MMM waterfall

Did you know that 70% of the earth surface is water and approximately 70 % of the human body consist of water. Water is one of the main elements for life on the planet. Without – read: CLEAN water - things could get rather grim. We actually know this and yet what do we do with water? Well we all know – and currently water is as so many other elements of the planet a bit out of balance due to our maybe not so appropriate use of it. There is perhaps nothing as important as the huge challenges we are facing when it comes to water. As all other elements we need to come to terms with our relationship with it. We need to treat it again as matter that’s as precious – or even more precious than gold. It is abundant but maybe too wild and mysterious to understand how we have managed to “influence it” in maybe not the best ways. Water is not dead or passive matter just floating in and around and everywhere us – it’s a beautiful amazing series of molecular structures which provides us with access to life as we know it here on the planet. Without clean water in todays and tomorrows world human life will stop to exist.

The challenge

We need to find more intelligent ways to live with water. Water dissolves more substances than anything else – but water has many more capacities, for remembering, for healing – some claim water has emotions and a kind of intelligence. Well for sure its smart and we could learn a lot from it – if we were listening and open enough as fx. Masuru Emoto (http://www.masaru-emoto.net/). Water is like all other natural elements needed to be seen as another collaborator – another living element - that helps and which as we do need care, love, and admiration. We need to re-establish a co-evolution with water – in all ways.
And as the Native Americans said: we do not own the water on this planet. We have to let it flow. We could also describe in a way that water needs to be considered and respected in equal ways as everything else that surrounds us . we all come from the same substances and we will all go back to the same forms. There is really not very much hocus pocus around that – its life as we know it here in this planet. And as animals, plants and the earth it self we all share life with water – in harmonious cycles – eternal cycles  – water is really air – its every ones and no ones – its just essential matters for life.
Lets work with water in respect for what it is and what it brings us and lets try and develop some amazing concepts where we live with and show apriciation at the same time. As we are doing it with other projects here on MMM – lets try to be as pragmatic as possible and allow for communal inspiration and accept of each others diversities and needs – does it sound gaga, well then go Mr. Emotos site and read about what water is all about.

Micro Macro Monde project:

-Aqua Culture MMM

The MMM project to be developed during this MMM Future Camp is called AQUA CULTURE – and a real project will be developed at MMM where some of the spaces in the old watermill will be developed as a kind of public bathhouse or spa or a sacred place for working with water – just an AQUA CULTURE project – a possible public bath or water house of tomorrow.

With:
- Niels Peter Flint,  designer & founder of MMM and EXDL
- Søren Femmer Jensen, Concept Developer, Strategic Director of Cocreative

Assisted by:
- Peter Pilkington, MMM centre operation manager

Time:

June 15th to June 20th 2009

IF YOU WANT TO DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE MICRO MACRO MONDE PROGRAM PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Intense days about how to developing life-cupboards as NPF defines this RSI-concept on how to design your own very personal space. An kind of furniture which is where you keep your most “precious things” as well as “personal objects” etc. but its also a piece of furniture that you live with – and transform with – its possibly a coffin but for sure its your life rider cabinet. Come and build this unique object – and take it home (at your own cost - and materials are NOT included unless its scrap from the MMM re-resource centre).

With:
Niels Peter Flint, CEO and founder of MMM & EXDL

Possible Gueststars:

Peder Thomasen - UNdertaker and managing director EVERGREEN & Begravelses Service

Dorte Dahlin - Visual Artist www.dortedahlin.dk

Assisted by:
Peter Pilkington – MMM Centre Operation Manager

Time:
August 10th to August 15th 2009

IF YOU WANT THE MICRO MACRO MONDE COURSE & CAMPS PROGRAM FOR DOWNLOAD PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Liferider - the life cabinet - exhibition

Liferider - the life cupboard

This course is about how to design and develop small as well as the BIG solutions for tomorrow’s solar powered world. The course and related workshops will primarily focus how we can use photo voltaics (PV) appropriately in products as well as in buildings.

