invitation to sos launch hosted by ballroom marfa in marfa, texas

the social & scientific implications of the perfectly round tortilla with enrique madrid

Texas/Mexico border historian/scholar Enrique Madrid and his wife Ruby offer a lesson on how to prepare traditional Mexican recipes, including Enrique's theory that perfectly round tortillas that obey the very same laws of physics as the universe milliseconds after the Big Bang. Enrique and Ruby feel strongly that teaching people how to cook simple, wholesome food helps to preserve traditions and keeps "endangered flavors" alive. Sustenance - both physical and philosophical - provides individuals and families with the means to thrive, and creates bonds within communities and between cultures.

It so happened that I posted this video on the same day that an article on the very same subject titled Holy Frijole by Jake Silverstein was published in Texas Monthly.

everyone as activist

Everyone as activist: the Synergetic Omni-Solution
by Alyce Santoro | March 15, 2011, 2:42 pm Waging Non-Violence.org

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality,” Buckminster Fuller said. “To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” In 2007, the Buckminster Fuller Institute began offering an annual $100,000 prize to the individual or team who could present the most practical, efficient, viable way to make a poorly functioning aspect of the existing reality obsolete. Bucky called this kind of solution a “trimtab,” named for the tiny rudder on an enormous ship that is ultimately responsible for steering. I wasn’t ready to enter the competition that year, but from then on, my mind began working around the clock on the riddle of the trimtab. What universally accessible and implementable strategy could bring as many people on board as possible, inspiring contributors to take immediate action using whatever materials may be at hand?

I began to study and implement appropriate technologies and permaculture. I started a Facebook group called USE HALF NOW to explore the notion that more mindful consumption may be an efficient place for many to begin (at least for those of us living in “overdeveloped” countries). I studied the wildly successful conservation and Victory Garden campaigns introduced in the U.S. and Britain during World War II. Leaders called on citizens to “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without,” and people ably complied. I wondered, what if a similar campaign could be put forth today? What if people were simply invited to have a stake in creating a healthier, more peaceful world? What if the sense of helplessness, disempowerment, and defeat that seems to pervade our culture could be overcome, simply by suggesting that each of us contribute to the solution in whatever ways make the most sense to us? Perhaps the fastest-acting, most accessible trimtab would not appear as some new magic-bullet “green” technology—instead it might come in the form of a radical mental shift.

The German artist Joseph Beuys practiced social sculpture, a kind of art-activism that called upon audiences to participate. He believed that everyone, by infusing even the most mundane action with a sense of purpose and creativity, could contribute to ones’ own health and the health of society and the environment at large. By so doing, he proposed that “everyone is an artist” of their chosen vocation. Beuys taught that in order for social transformation to be truly constructive and enduring, methods used to achieve it must be as holistic and inclusive as possible.

21st-century advances in internet technology and network accessibility offer extraordinary new tools for the contemporary social sculptor. Interactive initiatives based on the dissemination and sharing of information have far greater potential than during any other age in history. Inspired by the developing power of virtual networks, the spirit of the 1940’s conservation campaigns, and the Buckminster Fuller Challenge itself, after four years of deep consideration, it finally seemed that an opportune moment to present a formal application to the Challenge had arrived.

My proposal, “The Instant & Efficient Comprehensive & Synergetic Omni-Solution,” is a customizable, interdisciplinary, collaborative, philosophical approach to social change. It’s a conceptual framework within which to investigate our inherent interconnectedness and shared responsibility for the health of one another and our environment. SOS is at once a call to action, a compendium of possible strategies, and a means of describing, documenting, and contributing to do-it-ourselves revolutions currently underway around the world. It draws parallels between simple, emotionally-rewarding, system-defying action—such as line-drying laundry, freecycling, and home-growing food—and more complex, radical measures undertaken by those demanding basic human rights and an end to oppressive regimes. By cultivating a willingness to commit to small actions, one may become psychologically prepared to participate in and initiate larger ones.

Through the Synergetic Omni-Solution website, the SOS Facebook page, interviews with visionaries and activists, interdisciplinary art installations, and happenings such as the weekend of SOS launch events to be hosted by Ballroom Marfa in late April 2011 in Marfa, Texas, I plan to compile examples of innovative works in progress by others, connect dots, and gather collaborators. As the project proceeds, data will be collected from those in a wide range of fields—alternative agriculture, music, art, politics, history, philosophy, economics, and social, political, and environmental activism—and condensed into concise, comprehensive, strategic booklets, posters, videos, and multimedia guides to be disseminated digitally and via alternative media outlets.

