The New Academy
What would a (cognitive) city look like if it were designed by all its citizens? The New Academy, an initiative of the Nieuwe Instituut in collaboration with philosopher Rosi Braidotti, reimagines Rotterdam as a knowledge city. Rotterdam can be regarded as a rich archive of living knowledge, only a fraction of which is visible and utilised.
Knowledge is produced everywhere: in our bodies, between the tips of our fingers and chipboards, in dance halls, below the ground, in tea houses and call shops, in the streets, gardens and rivers, and beyond. Currently, only a fraction of it plays a role in developing how big challenges, such as climate change, are addressed in the city. The New Academy develops collective ways of learning how a just and sustainable city can be defined and built if more of its diverse human and more-than-human knowledge producers are recognised, valued, and included in city development.
The New Academy works with the concept of the ‘distributed university’. If knowledge is produced everywhere, it must include a large variety of places and people. In this academy learning does not take place in traditional classrooms, but across the entire city. To introduce a more just, multi-layered, distributed, and collaborative approach to recognising and sharing knowledge this variety needs to be visible, embodied, and actively embraced. The New Academy aims to create a local platform for new ways of learning to address complex challenges together. It realises it by bringing together various knowledges present in the city, design, research, archives, community-building, public activities, and a training programme.