Solar power is most effective when it produces energy exactly where it is needed, becoming part of people’s lives. This course is about how to design and develop solar products to be attractive, efficient, accessible, and affordable. The course and workshops will cover micro and macro perspectives on how we can use photovoltaics (PV) appropriately in products as well as in our existing infrastructure.

2 solar experts will discuss various aspects of the emerging technology. Solar Designer, Amelia Amon, has worked with the integration of photovoltaics in numerous projects. She brings experience and knowledge about the latest developments in 3rd generation PV technology. Her approach will be to conceptualize the large-scale integration of PVs into the built environment, with a focus on aesthetics and multi-functional applications.

Shayne Mcquade utilizes PV’s in compelling consumer products, produced and marketed by his innovative company, Voltaic Systems. He will lead a workshop on designing and fabricating a new solar lamp / light for the lesser-developed part of the world.

Niels Peter Flint and Søren Femmer Jensen will invite students to work on realizable projects with the integration of PVs and other active and passive ways of using the sun. This work will be part of the design of a Micro Living house concept - please read more about Micro Living by clicking here.

This solar design course is an opportunity to create concepts and functional designs using PV technology as well as other sun and site-specific techniques. As always, this course work ties in to other MMM courses - in our global sustainable design perspective.

So all in all a course about how to create concepts and design around the use of PV technology and other techniques using the sun in new and BIGGER perspectives.

With:
- Amelia Amon, Designer, New York – expert on solar design - http://www.alt-technica.com/
- Shayne Mcquade, CEO of voltaicsystems – www.voltaicsystems.com
- Søren Femmer Jensen, Concept Developer, Strategic Director of Cocreative www.cocreative.com
- Niels Peter Flint,  designer & founder of MMM and EXDL www.exdl.com

Video presentions:

Amelia Amon:

Shayne Mcquade:

Time:

SOLAR & SUSTAIN
June 29th to July 4th 2009.

IF YOU WANT THE MICRO MACRO MONDE COURSE & CAMPS PROGRAM FOR DOWNLOAD PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Lightscape designed for Sharjah by Dorte Dahlin and Annemette Larsen. NPF consultant designer.

With:

- Dorte Dahlin – Visual Artist & founder of  Nomad Academy
- Niels Peter Flint – designer
-Feldenkrais teacher

Time:
August 3rd to august 8th 2009

IF YOU WANT THE MICRO MACRO MONDE COURSE & CAMPS PROGRAM FOR DOWNLOAD PLEASE CLICK HERE.

ESTETIQUE DURABLE ????

ESTHETIQUE DURABLE – Durable Aesthetics’

-About new dimensions in aesthetics’.
This course is a dialogue between 2 designers who have gone totally different directions and yet have a deep respect for each other and their work. Be part of an exploration process when they meet and “challenge” each other and their guests to develop an out door furniture / spaces exhibition made purely from materials available from the within 5 km from MMM – and spiced with new technology… Its about new aesthetics’ and sustainability.
This course is a dialogue between two designers sharing their experience of questioning design process.
Having shared their views as young designers in Milan twenty years ago, at the time when that city was the centre of design, they are now doing design, teaching, giving lectures and doing workshops worldwide
The world is at an exiting turning point, when questions relating to design process and responsibility are linked in a new way
NPF is an expert on sustainability and design, he also calls what he does “experience design” or “radical sustainable visions development”. MB is a designer focused on the power of shapes and materiality and the social connection objects have with humans and society.
You are invited to work and experience new cross sections in this
workshop, which will be a scenario for talks, experiments, making, showing, in other words, exploring a way for designing.

Time
July 27th to August 1st 2009

Mathilde Bretillot and Niels Peter Flint started their career in Milan (where they also met) 25 years ago working for members of the legendary Memphis Group. Both NPF and MB has since then worked with projects globally. NPF has since he left Milan dedicated his life to working with sustainability and design.

Concepts and products developed during this workshop might become part of the Micro Macro Monde Products Collections.

