Across history and different cultures, many of our stories are populated by similar characters. These are archetypes- different elements of human psychology made narrative- and can be useful in understanding both storytelling and people. This episode sees us discuss this concept as well as the use of cliches in general, especially in advertising, and their presence in the Solacene. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
Sep 12, 2022•45 min
From ancient forest spirits to modern serial killers, humans have always been fascinated with the narratives of fear. Our imagination is boundless in creating and exaggerating real-world horror in stories. In this episode we discuss the state of scary stories in the Solacene, including the impact of urbanization and the concept of healthy vs damaging terror. We also talk about the spookiest development of recent times- AI art. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.sol...
Sep 05, 2022•41 min
Imagination is at the heart of storytelling, both in the process of creation and that of 'consumption', so why do so many features of the modern world seemingly exist to crush it? In this episode, we discuss ways that imagination will be fostered and encouraged in the Solacene. We also share our outlines for solarpunk stories that embody the major themes of that aesthetic. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
Aug 30, 2022•47 min
'Romance' can be an amorphous term. It's love letters and medieval adventures, Call Me By Your Name and The Hobbit, idyllic and fraught with peril. At least, that's how we discuss it on this episode of Solacene. We discuss romance in love stories as well as in the general sense of passion we feel for certain fictional worlds, all in the context of a beautiful, sustainable, tactile future. Enjoy :) Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
Aug 22, 2022•42 min
Do you daydream about what films you wish were in the theaters or which ones you'd make if you were a producer? This week's episode was an indulgence in such a daydream where we plan out a year of box office hits in the Solacene. This week we also had fun imagining the ideal hero and learning about the history of fan fiction. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
Aug 15, 2022•1 hr 6 min
Plankton, Thanos, Satan. What makes these villains so terrifying and memorable? In this episode, we discuss this question in depth as well as questions of 'character' in architecture and fashion. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
Aug 08, 2022•42 min
Look at graphs mapping different types of human activity over time and you will most likely see a spike in the last ~hundred years. This period of rapid infrastructural, technological, and cultural acceleration affects us in a milieu of ways known and unknown. In this episode, we discuss its impact on the types of stories we tell, and how they are received. We also talk about both music and various creative limitations in the context of storytelling. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or co...
Aug 01, 2022•52 min
This special edition of Solacene is an interview with two of the editors of the new book, Degrowth and Strategy: how to bring about social-ecological transformation. A throw-back to our first semester all about Degrowth, this conversation discusses practical solutions to the social and ecological challenges of today. I encourage you to check out the link to the free PDF of this significant work or purchase a copy through the second link below. This book was a long time in the making so its relea...
Jul 27, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Hollywood: depending on who you talk to, it's a magical capital of culture, an inspirational dream factory, or a den of corruption and degeneracy. What would it look like in an ideal world? This episode attempts to answer that by painting a picture of a new Hollywood existing in a beautiful, sustainable, tactile future. We also discuss the intersection of fact and fiction in our retellings of history, and the timeline of stories becoming 'mass scale'. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or c...
Jul 25, 2022•48 min
This is a fun and imaginative discussion themed around storytelling of place. We share our designs for the Solacene move theatre (one of our favourite types of places), our thoughts on 'narrativized nationalism', and ideas for new mediums for storytelling that use new technology to interact with the real world. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
Jul 18, 2022•56 min
One of the oft-touted benefits of our era of technological innovations is increased immersion. For the purpose of storytelling, this refers to a more satisfying and focused experience as watchers of movies and television, listeners of music and audiobooks, and players of video games. This pros, cons, and accuracy of this assertion is challenged during this podcast episode. We also talk about our relationship with fictional characters, and the state of comedy today and in the Solacene. Enjoy! Buy...
Jul 11, 2022•48 min
This conversation draws from a lot of different references to answer questions about storytelling today and in the Solacene. We first discuss the individual and communal benefits of rereading/rewatching good literature and cinema. Then we talk about the pros and cons of mapping our lives onto existing narratives, and the strange phenomena of smartphones in movies. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
Jul 04, 2022•50 min
Has the increased production, advertisement, archival, and accessibility of narrative-based art grown its presence in our lives to an unhealthy level? Has intertextuality gone too far? Are there any stories that show the search for modern identity in a positive light? Listen to this episode to hear our thoughts on all these questions and more! Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
Jun 27, 2022•47 min
Welcome to Field Notes- a weekly collection of thoughts, images, and stories that we find exciting. We hope this new project will allow us to go deeper into topics from our weekly episodes and highlight things going on in the Solacene community! To sign-up use the link below and if you have any questions feel free to email us at alicia@solacene.org || aaron@solacene.org www.solacene.org
Jun 24, 2022•4 min
This episode is the first in our new semester- storytelling! Each week we'll be discussing a different element of the narratives, both explicit and unspoken, lived and fantastical, that make up the texture of life in the Solacene. We begin by discussing stories that we find useful for understanding modern times. In true Solacene spirit, a breadth of allusions are made, from Jonah to Tinkerbell. We also ask the question of storytelling in a hypothetical perfect world, and what would be some of it...
