Metamorphose

To metamorphose is to transform. This site is an exploration of change (why we avoid it, how we can achieve it, who inspires us along the way) and the conditions required for transformation. Founded and curated by Simran Sethi.

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“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. 

To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” 

― Buckminster Fuller

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This person does not happen to be gay, that I know of. This person doesn't also happen to be transgender, that I'm aware. This person doesn't have brown skin. This person is a white man. So hopefully this person will not polarize you, as you consume this account of how the entire genesis of the United States is something to be re-negotiated.

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"Cheap energy is like a vaccine"

"Cheap" is more than just upfront capital cost.  "Cheap" is also time to design, permit, and build.  "Cheap" equals access.  "Cheap" equals a lever for change.  Coal and nuclear can't and won't be built everywhere and still requires generous investment in transmission that few want to make and even fewer want to provide land to host.

If we are to believe Florida Power & Light's claim that new nuclear can be installed for $3000 per kilowatt, this is approximately the same price as the installed cost of one kilowatt of solar in many parts of the United States?  The difference: solar can be installed and operational virtually overnight.  Nuclear?  A decade?

Bill Gates says "cheap energy is like a vaccine."

Which does North Korea begin to look like South Korea from space?

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Keep our water supply from being contaminated.

Making and using your own natural dyes can reduce your impact on the environment (textile production as a whole is the fifth largest contributor to CO2 in the United States), and has the added side benefit of some very pleasant time spent outdoors as you search for, gather, and/or tend to the plants that yield non-synthetic color. 

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Nothing is Free.

I took this photo at an Occupy Southern California Meet-Up called SPRING IS COMING.

Why, you might ask, are we fueling the evolution of Another Possible World with Coca-Cola and Pepsi?

Because it’s “free” - it was donated.  

Sounds like the same reasoning that brought soda dispensing machines to Los Angeles public schools several years ago.  Coca-Cola was willing to fund programs that our tax dollars were not made available to support.

Evolution is a messy business, and this photo, to me, encapsulates this reality.  Perfect is the enemy of good.

But in my humble opinion, we have to stand up somewhere.  Otherwise the words, “Another World Is Possible” become a sad joke.  

Nothing is “free.”  

We have to work for it.

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The Gift Relationship (Questions, Not Answers)

In 1970, English social theorist Richard Titmuss upended the blood-banking system with his book The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy in which he explained the fundamental differences in how British people and Americans approached the blood used for transfusions. In the British system, all blood is classified as a gift. In the American system, blood is both donated and purchased (or sold). Titmuss goes on to say this profit motive compromises the supply - causing shortages, waste and increased health risks due compromised product (blood sold by desperate people and bought by unscrupulous profit-maximizers). 

There has been a fair amount of research that questions the nuances of this work, but the basic questions remain. Lewis Hyde explains, "Medical sociologists have been drawn to questions of gift exchanges because they have come to understand that the ethics of gift-giving make it a form of commerce appropriate to the transfer of what we might call, 'sacred properties,' in this case parts of the human body." 

What does it mean to give of ourselves? Our energy, our money, our time are all precious. How do we incent people to want to give more and participate in raising up the public good? These queries are the antidote to ecologist Garrett Hardin's tragedy of the commons. Using the metaphor of a pasture "open to all," Hardin explains that if we,  as individual rational actors, seek to maximize our own wealth (or, in his terms, "accrue our own herd"), then we compromise the good/ the wealth/ the herd available to all. "Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit - in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons."  

In the face of this tragedy, the gift exchange is a revolutionary act. It is not, of course, without benefit, We give blood because we feel we are making a contribution to another, "saving a life." This narrative is critical. It raises the stakes. Just like the stakes of feeding people.  What are the implications of this for GMOs? For the people fighting GMOs? What role does profit play in incentivizing us to do something? And how can we garner that same level of engagement - or something much deeper by rewarding people with something money can't buy?

This is our challenge. To frame our work in ways that is immediate and world changing.   

Photo credit.

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Via robenmarie.

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A human being felt deep empathy for another human being who did not see the point of living under these conditions.  He made a promise to keep his brother.  And he is fulfilling it.  Is this maybe how DIY media can help bring CHANGE?

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"The pragmatic approach is to address the demand."   Marco Arment

More here. 

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This is a site about change. This has to change. 