Monsieur and Madamme ESTHETIQUE DURABLE

With:
-Mathilde Bretillot
-Niels Peter Flint

Gueststar:
-George Lathourakis

Assisted by:
Peter Pilkington

IF YOU WANT THE MICRO MACRO MONDE COURSE & CAMPS PROGRAM FOR DOWNLOAD PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Trees once "ruled" the world - ever wonder what it would be like if there were noone left? It could happen if all the inhabitants of the world started using toiletpaper - and at the same time also would all want garden furniture made from wood.

WOODY SPARKS - Kick your perception of what wood is all about – or other ways of using wood and various ways of doing it. This workshop is totally dedicated to this unique material that makes up so much of what we do in today’s world. We have invited one of Denmarks best furniture makers and he will with local cabinetmakers be part of helping the participants to develop smaller object relating to wood which all and at the same time will be part of a kind of pavilion for the appreciation of wood - a small temple maybe - or maybe its a piece of furniture - who knows?? The idea is to discuss and see and understand better what wood is all about - not just as wood, but also as what are trees all about - and what do trees do and what would the world look like if we had no trees etc…a course for young students to learn about a fantastic material from people who believe they know something about it.

Time:

June 8th to June 13th 2009

With:
Niels Peter Flint, CEO and founder of MMM & EXDL
Søren Femmer Jensen, Concept Developer and Director Cocreative
Gert Kjeldtoft - http://www.kjeldtoft.com/

Assisted by:
Peter Pilkington – MMM Centre Operation Manager

IF YOU WANT THE MICRO MACRO MONDE COURSE & CAMPS PROGRAM FOR DOWNLOAD PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Wood delivers life as well as death - or maybe it just transforms....

The Crafts challenge

CRAFT = Utilitarian Design??

Crafts are deeply connected to the roots and mythical cultures all over the world. In many places crafts represent the connection between everyday life, philosophy, and a deeper belief in higher powers and forces. Today crafts are often transformed directly into a replica industry that rapidly loses its soul. But crafts are bearers of cultural soul. The craft industry employs millions of people worldwide. However, new technologies and cheap products flood the world with substitutes.
In order to make the crafts an up-to-date catalyst for prosperous development for millions of people and their cultures new ways of thinking and doing needs to considered. This project is about how to find new ways of using technology as well as maintaining the world heritage of old traditional ways of doing Craft. Crafts connects the material elements with spiritual dimensions, imaginary aesthetics with practical everyday life. The project is about dialogues between south and north, about movements that builds most of all on the skills and souls of the south – blend with the coolness of the north and the sustainable scope in general. The project will demonstrate new amazing visions and concrete actions that can happen when south inspires north and vide versa.

The Crafts opportunity – the challenges

CRAFTS new challenge

Chances are probably small that a traditional craft industry producing what it has done for decades can survive since there is a limit to how many breadbaskets and ashtrays the world needs. Crafts come from the art of living – the art of making useful, meaningful and beautiful objects. This could all be forgotten with a mass consumption market that just demands masses of products at as low a cost as possible.
How do we maintain a global craft industry that is vital and innovative and brings new maybe often controversial solutions to everyday life and is at the same time economically as well as ecologically sustainable?
Could the new advanced industrial ways of doing products and new concepts work with the old techniques?
Can we fusion these various ways of thinking and doing and come up with new seriously visionary and pragmatic concepts which will create possibilities NOT just for the craft industry BUT also create NEW and INNOVATIVE solutions that might help humans living more sustainable lives. Indigenous cultures often have many answers – and visions too. We think if we started sharing the concepts WORLDWIDE then maybe the crafts could get a “revival” and actually be part of the solutions rather than being part of the problem.

Crafts-echo – glocally

Of course a transformation of the crafts industry can only happen by involving the people being in there. We do not believe that its possible to come with a global solution – things need to be developed at local level, but we do however also believe it is extremely important that projects and ideas are linked globally in order for the people involved to benefit from each others experiences. The source is local – the products might be global and glocal.

Crafts – the customization industry of tomorrow

Fruit Bird

We believe that Crafts have immense possibilities when it comes to deliver “Products on demand” or “customized products and services” – customization is a “new” ancient way of thinking crafts. We believe this area needs lots of attention since it will be a way for creating entirely new possibilities for the Crafts.

