A Performative Parliament for More-than-Human Commons

2025–2028

Convivial Commons is a project in the frame of EMCCINNO, an European project supporting cultural and creative organisations on their path toward social and ecological sustainability. Through artistic approaches, collaboration, and experimentation, EMCCINNO empowers local initiatives to prototype new ways of generating impact. At the heart of the project are five transformation sites across Europe – dynamic cultural ecosystems where community, creativity, and change converge. These sites serve as fertile grounds for rethinking, reimagining, and reconnecting. Together, they form a constellation of local action with translocal resonance. 

Convivial Commons explores new forms of ecological justice beyond anthropocentric perspectives—through artistic, technological, and institutional experimentation. At its core lies a performative parliament, where human and non-human actors—such as trees, bees, or compost systems—symbolically gain a voice and actively participate in real decision-making processes.

In public parliamentary sessions, actual governance models are tested: What roles, rights, and rituals are needed for an ecologically expanded, more-than-human commons?

Through AI-generated “talking trees,” interactive performances, workshops, and citizen science, the project combines data, emotion, and collective action into new forms of ecological communication.

Convivial Commons is an experimental format for ecological democracy—where environmental awareness, civic engagement, and data-informed decisions are made tangible, participatory, and transformative.