About
An ‘expanded field’ of agri-culture
muu-baa is a European agri-cultural network for explorations bringing together farmers, designers, artists, researchers, rural entrepreneurs and others to think, experiment and act together. muu-baa aims to generate new opportunities in rural and semi-rural contexts that help create new visions, practices and tangible outcomes towards viable agri-cultures.
What do we mean by viable ‘agri-cultures’?
An agriculture supported by viable socio-cultural, ecological and economically equitable practices. These agri-cultures are viable because they acknowledge diverse perspectives, practices of locality, and the production of knowledge, food, non-food, and other products/services/experiences. This is especially important for small European farms that struggle under the hegemonic globalized agricultural markets and their underlying power structures.
muu-baa is being piloted in Alto Adige/Südtirol, Italy, but intends to spread internationally as a model for hybridisation of knowledge and practices.
muu-baa network is initiated by What Could a Farm Be?, a start-up research project lead by Professor Alastair Fuad-Luke, Faculty of Design & Art, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. Contact: Alastair.Luke@unibz.it
Any individual, group, association who shares muu-baa’s principles can be part of the network. See the benefits of joining muu-baa here. Any member is free to initiate a project and develop an exploration.
Why explore? muu-baa believes that we need fresh concepts, thinking and actions to help small farms and farmers develop viable futures. Explorations are not limited by current thinking, structures and habits as they encourage imaginative and speculative actions.
The final aim is to develop diverse approaches towards viable agri-cultures through interdisciplinary design, art, social and farming practices. In this way it is hoped that new agro-socio-ecological practices can emerge.
Join the network, find new collaborations, start muu-baaing now!
Modus operandi
The Focus Group (see below), who initially developed the concept for muu-baa, have drafted a Codex, a guide for how we wish Members to think, act and do in order to develop a vibrant, useful network and platform.
Values and Principles
Openness
Circularity, circular economy and/or ‘leave-things-better-economy’
(Bio-)Diversity
Guiding Rules
To find and explore new relationships to farming
To share openly and personally invite people to expand the mMuu-bBaa network
To make the outcomes and practices tangible and visible
To communicate with accessible language and be transparent
Freedoms
To combine knowledge and practices
To independently and collectively initiate experiments and explorations
To challenge current perspectives in farming and rural development
Focus Group Members
- Prof. Alastair Fuad-Luke, principal investigator (PI) and chair of the Focus Group, professor of design research, Faculty of Design & Art, Unibz.
- Erica Boito, research support assistant to PI, artist and designer.
- Dipl.-Ing. Joachim Hofmann – Regionalentwicklung, GRW Wipptal/Eisacktal m.b.H., LAG/GAL Eisacktaler Dolomiten.
- Hubert Ungerer, Koordinator LEADER Coordinatore, LAG/GAL Südtiroler Grenzland.
- Astrid Weiss, dott. mag., Südtiroler Bauernbund, Leitung, Abteilung Innovation & Energie.
- Raimund Lamprecht, farmer and member of LAG/GAL Eisacktaler Dolomiten
- Lisa Mazza and Simone Mair, BAU.
- Lukas Rungger, architekt, NOA* architecture network.
- Dr. Alvise Mattozzi, sociologist; Anita Ferrone Milone and Magdalene Vögele – ex- and current Masters students – Faculty of Design & Art, Unibz.
Thanks also to:
Nadia Baldo, Angelika Burtscher, Prof. Kris Krois, programme leader of the Masters in Eco-Social Design at Unibz, and Sabine Marsoner.