Hopefully with A Reasonable Cause you get a smaller slice of people which helps you see the big picture, shameless plug for the other blog I have just written.
We started the evening off with a film about drive and how money is not necessarily the gretest motivatior when it comes to cognitive and algorithmic processes. The drawing is bloody brilliant as well.
Next we had our first musician Rae Morris, who I heard at the Green Room. This girl is going to be a star, she has the ability to take everyone in the room whererever she choses to go. Have listen to her myspace. But like all great musicians you have to see her live, she is playing Night and Day this Wednesday, make sure you get down there.
In between I had time to school Owain Roberts, the legend from messner who played at our previous night, and our second musician Tom Ellis in the art of Connect 4. I gave some ribbing to my parents in my last blog, so I have to doff my cap for all the hours of Connect 4 practise. Have a wee look at Kanye West playing the great game.
We then had Sarah Davies of Manchester Friends of the Earth, who talked passionately about how she got involved with Foe, her preconceptions of the Green movement- men with beards, what she has got out of it, and that she has met some great people through it. Her three points about individual, local, and national action really struck a chord.
Our last musican was Tom Ellis an old school friend who had come up from London. It was nice having it the other way round, rather than heading down to do a gig. Tom is a stunning guitarist, with a beautiful voice. He played a mixture of his own tunes and covers. I particulary approved of the Tom Waits. Alas he didn't play the Ellis/Cashell collaboration Silly Women in Trucks, an ode to the mothers who drive around in their 4 by 4's with their toddlers in the back. But we will get him back.
Thanks to all who came. The next night is on the 17th of February
Monday 24 January 2011
The genesis of this blog came from a wee article about landscape painting from a wonderful book by Richard Mabey,A Brush with Nature, 25 years of personal reflection on the natural world.
In the article he talks about the history of landscape painting, which originated from the great draining and redesign of the Dutch landscape in the 17th century. The point that interested me the most was the way we can see our landscape in two different forms "prospect" and "refuge".(1)
Prospect being the sweeping overview of landscape. " Just two centuries of these broad long focus capturings, the rolling farmland, the epic glens..., seem to have created archetypes for the countryside which have made us blind to the details,its contradictions and its movement through time".
I read this article and enjoyed it, but things only started to click into place after I had a conversation with Chris Walsh form the Kindling Trust, we got on to talking about the proposed Manchester Metropolitan University move to Birley fields which is just across from his office. I asked him whether he thought it would be negative losing the open space, trees and light. He wasn't certain as he said the area wasn't particularly thriving when it came to animal and plant life. I then put it to him that it was a good thing in the plans that they seemed to be keeping a lot of the trees. Chris while acknowledging the point, countered it by saying that trees are more for humans pleasure, what you also need is the foliage, good soil, scrub to create a good habitat for plants and creatures. The trees might make our streets look prettier, but lets not kid ourselves that they are doing all that much for the environment.
This brought me back to Mabeys article and how we see these big swooping vistas and landscapes, but don't see the refuge " the grass roots and hedge bottoms" that are essential to the picture. We lose the individual pieces that make the landscape special, and when we go about fashioning our new human shaped landscape we forget theses little details and placate ourselves by seeing big broad strokes.
Two more examples of this. I usually end up getting my rage on when I go shopping in the centre of Manchester. You start to get annoyed with the swarm, the mass of humanity. You have to take it apart to realise it is made of interesting people: mothers, bankers,strippers, and baristas.
We are not encouraged to stand out, or look at each other from a closer perspective. It is harder to be cold and calculating with one person, whether it is getting annoyed or falling in love.
With the group, whether out shopping, in an airport, or at a football game it just leads to one standard way of thinking, in my case, rage. The way to change that is to stand closer and have a better look and encourage the diversity of human behaviour.
My last piece on this is about the sea. Myself and my girlfriend Esther watched Hugh's fish fight and really enjoyed it( don't know if that is the correct word). It was amazing to see the fish being caught and thrown away. The mile long nets; just the huge number of fish that gets caught everyday with so many getting thrown away.
Discard is bad, but there doesn't seem to be a perfect solution to put in its place, but hopefully something will be agreed on by the EC.
It did get me thinking about the sea, and reading about how we will have made the oceans uninhabitable if we go over the 2 degree temperature rise, and how if we carry on coral reefs will be lost to our waters in the next 100 years.
Again we look at this big picture, we need to feed everyone so we need to catch fish. But we are not looking at what is happening to the fish and their habitat. If we are making the sea uninhabitable for the swimming sea snail, which makes up 45 per cent of Salmons diet we are not going to be eating salmon for too much longer(2).
Of course we have to look big, but the only way to do that is to start small and look at the individual pieces. My Mum and I always say how lucky we are that our house is by the sea, so that the surrounding area will never be built on. But alas that beautiful sparkling view can sometimes make us complacent and not see what is going on underneath.
