Materialism in the 21st Century; Not What You Think

This is pretty interesting. Bruce Sterling discusses the end of The Viridian Design Movement. Check it out.

Image: http://greensource.construction.com/people

Brand Obama and Grassroots Activism: Two Interesting Articles

Two interesting articles I’ll share with you.

Beyond Brand Obama explores the impact of “the change” candidate:

Those of us hoping to build communities, improve our schools, invigorate our local economies, restructure our land use, or reduce our energy dependence mustn’t equate a presidential campaign with substantive change. Obama may be a convenient conceptual placeholder for these concerns, as well as a person capable of dismantling a good amount of America’s more fascistic and militaristic infrastructure….Obama can help legislate some of the structural changes that will make it easier for us to renegotiate our civic, social, and commercial relationships with one another. But the job of actually changing society and its priorities will happen from the bottom up. He can help write laws that make it easier for us to build transportation alternatives, but we have to actually go do it.

In Grassroots Lobbying: Use Ideas, Not One-Click Campaigns, Heather MacIntosh, the President of Preservation Action, lays out a convincing argument and guide for grassroots non-profit lobbying that moves beyond form letters and e-mail surveys. In it, she argues for making relationships with local congressional offices and getting involved in the early stages of policy creation.

(Image from: Obama Porn [safe for work])

Why Optimism Matters

A great article at Worldchanging about the politics of pessimism and the need for optimistic sustainability thinking. "The politics of impossibility" as Alex puts it is:

1) An explicit statement that we are incapable of actually solving the planet's most pressing problems, and that to consider doing so is "unrealistic."

2) A mostly unstated assumption that the reason embracing bold solutions is unrealistic is because those solutions involve unbearable costs.

3) A rarely voiced belief that "realism" ought best to be defined as "in the interests of those doing well today," and that "unbearable costs" ought best to be defined as "any meaningful change in circumstances whatsoever."

4) A widely practiced stance that, therefore, expressions of concern and extremely modest, almost symbolic, small steps and half measures are the appropriate course of action.

Vs.

The politics of optimism:

1) That realism ought best to be defined as "within our capacity" and "necessary."

2) That we have the capacity to create and deploy solutions to the world's biggest problems, and the magnitude of the consequences of failure (both for ourselves and generations to come) demands that we act immediately.

3) That it is possible to act in such a way that the prospects of most people on the planet are improved. While certain costs will be incurred, the returns on those investments will be quite attractive, not only in ecological stability, international security and human well-being, but in terms of plain old economic prosperity. These solutions will make the future better than the present for the almost everyone, and greatly improve the lots of our children and grandchildren.

4) Therefore, defining our win scenarios, imagining the kind of future we want to create, describing the solutions that will make building that future possible, and publicly committing ourselves to success are the appropriate course of action.

The article is well worth a read.

The Next Flight, Green or White?

A new article from Worldchanging about how demographic shifts are leading people back into urban cores, what will happen with all the suburbia that now exist, and the green implications of a US population concentrated in cities.

(Picture Credit:www.theatlantic.com)

Students Doing It For Themselves!

Worldchanging has a cool article on The University of Canterbury Students’ Association, which is hosting a green orientation week along with other sustainable initiatives. It’s really awesome to continue to see different student groups at different educational institutions encouraging their schools to go green. My favorite initiative is the “Eco-My-Flat”:

Incorporating community-based social marketing techniques, the team developed an 'Eco-My-Flat' competition. It is to be run over March to promote sustainable student lifestyles, with a workshop each week covering the themes of energy, waste, transport and consumption. Research by Canadian environmental psychologist Doug MacKenzie-Mohr shows that methods advocating change for sustainability need to address specific barriers to behaviour change using a variety of techniques. Therefore, the competition not only gives information, but also guidance from a professional facilitator and a chance to learn from discussion with their peers at the workshops, as well as incentives in the form of prizes.

What We Have Is All They'll Have

If sustainability is harvesting, designing, using, and end-of-life management in ways that will work for hundreds, if not thousands, of years than one important concept to understand is that future generations will only have access to the resources we have today. That is to say every generation does not get their own Amazon forest. The resources we use (or don’t use) today will be all the resources future generations have access to. What are the Sustainability Implications of Peak Population? By Alex Steffen (The broskie) deals with the implications of trying to build a sustainable now, while also realizing that it is going to have to work for or be recyclable by future generations. It’s a typically interesting thought exercise, and for those of you less familiar with The Broskie I recommend you take a look.

Some Links I've Been Holding on to

I just started a new job and it has been keeping me pretty busy. As such, I have not been able to post some of the interesting things I've found lately. So, here is a list of some interesting articles I've run across.

