purpose

Invizin is a not-for-profit international cultural laboratory focused on stimulating and supporting ideas that challenge the status quo of social tolerance1 and material and intellectual sustainability2. We invite and form international collaborations to apply artistic practice, scientific research and analysis, technological advances, and radical thinking across multiple fields. Based in the Italian region of Abruzzo, Invizin develops and implements model solutions that build creative and sustainable common futures.

Invizin provides a safe and creative environment to address critically important issues. Social awareness and participation increase through cross-disciplinary dialogue, and projects are created and supported through exchanges, residencies, and local and international events.

The prime objective of Invizin is to develop innovative projects with multiple sources and applications by bringing together different disciplines, fields of study, nationalities, and cultures. We create and accept international collaborations between artists, scientists, and technologists that introduce and expand on alternative responses to our troubled economies and environments. Invizin focuses on sustainable and autonomous social structures, economies, and practices by creating common pool resource solutions (Ostrom, 1990) as a clear and demonstrative way of avoiding the tragedy of the commons3.

structure

Invizin is a not-for-profit organization operated by a small collective. Decisions are made by consensus.

In order to borrow from and highlight Italian workers’ history, Invizin will be registered as a workers’ cooperative4, and plans to enhance this form in various ways by, for example, establishing a mutual aid fund5, wherein 1% of all income every month is donated to local projects or people in need of assistance. By rotating the board positions every six months, we aim to retain equality in the distribution of power and foster critical examination. Joining the Invizin community is possible through several methods including membership card purchase, mutual aid exchange, labor/material barter, etc.

economy

As with the overall concept of Invizin, the financing of the project also has multiple sources:

  1. Membership
  2. Residency/Research: International interdisciplinary groups chosen by the collective for limited residencies initialize, complete, or work on a project. These groups contribute a fixed rate for their residency and are provided a pre-agreed upon amount of support (e.g. food, accommodation, work space, materials, interpreting, networking, etc.)
  3. Space rental/lease: including both outdoor and indoor spaces regularly used by groups or individuals from outside the collective (e.g., music studio for rehearsal, recording or teaching; kitchen for artisanal food production or catering; organic garden plots; meetings/conferences; other independent small businesses, etc.)
  4. Special events: curated by the collective, and taking place either at the space or elsewhere.
  5. Crowdfunding and other fundraising campaigns: you will be hearing about them!
  6. Loans: private, institutional and in-kind

a glossary  (or what we really mean when we say…)

1 Social tolerance is generally defined as a kind of tacit acceptance. Challenging this definition means investigating difference, recognizing the effort inherent in mutual development and cooperation. Trust, respect, sensitivity and affirmation are all elements to strive for beyond simple tolerance.
2 Sustainability is frequently understood as a practical, scientific and/or technical process, often limited to the environment (nature) and agriculture. We include the ethical and cultural aspects in our definition. Highlighting the implicit values in social and economic structures enables us to better apply art, science, technology, and radical thinking to the creation of sustainable models  for the environment AND economic, social and intellectual structures.
3 The Tragedy of the Commons has been the accepted result of an economic environment originally proposed in the 19th century, and re-introduced in the 1960s. It suggests that individuals, in a spirit of self-interest, will inevitably deplete a common resource in direct opposition to the best interests of a greater group to which they belong. In 2009, Elinor Ostrom was awarded the Nobel Prize of Economics for her work highlighting existing communities that betray this claim in practice, and outlining conditions inherent in avoiding the “inevitability” of the Tragedy of the Commons.
4 The history of the Italian workers’ cooperatives is far too lengthy to explain here. An insightful and detailed account can be found in this document: Borzaga, Carlo, Sara Depedri, and Riccardo Bodini. Cooperatives: the Italian experience. Euricse, 2010.
5 Our mutual aid fund is a monetary fund that provides emergency economic relief to people and projects aligned with Invzin’s objectives. Mutual aid also has a long and rich history dating back to the Middle Ages. A reprint of the seminal overview by Peter Kropotkin is available here from AK Press.