To carry Beuys’ proposition a bit further, perhaps infusing actions with purpose and personal creativity not only makes us into artists, it makes us into activists as well. Realizing the power we have as individuals to shape the world may be the most efficient, accessible, renewable resource available to us—and also the most often overlooked. By approaching issues that affect us all from the standpoint of how to create the greatest health for the greatest number, through shared information and compassionate action, together we have an opportunity to craft a trimtab that's more beautiful and efficient than anything any one of us alone could have imagined.

makers: DIY agents of social change

by: Alyce Santoro, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

EVERYONE IS AN ARTIST

As our society collectively awakens to the realization that it must devise ways to stem the hemorrhaging caused by years of denial and excess, and as the DIY (do-it-yourself) movement grows in popularity, Joseph Beuys’ words “Everyone Is An Artist” ring all the more true. Beuys, who referred to himself as a “social sculptor”, believed strongly not that everyone should make (so-called) fine art, but that everyone can live a richer and more meaningful life by infusing any vocation or action with his or her own personal creativity.

From the 1950’s through the mid-1980’s, Beuys expressed the notion that personal creativity could be cultivated and honed by connecting with nature and by developing a more intimate relationship with it. He believed that individuals, as well as our entire society could be healed by returning to a simpler way of life, and by becoming more attuned to the subtle, ineffable forces of the ecosystems we inhabit.

EVERYONE IS A SHAMAN

Some call one who consciously connects to, communicates with, and elaborates on the intangible a shaman. Some called Joseph Beuys that. Most just called him an artist. Shamans, artists, cooks, gardeners, scientists, inventors and all others who bring imaginary things out of the realm of the intangible to help give them form routinely benefit from enhanced access to the mysterious force of inspiration. In this sense, everyone is a shaman as well.

And as people begin to seek opportunities to “do it themselves” they are exercising a form of personal creativity that has been largely neglected in our culture for far too long. A basic fact of existence that has been all but forgotten is that human happiness and the sense of freedom depends largely on the ability to express personal creativity. Beuys also famously said, “To make people free is the aim of art. Therefore art for me is the science of freedom”.

THE JOY OF FLUXUS

It is possible that the reshuffling of our collective deck, while discomfiting at times, will ultimately result in an overall increase in happiness as people come to realize that we were misguided in relating the ravenous, mindless accumulation of stuff to personal joy, and as we begin to experience instead the sense of simple, profound satisfaction that comes from planting a seed, sewing on a button, or cooking a meal from scratch.

AUTONOMY AS RADICAL ACT

Consciously creative types (“makers” as they have come to be known) are returning to the sort of DIY approach to the creating and sharing of their work that the fluxus artists of the 1960’s and 70’s pioneered – only now we have the internet. Websites, blogs, and social networks have made the notion of the white box/velvet rope style gallery virtually obsolete - now everyone has the same access to the same art and artists, from the comfort and privacy of their own homes. Sculptors can create installations in a basement, musicians can give concerts in their living rooms, writers can publish in an instant – and everything can be shared with millions of people across the globe.

DIGITAL PIONEERING

The internet is a fascinating artifact of the fundamental human longing to connect. The telegraph, telephone, and television are all apparatus devised to facilitate communication. The internet takes it all a step further – now we are able to pool resources, share information, and generate tangible links. In 1998 Howard Rheingold, an early internet researcher and pioneer, published a brilliant article called Thinking About Thinking About Technology in the Institute of Noetic Sciences newsletter. In the piece, Mr. Rheingold posits that for new technology to develop into tools for enhancement of creativity and “mind amplification” as opposed to becoming merely a source of “disinfotainment” we must develop a philosophical framework within which it can evolve. That was 12 years ago. Now we can say for certain that technology, devoid of philosophical framework, will become everything that we are - enriching and distracting, elegant and dangerous, brilliant and ridiculous.

Technology has arrived at a point in its evolution when it is exceptionally easy for the maker to direct all aspects of his or her own creation, from inception to publication, marketing, and dissemination. From Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger to Ebay, Etsy, and YouTube, it is an exciting time for the DIY innovator.

INTERNET AS CAVE WALL

Technologies for the amplification and enhancement of imagination and conscious intent have existed in every aspect of human culture at least since the first cave painting was created. Modern western civilization’s fanatic rejection of the unquantifiable has, in many ways, done us a great disservice. To trust only that which can be measured negates inspiration, intuition, and imagination – some of humanity’s most precious attributes.

Perhaps Joseph Beuys was right - reenchantment with the intangible, reverence for nature, and an open-minded acceptance of alternative modes of perception may make it possible for humanity to emerge from this period of economic, environmental, and social upheaval and reevaluation into a more peaceful and contented era. By perceiving ourselves as artists of our own particular medium (be it plumbing, politics, cooking, medicine, teaching, healing, engineering, or painting), we have an opportunity to sculpt our very culture into a masterpiece that’s beyond our wildest collective imagination. We just need to keep in mind that technology is only an electronic, externalized version of some far more sophisticated software that exists inside all of us, preinstalled. There’s no Google search that can tell us how to use it, however. For that we’ll need to move away from the machines, and step outside.

the revolution is US: a hypothesis/work-in-progress

Buckminster Fuller said, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” The Synergetic Omni-Solution is a way of describing how new models are emerging. Synergetic Omni-Solutions can be seen in decentralized, leaderless transformations happening around the world, right now, in every facet of society from freedom fighters in north Africa and the Middle East, to organic farmers, to creators and advocates of appropriate technologies and local economies. Many of us cannot wait any longer for change to happen – we can only take so much more-of-the-same before we arrive at the stark realization that if we want a different model, we’re going to have to build it ourselves using whatever materials are at hand.

