fashionRIP

fashionRIP is a multidiscipline, transmedia installation of chapters, an exploration of perceptions and beliefs. It’s a platform that explores ecosystems health, generative economics, social justice, cultural and creative diversity. Starting with recycouture garments, the story became the Project. It is now an evolving experiment, designed to explore meaningful relationship based constructs that put human potential and whole systems health over the abstract ideas of faux "the real world."

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Love This

railroad bridge. It's right before the bus leaves the freeway to head to Tacoma Dome Station. I wonder who the artist is; Banksy-ish sentiment!

Friday, May 28, 2010

Parallel Healing (1)

London Tube Stop

when bathroom becomes a 4th closet.....u r in trouble!

The Retail Therapy video (below) was inspired by my tube stop last February (London). The sign; go left to Somerset House and Fashion Week or right to the Historical Museum and the last of the Easter Islanders (Rapa Nuians(?)) is legit. That the civilization was destroyed by resource abuse and/or disease is debated but as one leads to the other and vice versa; just move along!

Health is a balance of mental, spiritual and physical well being.

OK, if true than our beliefs based on the capitalist vision that dominates the media and promotes the push of consumer economics to make our lives "better," while actually taking away the time to mitigate stress, nurture relationships, enhance collective intelligence and appreciate our lives, then that is unbalanced & therefore unhealthy.

The shopper's high is real. The short term rush leaves a craving for more and according to the Department of Commerce, we were renamed consumers and programmed to become addicts for a healthy economy. Good job America, we bought it!

This economic theory considered natural resources abundantly available to be used by humans and manipulated by those that had the power to do as they please. Nature was to be conquered and tamed; most humans were workers to be used as resources and a few winners could take all!

Am i crazy or is this like Evilina Island, Land of Mutant Robotic Souls, overstimulated and under nourished - They Seek Love But Buy Toys.

Like being wired naturally to like sweets, a little honey is great but too much is a diabetic coma. I propose that we are predisposed to like beauty, toys, comfort and other elements of "stuff" but too much is killing us.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Retail Therapy reDux

for a slower, wiser & healthier economy. I mean finite planet = limited resources, so go figure. Check out the full "Story of Stuff" and other videos by Annie Leonard for even more foolish human concepts put in their place.

PS copyright permissions are being solicited. This appears the quickest way to facilitate this action and I am covered under the satire law...or close enough for a debate.

See the full "Story of Stuff" at http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Re-Do

Easter Island (Rapa Nui) figure. The sky didn't fall, the people did. British History Museum on the same tube stop as Fashion Week's Somerset House. aha!

Edit First! publish after. I tend to humiliate myself when writing in an emo state. Is that another clue to the walls around spirit?
So far the sky hasn't fallen!
(referencing yesterday's post, edited minutes ago!)

Monday, May 24, 2010

Mixin' it Up

I was recently informed from several sources that i was showing up in my masculine power because that is what i saw modeled in the world i wish to change. The systems we have were built from that masculine energy, the problem being that "these are the systems we have" and not the ones we need!

This behavior was blocking the feminine which is what is needed to balance the energies that may allow us to take a giant step forward.

It sometimes feels as if this world eats hearts alive, so displaying that heart is asking for trouble. Yet this is a false belief, for the strong, brave and loving heart has more true power than the fearful and withholding one.

Then again, soft behavior feels like "the lesser approach" in the patriarchal paradigm, so this takes some work to overcome!

This divided power might be why the current system is collapsing in on itself. Whatever, it's time to experiment, to be innovative, to design for a new, slow economy that celebrates life and relationships not just stuff.

Don't let perfect get in the way of good!
& don't let goods get in the way of life!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Trashed

civilizations bite the dust after resource abuse

Tracing Trash: Mannequin (Manufacturers, Materials, and Pop-Culture)
by Jeongki Lim

or deadcycles on the consumer 'scape

http://vimeo.com/10948382

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Co-Op

Better Than Jam
beats boring trad retail, hands down!

Clicked across a co-op for handmade excellence in NYC. Why can't we do it here? Better Than Jam opened in Bushwick a few months ago and the duo at DIY City Mag announced the opening. This is great precedence...c'mon Seattle show some eco courage.

We can and must build local sustainable economics, here, in our own backyards; or back roads perhaps, alleys can be cool. We can plant stuff and paint. Have the plan need the partners.

Why it Matters

What's the matter with more and more fashion choices?

It sounds good; we love to be able to pick the perfect outfit. You wear it once or twice and then ....what was the real cost here?

Your time to shop and the money spent, not so much ....go a little deeper and consider the fiber source, the dyes and chemicals used, the health toll on the workers, the energy to run the machines, the transporting carbons...and now it just takes up closet space. But so what? It's been going on for-almost-ever and you didn't make the rules.

In fact we are told this is what a "healthy" economy looks like.

You will recycle it after all, give it to charity or your sister. This is more transportation and more release of those greenhouse gases. We are using a lot of our personal energy and the resources of this planet to make, use and dump "trash" Some rags, remnants and tawdry bits will molder for eons in landfills, as nature's microbial actions are hampered by our normalized, everyday toxic lifestyles.

This goes beyond dumps as the breakdown cycle that nourishes the life of this planet has been sorely challenged by GMO crops, fertilizers, pesticides, antimicrobials..RIGHT!!. All the "living better through chemistry" propaganda after WWI and II- AKA how to sell your "garbage," is our legacy. Well no more, not on my (our) watch, we are seeing things quite differently.

As we now carry 298 toxins in our bods that weren't there in the 1930s the toxic residues of normal are haunting us more and more. Ironic, no? Advanced is merely a word.

Go to the So Whats the Point blog in February for the numbers.

fashionRIP posts are copr at time of posting thank you

Extinctions ...So What?

Life evolves, some species survive some don't. We like to allude to Darwin's "natural selection" or Herbert Spencer's "survival of the fittest" because we are so good at reproducing and taking over this planet and justifying that side of our natures. The fact that we are wiping out the food chain by destroying habitat, fouling air and water and generally behaving like arrogant, tinkering idiots, is called business as usual. .....Well I and others are no longer buying that "sell."

We are wising up to the idea that we too, are dependent on these resources. We too, are physically an organic species and we really don't know what little extinction will be the start of the chain reaction that collapses the structure that we too, are dependent on.

Is this the price we are willing to pay for a pair of plastic shoes?

I say no, that despite the focus on the physical, we are more. We are heart and soul, mind, body, spirit. We are born of stars and we can and will leap over this world view based in old, untrue beliefs led by a science of isolation and religions of patriarchal, hierarchical constructs (your basic dominating Dad- with self reflective rights to rule). It is time to come together and heal. To transition into our fuller expectations and open the new possibilities. We are born with genius...let us help each other get to where we all can shine.