a map
I’ve been reflecting on what this site is so far and what’s missing. I figure we have “head”, in the posts titled the idea, the context, and tools, “heart”, in the examples of art-systems and articulture that have so inspired this journey. We could certainly find more tools, more refinements to the idea and updates to my context as I learn more.
“Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.” — Carl Jung
What I think is missing most from this site and is the weakest part of all this, currently, is the “hand” part of the head/heart/hand trio. How do we take this articulture idea and apply it practically to the world?
Some thoughts on practical applications that will allow us to test and explore the usefulness of this idea (beyond being just pretty theory or something only cooked over centuries under different circumstances that would be difficult to replicate in these accelerated modern times):
Can this possibly help indigenous peoples maintain cultural traditions or rebuild “lost” or vulnerable patterns?
Need to find out by sharing this with more indigenous people to see if it resonates or looks useful
This could be followed up by applying it somewhere and testing it out
Can this serve communities already living low footprint lifestyles in communes, permaculture farms, or spiritual retreat centers?
Start by identifying some of these places and reaching out to or visiting them
Consider carefully how to present these ideas and which useful patterns could potentially be supported with art-systems (i.e. prepare a good dog and pony show)
Consider what the cultural equivalent of “succession planting” for articultural restoration might look like (this might be more akin to an “applied nucleation” strategy - little working pockets of articulture). You could start with a process for identifying a number of priorities and ordering them by strategic importance…
Try some out, evaluate and revise
What about people living in cities and wanting, in a general sense, to have an eco-friendlier footprint but not knowing what’s possible or how to go about doing it?
Identify people who are intentionally living off-grid, or attempting low footprint lifestyles in and around urban areas and reach out to them
Follow the same sort of presentation-interview-priorities-test approach as described above
Might there funding available to help folks test this?
Document everything and share it. People need real examples of this idea and how to implement it. Share, inspire, test and repeat.
How to fund all this and keep it going and even expand it, is another organizational/personal challenge. That, is perhaps the biggest elephant in the articulture room and a discussion for another day. Right now, I’m doing all this out of passion and doing odd jobs to pay the bills. If this is going to grow, that will have to change. Testing the ground for solidity, first, is a good place to build from. Too much sparkly fluff has been erected already on tipping-point petrochemical platforms of doom and cement mixed with tar-sands and we’re all seeing where that leads.
This planning process will benefit from other voices and will likely need lots of revising over the years. I’ll try to keep it current as the site and my thinking the “hand” part of things progresses, using this same post as the container for more thoughts as they emerge.