Historically, certain individuals have served as catalysts – visionaries who by accident or design capture the sentiment of a population and, by acting on an impulse that resonates across a culture, awaken others to their cause. But Rosa Parkses, César Chávezes, Gandhis, and Mohamed Bouazizis are not born in a vacuum. They are extraordinary conduits, tips of icebergs. It may require thousands or millions of people all feeling a certain way at the same time to produce a single individual who seizes the urge to act, unlocking a gate through which others may follow. The Synergetic Omni-Solution is an effort to minimize this ratio by testing the theory that everyone possesses a unique key – it’s just a matter of recognizing it, and deciding to use it to open the lock.

Buckminster Fuller used the word “synergetic” to describe an ideal system or philosophy that results when unique parts are elegantly integrated to create a greater whole. He often attached the prefix “omni” to words to emphasize their universality – omni-cooperative, omni-inclusive. Synergetic Omni-Solutions, while they may be small in and of themselves, contribute in a positive way to society as a whole. I think of the grandmothers who never dreamed of participating in a political demonstration who made tea to share with protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

So often media and political leadership - in western culture, at least – discourages the tea makers by glorifying competitive spirit and rugged individualism while downplaying or even demonizing approaches intended to benefit the greatest number. Fear mongering news outlets are inherently disempowering, constantly reminding audiences that individuals are helpless, that the world’s problems are too complex and overwhelming for the actions of one person to make a difference. This theme assuages the conscience of the uninvolved – if actions don’t matter, then we are not responsible for the manufacture of our predicament.

Leaders took a very different approach during WWII. In the 1940’s U.S. and British “War Advertising Councils” launched extraordinary media campaigns based on slogans such as “Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do, or Do Without.” These wildly successful initiatives not only promoted self-sufficiency and conservation of resources during tumultuous times; perhaps most importantly, they united citizens behind a common cause. The public was invited to participate in solutions, and entire nations rose to meet the challenge. Today we face all manner of global crises - economic, environmental, political, social - and yet those in positions of leadership overlook an important opportunity to invite us to play a roll in helping to resolve them.

The Synergetic Omni-Solution is this invitation. Buckminster Fuller understood the challenges that lay ahead for humanity, but remained optimistic that our extraordinary abilities to innovate and cooperate would enable us to avert them. The SOS proposes that a new participatory model for planet-preservation and regeneration is already underway at the grassroots level, and seeks to hasten and strengthen its growth by identifying, highlighting, and encouraging engagement in this phenomenon. Every action - from seed planting to tea making to twittering - that reinforces the notion that the things that unite us are more powerful than the things that divide us contributes to the SOS.

On the final page of “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth”, Buckminster Fuller offers his insight into how he believes humanity will ultimately avert disaster: our problems, he says, will be resolved by the computer. Certainly Bucky understood the computer’s potential as a tool for computation and design – but it’s hard not to wonder if he had some inkling of its potential as an interactive information sharing and culture-connecting device. YouTube, twitter, facebook, Instructables, flickr, SoundCloud, Wikipedia…the list of resources driven by users’ willingness to freely share and exchange knowledge is endless. Wikileaks, Avaaz, and We are all Khaled Said are just a few among thousands of examples of internet-based initiatives designed to bring injustices to light and direct and inspire social action. Those who follow the Egyptian revolution via social networks can attest to the powerful sense of community that has arisen as a result of the protesters’ ability to broadcast their message using ubiquitous technology, connecting and communicating with sympathizers around the world in real time. The momentum and immediate, widespread engagement made possible by the Internet can be applied to people-powered, grassroots revolutions of all kinds. By facilitating the pooling and dissemination of resources such as information, resolve, and passion, and by allowing us to join forces around common goals that transcend nationality, religion, and geography, the Internet is helping humanity to understand that we are all connected to one another in ways that are unaffected by signal strength and persist long after we shut our laptops.

The Instant & Efficient Comprehensive & Synergetic Omni-Solution exists wherever and whenever any individual chooses to infuse an action, however minute, with creativity and purpose for the sake of a greater good. The SOS website and real-world activities are efforts to acknowledge and further these revolutionary phenomena by documenting, sharing, and contributing to them. For more information, please visit alycesantoro.com, our entry into the Buckminster Fuller Challenge, and our launch event at Ballroom Marfa in Marfa, Texas during the last weekend in April. All are welcome!

synergetic omni-solution launch in marfa, texas

ballroom marfa has generously offered to host the official launch of the synergetic omni-solution during the weekend of april 29 thru may 2 in marfa, texas. please click here for details.

"The entire universe is in tension." - R. Buckminster Fuller