Gallery
Experiment overview
An ambitious attempt to build a collaborative network of change-makers united by their desire to challenge dominant systems and prototype alternative ways of organizing society, economy, and everyday life.
The initiative emerged from my growing frustration with the limits of individual action and the realization that systemic change requires collective intelligence, shared responsibility, and emotional resilience. Radicalzz Network was conceived as a space for people who felt “too radical” for mainstream structures but still deeply committed to creating real-world alternatives.
The project unfolded while I was living in the forest as part of my field research into post-capitalistic ways of living, literally coordinating the network from the margins, testing what leadership, care, and collaboration mean outside institutional frameworks.
Main objectives
☀︎ Bringing together individuals who shared dissatisfaction with existing systems to explore alternative economic, social, and organizational models through dialogue, co-creation, and mutual support.
☀︎ Developing sustainable funding mechanisms and operational structures that could support shared initiatives without replicating extractive or hierarchical models.
☀︎ Testing non-traditional leadership models based on trust, emotional transparency, and shared responsibility, challenging conventional top-down community structures.
Achieved results
The network successfully attracted a diverse group of talented, sensitive, and driven participants who contributed energy, ideas, and hope to the initiative.
However, the absence of clearly defined recruitment processes, onboarding structures, and shared expectations led to internal ambiguity and emotional overload. In a moment of personal exhaustion and emotional decision-making, I chose to close the network unilaterally, a choice I now recognise as misaligned with the very values I wished to cultivate.
This abrupt ending, while painful, became an integral part of the experiment itself, exposing the fragile nature of community when structure, communication, and leadership accountability are insufficiently developed.
Main reflection
This experiment revealed that sustainable communities cannot be built solely on shared frustration or ideological alignment. While anger may ignite action, it cannot sustain regenerative collaboration.
I learned that meaningful collective structures require:
☀︎ Physical touchpoints and embodied presence
☀︎ Slow trust-building processes
☀︎ Transparent leadership roles
☀︎ Clear emotional and operational boundaries
☀︎ Shared decision-making mechanisms.
The Radicalzz Network became one of my most profound lessons in community stewardship. It taught me that leadership is not about vision alone, but about holding space, listening deeply, and honouring the agency of every participant.
Though the network was closed earlier than intended, it shaped my understanding of what ethical collaboration truly requires and continues to inform how I design collective initiatives today.