The need for experimental spaces is critical in today's world.   We are facing challenges we have not faced before.   To meet these challenges we need new tools and agreements.   Some people call these 'messy' or 'wicked' problems.   These problems are complex and can only be tackled through the participation of people from a variety of disciplines and cultural backgrounds.   Another term for experimental spaces is "innovation lab".   Innovation is not just applied to technologies, but is also needed for the development of new institutions and rules.   The Barbets' Duet, described elsewhere on this website, is a major new experimental space.

Over the past fifteen years, Barbara Heinzen has been actively involved in developing experimental spaces that bring people together from different disciplines and organisations.   BEAD was a business group designed to address the impact of infectious diseases on business.   LIFT's Business Arts Forum and Phakama are both experiments using the arts as a source of learning.