torus Ecosystems of Change

Work

Talks, research and projects.

Thirteen years of work on time, with the links to check it.

Cases

Organizations that took back their own time.

Foundations, NGOs, universities and cultural institutions arrived running on a calendar set by others. Each case shows what they asked for, what we did, and what changed in how they decide and how they keep their people. We publish a case only when the organization has read it and agreed.

2022 to 2024

Heritage innovation

C4Education and the Heritage Innovation Lab, University of Jena, Creative Europe

  1. 01
    Who arrived

    The University of Jena, leading C4Education, a Creative Europe project of the Time Machine network, with partners in Austria and the Netherlands.

  2. 02
    What they came with

    A project built to create bridges between European technology startups and heritage institutions: galleries, libraries, archives and museums. Two worlds with different languages and different clocks.

  3. 03
    What we did

    Two years of coordination and business strategy across the partners, and the design of the Heritage Innovation Lab, the space where the two worlds could work together.

  4. 04
    What they received

    A working Heritage Innovation Lab and a public marketplace where startups and heritage institutions can find each other.

  5. 05
    What changed

    The two sectors gained a public place to begin from, which stays online after the project closed in June 2024.

  6. 06
    The number

    Two years, three countries, one public marketplace still online.

2024 to 2025

Ancestral AI

AIxDESIGN, with the Creative Industries Fund NL

  1. 01
    Who arrived

    AIxDESIGN, a community working on design and AI, with support from the Creative Industries Fund NL.

  2. 02
    What they came with

    A question: what changes in AI when it learns from Indigenous and Afro diasporic ways of knowing, and how can that happen without taking the knowledge away?

  3. 03
    What we did

    Research lead for twelve months, from March 2024 to February 2025: the research frame, the interviews and the writing.

  4. 04
    What they received

    The Ancestral AI research, with its own public project page at AIxDESIGN.

  5. 05
    What changed

    The research did not stay on the page. It entered classrooms, in the Master in Design for Responsible AI at Elisava, and led to later work with Unearthodox.

  6. 06
    The number

    Twelve months of research, one public project page, and a classroom that kept the work.

2025 to 2026

Futures for nature

Unearthodox

  1. 01
    Who arrived

    Unearthodox, which runs the Creative Futures for Nature programme and the Exploration Co Lab for innovators.

  2. 02
    What they came with

    A programme on science fiction, AI and futures for nature, and a cohort of innovators who wanted to think about time and temporality in their own projects.

  3. 03
    What we did

    Contribution to the Creative Futures for Nature dialogues in 2025, translation of interviews from Portuguese to English for Ancestral AI, advice for the 2026 programme, and a workshop on time and temporality for the Co Lab, built around experiments and dialogue on time, technology and the more than human.

  4. 04
    What they received

    A 120 minute online workshop for eight innovators on 24 September 2026, and the interview transcripts translated into English.

  5. 05
    What changed

    The innovators came away with new lenses: they built experiments, talked about time, technology and the more than human, and rethought how they act inside their own projects, not only in theory. Over two years, the work grew from translation and dialogues to workshops and advice.

  6. 06
    The number

    Eight innovators, a 120 minute workshop, and two years of work that kept growing.

2026

Horizons

Instituto Toriba and Manos Visibles (AfroInova)

  1. 01
    Who arrived

    Instituto Toriba, in Brazil, and then Manos Visibles, in Colombia, which arrived through Toriba for its AfroInova programme.

  2. 02
    What they came with

    Toriba knew how to speak with philanthropy and wanted to turn its ideas into offers, with its own structure, price and model, for other audiences. Manos Visibles brought seven young Black Colombian leaders, most of them in technology.

  3. 03
    What we did

    Horizons, a journey of five meetings with the Toriba team and fellows: locate, understand, name, land and weave. For AfroInova, a version in Spanish: an immersion in Rio de Janeiro on 6 and 7 August 2026 and weekly online sessions until the closing on 6 October. The tools: a compass instead of a map, rhythm instead of speed, and three lenses (artist, leader and scientist).

  4. 04
    What they received

    For each meeting, a recording, activities and materials in a shared hub, and a group chat to continue between sessions. At the end, a closing session with what the group produced.

  5. 05
    What changed

    The Toriba team practised turning its work into offers. The format has now been delivered twice, in Portuguese and in Spanish, and the hub became the model for Toriba's own continuing course.

  6. 06
    The number

    Seven young leaders, five meetings, two languages, delivered twice.

More cases are being written with the organizations that worked with us.

Ask for a reference conversation

We introduce you to someone from a past project, with their agreement.

Seen at

Places where this work has been shared.

The Conference, Malmö, 2024.
Future Days, Lisbon 2024
Everything is Temporal
The Conference, Malmö 2024
MozFest House, Amsterdam 2024
What Design Can Do Live, Amsterdam 2024
Facilitation
Casa Firjan, Rio de Janeiro 2023
Festival Futuros Possíveis
KES Summit, Trancoso 2023
Talk
TEDxRio 2020
Talk, online
Fractal 2016 to 2025
Protagonists of the times, with Perestroika

Selected work, with links

  1. 2026

    Paper "Temporal Obscuration", Temporalities of AI

    Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max Planck Institute for Art History, Rome

  2. 2025

    Unearthodox, Futures for Nature

    Science fiction, AI and futures for nature, in partnership with Unearthodox.

  3. 2024
  4. 2024 to 2025

    Research lead, Ancestral AI

    With AIxDESIGN, supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL

  5. 2022 to 2024

    Coordinator, C4Education

    Heritage Innovation Lab, a Creative Europe project led by the University of Jena

  6. 2024

    MozFest House Amsterdam

    Mozilla Festival

  7. 2024
  8. 2023

    Casa Firjan podcast, new relationships with time

    Lab de Tendências, Rio de Janeiro

  9. 2023

    KES Summit, Trancoso

    Covered by MIT Sloan Review Brasil

  10. 2020

An invitation

Find out whose clock your organization is living on.

If your work lives on horizons longer than a quarter, let us read this threshold together. The first conversation is to see what fits.

Book a 30 minute clarity callor write to us below

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