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Foto van het Waaggebouw vanuit kikkerperspectief. Op de voorgrond zijn bladeren van een boom te zien waarachter het Waaggebouw staat.
© Patricia de Ruijter

The Zoöperation

Waag Futurelab has been officially registered as a Zoöp since May 2025. A Zoöp is an organisational form that focuses on people and organisations as part of natural ecosystems. As a Zoöp, Waag ensures that the interests of both people and other life forms are central to Waag's work. In this way, we are working towards technology that strengthens democracy and causes as little damage as possible to our natural ecosystem.

Many parties invest in technology in the hope that it can save us from the climate crisis. At the same time, the ecological costs of these technologies are enormous. Judith Veenkamp, Waag's expert in the field of regenerative technology: "There is a lot of hope placed on the role that (digital) technology can play in shaping major transitions such as climate, energy and food. At the same time, this technology is extractive: from the natural resources needed to make the technology work to the data that the technology extracts from society. This is at odds with a healthy democracy and ecology."

As Zoöp, Waag seeks alternative, ecological ways of designing and using technology within its own activities. We take a critical look at our work: who is the audience we are targeting with the public stack? Are they also life forms other than humans? And are animals and other organisms also citizens in the Smart Citizens Lab?

Zoöp manifest, mei 2025

We are a Zoöp – an organisation in which humans collaborate with other-than-human life.

As a Zoöp we contribute to ecological regeneration. In all of our actions we aim to support the health of multi-species communities in the ground, in the water, on the land and in the air.

As a Zoöp we anchor this principle in our practice by including a Speaker for the Living as an advisor, teacher and board observer in our organisation.

The Speaker for the Living acts as a representative of the other-than-human life in the spatial and operational sphere of our organisation. To the best of their abilities, the Speaker will help to translate the interests of other-than-human life to what we do and should not do.

As a Zoöp we follow the Zoönomic Annual Cycle and perform interventions that will foster the ecological integrity of our Zoöp and its surroundings.

Zoöp is short for Zoöperation: coöperation with zoë – (Greek for ‘life’) Together with other Zoöps we work towards the transformation of our economy into a regenerative human-inclusive ecosystem, a network of exchange of matter, energy and meaning that supports all bodies in their existence.

Spreaker for the living

Waag is supported in this learning process by Harpo 't Hart. 't Hart works as a curator at the Embassy of the North Sea and takes on the role of Speaker for the Living at Waag. In this way, he helps Waag to translate the interests of non-human life into the organisation's decisions.

Portretfoto van Harpo 't Hart

Harpo 't Hart

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