Shapers of Society

“Futures is a question rather than a finished destination” Geraldine Wharry

As a member of Geraldine Wharry's Trend Atelier Community, it was an honour to have Geraldine on the podcast and share with the Shapers of Society audience an alternative perspective on futures. Our conversation was recorded nearly a year ago but seems more relevant today in the present. Especially, in reference to changes and challenges we have seen across the world in 2022 and on the back of COP27. As ever with futures, it’s a way of getting ready or questioning the way things are and considering how the future could be. This is part 1 of a series of 2.

In this Episode, Geraldine Wharry outlines her journey to the now into the future, as a pioneer and change-maker in the world of trends, sharing the opportunities and challenges within the process. The conversation covers Geraldine’s passion to create change in the world through fashioning sustainable future perspectives involving the climate and social justice, to setting up the Trend Atelier School and Community. We explore degrowth, fashion futures for a sustainable world and how futures thinking can be used to predict our own future on how we want to be in the world. We discuss a re-wilding of fashion, how new approaches are needed and going forward - showing how fashion can be more with less. We discuss the challenges of changing the industry of trends and how to move towards this will involve uncomfortable conversations and democratising of forecasting/trends. Geraldine believes we can all be futurists, and all understand how what we do today can have an impact for future generations tomorrow.

To contact Geraldine Wharry and connect with the different work she is currently involved within, please check the links below: -

In this month’s episode, is an interview with Darren Cullen, a multi-talented satirical artist, illustrator, writer who uses humour and playfulness to draw attention towards alternative perspectives and encourage us to question what we see around us in the media. Darren initially studied advertising but felt uncomfortable with the ethical implications involved, which he felt encourages people to consume through manipulation and co-ops anything good about our culture - so he soon switched course to fine art.  Our conversation dives deeper into his journey and the process of developing some of his key projects. Our discussion focuses on his Pocket Money Loans installations at Dismaland, Subvertising, The Museum of Neo-Liberalism which focuses on marketplaces and co-option of everyday life ‘where everything is for sale’. As he had just got back from COP 26, he shares his experience in taking his Hell Bus to Glasgow and the importance of exposing greenwashing issues in climate change advertising. Darren’s approach crosses many mediums, using his creativity to spread awareness and communicate through 3D models, interactive drawings, dioramas, prints, comics installations, and experiences. Each act as interventions to interrupt the monoculture and expand our perspectives in everyday life.

A 21st century remixed culture jam with Dr Noki.

........"I'd like to be part of the evolution of sustainability... to create a sub-culture called custom build"......Dr Noki

This episode introduces you to the world of Dr Noki, an intuitive customiser/DIY genius and anti- fashion activist/artist, re-knowned for his instinctive chopping up and remixing of brands to re-create hybrid and unique garments.  Utilising remixing, cutting up and assemblage, re-inventing unique ways to present visual narratives, sustainable custom collages into textiles and clothing cultures. Our conversation travels back and re-connects forward to the sub-cultural roots and influences, from lived experiences across sub-cultures, music and art; from hip hop and early rave to artists movements such as Dadaists and the book Culture Jam – Kalle Lasn. Co-creating through our shared dialogue as a way inspire audiences to be empowered by alternatives ways forward for fashion and textiles sustainability.

Dr Noki shares his wisdoms, humour, empathy, and ingenuity in his translations in how he learnt to transcend and reinvent his own creative language, iconography, sub-cultures and new characters through empathy and creativity.  From Fashion Monsters to initiating custom build subcultures - honing a visionary perspective of sustainability, rooted in autonomy and emerging into the Noki - BIY (Build It Yourself) clothing sub-cultures.  Dr Noki exchanges his unique and genius approach when responding to the rag pile, using landfill as resources to re-assemble and re-invent what exists. To inspire a new generation of custom-built sub-cultures for a 21st century collage of the future.

Finding the positive in the landfill mountain, using instinct and intuition, he flips the rag pile in true Dr Noki style of reinvention to create ‘landfill drops’ and in the process reducing the ‘landfill up’. His school NESTT (Noki Education of Sustainable Textiles and Technology) encourages autonomy through the custom build sub-cultures, whilst nurturing ‘post-code customisers’ and ‘bedroom ateliers’. Industry collaborations with brands such as Adidas,  Katharine Hamnett and more recently the NX4S with Andy Murphy.  Always re-inventing new ways of using  Dr Noki visual vocabulary and in turn re-turns deadstock into  ‘up fusions’ as re-invention to breathe new life into leftovers.

