Today, contemplate potentials and a future more promising than the present world. We can hope for, imagine, and thus direct a future of our own. In this vein, spend some time exploring:

1) Shareable’s Shareable Futures: a call to arms in the discussion and story telling of “a future we can all believe in.”

2) “Theses on the Terrible Community” by The French Collective Tiqqun. “The question we must answer in a final manner is of a more ethical than political nature because the classic political forms and their categories fit us like our childhood clothing. The question is to know if we prefer the possibility of an unknown danger to the certainty of a present pain. That is to say if we want to continue to live and speak in agreement (dissident perhaps, but always in agreement) with what has been done so far – and thus with the terrible communities – or, if we want to question that small portion of our desire that the culture has not already infested in its mess, to try – in the name of an original happiness – a different path.”

3) The Unplugged: “A shareable future from Vinay Gupta: what would happen if millions of people defined “wealth” as access instead of ownership?”

Artist/activist Mel Chin’s landmark Fundred Project, currently touring the country, will be appearing in the DC area this Friday-Monday. Schedule and locations here.  The project promotes awareness and positive action toward eliminating the effects of lead-contaminated soil that place children at risk for severe learning disabilities and behavioral problems.

Fundred is touring the country gathering hand-drawn Fundred dollar bills from schools and art centers which will be presented to Congress in exchange for funding to implement a new method of lead abatement for the city of New Orleans.

Download a Fundred dollar template and make your own contribution!

The Media Mobilization Project is calling for artists to submit artworks in all media for inclusion in September’s Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

Submit work online for a design exhibition on Democracy.  There will be no curators in this groundbreaking exhibition: everyone can get involved and the public votes on the submissions.

The Democracy exhibition will take place in Newcastle upon Tyne in October as part of Design Event 09.  It will feature the very best of the work submitted to the website, as voted by you. Votes can continue to be cast on the website and at the exhibition, so the art on display will continue to change, making this the most democratic exhibition ever.

So, create an artwork based on the theme of democracy or vote on your favorites!  The deadline for submissions is September 30, 2009 and voting continues throughout the exhibit.

More here.  And here.

Info graphic by Peter Bell.

Heavy Metal culture vultures are amassing to examine, critique and bang heads on what this long-standing movement means politically socially and philosophically. The second annual conference, Heavy Metalisms, has a call out for papers, so get up to speed with recent publications such as Bill Irwin’s Metallica and Philosophy: A Crash Course in Brain Surgery, Deena Weinstein’s Heavy Metal The Music and its Culture or Keith Kahn Harriss’ Metal Jew.