permaculture

[Scott Vlaun <scott@moosepondarts.com>]

I have to say that after all of this back and forth on these lists, I  
am deeply heartened by the fact that so many intelligent people are   
so passionate about Permaculture.

I also find Mitch's point (on the Pc international list) to be an  
important one . How good is the PR of the Pc movement? And how  
effectively can we communicate the principles to a larger audience?  
My professional background is a university education in art and  
photography. My BFA was from a small art school in the early eighties  
was very bauhaus-based and design centric. it was around the same  
time that I became interested in "self sufficiency"  and "autonomous  
houses" and organic gardening and found my art/design background  
useful in those pursuits. My MFA is from a large university and was  
very theoretical and based somewhat in semiotics, (i.e. how meaning  
is formed by various types of language.) It also involved an ongoing  
critique of how language and image are used to manipulate popular  
culture.

When I started photographing and writing for an organic seed company  
12 years ago, I realized that the "organic movement" needed to  
utilize the same visible and written language skills to communicate  
as the corporate power structure that could sell Ice to a Polar bear  
(which we might have to do soon!)  It was at this time that I was  
introduced to permaculture, and when I interviewed Bill Mollison a  
few years later, I realized that it was perhaps the most-articulated  
set of principles to tie together many of the concepts that I had  
been interested in for most of my adult life.

Seven years ago I partnered up with a graphic designer, and besides  
trying to develop our own permaculture-inspired site, we are  
developing a ( just the word makes be cringe) marketing (sort of)  
business and trying to help give voice to projects that might lead to  
a more sustainable future, the Seeds of Change catalog and website  
being the largest thing we've tackled. We are trying to synthesize  
everything from graphic design, writing and photography, to local  
organic agriculture, green building and intentional community, to  
bring about change locally and an a broader scale. Sometimes it's  
frustrating and I'd much rather be in the forest, or gardening, or  
building something real, but the communication aspect seems so  
essential. Bill Mollison told me that it will take all kinds of  
people with all kinds of skills to work together to bring about real  
change. The communication component will be just as essential as teh  
technological and spiritual.  It's lifetimes of work and something  
that none of us will ever fully realize, but it seems like it all has  
to come together to really bring about the change that we all hope  
and work for.

I so appreciate all the work that all the people on the various Pc  
lists are doing and greatly encourage all to find common ground and  
to bring this philosophy to the world in whatever way we can.

In peace and solidarity,

Scott Vlaun
Moose Pond Arts+Ecology
Design Solutions for a Sustainable Future

35 Moose Pond Road
Otisfield, Maine 04270
207-739-2409 Studio
207-890-4099 Cell