The Dr Noki episode collages a mash up of life's creative experiences, reconstructing and reinventing destruction to respond positively to what exists, injecting new narrative’s, processes, and subcultures.  Listen in and be part of the evolution of sustainability and join the sustainable ‘custom build’ subcultural movement.

You can find Dr Noki on the following channels or join him at the NESTT (Noki Education of Sustainable Textiles and Technology) and become part of the 'custom build' community to create 21st century ideas around sustainability.

Instagram: @nokiofficial

Tiktok: @nokizine

The second episode features Kaye Dunnings - Creative Director of Shangri-La at Glastonbury Festival and during lock down evolved into the virtual world of Lost Horizon. The conversation goes off road, weaving through the back stories and journey Kaye has travelled to date. Influences from music, art, social movements, counter cultures, to living and working within a community of artists and performers. From the fields of Glastonbury Festival creating experiences through reuse, recycle and resist to teleporting audiences globally beyond the physical space into the virtual world of Lost Horizon. Each project creates new ways to share culture, responding to the world as it is and uses what exists to imagine new possibilities beyond the status quo. Immersive sub-cultural cities, micro worlds and communities are created using art, music, audio visuals, performance, and activism. Alternative realties use creativity to bring people together in unique ways and inspire active participation to co-create positive change.

The latest project launching Glastonbury Weekend 2021, plans to push the boundaries and potential of virtual reality, using an experimental approach to expand possibilities. The next phase of Lost Horizon brings the physical and virtual together as a hybrid. Tune in and hear the future scoop on what’s planned for Glastonbury Festival weekend 2021.

For more information on Kaye Dunnings:

“Helping real people in real concrete ways on the ground -  putting communities at the heart of all projects”

In this episode I speak to Dan Edelstyn from Optimistic Productions which he runs with his partner, Hilary Powell.  The conversation weaves between talking about The Bank Job and Power Project, inspirations - such as Manifestos of Situationist International, who saw art as direct action. The quest to search for meaning after a personal crisis, into a journey of creating purpose and using art as a living thing, embedded deeply in the community.

The Bank Job Project was set up as an artist run, Rebel Bank in Walthamstow. Printing out their own bank notes, selling them as artworks to raise proceeds to fund local causes and buy up 1.2 million second-hand debt in their local area of Walthamstow. Then blowing this up outside of the financial system in London to show injustices of the credit and debt system.

Power - Their latest project Power focuses on energy democracy, using a cooperative ownership model to decentralise powering homes, together empowering agency as collective and personal power. Dan believes, “No one should own the gifts of nature” He sees both projects, as way to hack the debt and energy market, bypassing a broken power system.

“Bringing the community together to participate in acts of economic disobedience and collective questioning of power.”

Personal Crisis and Rebirth: Dan speaks about his quest to research his family roots and how this led to initiating a distillery in Russia, making vodka, resulting in their first intervention - ‘How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire’. Dan shares how a personal crisis led to a crossroads of questioning, searching for purpose, and meaning, leading to a journey of self-discovery.  In his quest, taking inspiration from George Orwell, Tolstory, John Berger and Inspired by the words of Viktor. E. Frankl in his book ‘A Man’s Search for Meaning’.  Dan expresses a phoenix moment of rebirth - “How we try to avoid the inner voice as it can involve huge change and the unknown territory of the future. But how we need to confront unknown territory to grow.”

The Challenge and Opportunity: We talk about the challenge of creating meaning plus pursuing the market’s needs, the flux between sustaining our needs vs commodifying our work to create an income. The importance of starting from the heart, learning by doing, how ideas grow through play, synchronicity and pulling that all together.  Processes of using different creative forms to sustain a circular system in the community and insights on creating your own movement. Dan concludes that “the audience is craving for something that is authentic and true, they don’t want something produced from a mean spirt but from the heart.”

Alternative wisdoms - “to align yourself with who you are and what you really feel, to create a world where everyone gets to participate and contribute towards having hopes and dreams. ……..Being alive is learning”

To contribute, participate and find out more about Dan and Hilary from Optimistic Productions, please check details of their projects below and current Power Project Membership: –