Spectacles are rooted in who we are and what drives us, our collective
mythology, and our fears.  They often enforce ideas we depend on.  They
touch us individually and collectively.  They rise from the instance
when everyone realizes the power in cooperation and collaboration.

Burning
Man and Critical Mass are examples of this type of spectacle and both
have the human relationship to our planet as core principles.  For
Burning Man it’s about a community of thousands surviving in a place
that mother nature seems to have forgotten.  People at Burning Man work together to live for a week in the desert, at the same time acting out
something at the heart of their individuality (creating art, trading,
dressing up, etc).  Critical Mass, though effectively shut down by the
police in New York City, is gaining popularity throughout the world.
Once a month, bicyclists get together to have fun, to support the
environment, and to advocate for alternative forms of transportation.
People gather for different reasons, but they use their collective
power to take the streets back from automobiles.

The Green
Imperative, an interesting book that shows the part designers must play
in protecting and promoting the environment, reminds us that no matter
how we identify ourselves, we all have a role.  We can all incorporate
sustainability into what we do, as individuals, for the collective
good.  It’s the same sort of idea that drives an ethical spectacle.  It
defines a perspective from which we should view the rest of the world.
For example, as a software engineer who depends on powerful, energy-eating machines for my livelihood, what can I do to support
sustainability?  Whatever it is I do, it should be something that is
unique to my position and my special set of skills as an engineer
(simply recycling my garbage is not enough).  It is in this way that
sustainability should be built, from the bottom up, into future
spectacles.

The internet as great collaboration network has the seeds for many emerging spectacles:  The free software movement a la Linux, GPL, sourceforge, and so on; The DIY movement which is manifesting itself to the masses via Make Magazine, Etsy, Instructables,
and the like.  Both of these movements have sustainability and
especially re-use at their core.  When a Make Magazine reader sees an
Altoids box, they think "What can I make with that?" The subtext is, "I
could throw this away, but I will use it for something new" and so,
without even realizing it, the inventor is promoting sustainability.
For her, it is hard-wired.

To have sustainability as a core part
of a movement and to have that movement become spectacle is my hope.
With Al Gore’s work, we have already seen the beginning.  The free software movement is growing, as is the  DIY
movement, Critical Mass, and Burning Man.  As ideas of sustainability
capture more of the public eye, there will be a snowball effect and
more spectacles will emerge that will incorporate both our individual and collective connection to the earth.

Posted in Uncategorized by Brian Ballantine | on Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 11:50 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.