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Deep Time
as a governance tool
Why?
The resilience of the Earth’s biodiversity has been severely compromised by
human activity. Yet, political action on ecological issues falls far below the levels called for by science, the IPCC, and Indigenous leaders around the world.
How might we shift our approach to decision-making to radically include our environment and the other-than-human?
How?
We built the Deep Assembly, a speculation tool exploring how non-human beings could be centered in decision-making. It is composed of 7 members: Atmosphere, Minerals, Water, Celestial Bodies, Plants, Animals, and Micro-organisms. It is driven by the idea that short-term decision-making is not sufficient; we must explore politics and time beyond human existence and dive into what we call deep time.
Where do we go from there?
The next step was to lead an event with stakeholders, dedicated to the future of decision-making.
This event brought together leaders in higher education, climate justice, and local governance to examine how power is used and how it might shift to address our social and environmental concerns, and to work together to find practical ways to create change.
We started by mapping participants' relations to power and disclosing it.
Then, we immersed participants in our speculative tool. We shared a crisis meeting, corresponding to the introduction of Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or forever chemicals, by humans and their industries into Earth.
Listen to it here:
Using what they had learned, they explored opportunities for collaboration with non-human beings and delivered a speech embodying their chosen being.
Then? What did we learn?
The presentations were pretty daring. Through our discussions, I could sense that at first, most of them did not see how everything is interconnected and that even decisions that do not seem to impact the natural environment do. But as we progressed, it seemed easier for people to connect with beings that they perceive in their daily lives, like plants, animals, and even water, but celestial bodies, minerals, and the atmosphere seemed too abstract for participants to connect with.
This workshop offers participants a new perspective on how they can use their power and the layers of influence they hold. One participant mentioned wanting to bring plants to their next board meeting.
Acknowledgement:
Thank you Craig for your guidance.
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