Temporary School Reunion

Remember the Temporary School of Thought?



A year ago, an amazing collection of people gathered in a huge squatted townhouse in Mayfair and held a three-week long free university, with classes in everything from welding to maze-making to how to think about infrastructure and the case for and against art school.

If I hadn't gone down to the Temporary School, most of the things I did in 2009 would never have happened.

It was there that I met Vinay, Mike and the rest of the crew that became the Institute for Collapsonomics. Conversations during those weeks led me to start writing Social Media vs the Recession and The Future of Unemployment, and from there to the beginnings of Signpostr and Space Makers. And it was Steph, one of the organisers of the Temporary School, who co-piloted the Treehouse Gallery in Regents Park, where I spent much of last summer.

The Temporary School was a magical time and space - so when I realised, earlier this week, that we'd reached its first anniversary, it seemed like a good idea to organise a Temporary School Reunion.

This has been thrown together very quickly - but then, that was the spirit that made the original Mayfair school work. It's all happening this Saturday - 9 January down in Brixton.

In keeping with the Temporary School spirit, the reunion will make temporary use of an empty space - this time, one of the shops at Brixton Village/Granville Arcade - the indoor market where Julia and I have been running the Space Makers project over the last few months. We'll be in Unit 40, on the back row of the market, kicking off at 11am on Saturday and running until the market closes at 6pm.

The schedule is still coming together - but Vinay will be giving an updated version of his famous Infrastructure for Anarchists talk at 3pm. And I'll be on at 4.30, giving a very long perspective on the crisis of the university, inspired by the later writings of Ivan Illich. If you want to offer a workshop or lead a discussion, leave a comment here - or just turn up before 11am on Saturday morning and we'll find you a slot.

Next door in Units 41/42, there will be public rehearsals of masked improvisation from theatre collective Firstborn, as part of the Space Station festival - with a performance at 4.30. While a few doors down, the Okido Doodle Shop will be running events for kids.

Whether you were part of the Mayfair School, or only read about it in the papers, come along and help us rekindle some of that spirit. Hopefully it will burn as brightly through 2010 as it has over the past twelve months.

Speaking of keeping warm - we recommend you wear warm clothes and, if you can, bring a cushion or a folding seat! Some seating will be provided...

* For more on the history of the Temporary School, check out this post.

* For directions to Brixton Village/Granville Arcade, go here - it's only three minutes from Brixton tube.

Plugging tomorrow's talk

Quick plug for my next talk at the wonderful Temporary School of Thought. If you're in London and free tomorrow (Weds) at 5pm, come down to 39A Clarges Mews, where I'll be thinking out loud about 'Economic Chemotherapy'.

Erm... as in, cheap treatments for cancer? Nope. As in "What if we tried looking at economic growth as something unhealthy?"

Why would anyone want to do that? Well, some people say we need to because of climate change. Other people say we're going to have to because of Peak Oil. But what really interests me is the possibility that there might be deeper reasons, to do with the way we look at the world.

Is this going to be one of your abstract philosophical ramblings with lots of footnotes that have no relevance to the real world? Um... I hope not. I do want to talk a bit about the history of questioning growth and some of the different ideas that are out there, but that's only the background. The real action comes when we start talking about ways of thriving when the economy is shrinking. (And whatever you think about the desirability of growth, that sounds pretty relevant right now, doesn't it?) I've got several suggestions, but I'm hoping other people will have too.

OK, you've convinced me. When's this all happening, again? 5pm, Weds 21/01/09 at 39A Clarges Mews, off Curzon Street, Mayfair, London, which is about two minutes walk from Green Park tube.

And what if I've, like, got a proper job so I can't go hanging out in posh squats at five o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon? Fear not - video and podcasts will be available in due course. (Though you won't find heckling me half as satisfying.)

Within a few hours of arriving, I have been given a juggling lesson and an invitation to labyrinth building... and attended a talk on anarchy (the besuited lecturer was recording the talk for his files — apparently, even anarchists keep records). Sunday Times, 18/01/09