Angelo Vermeulen is a true explorer. He describes himself as a Systems Thinker, Ecologist and Storyteller. Embracing his role as storyteller, we decided that he would tell his story of different projects and studies throughout his life and that I plot the different elements in the story to find the themes of his life emerging.
Angelo spoke about his studies in ecology, biomonitoring and developmental biology. He did a lot of research around insect deformities caused by pollution and quickly recognised that this work operated at too microscopic a level for what truly fascinated him. What fascinated him insteadwas the complex interaction between the living world and the environment and we discovered that this is still central to his work.
Instead of linear thinking, Angelo is interested in what emerges from environments in which all kinds of interactions happen. He mentioned concepts like post-normal science and bio-inspired engineering. What excites him is working in a transdisciplinary way, connecting different systems, disciplines and communities to see what emerges. In that respect, he is drawn to biology, space, computer simulation, gaming and art to experiment and to explore what would be the next step for humanity. What would happen, for instance, if perspectives from space were introduced on Earth? What kind of interaction takes place between these different capacities?
He is involved in many different projects around exploring space as a human habitat and explained how nature and art guide him in this. Just like a termite mound, the termites don’t have a blueprint of their living structure. It is an emergent architecture that arises out of their interactions and capacities. The same applies to his art. He sets up an environment where the artwork emerges from the different capacities of the different stakeholders. In this way, he breaks through entrenched paradigms. In the games that he works on, resilience is a main theme. In one of these games players are invited to re-imagine, rebuild and populate their own evolving virtual worlds.. This aligns with the hacking ethos where an existing environment is reinvented through a shift in perspective. He gave an example around the concept of Parkour where participants use existing urban infrastructure to invent entirely new ways of moving through the city.
It was exciting to speak with Angelo about his multifaceted work and we saw a clear connection with building a regenerative future; by reimagining our existing world and nurturing new connections, the answers we need are already within reach.
This is Cobana’s mission: blending global and local voices towards a regenerative future. Not to have them set up more structures that drain the energy of the work, but to connect them so the work is compatible and strengthens the global impact that we need.
Watch this space for more.