Mobile Phone Credits as Currency in Kenya points out that due to the recent violence in Kenya and the dependence of the population on mobile phones for their communication needs, mobile phone credits have become a better currency than the government issue money. It goes on to discuss communcation needs in times of disruption.

Reaching Out to Muslim Victims of Domestic Violence talks about what efforts are being made to address issues of domestice violence in the Muslim-American Community and some of the challenges that are being faced.

let's define our terms: what is a "social networking technology"? does just that.

Interesting Though

An interesting bit of food for thought at Worldchanging.

I've been thinking about the fate of declining suburbs, bombed out shrinking old industrial cities and the drying up ghost towns of the high plains, when I came across a journal note mentioning something Bruce Sterling said to me this fall in San Francisco:
"The ruins of the unsustainable are the 21st century's frontier."

Numbers, Please

An interesting article at Worldchanging about corporate green accountability, product backtories, and the winnowing of sustainable companies from those simply greenwashing. The article challenges a piece by Chris Anderson, of Wired, about the sustainability of paper distribution. The basic argument of the Worldchanging piece is that Wired should know its own environmental backstory and, through this knowledge, should be able to produce hard numbers about how it is and is not sustainable. The article also makes the connection between this knowledge and good brand imagery. The comments had a particularly interesting discussion.

Public Transportation, a Whole New World

As a first time big city liver, I am just beginning to be able to seriously imagine my life without the need of a personally owned car.  Want Better Transit? Unionize! Is an interesting article about the benefits to be had through Bus Riders Union’s. 

The Straphangers Campaign is perhaps the best model for the kind of resources transit riders unions can provide. But with advances in mobile technology, it's easy to envision a role for riders unions that goes much farther than online resource clearinghouses and communities. Imagine if it were possible to text complaints to a central online forum that automatically forwarded them to your transportation agency; let other riders know through a mobile network when there were problems on certain transit lines; upload a photo of someone who's harassing you on the bus automatically to a dedicated Flickr page, à la Hollaback (a place where women can post photos of their street harassers); or, contribute to interactive, user-generated maps of problem spots in the system that could help make the case for improvements.

It continues to amaze me how mobile technology is changing the way problems are conceived and dealt with.

A Thought for Manifestoists.

I came across this article, A Manifesto for ustainability in Design, at Worldchanging the other day. The first thing that grab my attention was what the author, Allan Chochinov from Core77, said about manifestos.

I don't like the word manifesto. It reeks of dogma and rules—two things I instinctively reject. I do love the way it puts things on the line, but I don't like lines, or groups. So a manifesto probably isn't for me. The other thing about manifestos is that they appear (or are written so as to appear) self-evident. This kind of a priori writing is easy, since you simply lay out what seems obviously—even tautologically—true.

Of course, this is the danger of manifestos, but also what makes them fun to read. And fun to write. So I'll write this manifesto. I just might not sign it.

It makes me think about my own manifesto writing, which was definitely a lot of fun to write. However, it makes sense to say that manifestos draw lines, which are problematic, and that we should consider carefully which, if any, lines we want to draw.

To See the Change We Are

I just read an interesting interview by Ed Burtynsky an international photographer. Burtynsky is known for photographing landscapes that have been changed by industry. There is a really interesting short video of his work here.

“So All May Eat,” What a Good Idea

A good friend of mine and I have this running fantasy of opening a bookstore / cafe / CD store. Well here is a very different way of looking at the restaurant business. SAME Cafe is a restaurant in Denver, where meals is distributed not based on one’s ability to pay but on one’s need of food. The restaurant is funded through donations of patrons. There is also the opportunity for those who want to support the business but don’t have money to work for meal vouchers. Think this can’t work as viable business, check out One World Cafe, which has been going strong for three years now in Salt Lake City. What’s really cool about this is that it is a food distribution model that brings together those who can afford food and those who would normally have to go to a soap kitchen or food bank. For a more thorough article, checkout Worldchanging’s “Eat What You Want, Pay What You Can.”

Alternative Currencies: Local Economies and Local Communities

It is undeniable that our current economic systems puts severe strains on our communities isolating people with busy schedules and no apparent motivation get to know there neighbors. Complementary monetary systems are being developed around the world in order to combat these alienating tendencies of our current capitalist model.
Alana Herro, of Eye on Earth (e²), has posted “Complementary” Currency Helps Local Communities at Worldchanging.com. The article is a good over view of some of the interesting things happening in alternative economics on the local community level.

