & Courses site where you can download the MMM Camps & Courses 2009 program you can do so by clicking here:

IF YOU HAVE BEEN DIRECTED TO HERE TO SEE “WHO IS WHO” - PLEASE GO TO THE INDIVIDUAL COURSE DESCRIPTIONS WHERE YOU WILL FIND LINKS TO THE VARIOUS PERSONS INVOLVED. PLEASE CLICK HERE.

The MMM & EXDL blogs on RADICAL SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION topics

Mr. Andersen inspecting the new experiment in compost toiletting at MMM

If you want to know more about whats going on Micro Macro Monde in France then please go to the various links here and explore more. You will the coming months see a number of new topics popping up here. So are you interested in RADICAL SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION  & DESIGN then bookmark this page and come back regularly.  In the near future there will be a newsletter function as well.

MMM “daring gardening & farming”

-here you will find material and videos about how the gardens and the micro farming is developed at MMM.

Click here to get to this part of the MMM Blog

MMM “divine eating”

-this is the MMM “NON-cooking-book” blog - a place where you will find inspiration but NO recipes - use your imagination and a bit of common sense and you will be able to create new stunning experiences every day.

Click here to get to this part of the MMM Blog

MMM “flush & remember”

-we live in a “Flush and Forget Culture” - everything on the planet or the world as well as probably everything in the solar system as well as in the universe is a resource - waste does not exist.

Follow here the experiments which are on the way on MMM - primitive and simple and MICRO, but maybe one day with a MACRO impact…we can only hope.

Click here to get to this part of the MMM Blog

MMM “renovation durable”

-this part of the blog is about the renovations that are happening at MMM - the stories about why what is done the way its done.

Click here to get to this part of the MMM Blog

The MMM “retreating, workshopping, camps & symposiums” Vision:

The main purpose of establishing Micro Macro Monde is to give especially creative professionals and students of really any kind of dicipline a “free thinking forum or platform” where anything is possible.

At Micro Macro Monde we develop and run courses, workshops, events etc. about topics that “bothers” and makes sense to work with, that are fun and fantastic – mindful and meditative – creative and cool and obviously intelligent and inspirering – and all made in such ways that there are “red-threads” everywhere – like puzzles in life and maybe after life (who knows) – a possibility of over the long run to make a kind of program that you can follow for days, weeks, months, years or your entire life if you want. You can in other words come and live, work and help make a difference not only by doing what you like, but also by being part of building a kind of new (nomad) community where learning by doing is one of the real important aspects.

Courses, workshopshopping, retreating, events, working exhibitions etc. that all helps you to get everything put into the BIGGER perspective…new ways of building maybe what could be called eco village communities where you are not stuck forever and where new appropriate technology is integrated parts of life – live in micro houses however with comfort you have hardly experienced before and yet are these houses and buildings totally self sustaining. Micro Macro Monde is about redefining what modern life is – in all ways.

- the lake is small and cold....

Practically
Some courses might run at the same time – and some of the dates we are still not sure about, so please come back asap to this site to check when the various activities will happen.

-the number of participants will vary but in order to run a workshop / course there needs to be a minimum of 12 participants – in case there are less participants the course will either be cancelled or the fee for the course will be raised (of course you as a participant will be informed if this happens).

MMM Camp-Living in organic cotton canvas tents from India

Living at MMM

-is an experience in itself and not as you see it anywhere else – be ready for a bit of an “lifestyle extraordinary extravaganza” where you theoretically are allowed to do anything (as long as good old Mother Earth tolerates it) even building your own shack, house or temporary cardboard or textile or whatever structure or something totally different if that’s what you want to do while living on Micro Macro Monde. Otherwise there will be fantastic tents which you can live in and there will be some rooms in the buildings, but all very basic – don’t expect big luxury, but something very different and fun.
See more about accommodation by clicking here.

Rocky Heron is an experienced american yoga teacher

Micro Macro Move
As part of living on Micro Macro Monde you will be introduced to the possibility of having phenomenal massages, doing invigorating and mindful yoga classes with Rocky and other fantastic beings who will be at MMM to make your stay and development as inspirering and insightful as possible.

Micro Macro Eatery

Micro Macro Food
MMM is also about incredible amazing food and drinks & cocktails and a lot of other hedonistic delights that will make you want to come back again and again – forever and ever to the eternal mindful loving-fields of Micro Macro Monde….
You will as part of your stay be asked to be part of preparing food – as a design experience. Food will be organic, very basic, a lot of green and rawfood but not totally vegetarian.

