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The Immaterialist

resilient living in a limitless world

Tag: aesthetic sustainability

January 18, 2022

Anti-trend, Resilient Design and the Art of Sustainable Living

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November 30, 2021

Interview #11: Bio-designer and Artist Zena Holloway

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November 18, 2021April 27, 2022

What does sustainability mean?

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September 21, 2021September 21, 2021

Interview #10: Repair Enthusiast and Author Isabelle McAllister

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August 23, 2021June 7, 2022

Interview #8: Anti-trend

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August 10, 2021January 28, 2022

Cultural sustainability

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Balance is the key to sustainable consumption

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October 16, 2020October 16, 2020

The anti-trendy design object

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October 15, 2020November 24, 2020

Mono no Aware

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Our approach to sustainability is stagnated, is stuck. Sustainability should revolve around sustaining, prolonging, enforcing, and improving, not around perfection - because there is no such thing as perfection. Sustainability should furthermore not be interlinked with circularity – because circular economy and development comprises an immense strain on the natural environment; breaking things down and reconstructing them into new, perfect objects is not natural, is not justifiable, is not sustainable. Rather, sustainable development should be focuses on iterations; on being in motion, on always evolving and getting better, but never on becoming perfect (!) Because perfection is the end, and there is no end. Designing and producing for perfection creates waste and mountains of discarded things, because when a perfect thing reaches its endpoint (which it tends to do pretty quickly), and is thrown away, it doesn’t disappear, but it stays in our environment and strains our ecosystem. It constitutes an unsustainable full stop that hinders flow and that obstructs abundance.

I recently had a lovely conversation with Jade from @futuresteading about sustainable living, establishing nourishing daily rhythms, living close to nature, embracing friction and rawness (and avoiding smoothness and convenience), following intuition, and unlearning work ethic in order to embrace creativity 🌱

One of the main problems with the way we are currently consuming, which is excessive and gratuitous, is the way the things we consume are designed and the amount of waste produced. What is needed is fundamental change; a radical reduction of consumption since the overconsumption of things that are quickly perceived as obsolete, despite them being made out of long-lasting materials is what has led us to where we are now. We need to practice a lifestyle that is not only slightly, but al lot greener. We need to pursue alternatives to the status quo rather than convulsively hold on to what we are used to and familiar with. Our current codes of conduct, status symbols, and behavioral patterns in relation to consumption are outdated and guilty of destroying our ecosystems and draining our natural resources. They are guilty of leading to despair, oppression, and increased inequality between populaces. Instead of buying carbon offsets we should travel by airplane less. Instead of returning our castoff clothes to fashion-stores in order to receive vouchers to purchase new rags we should reduce our clothing consumption radically. Instead of applauding people’s economic ability to buy yet another updated version of a perfectly fine object we should praise the beauty of well-made, long-lasting, well-functioning artefacts and creative mends. And instead of craving and demanding an even flow of new, flashy products made of virgin materials we should request products that encourage sustainable living by being made of recycled materials, that are upcycled from discarded products, or are made to be swapped or shared or to sustainably deteriorate.

When we moved from Copenhagen to Bali 4 years ago our surroundings and home changed radically: we went from an apartment in the city center to a bamboo house in the middle of nowhere with no doors and no windows (and compost toilets), we went from the concrete jungle to the lush green jungle - and yet, it didn't feel like too drastically a change, and it still doesn't. Home is where-ever we are together and can establish nourishing daily family routines, where we can connect with like-minded people, and where we can live freely and consciously. We didn't leave Copenhagen because we didn't like our life there - on the contrary. Change doesn't have to come from a place of dissatisfaction (though that seems to be the most common path). And, remarkably, the community and our amazing neighbourhood there feels similar to the jungle-lifestyle and village-community we have now adapted to here: the liberating rawness is one of the main common qualities.

Being from Denmark, I never thought it would feel exotic to drive up to the cool mountains, breath in the crisp air and wear a poncho - but it does! 🏞️

"If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.”

The printed version of my brand new Anti-trend report developed for @pejgruppen has finally landed in the jungle 🌴

In my anti-trend report for @pejgruppen I work with three interrelated overall themes: Slowness, Rawness and Flexibility.

New post on The Immaterialist blog - on wild spirits and not giving a damn about should-dos and ought-tos.

The law of nature is abundance. The law of tropical nature is abundance on overdrive.

At the moment I am having lots of conversations like these with my youngest son Severin:

In his philosophical enquiry on the Sublime and Beautiful from 1757, English philosopher Edmund Burke connects the sublime to vast, redoubtable, sensory stimulating experiences. Burke unfolds a scene in order to describe the sublime aesthetic in which a wanderer, after reaching the top of a steep mountainside and experiencing a glorious, breathtaking view, is faced with a threatening storm that moves in fast. The wanderer seeks refuge in a cave, from which he can safely observe the storm unfolding with heavy rain, hail, and lighting. The wanderer feels frightened and paralyzed. However, suddenly, the threat seems to dissipate. He realizes that he is not actually in any physical danger; he is sheltered by the cave, and the storm will eventually pass. And suddenly, instead of alarming, the power of nature seems fascinating and beautiful. Smells, sounds, and sights are intensified by the shift in mood. By letting go of fear and the need for control, and allowing himself to be sensuously present, here and now, the wanderer is blessed with a beautiful experience that engages all senses.

The front page of the Anti-trend report I just created in collaboration with @pejgruppen 💜

I had lunch with amazing @frejaloewe last week in Ubud and was thrilled to hear how well her little one-woman textile design business is going 🧡

I am investigating the concept of cultivation at the moment as a part of my new book project with the working title Uncultivated. And I can feel that my focus tends to turn towards cultivation as something limiting and confining. As the antithesis to freedom and rewilding.

"In a few of my previous posts I have shared extracts from my new Uncultivated book project. The book is built around negations of what I have chosen to call “the ten commandments of cultivation”. The intention herewith is to challenge taken-for-granted cultural and societal “truths” and assumptions and to promote a rewilding of the cultivated human being.

Yesterday I went to a horrific animal market with my son on a "rescue the hamsters mission" (and we did get out of there with a couple of little fluffies that he has now named Rosella and Sky and built a mansion). Anyway; the experience was to saddening - as expected. Endangered colourful birds in small cages stuck in the scorching sun, rodents of all sorts in cages so small that they were forced to lay in layers, huge monitor lizards in small cages that didn't even allow for them to fully stretch, eremite craps in shells that had been coloured and decorated making them look like some kind of surreal moving candy.... We walked through quickly, so I didn't see anymore. But I have heard that they sell baby monkeys there too. You might ask: why would we go to a place like that? And I didn't feel sure either when we walked through there, feeling the absurdity and violation in our core. But just because we don't look, just because we don't face the uncomfortable and the ugliness, it doesn't make it disappear. Sometimes we need to know exactly what is going on. And, I needed my son to see. He asked me: why don't we just buy all these beautiful birds and set them free? And I felt his need to do something. But if we would do that we would just be causing more birds to be caught, more of this absurd sense of human superiority to take place. I explained this to him. But then what can we do, mum? he asked me with desperation. And I didn't have an answer.

The sublime. The big, overwhelming beauty-experience that throws you off course and simultaneously grounds you.

I recently met an elderly man who told me of the beautiful country where he had spent the past 20 years of his life. He told me about the mountains, the beaches, the valleys and the rivers; the almost excruciating beauty. He painted pictures with his words. I could almost smell the wind that carried the gus of the sea to the green valley where his two storey creaking house was located.

"And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."

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