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Seeing is believing… one picture says more than a thousand words ….

… these are the powers of visual thinking.  There are many other ways – music, film, poetry – but visual can get quickly and easily to the point. 

Visual thinking can unlock vital synergies – between a wider community of interest, with deeper layers of value, and further horizons of change… This is the collective intelligence, urgently needed in the turning of crisis towards transformation. And here the focal point is ‘cities’ – hence the title ‘Urban 3.0’ – the co-evolution of cities with ‘collective urban intelligence’…

Here we highlight some of the main tracks in visual thinking – from visions, to cartoons, dreams, mappings, informatics and the whole synergistic process. This is then a vital strand in the Mind-Lab  (‘Laboratory for Urban Collective Intelligence’), a global community working  on the pathways ‘from smart to wise’.

VISION-EERING

This experimental program explores the hopes, challenges, visions, ideas & plans of people around Mussourie (a small city in the Himalayan foothills).  We use visual thinking (dreams, comics, visions) – with stories, myths, poems or songs where needed. The results aim to highlight a living & future heritage, with deeper layers of the human experience. They also open the door to some ‘grand challenges’ of society – climate change, social inequality, political colonization etc – each calling for some kind of ‘collective intelligence’ with deeper layers of insight & wisdom.

But then …. this plan was turned upside down by the catastrophic news from Rasuwa in Nepal of August 26th … (this really got to me, as i had trekked up that valley in 1974, stayed in a Tibetan refugee village, then marooned in a blizzard near Langtang…)

The Himalayas are dangerous already, and more so as the ice gives way….  Dangerous both for residents with inadequate accommodation – and for pilgrims and explorers who are attracted to this extraordinary landscape.  So how could the Vision-eering approach respond in Mussourie, 500 miles from Rasuwa?

We could draw pictures of monstrous floodwaters racing down the valley, taking bridges and houses and people… but maybe here we also draw pictures of how people think and feel. This could begin with the mythic layer, where the Trishuli river was made by Shiva the destroyer, as he drove his trident into the mountain… now on the trail of pilgrims who know their material lives are short and vulnerable.  And then this connects somehow to the present day and practical questions, of how to live in such a place? how to build roads and bridges, houses and schools, right on the frontiers of natural forces versus human?  Many layers are there to explore, not only dreams but fears, visions, traumas, hopes and plans…

The fieldwork will run in October 18-25th, based at the Mussourie Heritage Centre, with exhibition 26-28th, and then online – details on Vision-eering

DREAM-WORKS

a long running series, exploring ways to visualize the subconscious world, in a highly interactive process..

Example – Chorlton Dream-works 2025 – https://chorltonartsfestival.org/events/chorlton-dream-works/  

“Bring your dreams and we will draw them together in minutes … For a world on the edge of self-destruction – extinction, extremism, catastrophic inequality – we can explore deeper layers and wider visions.  Such myths, stories, visions, meanings and archetypes, can be essential maps for both inner and outer journeys….” (for more see DREAM-WORKS)

This Dream-Works storyline is about how humans have lived and might again live on this one earth…  we could see in these misty visions a brief story-arc, a journey through ends and beginnings…  This unfolds as with a tapestry – a tale of longing & belonging, trauma & loss, hopes & visions… Such fine weavings might wave in a breeze, or howl in a storm

Meanwhile …. on this site

Welcome to the Mind-Lab – a.k.a. ‘Laboratory of Collective Intelligence’ – on our sister site hosted at the University of Manchester… for the mapping and design of new systems of human collaboration – in cities, economies, ecologies, technologies, and whole societies – in order to live together on one small planet.

Starting with an open creative mind we enter the subconscious DREAM-WORKS…..

The source text here is THE BOOK – a ‘handbook for the 21st century’

Here there is a parallel track to left brain thinking – by playing surrealistic MIND-GAMES –

Such ideas were put to the test with the challenges of the CORONA-GAMES

This led to the exploration of ‘big-bad-world’ POLITICAL-GAMES…

…. pointing beyond capitalism, to a new Eco-opolism, as in the MANIFESTO

Meanwhile the fundamentals are with the ideas of SYNERGISTICS

Such insights are illuminated with the power of VISUAL THINKING.

With current demonstration of VISION-EERING

(if anyone wonders how this came about here is my BIO )

And further discussion & analysis on some references….

• Ravetz, J (2025). Seeds of a Global Mind Emerging from the Rubble: A Journey of Ideas into Action. In: Raskin P, Cohn, J (Eds): Convergent Journeys, Great Transition Initiative, Boston, MA, https://greattransition.org/images/Convergent-Journeys.pdf#page=155
• Ravetz, J, (2023): ‘Visual imagineering:  graphic mind-games for the emerging ‘collective climatic intelligence’ In:  Metzner-Szigeth, Andreas (ed.), On the Interplay of Images, Imaginaries and Imagination in Science Communication, Florence (Casa Editrice Leo S. Olschki) 2022, SCIENTIA atque USUS vol. 3, ISBN 978-88-222-6871-6
• Ravetz, J. (2022). Thinking Deeper, Wider, Further: Visual tools for the Pandemic 3.0 and the Game-Changing Pathways Ahead. In: Rezaei, N. (eds) Integrated Science Vol 6:   Multidisciplinarity and Interdisciplinarity in Health. Integrated Science, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96814-4_19
• Ravetz, J, (2020), Deeper City: collective intelligence and the pathways from smart to wise. NY, Routledge: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315765860  and www.manchester.ac.uk/synergistics/deeper-city-book/
• Ravetz, J, 2020: Pandemic-3.0 – from crisis to transformation – Exploring the COVID-19 Challenge. Journal of Future Studies. https://jfsdigital.org/2020/08/18/pandemic-3-0-from-crisis/
• Ravetz, J, & Ravetz, A, (2016). Seeing the wood for the trees: Social Science 3.0 and the role of visual thinking. Innovation: the European Journal of Social Science Research, Vol 30(01):104 – 120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2016.1224155

Meanwhile….  Urban3.net is the wider & deeper creative counterpart to the ‘official’ site on Synergistics – here is much more on the Laboratory, with Conversations  and event programs:  Co-productions and projects: TOOLKITS guides and playbooks….

To keep in touch or register an interest in the Mind-Lab programs & events – please put your details here, and we will be in touch –