Redesigning Social Services and Green Tiling

A couple of interesting posts. First off one from Worldchanging.org, Red, Active Mobs and Redesigning Public Services. It is a great article about RED, which is a part of the Design Council, the UK’s official design agency. RED has been giving the job to use new design principles revamp social services. Instead of simply making social services more efficient, RED is trying to considered how the can be redesigned to be more effective.
The second is Elegant Embellishments new urban tile that can reduce car pollution. Both Worldchanging.org (Urban Grids / Respiratory Oases) and We-make-money-not-art.com have articles on it (Elegant Embellishments).

...Of Interest.

Just a couple of things to look at for today.

Breathing Earth is a really cool visual simulation of carbon emissions around the world, which is compared to births and deaths. The simulation is done by country.

Worldchanging has a really interesting article on the power of regional cities to deal with urbanization (and its problems) which “...have overrun tradition notions of urban space.” It is call “Can Los Angeles Become the US’ First Regional City?”

Lastly, for those of you who live in the New York area Coco Fusco is performing this weekend at PS. 122. Her piece is entitled “A Room of One’s Own: Women and Power in the New America.” It explores the new role of women as interrogators in the global war on terror due to their exclusion from combat zones (prisons are not consider combat zones.)

Eureka

I came to an epiphany the other day. I have been planning on applying for the Watson Fellowship (a really amazing travel grant) and have been struggling to coherently describe what it is I am interested, and now I have it (or at least a beginning):

I am interested in how people create, maintain, and strength understandings of common interest within a group of people (i.e. a community) and how this awareness of communal relevance is/can be used solve problems.

Jon Lebkowsky has written a really interesting article for Worldchaning.com called Complexity, Megacommunity, and Adaptation about different models for community organizing. The ideas he talks about have been around for awhile (multi-institution problem solving and non-hierarchical complex organizing) but what is interesting is explanation about why these are better models for solving the problems we are facing today.

Vision Vessel: Portland’s Mirror to the Future

One of the keys to building better communities is the ability to image them. Portland, Oregon is tackling this problem in an inventive way.

The Vision Vessel is a multi-media recording booth where you can voice your ideas about the City of Portland as it grows and changes in the 21st century. The Vessel creates a living archive of Portlander’s insights, while offering a fresh, practical and innovative approach to urban civic engagement.

This is interesting because the project not only records peoples ideas about the direction Portland should take, but also presents a visual timeline of Portland’s past. The designers seem to recognize that the future and past are inexplicably linked, and that we must remember out history as we imagine our future.

MTV... Meet the Green Generation

Here is another sustainability for dummies site brought to us from the makers of Next and Yo Momma. MTV initiated a 12-step anti-global warming campaign:

Are you ready to commit to changing? Join Break the Addiction's 12-step, 12-month action plan for fighting global warming and the effects of overconsumption in your environment and your world. Each month, learn new ways to make a big impact.

The information is all pretty basic, but does provide simple tools for reducing one’s environmental impact. There’s everything from a full house diagram with suggestions for reducing energy consumption to a NRDC overview of renewable resources.

Again this is all pretty basic, but it is encouraging to see sustainability entering the main stream more and more. As an artist this is exiting because it paves the way for the more complex environmentally conscious art to be understood and appreciated by mainstream audiences. The more people who understand the basics of sustainability, the less time artists and other cultural creators have to spend educating people on basics. Thus leaving them more energy to illustrate and comment on the complex nature of the environment and our relationship to it.

(Thanks Worldchanging!)

Peoples' stories = communities' stories.

The Autobiography Project is an interesting community expression project taking place in Philadelphia right now. Over six weeks this spring the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary and One Book, One Philadelphia sought out 300 word autobiographies from the city’s residents. They received over 340 entries. From these admissions, 20 were selected by a panel of local writers to be published on posters and put up in bus stops.

There are several aspects of this project with exciting implications. First off, any effective community envisioning project must contain an understanding of the communities past. Not only are important lessons to be learned from one’s history, but also most communities have a desire to retain something of their “historic” selves. Now, 20 autobiographies hardly constitute a complete history, but they do point out that personal stories in combination with avenues for public expression (in this case public space) can be used to tell a communities story.

The second interesting aspect of the Autobiography Project as Geoff Manaugh of Worldchaning.com points out

...is how it has briefly reclaimed a handful of Philadelphia's bus shelters and transport routes in the name of public life and personal narrative. De-commercializing each bus stop, in other words, the Project has replaced ads for new films, hair products, and athletic gear, turning Philadelphia's bus routes into a narrative experience.

As our public spaces become more and more privatized and commercialized, cultural actions that work against this trend take on greater importance as means of securing spaces for public expression.