Who will take care of the practicalities:

There is noone to clean, and wash your laundry nor cooking as such - MMM is a place where everyone contributes in various ways with what you like and what you are good in. Please see more about the practicalities of MMM by clicking here.

Click on the image to see a map on how to get to Micro Macro Monde France

Other possibilities

Everything offered at MMM are mixtures of regular courses, workshops, events, working exhibitions etc. but if you want to come for longer periods or even want to do a kind of retreat (still being part of is happening) you are welcome to contact us. Individual stays will always be spiced with a bit of work in the gardens, doing divine cooking or doing something else that makes sense to yourself as well as to the place, to the nature, the animals, the plants, your fellow beings – and the world in general.

For all other practicalities such as prices, timings, course descriptions please click here (will be up latest Friday March 27th 2009) The program is just slightly delayed - we have some web-technical problems to get solved. If you need information right now please contact me at npflint@exdl.com.

-welcome to a lot of exiting hard fun...

Kind regards

Niels Peter Flint

…and if you want to know what other students thinks about being part of an NPF or Micro Macro Monde Workshop please have a look here where Salvador Pulido and Shelly Rubinstein from Mexico comments a workshop made in Mexico in February 2009.

…and here is again the link to our mainsite for Micro Macro Monde Camps & Courses.

Non violent and wild silks.

One of the fantastic materials of the nature is silk. However few know that you can also get silk which comes direct form nature (most silk-worms are grown in silk-worm farms and never gets into nature) - but also in some parts of India so called Ahimsa Silk is developed - Ahimsa means non-violent in hindi and as indicated no you leave nature to do what it maybe intended to do, and yet the leftovers (the cocoon) is used for making the most stunning silks. This is a short intro and a lot more material will come here about silks - and it will also be possible to buy silk products here from among others Pradan led by Khitish Pandya, with whom there is a small interview here.

EXDL “Manifesto-point-of-views”
EXDL is working with radically rethinking what design is. The notion of design today is more equivalent with styling than with anything else. Design today does very rarely solve ‘Real Need’ problems and it rather creates them.

We first and foremost design and develop experiences which can help humans and everything else here on the planet to act and live in ways that respects nature, resources and cultural as well as natural evolution.

We know designing anything in the most appropriate sustainable way today is extremely complex. Resources, products, services etc. are shipped around the planet and might cause unintended problems one place but create solutions another place.

At the end of the day its only INTUTION which can really be used. But intuition is not very tangible, and how do you as maybe our client check us. Well you cant really, you can only trust us. This does not mean that we do not collaborate with certification institutions etc. we do, but to give you an example: When developing projects we will always make sure that workers etc. are paid appropriately. There are many Fair Trade organizations who will make sure that this is happening and we are also collaborating with them, but they might not really know about eco-issues, so we have to go elsewhere if we need an eco certification OR we have to go there ourselves. Certification can be very expensive and its therefore important that we develop alternative ways of being help initially to help, but sometimes also to control. One of the ways of doing this we hope will be through the Ethical Webtool Actics - have a look at www.actics.com. You can also go directly to Experience Design Labs profile on Actics - please go here: http://www.actics.com/experience_design_lab

In EXDL we believe that designers and architects can make a significant difference even being small companies or individuals. By networking in innovative ways such as through The COMMITMENTS program, any company or individual can come up with ideas and get involved in real sustainable development.

EXDL is a very smalll company but with a huge network, and the people and companies involved are all passionate about developing our physical structures in new exiting and innovate sustainable ways. In EXDL we continue to search and develop new ideas and concepts which eventually becomes real at some point with professional partners such as fx. manufacturing companies.

When we choice of materials, processes etc. we might choose differently than what is expected and from what is according to law or various institutions administrating fx. Eco-marks, accepted or acknowledged. The reasons for this can be many. Most of our concepts and ideas can be rather radical and different that therefore they simply cannot be put into existing systems.

In order to make ourselves and our clients, partners etc. comprehend more easily what we do, We have developed a kind of code of conduct or set of criteria which we try to develop our projects according to and we call it the EXDL Code of Conduct.

