FOR CREATIVE SYSTEM CHANGE
Global Vision Foundation is an international public interest tax-exempt non-profit organisation
established in Geneva, Switzerland in 2012.Swiss Federal ID: CHE-443.285.190.
GLOBAL VISION FOUNDATION is an international public interest non-governmental organisation founded by Michael O'Callaghan in 2012 in Geneva — the microcosm of the planet where the meridians of global governance, trade, finance, politics and civil society intersect.
We use an artistic strategy to promote the concept of sutainabiity as a global goal, because as Confucius said, “when people share a common goal, their natural tendency is to co-operate in realising it.
We think the best way to deal with the global crisis is to focus on how we perceive and how we communicate. We see the conflict between global public and private interests as the defining issue of our time. We believe it can only be resolved by accepting the fact that perception is a political act. We are thus engaged in the politics of perception, and the production of films and events designed as contexts of information or situations that focus attention on the relation between the global crisis and our ways of seeing and discussing it. We work to catalyse the creative system change required for a non-violent transition to a post-growth sustainable future.
Our unique approach is informed by neuroscience and complexity theory. We are inspired by Lao Tzu, Gregory & Nora Bateson, Francisco Varela, Edgar Morin and Fritjof Capra. Our Global Vision Project has involved almost half a century of support and collaboration with a trans-disciplinary network of advisers (see below) and leading thinkers, Nobel laureates, United Nations agencies, civil society organisations, universities, institutes, journalists, musicians and artists around the world.
The Foundation’s accounts are verified by an independent auditor and our activities are supervised by the Federal Department of the Interior of the Swiss Confederation.Donations are exempt from Federal direct tax in Switzerland..
We think the best way to deal with the global crisis is to focus on how we perceive and how we communicate. We see the conflict between global public and private interests as the defining issue of our time. We believe it can only be resolved by accepting the fact that perception is a political act. We are thus engaged in the politics of perception, and the production of films and events designed as contexts of information or situations that focus attention on the relation between the global crisis and our ways of seeing and discussing it. We work to catalyse the creative system change required for a non-violent transition to a post-growth sustainable future.
Our unique approach is informed by neuroscience and complexity theory. We are inspired by Lao Tzu, Gregory & Nora Bateson, Francisco Varela, Edgar Morin and Fritjof Capra. Our Global Vision Project has involved almost half a century of support and collaboration with a trans-disciplinary network of advisers (see below) and leading thinkers, Nobel laureates, United Nations agencies, civil society organisations, universities, institutes, journalists, musicians and artists around the world.
The Foundation’s accounts are verified by an independent auditor and our activities are supervised by the Federal Department of the Interior of the Swiss Confederation.Donations are exempt from Federal direct tax in Switzerland..
FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR
Michael O'CallaghanAn Irish information-artist with a self-taught trans-disciplinary background in cybernetics and systems theory. He is also a film-maker, author, architectural designer, conference producer, archival film specialist, ecological activist, campaign strategist, community organiser and social entrepreneur. Born in Geneva, he has lived and worked extensively in Switzerland, Ireland, London and New York. See short biograp;hy and filmography.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Charles Méla, President
President, European Centre of Culture.
President, International Menuhin Music Academy.
President, Festival du Théâtre aux Jardins du Rosey.Former Director, Martin Bodmer Foundation Museum & Library, Geneva.Former Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Geneva.Professor of French Mediaeval & Renaissance literature at the Sorbonne, ENS, Yale, and the University of Geneva.
Thibaud de Montenach, Treasurer Teacher. Former VP of a Geneva private bank. Serge Macia, Secretary Former Executive Assistant to Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan at the Bellerive Foundation. President, Imaginaid.
Isabelle Derigo, Member Director, Soluna Yoga Geneva health centre. Experimental artist: Dorn Derigo
Thibaud de Montenach, Treasurer Teacher. Former VP of a Geneva private bank. Serge Macia, Secretary Former Executive Assistant to Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan at the Bellerive Foundation. President, Imaginaid.
