Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky) named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer

2014 Catalyst Program partner Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky has been named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and will be at their Washington D.C. museum on October 10th.

The project with which he entered the Fuller Challenge this year in partnership with Selena Griffith is The Island Innovation Lab, a project of The Vanuatu Pacifica Foundation, which provides space, time and a culture where people from different disciplines can meet to engage in cross disciplinary collaborations exploring whole systems design. It is a scalable, adaptable, transferable platform for developing skills, knowledge and partnerships to innovate collaborative approaches to local, regional and global sustainability problems. Miller, an internationally accomplished composer, multimedia artist, writer and explorer is an experienced collaborator. His works on Nauru and Antarctica, and visits to Vanuatu have inspired him to co-create The Vanuatu Pacifica Foundation, a think tank/residency program. Griffith is a Senior Lecturer at the UNSW Art and Design. She believes design thinkers, social innovators and entrepreneurs can lead positive global change through cross-disciplinary collaboration and whole systems approaches to addressing sustainability issues. She is a local government Councilor, CoFounder of Social Innovation Sydney and partner of Social Design Sydney. Selena is passionate about developing resilient communities with capacity for change-making using whole systems approaches to developing, delivering and sharing knowledge about local solutions to global problems. There are plans for the team to expand with the Island Innovation Lab program training facilitators in multiple locations along with developing global partnerships with relevant institutions.

The Vanuatu Pacifica Foundation is now running their first satellite program for the Island Innovation Lab. It is in collaboration with an Artists Environment in Sydney, Australia. The project is called On Islands Eramboo. It has been a professional development program running since May 2014 and will culminate in a three week long arts festival held November 13 to 30, 2014. Artists, designers, architects, planners, musicians, writers, poets and other creatives have been asked to explore the theme “On Islands”. Twenty-eight collaborative works and performances from sixty-eight collaborators will be exhibited over the three week period. There will also be artist talks, workshops, performances and curator tours to engage public through the arts, with sustainability issues such as climate change, social inclusion, cultural inclusion, political, economic and environmental challenges. The Foundation has also recently received funding to run a week-long Island Innovation Lab in Singapore in early 2015. The Lab will be focusing on Social Innovation and Enterprise.