We had high hopes for the Eden Project. According to the first page of their guide book, Eden is 'a project, an experiment in communication, a meeting place, a catalyst for change, a global garden and a stage'. It goes on to say that Eden is about 'sharing ideas with organisations worldwide, investing in programmes and projects and working with local people.' It concludes by saying the Eden Project is 'exploring sustainability, building a social enterprise and working together for a better future'.
The 'Afternow' project shares these values and aspirations. So, our hope was that the third of our 'journeys with a purpose' would be to a place that speaks of the future – of the inner and outer worlds that might emerge as we negotiate the change of age that is upon us.
If you have read other parts of this website, you will know that we see the end of modernity (the era that started with the Enlightenment) as inevitable for two reasons. First, many people are losing confidence in the ideas that underpinned modernity: they no longer believe that scientific rationalism alone will lead to continuing 'progress' because of the yawning gap between so many of the problems we face and our ability to devise solutions that work. Second, our current way of life is not sustainable. We are seeing interacting crises in energy, the environment and the economy. Our use of oil, production of carbon dioxide, and growth in debt (to name only three factors) cannot continue to rise exponentially in the context of a finite system. So, our contentions are, first, that transformational change is needed and, second, that we can learn our way into the future.
Our hope was that the Eden Project would provide inspiration. In many respects the project lived up to its publicity. The site itself is massive and impressive. Located in a reclaimed china clay pit in Cornwall, it has created something beautiful out of a previously derelict post-industrial site. Once into 'the attraction', two 'biomes' (greenhouses) dominate the landscape. The path meanders through planted landscapes and modern conceptual art that include a giant bee and a towering robot created from old electrical appliances.
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