greenmuseum.systems

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 one way in. That is an advantage to a holistic/systemic perspective. We hope that whatever this website becomes, your sense of what “art”, ecological art or community-engaged social practice is or could someday be, is expanded. Welcome.

My name is Sam Bower. I was the founding executive director of greenmuseum.org. Now I created this site to honor that previous effort and explore some ideas I haven’t really seen yet.

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 change the way we live.

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.

Why I care.

Some of you may be curious about the inspiration or motivations behind this website. I have a background as an artist, nonprofit director, consultant and public speaker, among other things. I’ve split my time between the US and South America (Venezuela as a kid, Ecuador after college) and now live in what the local Ohlone people used to call Huichin (Oakland), California.

For over a decade I advocated for and shared information about art and ecology internationally. I thought it was the future of art and I was passionate about what it could do to help heal communities and ecosystems. Over time, I became disillusioned about the nonprofit sector, the embedded injustices and constraints of our political and economic systems and how terribly limited the many projects we featured on greenmuseum.org actually were once I began to consider them more deeply.

The way modern industrial culture treats people, colonialism, the global dominance of white supremacy, patriarchy and other embedded forms of oppression is so entwined with the ways we treat the Earth, climate disruption, mass extinctions and other crises. It seemed like the illusion of separation was underneath it all and when I looked at art, our focus on separate artworks and the demands of making a living reinforced and reflected this piecemeal approach to being alive.

I’ve lived in places where people were intimate with the life, land and water they depended on for survival. I’ve witnessed the beauty and depth of non-commodified gift-based participative cultures. I know that what’s good for us and the Earth can be compatible yet we seldom see it fully in action. Even a great community-engaged ecological artwork is still relatively isolated and truncated by financial, conceptual and ownership conventions.

What if we could incorporate related elements or themes into our own homes and lives? How could we build a world that supported and riffed off these ideas so it wasn’t all so scattered?

Perhaps, having traveled as a kid and wrestled with new schools, new cultures and customs each time we moved, I long for something that might truly reflect my values, something more holistic and beautiful. A better world that celebrates diversity and also embodies interdependent systems.

Introduction

greenmuseum.systems is the online successor of greenmuseum.org, a former online museum of environmental art. Now defunct, it once provided a central source of information for artists, educators, resource managers and community groups interested in art and ecology.

greenmuseum.systems is dedicated to the future. Our central focus is the notion that what might be most needed and effective eco-culturally is a systems approach that moves beyond individual artworks. Here is a brief video that explains what I’m talking about:

(Full video text below:)

Where do we go from here?

The idea of a systems approach to art and culture has a number of “variables” to explore. This is an initial attempt to map that out. I’m sure there are other things to consider but this gives us a place to start. Each offers much to consider.

This is what I mean by these terms:

Creativity: Trying something new. Pushing the edges of innovation. Surprise us.

Components: How many elements are needed to make an effective system? Is it a diverse mix of elements engaging a range of senses?

Timeframe: How long will your interventions last? Is there a commitment to long range impacts or regenerative elements?

Interaction: How does your system begin to engage others? How much participation is possible, useful, realistic?

Customization: Is your system a specific or more general proposal? What parts of it can be adapted to your own home, neighborhood or community? How flexible is your design?

Enthusiasm: Some things are popular, catchy, easy to repeat and so fun that they can spread on their own or become part of people’s lives. Will people care? How many?

Lifecycle: All things come and go. Is this a timely, short lifespan sort of thing or possibly multi-generational in scope? Perhaps some elements last longer than others?

Documentation: Each system can be set up small-scale, privately and no one needs to know. If you want your ideas to spread and impact others, it will help to document them clearly. If you want feedback and an honest evaluation of how things worked out in the world and how to possibly make your system more effective you can plan for that. We’d love to help.

Community: As you decide the scale of your system, whether it’s home-sized or global or anything in between, it will help to consider who and what might be affected. Who should care and who are your natural allies, potential organizational partners or potential partners? How might this change over time and what support might they need from you?

Context: In addition to location, issues or themes being addressed and the timeliness of your system, you may seek to engage with cultural, historical or personal narratives. Economic variables, time availability, interest and other contextual factors will also play a role. These approaches to (re)creating culture may be difficult to implement. What is possible at this time? What is most strategically effective if you take a long term approach?