Projeto C'alma
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
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Project Description
C’alma is a place to empower change, through interdisciplinary education, where art, nature, yoga and meditation serve as tools for transformation. Not only it makes space for sharing and experiencing different practices, but it serves as an example of how to live a more sustainable, healthy, beautiful and authentic life. With infraestructures for sustainable tourism, we will organize retreats, artistic residencies and other programs, which will financially sustain our social and community proje
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
C’alma Project is a place, to be created, to empower change, both in the individual and the collective/social dimensions. We, as a team, believe that this change might be exponential through the use of three main tools: arts, nature and yoga/meditation combined with the power of bringing people together. Through these tools, we wish to empower people to join, share, experience, learn and evolve, through not only the moments, connections or knowledge we, as a community, will develop, but also through the space itself, as it will serve as an example of how it is possible to live a more sustainable, authentic, healthy and beautiful life. With the obvious disparities within society, our aim is to be able to integrate different people, which might come from different social, economic and cultural backgrounds. We believe in the circularity of resources. With that in mind, we will develop infrastructures for sustainable tourism, where we will organize retreats, artistic residencies and other programs related with art, nature and yoga, which will financially sustain our social and community projects. This way, we’ll not only be able to share and potentialize these tools with those who can afford it, but be able, through them, to expand and touch those which are usually left marginalized. With this, we don’t aim at having a paternalistic approach, to apply rules or standards we believe will benefit everyone, in a position of authority. On the contrary, we wish to create a space in which people participate in an active and involved way, to bring their curiosity, knowledge, experience, heritage, their ideas and innovations, to generate a laboratory for new perspectives of life and its thousands dimensions. This will be a center for interdisciplinary experimentation, through different workshop spaces, classes (which will be developed by different local people), seminars, exhibitions, festivals and whichever cultural and educational programs we, as a community, will create.
Key objectives for sustainability
This will be an inspiring space which will serve as a practical example of how to live in a more sustainable way. All the possible sustainable solutions will be put into practice while making those choices and processes visible, creating an educational walking path. On the way there will be interactive points of information, done with beauty and art in mind, turning this education path into an experience itself.
For that we want to integrate the buildings beautifully with the landscape, turning what now is a land of sand and invasive plants, into a beautiful ecosystem, which will serve as medicine, food and space to connect with nature (for practices of forest bathing, grounding, meditation or art). The construction will be done with materials of natural origin, respecting nature.The design will prioritize energy efficiency through passive systems, supplemented with solar energy resources, approaching the parameters of near-zero consumption. It will use a system that enables the reduction of water usage, recycling the grey and black waters, using them in the garden. Along with the buildings, there will be an organic food garden, creating a “farm to table” restaurant. Composting will be fundamental and will manage the organic waste.
When it comes to community involvement, there are several projects that will be developed: community gardens, community composting, seed bank library, soil regeneration, reforestation and the empowerment of local products and heritage. We wish to call the local community to develop their own projects, creating new jobs, inspiring entrepreneurship and circular economy. One of the community projects in mind will be to use the plastic collected from fishermen, upcycling them into new products, designed by bridging the cultural heritage of this community, the contemporary style and the needs of those involved. In parallel there will be courses, workshops and laboratories for implementing and testing different approaches in the areas of
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
To be sustainable is more than managing the natural resources that are external to us, it also means to manage our own individual resources. It’s not just recycling waste, it’s recycling our own emotions, thoughts and actions. It’s not just sourcing energy from sun, water or wind, it is managing our own energy, to know where to get it in a healthy way, through our deep breath or plant based food. It means to connect with what is important and discover our own authentic path. To generate this kind of self knowledge, one needs to have the space to experience, to learn, to connect with oneself, with nature and others, to be exposed to diversity, to culture, to knowledge, to innovation, to creativity, to art. To create a beautiful space, where people feel naturally good and inspired, is the starting point. The simple experience of being present, of contemplation, of connection, although simple, it can be very empowering and resourceful. We connect with beauty through our senses and it is through them that we wish to inspire and captivate attention and connection. People will be invited, through points of interaction, to connect with their senses, to be involved more in the present and their power of contemplation.
The creation of art workshops and spaces for self expression and experimentation are the basis of this project, believing that activities centered around arts and culture can be deeply transformative, both in the individual and collective spheres. It also can foster social cohesion and develop a shared sense of ownership, which is essential to bring the dimension of active and involved participation. We wish to develop not only artistic residences where different artists can gather to create, workshops where art practices can be shared, but also community art projects that can enhance local heritage, talk about social issues and disparities and empower people to act on what they believe, on the world they want to build.
Key objectives for inclusion
Our project is located in an area with several social problems, where inequality is visible. We can find prostitution, families with addition to alcohol and drugs, high number of children with learning disabilities (much derived from family contexts) and unemployment. When thinking about creating a project for empowering change, we couldn’t leave that social dimension on the side. On one front, we wish to create jobs and make them available for local people. On the other, through the income generated from the tourism business, we wish to develop community projects. For example, community gardens and composting, with the collaboration of the local government. Develop socially implicated art projects, which aim to talk, reflect and act on the needs and challenges that these communities face. Social life is organized in a way that people who have no financial or cultural capital are educated to believe that their opportunities and capacities are limited. We want to change that belief, that space of action. That might happen not just through empowering art community projects, but through education and through sharing spaces for creating new realities. We wish to call different people to gather and develop projects in order to create new products or services, through the use of our workshops, laboratories and the help of experts, with sustainability, social change and culture in mind. For that, different people with different skills will collaborate, creating new jobs, inspiring entrepreneurship and a circular economy.
What is very essential to the project, is not just the interdisciplinary approach, but also the space to have intergenerational connections. This will be a learning community, on the foundation that, no matter who you are, you are as much a student as you are a teacher. Projects, classes and workshops will be thought to touch children, youth, adults and elders.The space, itself,will be designed to be inclusive to all those who have mobility difficulties.
Innovative character
The interdisciplinary approach is something that we feel is needed and lacking, especially between these three areas of knowledge: art, nature and yoga/meditation. It makes us think in a more holistic view of life - knowledge should not be placed in boxes, it should be able to be more fluid, to get into different contexts. That is where lies the possibility of innovation and creativity!
The application of sociocratic principles brings an innovative way to how we organize and govern the project, specially when applied in the community projects. To be inclusive is not only opening doors to everyone, waiting for them to come on their own will, but fostering those opportunities and connections through active listening and participation. Sociocracy applies what democracy can only propose - it gives voice to everyone, not only the majority. For us, that is an essential idea for inclusion. This is a tool for organization and government that uses consent to create decisions. It makes possible the idea that every human is created equal, everyone has the right of decision, of participation, of life, of freedom and the search for happiness. Everyone can say yes, anyone can say no! There is a voice for agreeing, there is space for disagreement, always traveling towards consent. It’s a space to build safety and trust, in order to delegate and be able to make every element responsible and irreplaceable.
One of the team members is a neuroscientist, who brings new knowledge and legitimizes some of the practices in a scientific perspective. We wish to, first, apply the knowledge to potentialize the biology of the human being (through the organization of space and time), secondly, share scientific knowledge that connects with developed practices (such as yoga, meditation, forest bathing, art creation) and, lastly, to gather data from participants in order to create new knowledge and to give them a new perspective of the way their bodies react and adapt to these practices.
