Imagine Peace! A visual and critical encyclopedia

straight from the blog Groundswell (dedicated to critical cultural production at the intersection of art and activism) comes this post:

The Institute Design2context, at the Zurich University for the Arts, seeks to counter loss of the ability to imagine peace, and to substantiate their argument that this incapacity has resulted in an increase in disquieting space. In this effort, they have embarked on a search for visual representations of peace, a project they’ve titled Imagine Peace!:

We are gathering these representations in a variety of historical, cultural and political contexts, and bringing them together in research constellations. These constellations allow for a renewed ability in imagining peace and should contribute to forthcoming debates and controversies that encompass a vital presence of peace in political, civil and everyday life contexts.

The results of the research will be published as an encyclopedia in the autumn of 2009, and paired with written arguments that “today’s discordances and hostilities express the absence of proper imaginations of peace.” Conceiving of “Imagine Peace!” as

an exchange project, a source and networking knot for everyone active for the cause and creation of peace, be it in a political or personal context

the organizers have issued a series of calls for contributions, both written and graphical.

Worldwide workshops, entitled “Imagine Peace!”, are currently being held in places marked by situational crisis - recent locations include China, Brazil, and El Salvador - wherin key participants, artists, designers, graphic artists along with active grassroots peace organizations pursue effective and active concepts of peace.