Dreaming the future can create the future. That is the premise behind Dreaming New Mexico (DNM), a Bioneers project with support from Google Earth’s Outreach Program. Dreaming New Mexico was selected runner up for the 2009 Buckminster Fuller Challenge.
Submitted by Kenny Ausubel (founder and CEO Bioneers) an award-winning social entrepreneur, writer and filmmaker and Peter Warshall, a polymath – biologist, anthropologist and former editor of Whole Earth Catalog, Dreaming New Mexico prompts citizens to ask: What is it we really desire? What would success look like? The act of envisioning is followed by a collaborative effort to discover what we know and do not know.
Their proposal reads:
The primary tool of Dreaming New Mexico is the innovative tool of “future maps.” These maps envision the state’s future and revive a strong sense of and respect for place. Mapping provides any community an opportunity for collaborative design. It’s grounded in rigorous technical and strategic research, as well as multi-sectoral social mapping of networks and players. Combining what we know with our desires, the project creates a “do-able dream” grounded in pragmatic realities. A second tool is a pamphlet keyed to the map that explains the “whole system:” components, connections, configurations, commons and players. In the process, a “third tool” arises: a “shadow think tank” of top local visionaries. They become part of the collaborative process as a core network that can actually implement the dream. These radiating social networks penetrate trimtab constituencies to leverage change. The map/pamphlet serve as educational and organizing tools from grass roots to the canopy. The final strategic element is the generative and distributive role of Bioneers, its internationally acclaimed conference and 18 satellite conferences, and countless networks with wide outreach including media. Bioneers is exceptionally well positioned to network the project outside New Mexico, and is doing so nationally and internationally. Through DNM, Bioneers is actively promoting the idea of ecologically oriented bioregional planning, plus the basic DNM methodology and tools, including Google Earth visualizations. DNM has completed the first future map/pamphlet: Age of Renewables, as well as web site www.dreamingnewmexico.org. These clearly show what we’re doing, including purpose and strategy.
In the opinion of the jury, Dreaming New Mexico brings together the tools of
grassroots organizing and community leadership with scientific know-how and political savvy to both create a vision for the future and lay the groundwork for getting there. This is a fundamental leverage point for creating systemic change.
The core concept of this work is the power of transformative visioning, of imagining the world we want to see and then putting the steps in place to get us there, a process which Bucky often called designing the ‘preferred state.’
The Buckminster Fuller Challenge, launched in 2007, promotes a systems approach to design pioneered by Buckminster Fuller which aims to address complex problems through comprehensive, anticipatory design thinking. Through the recognition of outstanding entries, The Challenge supports and draws attention to individuals and teams around the world whose innovative strategies have the potential to help solve humanity’s most pressing problems.
To view the $100,000 winning entry and all of the entries to the 2009 Buckminster Fuller Challenge, visit the Idea Index.