Crafts for the future

MMM tree

Of course there will be sustainable craft business cases in 25 years. Terra cotta compost systems, rivergrass carpet tiles, new solutions for the homes of the next generations, African and Asian craft will transform over the next decades as time changes. Join us on a trip to the hearts of original human creativity – CRAFTS – the work of hands and mind – the connection between the social systems and the culture – lets do FUTURE (world) CRAFTS like when world music was created decades ago.

This first part of the FUTURE CRAFTS project consist of a series of activities (a camp and workshops and actual product / service development), which will start with a MMM Camp in France this summer 2009. Following FUTURE CRAFTS workshops will be held in minimum India and one other place before the results achieved till then will be shown and elaborated further on a FUTURE CRAFTS workshop in Denmark December 2009 during the UN Climate Change Conference.  The FUTURE CRAFTS visions and results will presented at The MMM event happening in The Old Couth Theatre in the centre of Copenhagen

Parts of individuals participating in this project will be offered to be assisting in the workshops in India and Mexico and also eventually being part of the MMM event in Copenhagen December 2009.

Participants in this project can be anyone, but if you are a student you are expected to be at minimum master level.

MMM project:
-STILL TO BE EXPLORED….or rather it’s a surprise. But projects and services and actual products are expected to come out of this process. We do not want to predict at all what it could be – just say that we know this process will bring new, radical and exciting results.

With:

-Neelam Chipper - Designer and CEO of INdus Tree - India

-Aparna Karve – Interior Designer & architect - India
-Nicholas Xynos – France ADER
-Niels Peter Flint – CEO Micro Macro Monde, EXDL - Denmark / France
-Mathilde Bretillot - Designer and Interior Architect, France

Mathilde Bretillot, Nicolas Xynos & NP Flint

Aparna Karve

Neelam Chibber & Mathilde Bretillot

ASSISTED BY:

-Peter Pilkington, Operations Manager Micro Macro Monde, France

-METTE Flint, Activity Coordinator Micro Macro Monde, France

Peter Pilkington

Mette Flint

Time:
20th to 26th of July 2009 –

Price:
This MMM-lab might get some sponsoring for the follow up activities but at this point in time nothing is sure. Pricing is based on the MMM basic costs which is 600 € pr. Person for the entire course in shared tent or room - all inclusive apart from insurance, internet, phone, travel, drinks and personal matters.

IF YOU WANT THE MICRO MACRO MONDE COURSE & CAMPS PROGRAM FOR DOWNLOAD PLEASE CLICK HERE.

-The FLUSH & FORGET culture  or a MMM Camp about SERIOUS S…

– We learn about where all matter might come from and where is sooner or later goes on its eternal cycles on the planet and in the universe. Its not just about compost toilets but about conceptualizing and developing systems which understands that “flush and forget” is not only a waste of money its also waste of valuable resources.
– We design & build the most exquisite compost toilets you have ever seen on the planet – we test them and we find out how we can integrate ancient low-tech solutions into tomorrows world.

The Environmental sanitation institute India, designed by Yatin Pandya. Please see film about the centre elsewhere on this page.

For this course we have especially invited one of Indias most respected architects Yatin Panday who has developed numerous projects in India. Please one of them here.

With:

-Yatin Pandya, Architect and expert on composting systems for rural India, Footprints E.A.R.T.H. (Environment Architecture Research Technology Housing)

- Niels Peter Flint, CEO and founder of MMM & EXDL
- Søren Femmer Jensen, Concept Developer & Strategic Director Cocreative
- And other guests

Yatin Pandya

Assisted by:
- Peter Pilkington

Time:

June 1st to June 6th 2009

IF YOU WANT THE MICRO MACRO MONDE COURSE & CAMPS PROGRAM FOR DOWNLOAD PLEASE CLICK HERE.

