Mammalian Diving Reflex’ “Succession Model of Youth Labour Engagement” (the SMYLE) is a radical long-term youth engagement strategy.It unfolds over the course decades and envisions a very different role for the cultural institution in the both the social fabric of the city, and also in the city’s relation to other cities. Developed in collaboration with a group of children in Toronto beginning in 2006, the SMYLE is an urban planning strategy focused on building atypical and very long-term social, cultural and intergenerational networks. The SMYLE has, to varying degrees, been implemented in London, the Ruhrgebiet, Milan, Berlin and Seoul.
Part of Episode XXXIII: “What Makes a City III: Social Palimpsests” with Sajad Habibi, Darren O’Donnell, Cecile Sandten & Florian Malzacher
29. NOV 2025 – Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz / Germany
Part of The Questions, a project by UK based artist group Quarantine in the frame of Chemnitz European Capital of Culture 2025.
Biography
Darren O’Donnell is an urban cultural planner, novelist, essayist, playwright, filmmaker, performance director, and the artistic director and founder of Mammalian Diving Reflex. His books include Your Secrets Sleep with Me (2004); Social Acupuncture (2006), in which he argues for an aesthetics of civic engagement; and Haircuts by Children and Other Evidence for a New Social Contract (2018), in which he proposes the cultural sector as a pilot for a new social contract with children. His performance work includes Haircuts by Children, All the Sex I’ve Ever Had, The Children’s Choice Awards, and Teentalitarianism.