Isabelle Derigo, Member Director, Soluna Yoga Geneva health centre. Experimental artist: Dorn Derigo
ADVISERS
Nora Bateson. President, International Bateson Institute.
Member, Club of Rome. Producer/director, An Ecology of Mind.
Author, Small Arcs of Larger Circles.
Winner of the 2019 Media Ecology Association's Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity.
Guillaume Chenevière. Former Director, RTS - Radio Télévision Suisse. Author, Rousseau: une histoire genevoise.
Prof. Richard A. Falk. Professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice, Center for International Studies, Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs, Princeton University.
Chairman, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
Author Power Shift: on the New Global Order. Author or co-author of 20 other books and the editor or co-editor of another 20 volumes.
Former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.
Adine Gavazzi. Architect, anthropologist, author, Andes Précolombiennes & numerous other books.
President, Mimondo.
Boardmember, UNESCO Chair in Anthropology of Health - Biosphere and Healing Systems, University of Genova.
Expert in ceremonial architecture, forest cultures and healing landscapes.
Prof. Herbert Girardet. Co-founder, World Future Council. Author, The Gaia Atlas of Cities.
Former Chairman, Schumacher Society UK.
Recipient of the UN Global 500 Award.
Visiting Professor, University of the West of England.
Dr. Stanislav Grof M.D. Psychiatrist; Founder, International Transpersonal Association. Author, Realms of the Human Unconscious.
Joan Halifax Roshi. Medical anthropologist. Author, Shamanic Voices. Founder and Abbot, Upaya Institute and Zen Centre.
Marc Halle. Founder, Geneva 2030 Ecosystem. Boardmember, Sustainable Finance Geneva.
Former Policy Director, IUCN - World Conservation Union.
European Director, IISD - International Institute for Sustainable Development.
Former founder and chair, ICTSD - International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development.
Hazel Henderson. Futurist, evolutionary economist, worldwide syndicated columnist, consultant on sustainable development, and author of The Axiom and Nautilus award-winning book Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy.
Founder, Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators. Founder, Ethical Markets Media LLC.
Patron, New Economics Foundation.
Joe La Placa. Director, Cardi Gallery (London & Milan).
Pamela Lippe. High performance architecture design expert.
President and Principal of E4, Inc. Green Building Services.
William A. McDonough. Architect. Founding principal, William McDonough + Partners.
Co-author, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.
Author, The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability - Designing for Abundance.
Helena Norberg-Hodge, President, Local Futures.
Co-founder, International Forum on Globalization.
Producer and director, The Economics of Happiness.
Marcello Palazzi. Founder & Director, Progessio Foundation for Human Progress.
Co-Founder & Board Member, B Lab Europe.
Janice E. Perlman. Founder & President, The Megacities Project.
Prof. William E. Rees. Co-founder, ecological footprinting;
Professor Emeritus and former Director, University of British Columbia's School of Community and Regional Planning.
Prof. Robert A. Thurman. Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Columbia University.
David A. Woolcombe. President, Peace Child International.
PREVIOUS ADVISERS
Danny Goldberg, President, Gold Village Entertainment.
Former CEO, Warner Brothers Records, Los Angeles.
✝ Prof. John Kallos. Founder & Director, Sustainable Development Initiative, Columbia University Graduate School of Business, New York.
✝ Dr. R.D. Laing, Psychiatrist, Author, The Divided Self. London.
✝ Seán Mac Bride. Nobel Laureate; Lenin Peace Laureate;
Co-Founder, Council of Europe;
Co-Founder Amnesty International; Dublin.
✝ Dr. John Weir Perry, Jungian psychiatrist,
Author, The Far Side of Madness, San Francisco.
✝ Danny Schechter, Award-winning journalist, film producer and media critic, NYC.
✝ Robert A. Smith III, Organizational Behaviour Consultant, NASA . Washington, DC..