Niels Peter Flint

CEO EXDL UK and EXDL India

“Real needs” is trying to take modern humans serious with a slash of humor and trying NOT to be pretentious and feeling self-important. Lets face it ñ to live we dont really need very much, but our modern lifes gives us new possibilities all the time to endulge in short term seducing experiences, which stimulates on one hand and on the other hand in most case as products are developed today ñ destroys or kills or maybe even makes us more stupid. Products are to a large extend today escapistic experiences, which serves profitmaking and not much more. However the complexity and maybe also the contradiction in this is that most of what we do creates jobs and gives the people designing, manufatcuring, marketing and selling these products butter on the bread.

“Real needs” is trying to take modern humans serious with a slash of humor and trying NOT to be pretentious and feeling self-important.

Due to the very unsustainable way most products and services are made and used today practically everything else modern man and woman has created needs to be redesigned if all the potential members of Club Planet Earth should want to join. Currently app. 20% of the world population are using around 72% of all ressources. But its not just that they / we are plundering and consuming whatever the planet has managed to produce over the past 20 or 30 million years ñ its as much our lack of understanding WHAT LIFE REALLY IS ALL ABOUT. And thats really what “Real Needs” is all about.
EXDL proposes that we find out what its all about and the exploration can start with your use of toiletpaper fx. So if you think that the worlds crisis is more than just pollution, terrorism, poverty, explotation etc. THEN become a member of the EXDL-Club and continue to explore this website, where you will find out how its really possible to change the world to become a MEANINGFUL place again based on all the stuff we really need in our real cultures******.

EXDL explanations:

Cascading
Ideally EXDL would like to see the materials used for our products to be part an eternal cycle. We will always provide information about how our products and materials can be either used again or recycled by you as a user or in a recycling facility.
In a not so far future we will make sure that our materials will be taken back when time is and taken care of in the most appropiate way.

mono-cultural**

NON-monocultural way***

PSS (a Product Service System)****

eternal material life cycle*****

real cultures******

Articles to change the world:

Informal economy - a collaboration with Co-Lateral - Armando Montilla
Cancer - a laughing way out of crisis - Thierry Kazazian

• emotionally enhancing
• esthetically challenging
• ethically sublime
• economically planet conscious prosperous
• spiritually relevant
• educational / edutaining
• multiplicity = multicultural / multidisciplinary / multi acceptance
• socially responsible and challenging
• culturally real = supporting and stimulating the development of real social (tribal) structures
• tribal design
• creatively stimulating = (designers being midwifes for creativity) DOOsign
• environmentally understanding and conscious = planet wise

EXDL environmental facts & factors:

As a starting point there should be no such thing as garbage. In the future garbage will not exist or it don’t need to exist.

Everything is a resource ideally if treated the right way.

We need to understand that pollution is either too much or too little of matter in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Everything on this planet is in constant transformational cycles. In reality that means everything is (bio)degradable and its just a matter of time. Today most of what we do is NOT easily degradable over short times and that creates the vast pollution problems we have. We could claim that its our mindset that needs to shift or transform and as part of that our way of consuming. We need to understand that pollution is:

either too much or too little of matter in the wrong place at the wrong time.

If we do not understand this simple concept or fact, then we will continue to pollute. No matter how organic, bio etc. we go, matter will always pollute in case it is not understood, meaning sent back to the system (the planet) in an a quantity which is digestible or possible to transform via processes which do not harm the system.
Is a vast amount of bio-matter left somewhere to go through a mono-cultural** degrading process, then it will no matter what create immediate pollution, that could had been avoided in case the it was happening in a NON-monocultural way***.

We will always try to design or develop a service or a PSS (a Product Service System)**** rather than an actual physical product when a project is given.

However in some cases a service could indirectly use more resources or have environmental consequences which would not be beneficial at all for anything or anyone.

What you see here are only guide-lines and since one of our benchmarks is understanding and working with complexity in order not sure make irrelevant and shortsighted solutions, you might wonder how we manage all this and and how we control that fx. Materials live up to our high standards. Well you might see from time to time that we make mistakes, but of course we cant control everything ñ we can only try and since we also believe that we need to test as many new options as possible always, there might areas where we do wrong. So when it comes to materials we will as a minimum consider or ask us and our client about the following:

Materials:

• what is it made from and we mean everything
• is the material short term or long term biodegradeable
• is the material easily recycleable
• is the material reusable even after several product cycles ñ the cascading* process or eternal material life cycle*****.
• could the material appear in new form and be upgraded in a recycling process.
• is the material easily part of a closed or natural loop-system
• where does it come from Transport
• HOW far has the material traveled (+ final product)
• what kind of fuel used
• is the material developed in ethically appropriate ways
• is the material