References
1 Richard Maybey, A Brush with Nature, BBC books
2 Oceana survey
http://www.alternet.org/water/106762/how_climate_change_is_killing_our_oceans/?page=1
In the article he talks about the history of landscape painting, which originated from the great draining and redesign of the Dutch landscape in the 17th century. The point that interested me the most was the way we can see our landscape in two different forms "prospect" and "refuge".(1)
Prospect being the sweeping overview of landscape. " Just two centuries of these broad long focus capturings, the rolling farmland, the epic glens..., seem to have created archetypes for the countryside which have made us blind to the details,its contradictions and its movement through time".
I read this article and enjoyed it, but things only started to click into place after I had a conversation with Chris Walsh form the Kindling Trust, we got on to talking about the proposed Manchester Metropolitan University move to Birley fields which is just across from his office. I asked him whether he thought it would be negative losing the open space, trees and light. He wasn't certain as he said the area wasn't particularly thriving when it came to animal and plant life. I then put it to him that it was a good thing in the plans that they seemed to be keeping a lot of the trees. Chris while acknowledging the point, countered it by saying that trees are more for humans pleasure, what you also need is the foliage, good soil, scrub to create a good habitat for plants and creatures. The trees might make our streets look prettier, but lets not kid ourselves that they are doing all that much for the environment.
This brought me back to Mabeys article and how we see these big swooping vistas and landscapes, but don't see the refuge " the grass roots and hedge bottoms" that are essential to the picture. We lose the individual pieces that make the landscape special, and when we go about fashioning our new human shaped landscape we forget theses little details and placate ourselves by seeing big broad strokes.
Two more examples of this. I usually end up getting my rage on when I go shopping in the centre of Manchester. You start to get annoyed with the swarm, the mass of humanity. You have to take it apart to realise it is made of interesting people: mothers, bankers,strippers, and baristas.
We are not encouraged to stand out, or look at each other from a closer perspective. It is harder to be cold and calculating with one person, whether it is getting annoyed or falling in love.
With the group, whether out shopping, in an airport, or at a football game it just leads to one standard way of thinking, in my case, rage. The way to change that is to stand closer and have a better look and encourage the diversity of human behaviour.
My last piece on this is about the sea. Myself and my girlfriend Esther watched Hugh's fish fight and really enjoyed it( don't know if that is the correct word). It was amazing to see the fish being caught and thrown away. The mile long nets; just the huge number of fish that gets caught everyday with so many getting thrown away.
Discard is bad, but there doesn't seem to be a perfect solution to put in its place, but hopefully something will be agreed on by the EC.
It did get me thinking about the sea, and reading about how we will have made the oceans uninhabitable if we go over the 2 degree temperature rise, and how if we carry on coral reefs will be lost to our waters in the next 100 years.
Again we look at this big picture, we need to feed everyone so we need to catch fish. But we are not looking at what is happening to the fish and their habitat. If we are making the sea uninhabitable for the swimming sea snail, which makes up 45 per cent of Salmons diet we are not going to be eating salmon for too much longer(2).
Of course we have to look big, but the only way to do that is to start small and look at the individual pieces. My Mum and I always say how lucky we are that our house is by the sea, so that the surrounding area will never be built on. But alas that beautiful sparkling view can sometimes make us complacent and not see what is going on underneath.
References
1 Richard Maybey, A Brush with Nature, BBC books
2 Oceana survey
http://www.alternet.org/water/106762/how_climate_change_is_killing_our_oceans/?page=1
Sunday 2 January 2011
Remote
Having decided to get involved with what we are doing as a world, to protect the way and place we live in. You find that you have to definitely push yourself forward. It isn't something you are encouraged to do: unlike making money, having a career, children, owning things, razors, fruit pastilles, etc.
No you won't find any peer pressure, parental, worldly pressure to get you involved with the way we interact with our planet, and ourselves.
It used to be an integral part of society not too long ago. We were aware of what crops were sown, which birds were migrating, and how our neighbours, friends, and old people were coping.
At some point as we have "grown" as a society, the voice that says prosper, think of yourself that rainy day will never come, has become mighty powerful. The message seems to be, don't be successful as a society, do it for yourself you are stronger on your own. Don't look around; keep your eyes on the road.
Our most obvious distrust and contempt is for the world we live in. We have been given this plaything, which we treat as our God given right, rather than a ridiculous stroke of luck. We don't trust the world as it doesn't demand anything from us, straight away. If every time we chopped down a forest, or polluted a lake or a stream, 1,000 people were killed instantly somewhere random in the world. Forests wouldn't be cut down, lakes wouldn't be polluted and the whole thing would be sorted out pretty fast. The fact that climate change kills 150,000 people a year according to the World Health Organisation isn't enough. We can take that as we don't feel threatened.
To understand we need to take time, reflect, feel the pain, listen and learn. To do this you need to be aware of your surroundings, understand what is going on in the world globally and locally. Ironically we live in this incredibly connected world, which alas makes it harder to communicate with the people around us. In Manchester where I live I don't know anyone on my street even after having lived there for 3 years. Think of the Hundreds of people passing you in cars every day that you happily ignore.
