A statement to members of the AV Residents’ Assembly from the Dreamweaving inititative

Since the final report of the Dreamweaving process was sent to all the participants and made available via Auronet, we have since published only one brief note in News & Notes (# 924 on May 28th, 2022) to update Aurovilians in regards to developments on our side.

Considering some recent questions which appear to have been based upon inaccurate information publicly communicated, but more importantly our ongoing efforts, this is our second – and this time more detailed – statement:

The bottom line is that the holistic participatory planning path charted by the Dreamweaving initiative in collaboration with the Vastu Shilpa Consultants (VSC) has been unfortunately side-lined. This was to be expected considering the variety of subtle and not-so-subtle obstructive interventions we have been experiencing since day one of the initiative, specifically from members of the previous Auroville Town Development Council and a few key people influencing them. We wouldn’t make this statement without the capacity to clarify, and detail if needed.

Yet, nothing can change this simple fact: the Dreamweavers’ experience has challenged a narrative, proving our capacity to positively and efficiently collaborate on a larger scale. It is our collective responsibility to evolve this experimental model.

Whilst committing consciously to not waste our energy on negative disputes, we have instead been quietly and diligently following up on the Dreamweaving process and investigating possibilities of building up potential collaborations within the RA framework, even while challenging at the moment as we will explain.

Since the conclusion of the Dreamweaving, we have been approached by the Aurroville Foundation Office to work on Urban Acupuncture on the Crown. The Dreamweavers have consistently rejected these requests, stating our reasons directly and clearly to the Secretary of Auroville; the atmosphere, basis, and acceptable standards for quality urban design and planning are far from being in place at present. Under such conditions, no harmonious quality work can emerge.

We believe that Auroville is meant to develop through sincere collaborations toward higher quality work.

Therefore, we have aimed for a well-executed, productive, collaborative holistic planning methodology including:

1. Auroville’s range of capable multi-disciplinary experts and designers – currently mostly marginalized;

2. Reputable external urban planners and designers – currently not well received;

3. Aurovilians’ candid participation – currently not encouraged.

The Dreamweaving process proved not only the possibility but also the natural joy inherent in this choice of path. However, residents should understand that initiating and organizing an inclusive collaborative process, on that scale, has been a challenging and daunting work. For many months of the Dreamweaving process itself, we had to step out of our daily work and in some cases postpone commitments. The eventual obstruction of this effort led to a wave of frustration among many of the participants, many of whom have experienced repeated obstructions of collaborative efforts in the past. Over the last few months, since the Dreamweaving report was published, it has become clear to us that it would be most challenging, yet uplifting, to recharge, regroup, and continue the effort. Yet, we have not given up.

We are publishing this update now as we finally started receiving a tentative positive sense of further possibilities. A slowly unfolding process with Aurovilians covering the range of multi-disciplinary expertise present in Auroville seems promising, and exploratory interactions with some of the Auroville architects to investigate possible next steps also seem positive. We hope to have more to share in our next planned event. We are trying, yet again, we see this as a collective responsibility.

We have repeatedly noted in different events that the Dreamweaving process is simply a trial for a model exploring our capacity to collaborate more efficiently on a larger scale. The support of different groups (from the architects, the multi-disciplinary participants, the members of the focus group, the randomly selected residents, and the Citizens Assembly team), as well as the majority of supporting Aurovilians and AVI centers, made this prototype not only possible but with the promise of a new way forward. We hope and trust that many other initiatives will keep emerging. We are under no illusion that many of these coming initiatives will be obstructed. Yet we believe that if we keep on the path, at some point, we will break through to a higher place. For those with initiatives in progress or further thoughts on these ideas – those in agreement and disagreement with the DW approach – we would love to meet to share and learn from each other; in the hope that this might help us all move forward.

We are planning to screen the premiere of a full video documentary on the overall Dreamweaving process and this will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A session on the Dreamweaving experience. At that time we will explain and qualify this statement as needed. More importantly, we will share and discuss our current efforts and possible next steps.