Introduction

On Planet Abundance we have witnessed the great exodus. As the climate became chaotic and unpredictable, the financially elite built rockets and evacuated Earth, believing the planet had nothing left to offer them. But what of the survivors on Earth? The majority of them are women and those who have been marginalised under capitalist patriarchy now have an advantage. Freed from the once dominant ethos of greed and competition Earthlings have adopted an abundance mind-set, finding new and old ways to work together in repairing their world.

Project description

Many of our survivors have lived their lives with multiple caring responsibilities. As we work together to build Planet Abundance, inhabitants collectively agree to pool skills and resources and to prioritise care as a base for everything we do.

Workshops

The Planet Abundance project takes Teresa Feldmann’s draft text for a feminist science fiction as a starting point for collaboratively imagining a world beyond capitalism, using speculative science fiction as a vehicle for radical political imagination. Through a series of artist-led interlocal workshops we are collectively imagining a world a world led by women* where Earthlings have adopted a feminist abundance mind-set. In this shared vision of post-work societies, we move beyond scarcity to collectively organise planetary and people care through feminist economic principles.

As we find ourselves in the midst of multiple social, economic and environmental crises and the devastating impacts of capitalism are impossible to ignore, collaborative world building and speculative fictions are a way to see beyond patriarchal and colonial norms, to retain optimism that a different world is possible. It is this optimism that allows us to keep working together towards a better future.

Readings of Planet Abudance introduction

Workshops continued

The first of our Planet Abundance workshops was delivered at Documenta Fifteen in Kassel, Germany by artists Ailie Rutherford (Scotland), Teresa Feldmann (Estonia-Netherlands) and COCO Collective (Colombia).

In 2022 a series of trans-local Planet Abundance workshops took place in:

Glasgow, Scotland
Workshops took place at queer independent bookshop Category Is Books led by artist Ailie Rutherford and activist Elaine Gallagher. Connecting to the hive mind to draw together the group began to co-visualise life together on Planet Abundance, imagining technologies of care for wellbeing, teleportation for transportation and telepathy for cross-planetary, inter-species and inter-planetary communing.

Bogota and Coquí, Colombia
COCO Collective and Colectiva Curuba brought together voices from Universidad de los Andes ecofeminist study group and women from the rural community of Coquí on the Colombian Pacific through drawing, making and movement workshops and by cooking together.

India (online)
Padmini Ray Murray led workshops to co-imagine what feminist autonomous digital infrastructures might look like through exploring design justice principles.

Tokyo, Japan
Arts Initiative Tokyo and theatre group ’Observation Room’ invited participants into a Planet Abundance role play workshop.

Dundee, Scotland
Saoirse Amira Anis led workshops inviting women to use foraged materials and plant based dyes to create the explore the scent of the abundant planet, creating flags for community & solidarity and a Planet Abundance manifesto.

So-called Canada (online)
Nakuset Gould and Heather Mclean met with fellow feminist artists from Elsa Caucus to creatively explore the idea of Planet Abundance. Nakuset’s alter-ego AuntieChrist, a demon set on undoing the evils of church+state, led a guided meditation to envision what we hope to see and live on Planet Abundance.

participant testimonials

Thank you for a lovely and thought-provoking Saturday. Something I realised while reflecting on the workshop was how difficult it was for my brain to conceptualise a world where everything in the socio-political sphere is not going terribly wrong and I'm a writer, I am certain that I'm fairly good at imagining things! Years of living in ecological and political crises stunts our imaginations more than we realise, so thank you for holding space for us to dust off our creative senses.
-Participant in online Planet Abundance workshop, India led by Padmini Ray Murray

One things that struck me was how difficult I found it to break out of a scarcity mindset and imagine “abundance” – and how liberating it was when I did.
-Participant in Ailie Rutherford and Elaine Gallgher’s Planet Abundance workshop

Quote from Ailie Rutherford

Planet Abundance began as a collaborative artwork when Teresa Feldmann handed me her outline text for a feminist science fiction. The concept seemed to me to be the perfect starting point for a co-creation project, one that might allow us to collectively imagine the kind of world we would like to co-inhabit. Having worked on a series of international collaborations and projects with fellow activist artists, Planet Abundance immediately felt like an opportunity to bring some of those urgent voices and artistic visions together. The project builds on a collaborative feminist practice that always seeks to generate collective dreams and imaginations of a shared future rather than individual artistic visions, inviting some of the most exciting and visionary feminists I know to work with me.

Teresa’s text has given us a vehicle for radical political imagination, to move beyond the scarcity mind set, to dream together and think through the adjacent possibilities of a world beyond capitalism. As we work through the project, sharing our dreams and aspirations, the work generates as many questions as answers, providing a space to work through some of the difficult aspects of working together towards a decolonised, feminist future.
-Ailie Rutherford, artist and curator

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Quote from Teresa Feldmann

"I am humbled to see Planet Abundance having flourished and sparked interest, involvement, and co-creation in such diverse parts of the world. I think it demonstrates something valuable about this script when artists and participants feel encouraged to connect, imagine it according to their interests and/or concerns, and then take ownership of the outcome. Something precious is unfolding here.
-Teresa Feldmann, designer and writer of original draft text for Planet Abundance

Project credits

The Planet Abundance project was conceived by artist Ailie Rutherford and designer Teresa Feldmann. The first phase of research and development was commissioned in 2022 by Feminist Exchange Network (Glasgow) with funding from Creative Scotland, Stop Climate Chaos and Glasgow Communities Fund. In 2024 six Planet Abundance artists; Padmini Ray Murray, Teresa Feldmann, Ailie Rutherford, Saoirse Amira Anis, Keng Keng and Na’ku’set Ansal’ewit Gould have been commissioned to develop some of the ideas from their workshops through the creation of new artworks. We are now working towards realising Planet Abundance as both a physical and online space. For more images of the artists work from 2024 visit Feminist Exchange Network Blog. Supported by Creative Industries Fund NL

Feminist Exchange Network is a women-led* Community Interest Company based in Govanhill, Glasgow. We use social arts practice to explore ways of putting feminist economics into practice at a local level, pushing for a radically different economic model and alternatives to capitalism. Our local projects such as The People’s Bank of Govanhill, Swap Market and Feminist Economics Football invite people to come together through workshops, exchanges, games and technology, building a collective vision of a post-capitalist world.

*women and other marginalised genders