WORLDBY the experimental vertical village

-intense courses at MICRO MACRO MONDE where you listen, design and develop new very radical  and sustainable concepts for WORLDBY VILLAGE COMMUNITIES and a life in minimum 25 years from now. The courses last from 5 to 7 days and includes lectures, workshop work, video developing, yoga or other types of exercise, work in gardens, DIVINE cooking, painting & partying etc. These MMM Camps will be custom-made and vary in price. To get best results a maximum not more than 30 persons should take part however projects for much bigger groups can be done too. Please see some of the results from similar workshops done with students worldwide by clicking here.

This MMM CAMP / Course is also possible to do on other locations and can vary in length. Please require for more information.

Please require about possible guests to include in these activities.

Reg. timings, payment and practicalities in general please click here:

Kids in Sharjah, UAE drawing WORLDBY dreams at the NOMAD ACADEMY GOES PUBLIC exhibtion at Sharjah Art Museum in Dec. 2009. Click on image to see more.

DIVINE GARDENING - The “poetic Description”

In the beginning there was Earth, and through time matter transformed and became life as we know it, through amino acids combining to create the first organic cells. The molecular structures that this planet consists of has been and are still transforming. Through this process, bacteria and other forms of life evolved and from this, what we consider life today was shaped into complex structures of cells that played and still plays different roles, all contributing to one higher purpose as the many faces of life. These tiny creatures adapted to the specific habitat in which they dwelled in an orbit around the star that life forms on this planet eventually came to know as the Sun. The small one-celled creatures that lived in the midst of all this on the outskirts of our galaxy changed and interchanged bits of information to develop new skills needed in a new context in every changing surroundings to inhabit new places in the environment on the planet.

Life was spreading over the rocky surface of the planet. An elegant and amazing process that over billions of years developed an atmosphere that prepared for other types of creatures to enter the scene and higher expression forms of life on this planet developed – life as we know it today - was due to this amazing integral process of constant transformation. Nothing is ever wasted or really dies, it just transforms. There is only constant transformation in the eternal life of matter. As life grew ever more complex it became fishlike and swam the vast ocean that covered the planet. The longing for life to know itself in its entirety was so strong that with the help of time and the inner fire that sparks leaps in evolution, it conquered land.

The fish that had wanted to know Mother Earth in its entirety swam up on land, and its love for the world and longing to know it caused it to evolve into higher expression forms and once again the fire of evolution burned inside it as it had before and thus the amphibian sprang forth, on the shorelines of the vast unconscious ocean, to conquer land. The frog, once kissed turned into man that knew, man that knew it was Man, and that it knew that this knowledge was held by man himself.

Now we stand at this point again where we long to know the full scope of matter and life, we want to know ourselves and to know the the living home we have as well as the universe. This is a challenge we are confronted with today. To know that we are alive and to bring awareness of that knowledge into the depths of matter on this planet. To wake up from the illusory ego identification with Homo, and becoming Sapiens alone.

With this the entire Earth, our habitat, can become aware of itself. We in turn become aware that we are bright knowledge from above, descended here where a home had been made for us, in this womb in which we are born into, whose crops and livestock are our umbilical cords, in this huge organism whose placenta we still feed upon, our nourishing Mother, in which we, like the baby kangaroo, still live and where we have made a home for ourselves – on this planet.

By waking up to this greater context in which we reside and in which we dwell we can make this a home for us to live in, not wanting to retract from it, looking for greener grass to graze in some high far away place. No, it is our belief that we can realize that all around us is alive, and create homes around us that live and evolves with us as we evolve with the world around us. We are the “Earth-Life” that became Aware for a reason, and it is time to use this awareness to create the home we want to live in, because it is in our hands, and in our power to do so, thus it is also our obligation, because it is together we think, together we exist, we are all individual parts of one great system, like the different cells in the body we adapt and do different tasks, the tasks that we are designed to do, the tasks that we love to do. That is how we evolve, by reconnecting us with each other and igniting that inner spark that causes frog leaps in evolution. So lets ignite our alchemical fires and bring forth a new generation of “Earth-Life” living products for the planet as well as for our homes. Products and concepts that understands “what its all about”. Trying is the least we can do, and success is dependant on us trying.

come help developing MMM to become a stunning place

DIVINE Gardening project at Micro Macro Monde – MondLab

MondLab

What?
Creating gardens, products and services related to new ways of cultivating plants and also developing ones inner nature. Does it sound strange – well read “the secret life of plants” and your point of view of what plants and gardens are all about will change forever.

