Alterotopia Stones are a way of making and celebrating translocal connections across the world, combining human touch with a stone’s ability to be carried and moved across physical and digital places.

The idea is very simple: pick up a stone in any place in the world, write and/or draw whatever you like on it, and then place it in any other place. Add #AlterotopiaStones and alterotopia.com so that people who pick up the stone are invited to look up what this is all about, and – if they so wish – share a picture of the stone they found.

Did you find an AlterotopiaStone?

You can do with the stone whatever you want: keep it, pass it on to somebody else, place it elsewhere, or put it back where you found it. For the idea behind this initiative to work, taking a picture of the stone and share it online would be great. You can use the hashtag #AlterotopiaStones and optionally communicate where and when you found the stone. 

If you prefer not to post it on social media yourself, you can also send the picture, and a location/date of where & when you found it, via email to alterotopia@gmail.com. We will share it online on your behalf (anonymously, unless you want us to say your name). 

If you do share it on social media yourself, feel free to add anything you like. E.g. what you thought or felt when finding it, and if it raises any questions. You can also share what you did with the stone, but it’s perfectly fine to keep that to yourself. Just a picture with the hashtag is also fine. 

Want to create AlterotopiaStones?

Anybody can make and place an AlterotopiaStone! The moment that you write #AlterotopiaStone on a stone, it becomes one. You can add drawings to it, or a quote, statement or question, or nothing at all, whatever you like. 

You can use the stones to share something that you find worth sharing with others, be it a statement, an initiative, song, idea, or whatever else. Political statements are also welcome, as long as they do not involve hate speech (racism, islamophobia, anti-semitism (in the strict sense of the word, critique of Israel does not qualify as anti-semitism), homophobia, transphobia etc.). Using the stones for pure commercial for-profit purposes is beyond the spirit of the initiative. 

In terms of material, for writing and drawing on stones, we recommend permanent markers and/or acrylic paint markers.

Vision behind AlteratopiaStones

Many of us live translocal lives. In the wake of Brexit, David Goodheart argued that the main political divide of our times is one between “people from Somewhere versus people from Anywhere”, i.e. the “Somewheres” and the “Anywheres”*. David had a point, but still, we refuse this divide between being in one place and being in the wider cosmos. 

We can be locally rooted, as well as globally connected. We can be empowered by local communities as well as cosmopolitan ties. The word ‘translocal’ serves to emphasise that such global connections are not solely dependent on international institutions that are forged between nation-states. Those are important too, but we can also connect across local places independent from such formal structures. Such translocal connections can help us overcome the false dichotomy between detached globalisation and local rootedness. Yes, we can integrate the best of both: connecting communities across the world and promoting global solidarity while also acknowledging and re-appreciating deep local identities and traditions. 

One way to connect translocally is through online platforms. Beautiful as this may be, the tragedy is that most of these platforms have become engines of hyper capitalist control and ‘technofeudalism’. The idea behind #AlterotopiaStones is to enable translocal connections across the world, combining human touch, people carrying material objects across specific places, while also sharing them through digital, online communication. 

Why Stones?

Stones provide beautiful and robust material to draw on. These stones also represent our connectedness over space and time as they come from larger rocks that have been naturally weathered and eroded over thousands or even millions of years. They are formed by natural forces such as water (rivers, ocean waves), wind, and glaciers that break down and smooth larger rocks into smaller, rounded stones. These pebbles are typically found on beaches, riverbeds, lakeshores, and in areas previously covered by ancient seas. Other stones also often come from natural rock sources but have been shaped and repurposed through human activity over time. 

Importantly, stones of all shapes and sizes can be found all around the world. With the exception of places where it is not allowed (e.g. pebble beaches where they play a crucial role), anyone who comes across a small stone is able to pick it up, draw on it, and place it somewhere else. As such, our hope that #AlteropiaStones can truely connect people across many different places, classes, ages and ethnicities. 

References  

• Sentence from song by Brazilian band Tribalistas. Translated from Portuguese “Eu sou de todo mundo e todo mundo é meu também”, song “Já sei namorar” https://youtu.be/VmxqhvnfMvI?feature=shared 
• David Goodheart (2017) “The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics”.
• Manifesto on Transformative Social Innovation (TSI-manifesto): https://tsimanifesto.org/manifesto/