We want the Resilients publication to reflect the full diversity of experimental approaches to the question: what possible futures can we envision and how do we prototype them today?

This question implies a strong dose of “visionary adaptation” - of exploring new cultural imaginaries and their influence on our current way of life. The publication should provide an insight about which elements of our contemporary cultures could be resilient and which fragile or unsustainable in the face of turbulent and uncertain futures.

The publication is inspired by the Commonplace books of old - collections of knowledge and inspirations in bite-sized chunks and a variety of formats. The entries in commonplace books were used as starting point or “compost” for creative works, such as novels or natural philosophy papers. Open, inclusive and exploratory in form and content, we nevertheless aim to create a multifaceted jewel where each side is polished to radiate the beauty of an enduring printed product.

We would like to include everything from DIY recipes for cultural resilience, design fiction, fieldwork in eco-villages or contemporary guilds, manifestos for free information flows and transversal networks. We encourage contributions that situate technological innovation at the centre of our cultural context, embracing both the traditions of the past and the innovations of the present in all their intricate complexities.

We are particularly interested in perspectives that embrace a nuanced rather than absolutist vision of the future - one that sees contemporary societal challenges as compost for revitalisation of culture. We want to explore resilient and innovative cultural practices capable of adapting to complex amalgams of technological and social disruption and transformation on a variety of scales - from the individual to the planetary.

Hence Resilients do not subscribe to a survivalist minimalism or a “bucolic mirage” - the view that it will all be fine if we retreat back to a paradise-like wilderness. Neither do we believe in (post)apocalyptic “we shall never surrender” or us-vs-them tactics. It is about knowing what we are able to change and changing it, while accepting what we cannot change and incorporating that into landscapes of new cultural imaginaries.

The contributions should be relevent to the project's stated aims, themes and context → http://resilients.net/about/

We encourage vivid, engaging and playful contributions in a variety of styles and formats. Submissions should be concise, accessible, and reflect the themes of the Resilients project, inspiring active and concrete engagement with the topic.

The following types of contributions are welcomed. For clarification about these guidelines or if you have an idea for something that is not covered below, contact us. Contributions selected for publication will be edited for style, consistency, and clarity.

• Drops of consciousness (between 140 characters and 140 words): free-form but on-topic, more concise than stream-of-consciousness, more discursive than haiku, but with all the dazzling flashes of inspiration, speculation, and insight of both combined.

• Reflective articles or essays (up to 2000 words): exploring their subject in considerable depth, these contributions should discuss and cite relevant sources where possible (scholarly or popular articles and books, films, novels, computer games…) but be written from an interdisciplinary perspective and with a lay audience in mind.

• Interviews (2000 words): can be presented in a variety of ways - standard Q&A, as an article, incorporating photographs…

• Fieldwork (2000 words): studies of concrete people, places, sites, groups or organisations, with observations and conclusions drawn from the study: this could be approached as a piece of investigative journalism or a guide book, but with more substance and depth.

• Case studies (around 500 words): summarising, describing, reflecting on and presenting the results of particular interventions, public experiments, or other focussed activities.

• Travelogue (2000 words): entertaining, intriguing and peculiar observations of resilience-related travels. First-person and experiential, a travelogue could take the form of a diary, letters, blog posts, a comic book, a photo essay…

• Poems and stories (up to 1500 words): contributions in various languages are encouraged; could also be something collected during fieldwork (from an interview, seen on a wall, found in an ancient scrolls…).

• Communiqués/manifestos (not more than 1000 words): these must be inflammatory and subversive, challenge the status quo, possess a strong, single-minded vision of the future, and contain a healthy dose of humour.

• Photo essay (optionally accompanied by up to 500 words): should be visually arresting with a well-developed compositional, thematic, or narrative quality.

• Visual contribution: (about 10 pieces): diagrams, illustrations, infographics.

• Commissioned pieces: we are open to suggestions for contributors.

• TBD (scheduled 20121215)