Petar Veljačić



Turning childhood dreams into a living reality is never an easy task. Yet, it comes as a rule that the very ability to adapt to the hardship of change is the actual substance of generating auspicious and rich life experiences.

With a forty-year history of being a whimsical, yet genuine dreamer, I have thrived to manifest my deepest aspirations. In these four decades, I have managed to travel most of the world, being continuously involved with a large spectrum of human activities. These diverse experiences have guided me to learn more intuitive, creative ways of self-management and discernment. Yet, my intrinsic drive for closeness towards human fellows, regardless of appearance, age, or social, cultural and religious heritage, led me towards continuous displacements and changes of environment. This undoubtedly enriched my perspectives, but at the same time depleted my ability to make a more secure career path.

For as long as I can remember, I have been torn as to whether to follow the adventures of my brain, my love for mathematics and natural sciences, or my visceral, colossal thirst for creative, artistic types of work. The latter option was, without fail, always finding a way of winning.

After my studies in Ethnology and Anthropology at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, I was fortunate in finding an exciting job, networking for Vega Youth Center in Belgrade. This is a small NGO situated in a floating hostel on the river Danube. I started travelling on regular bases, exploring the European continent and its multiculturalism and learning precious social skills in a non-formal framework of training programmes organised by the European Commission’s DG EAC. I decided to apply for a position with EVS (European Voluntary Service) and succeeded. This resulted in me moving to Brussels and being chosen to work as a video journalist for a Flemish media online platform called Indymedia.be.

That was a turning point in my life. Sometimes I would spend half of a working day in squats with sans papiers or filming social and political protests, and the other half in the European Parliament and other EU or Belgian institutions in a completely different social and political atmosphere. I was fortunate enough to gain a wide experience of life in Brussels, in a very short period. The capitals’ diversity inspired me immensely, changing the patterns of my former thinking about societies and social design.

Brussels presented a great opportunity for my personal and professional growth. I decided to stay in Belgium to study Audiovisual Arts in Luca School of Arts, and subsequently perform postgraduate research in Arts and Sound at KASK & Conservatorium School of Arts in Ghent and Goldsmiths College of the University of London. Meanwhile, I was working as a media educator in different countries, gaining further professional knowledge in a freelance career in education and creative industries.

Through my freelance-oriented mindset, I became more and more engaged in video and film editing. This highly creative and passion-driven job was extremely time-consuming in a freelance context. I lost the dynamics of teamwork and became exhausted with my freelance career.

To balance me out, I discovered aromatherapy and bodywork as hobbies. This helped me to energise myself mentally and physically. I have practised Transcendental Meditation for four years now and this has unlocked a whole new world of possibilities for me. Through these recreational activities, not only have I rediscovered my somatic potential but also my hidden cerebral abilities. I have discovered the practice of biohacking and I have shifted towards an inner type of self-engineering, through the endowment of Eastern, yogic philosophy.

Motivational keywords: cinephilia, sound art, audiovisual experiments, social design, societal change, ethnographic research, digital ethnography, futurism, serving, Ubuntu (philosophy), challenging/warrior mindset, biohacking, brain-work, logistics, teamwork