Jun 21, 2022•1 hr 2 min
This week's episode is an ode to FLOWERS- those colorful, fragrant gifts that decorate the natural world. We discuss their various uses and presence in mythology, but mainly just why we like them so much (they're very Solacene). Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
Jun 13, 2022•33 min
This episode is a discussion on 'wellness influencers'- the quasi-spiritual figures that inhabit certain corners of the Internet and pop culture, spreading various messages of fitness, mental health, and holistic wellness. The conversation touches on everything from jade eggs to ancestral tenets, and of course, the presence of these influencers in the beautiful sustainable tactile utopian future SOLACENE! Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
Jun 06, 2022•43 min
Inspired by recent observations of phone use even at important events, this episode is a discussion of how the people of the Solacene behave among strangers in social settings. Of particular concern are those 'liminal' spaces (elevators, waiting rooms, buses, etc.) that make up a large portion of our time. Some topics discussed include the benefit of everyone "sharing a room", building places for common interests, and unchecked expressions of joy. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or conta...
May 30, 2022•46 min
We conclude our semester on education by describing various organizational, individual, and aesthetic elements of the Solacene University. We also discuss learning outside of such designated institutions (self-learning / at-home learning), and Aaron gets tested on his memory of the last twelve episodes. We hope you enjoyed and were inspired by this series. We will be back next week with the first of several miscellaneous topics before jumping into another semester. Thank you for listening! Buy t...
May 23, 2022•46 min
We imagine people of the Solacene to be free, original, and comprehensive thinkers. This episode sees us brainstorm the conditions that might create such citizens. We also discuss educational buildings for children (that aren't schools), and various educational philosophies that help categorize the Solacene systems of learning. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
May 16, 2022•53 min
Effective and honest speech is crucial for communicating ideas. In this episode, we brainstorm how to teach good speaking skills via modeling, practice, listening, and performance. The value of film as an inspirational and didactic tool is also discussed. Finally, we continued our mapping of the educational infrastructure in the Solacene by designing its 'gymnasium', a multi-use physical/intellectual space in the Ancient Greek tradition. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hos...
May 09, 2022•57 min
This episode focuses on two transitory stages of life- maturity into adulthood, and maturity into elderliness- and how various Solacene infrastructures might make them periods of celebration rather than dread. We talk specifically about rites of passage related to education, and ways to stay young by continued learning. Also discussed are educational techniques that have faded through history that we think will make a return in the Solacene. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the...
May 02, 2022•45 min
Music is the art that decorates time, and nature that which best decorates space. How can they be used as educational tools, both for their own inherent lessons and also as mediums for teaching other concepts? How can outdoor classrooms encourage curiosity and creativity? Will the Solacene have bards? Listen to hear us address all these questions and more. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
Apr 25, 2022•45 min
Museums! Lecture halls! Bookstores! The built infrastructure of education is intertwined with its policy and curriculums, so this episode is devoted to designing two perfect (Solacene) libraries and classrooms. We use the latter as a base to explain how we would teach a high school course in the beautiful, sustainable, tactile utopia. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
Apr 18, 2022•1 hr 8 min
What does a culture of learning look like? How can one maintain enthusiasm and standards as a self-educator? What are the common traits of good teachers? This episode seeks to answer these questions and more through our continued discussion on education in the utopian Solacene. Enjoy! Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
Apr 11, 2022•52 min
When making observations about schools and learning today, the word "education" is often followed by "system". This episode seeks to focus more on the individuals that comprise that broader system. We discuss the benefits of a variety of mentorship opportunities that might be encouraged in the Solacene, tangible teaching techniques that actually work, and what it actually means to learn something. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
Apr 04, 2022•47 min
Our latest discussion in this series designing the utopian school system of the Solacene focuses on achieving the matter of tailoring education to individual students, as well as maintaining "standards without standardization." We address this topic directly, as well as through a conversation about our favourite examples of education in art, and by sharing our designs for a Solacene school uniform. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
Mar 28, 2022•52 min
Just as last week's episode established the reasons why internalized knowledge/memory is still important in the modern world, this episode provides some guidance for how we can increase it. We also discuss various examples of 'brain food' and their possible presence in the school lunches of the Solacene, certain "grubby holdovers" of the education system, and the best ages for starting and finishing school. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
Mar 21, 2022•1 hr 2 min
An understanding of our historical and contemporary conception of 'knowledge' is necessary for any in-depth conversations about education. In this episode we outline the ways that the Internet has changed the way we access and retain information, as well as the relevance of memory in the modern world. We also discuss the ideal school hours in the Solacene and how children can retain concentration and focus in a time of fleeting entertainment. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact th...
Mar 14, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Our second semester will aim to detail the presence, purpose, and methods of education in the Solacene. This episode starts the conversation with an analysis of what is going wrong in today's educational systems. We address the three influential aspects on the classroom- the students, the methods, and the planning. Buy the zines, sign up for field notes, or contact the hosts: www.solacene.org
Mar 08, 2022•51 min
