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The Immaterialist

resilient living in a limitless world

Tag: mycelium

November 30, 2021

Interview #11: Bio-designer and Artist Zena Holloway

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Nothing more life-denying than fighting against the law of life: everything is on the way, and not in its final form (Daniel Quinn, The Story of B).

New post at The Immaterialist blog with an extract from my Anti-trend report developed in collaboration with @pejgruppen (in Danish) 🌿

Some of my favorite July Indo island moments ☀️

How do you adapt without violating your nature, your self? What is the difference between positive adjustment (courtesy or consideration for others, we could call it) and negative adjustment that limits your spirit and ties you down with should-dos and ought-tos? How do you live freely, yet purposely? The only way to avoid oppression and to embrace creativity and community building is to enter into a spontaneous, free relationship with other human beings and with nature – a relationship that connects us with our surroundings without destroying our integrity, as philosopher Erik Fromm states. And I agree. Fostering a spontaneous, free relationship to our natural surroundings and other human beings might be the key to adapting without violating our nature. The loss of fruitful, pure spontaneity (as in opposed to reckless spontaneity) is a major part of cultivation. Exhibiting pure spontaneity is dependent on an uncomplicated relation to one’s surroundings driven by enthusiasm and acceptance.

The most sustainable city is a rewilded city – a city with space for diversity and for life to unfold in all its raw, messy forms and shapes. A city that isn’t too polished, homogenized, or cultivated. A city that is made for living, all kinds of living. A city that embraces life and is flexible, adaptable and updatable. This requires a degree of ruggedness or even space for “ugliness”: if there is a homogeneous, uniform concept of what a picturesque, well-organized city should look like this tends to limit opportunities for development, creativity, and free, messy living. Not that organization and efficiency is a no-go – obviously city-planning is important. But momentarily there is a tendency of eliminating all the “rough”, non-groomed areas in developed cities, and that cultivation and homogenization is reducing space for free, unorganized, impulsive, interim living and creative expressions.

Last night my dog Saga died. She had been unwell for a couple of days and hadn’t wanted to eat anything, but as she was still drinking water, walking outside to pee and wagging her tail, we thought she maybe just ate something bad or rotten: our dogs always run around outside and eat all kinds of disgusting things.

I recently developed an Anti-trend report in collaboration with @pejgruppen

I have written a lot about the benefit of slowing down. Of taking time to reflect, getting engaged and being present. Slowing down is possible in most settings as it is primarily a state of mind, yet, some places encourage slow living more than others. Something happens when noise and distractions are removed. When consuming anything but food and drink is next to impossible (because there is nothing to buy). And when transportation is slow because the only way to get around is by foot or on a bicycle.

Lombok colours 🧡💙

In my book Anti-trend I discuss how to justify creating anything new in a world overflowing with waste and discarded things. I end up with three reasons, one of them being designing objects from product waste.

Modern culture often preaches that living in the now is of great importance. In fact, it is the mantra of numerous self-help and “go-get-them”-books. It appears that living in the now is the direct road to happiness and success. Don’t worry about the future and don’t look back. Carpe diem, seize the day and make the most of it.

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.

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