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
[permaculture] communication,
Scott Vlaun, 03/05/2006