A plant is to an ecosystem, what an artwork is to a culture. greenmuseum.systems is an invitation to shape our world intentionally and invite greater resilience into our lives.
Every thing is more than just what the idea of it suggests. A dandelion is a common weed, a medicinal plant, pretty flower and delightful seed distributor. It is also inseparable from its context. Like most plants, its digestive system is externalized so it relies on countless soil microbes for energy and growth, a moist bed of organic matter, nutrients, weather and photons from a nearby star. In reality, it is not separate but part of an ecosystem upon which it depends and others depend on it. Humans, too, are more than human. Our own wellbeing, digestive and immune systems reliant on so many others, inside and out. We depend on the entire planet for our survival.
Modern industrial life likes to simplify things. We aren’t encouraged to think of the social and ecological costs of production, ownership and disposal of the many things around us. What people think of as art, too, is part of that illusion. We are encouraged to consider each artwork indivisibly, as a separate copyrightable aesthetic entity or occasionally as part of a long evolutionary progression of ideas. It’s a bit like a dandelion plant floating in a glass of water on a shelf. It’s pretty but totally decontextualized.
Rarely do artists today think of their work as an inseparable part of a rich and diverse interdependent system of creative inputs working together. What might it look like to explore a theme or support a way of living within our ecological means, for example, using a fuller expression of culture, functioning like an ecosystem? A set of elements (songs, objects, murals, fashion, etc.) we could modify, share and incorporate into our daily lives, communities and ecosystems. Preindustrial civilizations are said to have deeply understood this fractal co-evolutionary approach to life. Their songs, rituals, cosmologies, architecture and creative expressions naturally reinforced each other and reflected this worldview. They also, for the most part, were able to thrive in their bioregions for extended periods of time because of this.
greenmuseum.systems was created to host, encourage and explore this simple, yet ancient idea. As humanity and the world face the impacts of devastating climate disruption, what cultural wisdom can we apply to enable the transition to a more resilient approach to life?
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Featured
A place to explore…
There is a point where things begin. Often it is blurry or sometimes arbitrary. Is it when you had an insight about something? When you first wrote it down, shared it or built a website or career around it? In the end, the beginning will likely vary from person to person. There is rarely just… Read more
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Adaptation
Given the scale and gravity of climate collapse projections, the focus now is widely seen as an adaptation challenge for humanity. As teen activist Greta Thunberg describes it, “our house is on fire”. and that will likely require regional thinking as adaptation will be different in different areas/continents Basically, we need art that helps us… Read more
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An Invitation.
The idea of popularizing a systems approach to art is likely to take a while. I don’t have a budget or even a salary at my disposal for this. I’m a volunteer fitting this dream in between the cracks. I want to contribute my efforts without the hustle of fundraising.
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