Reinventing Democracy Logo

The logo of the Reinventing Democracy project has been designed with a number of perspectives in mind to reflect the philosophy, the fluidity and the multidimensionality of the project. These are exemplified in the following paragraphs.

Philosophy

The logo is inspired by the flocking behavior of birds, which is considered exemplary expression of collective intelligence and collective wisdom without central control. The beauty of this phenomenon is that It shows us how an emergent behavior can arise from simple rules that are followed by individuals without any central coordination. Scientists have studied the phenomenon and discovered that the basic models of flocking behavior are controlled by only three simple rules:

1. Alignment - steer towards the average heading of neighbors and the collective direction
2. Separation - avoid crowding neighbors
3. Cohesion - steer towards average position of neighbors

The success of the flocking behavior for survival does not depend on a leader; the change of leadership is a smooth, almost playful interaction between the birds. Long-term leaders are not an essential requirement of the design. This reminds us also that the ancient Athenian democracy chose the members of its assembly (ἐκκλησία, ekklêsia) by lottery and not though elections. Our reinventing democracy initiative is based on these same rules, i.e.,

1. Young people from across the globe will define collectively the direction and define the characteristics of their ideal vision
2. The achievement of this vision will be based on values of respect, ethical responsibility and recognition of any individual contribution(s)
3. The success of the project will depend on the ability of all players to work together as one collective whole

Animation

The aspiration is for this project to have no beginning and no ending like most projects. The project is not about implementing a number of activities and concluding with some deliverables, but about setting in motion a series of processes that will continue beyond its formal life time. To symbolize this, the logo has been designed as an animation rather than as a static image. Five flocks of dots, representing young people from the five regions of the earth, are continuously moving, changing the world. The conclusion in mixing of colors and production of a white background symbolizes our vision that one day all efforts will unite to one global one.

Multi-dimensionality

The project has many facets and many dimensions. This property is being promoted by the fact that the logo comes in many different snapshots of the animation. Even though each snapshot might look completely different, they are all being recognised as the 'same'.

Gallery

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  European Initiative

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  American Initiative

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  Australasia Initiative

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  African Initiative

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  Middle Eastern Initiative

Further Readings

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flocking_(behavior)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian_democracy