Green Projection on the Corcoran
posted 11/16/2008
We can all change.
We can change for good or for evil. We can change our direction. We can change a seemingly insignificant daily habit. We can change the course of a nation. We can change our opinion. We have this ability and this may be the most powerful thing about being human. We can make a choice and, for better or worse, change how we live and alter the environment around us.
Last night, John had his video projected on the side of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. It was part of a projection called Transient State put together by Corcoran students and faculty for the much-publicized Fotoweek DC. Even though it was kind of a parody of the PSA-like commercials that populate today’s advertising, it strove to empower people to take their lives and actions into their own hands and change their environment. Entitled Barefoot, it illustrates the various things people can do to make the world and lives a better place. (Watch it in our Gallery).
For weeks John has been doing short shoots with some of our friends to capture some of these simple actions on film. He got Heather dumpstering. He got Tim “watering the plants”.
He got Yang Yi using road kill to make a drumhead. He even got me “shopping” by the side of the road. By mixing hilarity and sobriety in a short two-minute video, he was able to make an audience feel that green living is within their reach. It is not necessarily installing solar panels on your roof or buying eco-chic hemp shoes. It can be being mindful of how you dispose of waste or lengthening the life of a garment by repairing it yourself. It can be being creative by reusing items in different ways or making art using sustainable materials. It can be simple, easy, and cheap, hence Barefoot.
Small actions, like composting, growing your own food, and mending your clothes, can make a big difference in the long run. For instance, cooking and eating together can conserve energy and resources. Instead of using the energy and ingredients to cook several individual meals, a group can cook and eat together. This enables them to use less energy and ingredients and produce less waste overall. In the process, it can also build community by encouraging people to work together (especially in an arena as territorial as a kitchen) and save money by conserving resources.
Sure you hear everyday of new ways, methods, and technologies to be more environmentally friendly, but none of it would be of any use if we did not make the choice to retire an old method and try out a new one. And it seems like starting at home using cheap and simple ways is the easiest way to see if barefoot living is right for you.
But mostly, it’s the individual’s choice to change at all that gets him/her to that point.
I guess it would be appropriate to leave the last words to John…
“I don’t have the right tools
But I live without
I don’t have the technology for change
I am the technology for change.”