The Energy to Network to Provoke Change - A Relational Workshop Dinner

The Energy to Network to Provoke Change: What Does Meaningful Connectivity Mean to Me? A Relational Workshop Dinner • Date and time: Friday, 23 October, 18:00–21:00 • Venue: Ecological Justice Hub (Jesuit Social Centre) in Brunswick, 3 Saxon Street (right next to Brunswick Library in a laneway leading to Howler Bar) • Please RSVP for this in-person and catered event; places are limited. As part of RMIT’s Regenerative Futures Institute (RFI) event season on energy, this workshop invites participants to explore what meaningful connectivity means to them in the context of a changing climate and climate emergency. Featuring Jenny Faser (Migunburri artist and curator), Susie Moloney (RMIT urban planning), Jade Ambrose (Merri-bek Tech), and Helen Addison (retired chef and relational artist), the workshop will approach meaningful connectivity through First Nations cultural practice, community-led climate adaptation, neighbourhood software, and local food production. The workshop follows the Community Network Spotlight event, Indigenous Rights & Digital Sovereignty, taking place on 22 October. That event is exploring questions of self-determination within existing telecommunications infrastructures and regulatory systems. This workshop dinner continues the conversation in a different register, asking what meaningful connectivity might mean socially, culturally, and ecologically as global warming moves beyond 1.5°C. The Alliance for Affordable Internet defines meaningful connectivity in terms of access to and use of public utilities like the Internet. This workshop takes the concept further by shifting from utility to relationship, from individual access to collective resilience and from a technical to a cultural and ecological register. The relational workshop dinner format is a deliberate methodological choice. These questions are best explored through shared conversation in an extended, organic, and communal setting.