How?

We will set up experimental gardens and we hope to see students from the creative disciplines such as: design, landscape architecture, botanists, mind expanding disciplines, marketing, ecology, philosophy etc. all to come and develop new concepts of how divine gardens can be created and products related to them be developed. A curriculum is composed and the process is documented.

A composting world

Why?
The field of biomimicry is expanding as mans consciousness is expanding to understand the fact that the solution to living in harmony with nature already exists within nature itself. This coupled with a holistic approach to the process of creating, seeing us as integral parts of nature can allow us to connect with our inner nature and create outcomes better adapted to our lives than pure mechanistic solutions. The two course leaders of this project are sure that such solutions are out there for the taking if we only tune in to the right frequency and listen to nature – we need to have a serious dialogue with nature since it is for the sake of sacred nature we are doing this and who knows the remedies better than nature herself?
We will have an open approach embracing all the results that come out of it  – seeing it as an “Earth-Life” lab, explorations into unknown, and yet for some, very known fields. We believe miracles can happen – or rather we know they happen and we believe that we as designers have the pragmatic dimensions to make some really stunning and beautiful projects done.
This lab is a venture into the field where holistic gardening meets product design, a cross over that will yield unexpected outcomes. We anticipate miraculous results from letting different disciplines meet, exchange ideas and work together with designers to create fantastic useful outcomes.

Compost forever

The results are to be documented in a variety of media such as video documentaries, articles and other material for developing the findings into concepts that become product and services that can be implemented both as yet unforeseen products as well as gardening systems in different spaces around the world.
The final results will hopefully evolve under a long time to come, however the initial findings should be implemented by designers in products and services in a near future. First year course will develop methods of using living mater integrated in design to evolve the way we look at our creations.
The purpose is to create a holistic garden system that looks at humans and plants as interconnected parts in one integrated living system, exploring the benefits from this perspective for gardens, people and products.

Lets make PARADISE

Divine Gardens

-Bringing Eden to Earth.
-       An MMM retreating for getting to know Mother Earth, to connect with Anima Mundi.
-       A course in seeing the life in Matter. To see that the plants, and world does not only live but that it is also alive with spirit and soul, just like us, no less superior, just our other half that processes on this planet as well in the universe – probably – are eternal.
-       We will build a garden – we will talk to the plants – and they might talk to us. We will listen to what they say and we will design and develop what they – and Mother Earth asks us to do. And yes at the end of the course you will see life, your work, your world and surely whatever you are bringing to the world in VERY different ways. Hopefully they will tell us how to use them the best in this new technological era.
-       The course aims at letting the participants experience new terrain in their inner landscape and, like a seed, grow out of the soil and open up to the sun above with all the new experiences that this entails. In the personal sphere this means that the individual will be nourished and cultivated so that a realization of true self arises and so that identification with the seed is changed for an identification of the full flower and its surroundings allowing you to bloom.
-        The aim is to get an understanding of the forces of nature. We can take an active role in this by working with that very force that creates frog leaps in evolution. This force that brings life from water up on the shorelines in the amphibian, then further up on land and in subsequent metamorphous unfolds to acquire wings. Working with the one fire that burns on the edge of the abyss in a loving embrace of flames to purge it into spirit in this alchemical process in exploring the best symbiotic relationship between Man and Plant - “Earth-Life”.

This very unique MMM course is held by designers Artur Moustaf & Niels Peter Flint and brings in revered teachers such as Kenden Bhutia (Vajrayana Khandro-Ma (Female Lama). The course will as all other courses include yoga and other mindful exercise possibilities as well as wild organic cooking and many other surprises.

Artur Moustafa at MMM - WELCOME

Time:

July 6th to July 11th 2009

IF YOU WANT THE MICRO MACRO MONDE COURSE & CAMPS PROGRAM FOR DOWNLOAD PLEASE CLICK HERE.