This ability that we are picking up, helps us to disconnect with what is going on in front of our noses; sets us up nicely to ignore parts of society we aren't too fond of.
It means I can have great friends in California and Berlin, but not know people on my street. I get used to disconnecting with things. I don't have to know the people on my street, I have other friends. I don't need to know the people in the cars I have other friends. This carries on into every part of our lives. I don't need to know where my food comes from. I know it says Kenya on my green beans, but for all I know about how they have been grown they might as well say Jupiter on the packet. I am going to see my friend in California. Screw it, I can't see the oil polluting people's water supply in Nigeria, and the oil company isn't spending big bucks advertising it on x factor to let me know about it. So, Feic it, why should I care.
There is definitely a correlation between this disentachment with certain things and the rise of television. This box does give a certain amount of joy, but it only engages specific senses, eyes ,ears, brain?, and thankfully all designed by someone to entertain you without having to move your arse off the sofa. You don't get wet, upset, elated, involved or feel anything physical.
But of course you get given the beautiful illusion of control, the remote. You can turn down the volume, adjust the colour, and of course turn it off. It gives us a feeling of control over something that we aren't really involved with. It doesn't challenge us or stimulate us, but with the remote we think we are enpowered, if we don't like it we can just change the channel, or turn it off.
You can't do that with the Planet, we can't just press 132 and get a new one. Turn it off, go and make a cup of tea and there will be a better one on in 30 minutes.
Anyway enough of this for now there are loads of points that can be delved into with a lot more detail. It would be great to have some comments, and abuse.
Finally, just to say this doesn't get me down it is just the way it is, but it shouldn't stop us from looking at ways to get the most out of this life.
Ben
No you won't find any peer pressure, parental, worldly pressure to get you involved with the way we interact with our planet, and ourselves.
It used to be an integral part of society not too long ago. We were aware of what crops were sown, which birds were migrating, and how our neighbours, friends, and old people were coping.
At some point as we have "grown" as a society, the voice that says prosper, think of yourself that rainy day will never come, has become mighty powerful. The message seems to be, don't be successful as a society, do it for yourself you are stronger on your own. Don't look around; keep your eyes on the road.
Our most obvious distrust and contempt is for the world we live in. We have been given this plaything, which we treat as our God given right, rather than a ridiculous stroke of luck. We don't trust the world as it doesn't demand anything from us, straight away. If every time we chopped down a forest, or polluted a lake or a stream, 1,000 people were killed instantly somewhere random in the world. Forests wouldn't be cut down, lakes wouldn't be polluted and the whole thing would be sorted out pretty fast. The fact that climate change kills 150,000 people a year according to the World Health Organisation isn't enough. We can take that as we don't feel threatened.
To understand we need to take time, reflect, feel the pain, listen and learn. To do this you need to be aware of your surroundings, understand what is going on in the world globally and locally. Ironically we live in this incredibly connected world, which alas makes it harder to communicate with the people around us. In Manchester where I live I don't know anyone on my street even after having lived there for 3 years. Think of the Hundreds of people passing you in cars every day that you happily ignore.
This ability that we are picking up, helps us to disconnect with what is going on in front of our noses; sets us up nicely to ignore parts of society we aren't too fond of.
It means I can have great friends in California and Berlin, but not know people on my street. I get used to disconnecting with things. I don't have to know the people on my street, I have other friends. I don't need to know the people in the cars I have other friends. This carries on into every part of our lives. I don't need to know where my food comes from. I know it says Kenya on my green beans, but for all I know about how they have been grown they might as well say Jupiter on the packet. I am going to see my friend in California. Screw it, I can't see the oil polluting people's water supply in Nigeria, and the oil company isn't spending big bucks advertising it on x factor to let me know about it. So, Feic it, why should I care.
There is definitely a correlation between this disentachment with certain things and the rise of television. This box does give a certain amount of joy, but it only engages specific senses, eyes ,ears, brain?, and thankfully all designed by someone to entertain you without having to move your arse off the sofa. You don't get wet, upset, elated, involved or feel anything physical.
But of course you get given the beautiful illusion of control, the remote. You can turn down the volume, adjust the colour, and of course turn it off. It gives us a feeling of control over something that we aren't really involved with. It doesn't challenge us or stimulate us, but with the remote we think we are enpowered, if we don't like it we can just change the channel, or turn it off.
You can't do that with the Planet, we can't just press 132 and get a new one. Turn it off, go and make a cup of tea and there will be a better one on in 30 minutes.
Anyway enough of this for now there are loads of points that can be delved into with a lot more detail. It would be great to have some comments, and abuse.
Finally, just to say this doesn't get me down it is just the way it is, but it shouldn't stop us from looking at ways to get the most out of this life.
Ben
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