We have defined change-ability as “skilled ways of coordinating with a rapidly changing world”. This NWO VICI-project aims to open up a new perspective on change-ability, starting from the insight that what people do is both enabled and constrained by the action possibilities offered by their surroundings.

In this philosophical project we will create a conceptual framework for understanding change-ability in affordance-based terms that spans different scales: from the dynamics of active individuals, to communities and the living environment. The Change-Ability Conceptual Framework (CAF) will be applied to learn about obstacles to change in communities and how affordance-based architectural interventions and art installations can reduce such impediments.

Our philosophical method is unique in integrating findings from diverse scientific and artistic disciplines. We will participate in and reflect on the making of artistic interventions that allow visitors to experience what it would be like to live in entirely different ways. This will be done at RAAAF, an internationally renowned, award-winning practice for visual art and experimental architecture, which Ronald Rietveld and Erik Rietveld founded.

We will break new ground by showing how affordance-based interventions in the living environment can increase openness to exploring unconventional possibilities that could spark collective behavioural change. By scaling from change-able individuals to communities, we seek lessons for how to break down obstacles to collective change at a time when it is urgently needed.