Programs

Our programs focus on cultivating emerging literacies from diverse sources. If all the world's knowledge is merely a "click away" what should we do with it?

We want to model and explore the future of education as each one teach one. A peer to peer process of creating and mobilizing knowledge.

Programs are typically coordinated in partnership with those who have particular experience or commitment to offer.

Current Programs

2024 offerings

Coming soon: Impossible Worlds (a virtual salon series)

Intermittent

Live from the Academy of the Impossible

Our campus is a experimental farm that makes knowledge and media in addition to producing food. You can get to know our animal faculty and observe how we learn from them on all of our social media, but occasionally also live on Twitch.

For more than a year, the Academy of the Impossible Twitch channel was an everstream that featured a continuous live feed of the inside of the barn and pastures. Our hope was that observing the animals might bring joy to whoever needed it. Twitch as a platform incorporates an IRC (Internet relay chat) interface which promotes real time interaction.

In addition to offering the zen of round the clock animal content, our channel also acted as a community hub for small streamers. We encouraged mentoring and coaching of streamers new to the medium by more experienced peers. We also provided tools that help creators and aspiring media professionals build community and find success through mutual aid.

Although the everstream project is now concluded, we do still occasionally stream special events. Because you never know when a baby goat is about to be born!

Ongoing

Faculty chats

While our animal faculty are always observable on the Academy’s Twitch channel, they are keen to mentor directly too! Each of them (individually or in small groupings) is available to appear in your online meeting or event, alongside a human colleague. Ask them anything! For further details and pricing, contact us.

Impossible Salons

On site salons currently on hold due to the pandemic.

Join us for an afternoon or evening to enjoy thought provoking discussion and farm table refreshments. Or acquire new skills in a experiential and collaborative learning environment.

Every salon produces an intriguing and curious conversation that builds collective knowledge, curiosity, and friendship.

Impossible Workshops and Mingas

Topics can range from the heady and conceptual to the nitty gritty of day to day farmlife. Previous discussions have touched upon micro-farms, social media, artificial intelligence, robots, and public policy innovation.

Workshops are more hands-on and experiential in focus, playing with the space between theory and practice. They may be conducted online only, on site, or in hybrid format, in a single day or over multiple sessions, depending on the focus.

Mingas are collective actions or work project. Derived from the Quechua word for collective work, minga is a concept common in South America. They can be reciprocal exchanges of labour that unite participants in a web of mutual aid. Sometimes they are community actions that promote collective well-being. Often they are simply the coming together of a group to accomplish tasks that are best accomplished collectively. In a minga, we learn by doing together.

Impossible Lehrzeit (apprenticeship)

An opportunity for a more concentrated form of experiential learning and skill-building, the Lehrzeit (literally, "learning time") is an extended one-on-one mentorship placement with Academy director, Dr. Jeanette Herrle.

Apprentices experience a hands-on immersion in the day to day operations of the Academy, not only acquiring farm and digital skills but bringing to the mix their own unique set of interests and expertise. Opportunities to take on specific on-farm projects of their choosing are combined with a focus on developing teaching and event management skills. For further details, contact us here.