Via fotojournalismus: Nine-year-old Sujon’s foot was covered with oil as he worked in a vehicle-parts store in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012. 

[Credit : Andrew Biraj/Reuters]

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Waste = Fuel

What do you see?

Trash, yes? 

What if you could turn the plastic back into crude oil? What do you see now?

Inventor Akinori Ito, CEO of Blest, is working to transform our relationship to plastic refuse. He espouses the Japanese concept of mottainai ("a sense of regret concerning waste when the intrinsic value of an object or resource is not properly utilized"), teaches people about recycling and then demonstrates the value of discarded plastic by, literally, turning waste into fuel. 

Watch it happen. One kilogram of plastic turns into about a litre of oil.   

The result of this can't be underestimated. Plastic that was discarded and forgotten is now sorted and collected. The physical change facilitated behavioral change. 

Photo credit (and place to go for detailed designs of the liquefying apparatus). 

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My Mashup of "Honesty"

Last week acclaimed food photographer Brian Ferry wrote a post about honesty. He confessed: "I’m tired of taking photos of food, and I’m really tired of looking at photos of food online (perfect meals and those perfect table settings). It all looks the same. The faux-urban-rustic aesthetic, with mason jars for glasses and twine-wrapped napkins. The perfectly placed spoonful of brown sugar on the table (in a vintage/antique spoon, please), the sugar crystals artfully scattered around the spoon. You know what I’m talking about." 

He went on to say, "I want to shake it up, make it feel personal and real, make it really mean something to you. I’m not 100% sure how to do this, but I’m working on it.

Food, just like life, is not always perfect. And I want my photos to reflect that fact. There is a particular type of beauty in honesty."

I share that here because a critical - and often overlooked - component of change is being willing to admit that it's messy, we're vulnerable and we don't already know how to do it. 

A woman named Ashley who commented on the post explained why she loved the pristine images. "I often find myself looking at those oh so beautiful food photographs and wishing I could take photos like that. But when I really think about it, the only reason I want to take those photos is because I want to trick myself into believing that my life is as beautiful, perfect and styled as the lives seem in those photos. My life may not be perfect, but it’s mine, and I’m coming to realize that if I spend to much time pining over what is beautiful in others lives, I won’t see what is beautiful in mine.

This post has encouraged me to continue to seek my own kind of beauty and art, and to push myself to discover things outside what is easy and what is often seen."

Here's to the beautiful, glorious, hidden, challenging mess. . .

Photo credits. 

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#F27

Today was a big day for big food. 

Judge Naomi Buchwald ruled that farmers could not sue seed giant Monsanto for the threat of transgenic seed contamination. At the same time, people from all over the world gathered to protest the consolidation of our food system. This growing movement represents a sea change in people's relationship with food, our most intimate commodity. From guerilla gardens to home-cooked feasts for strangers to today's seed exchange at the New York Stock Exchange (poster above), people are finding creative ways to connect to food and to each other. 

Creative expression is a critical part of this - and many - grassroots revolutions. It can make something distant feel close.  

Or remember what has been forgotten.

And give words to what is silenced.

Even when the time has passed. . .

Even when the language is unfamiliar. . .

Even when the court fight is lost, the battle rages on. 

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Embodied Cognition

"Recent advances in understanding what psychologists call “embodied cognition” indicate a surprisingly direct link between mind and body. It turns out that people draw on their bodily experiences in constructing their social reality. Studies show, for example, that someone holding a warm cup of coffee tends to perceive a stranger as having a “warmer” personality. Likewise when holding something heavy, people see things as more serious and important — more “weighty.”

However, until recently it was not known whether bodily experiences could help in generating new ideas and solutions to problems. Our research, which will be published soon in the journal Psychological Science, discovered that it can."

Suntae Kim, Evan Polman, Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks

New York Times, 2/25/12

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Metamorphose comes from the Greek μεταμόρφωσις meaning "transformation, transforming."

met·a·mor·phose

[met-uh-mawr-fohz, -fohs] verb, -phosed, -phos·ing.

1. to change the form or nature of; 

transform.

2. to subject to metamorphosis or 

 metamorphism.

3. to undergo or be capable of undergoing 

a change in form or nature.

Photo credit.

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The Triumph of the Commons

The Triumph of the Commons is a thoughtful collaboration of 55 artists challenging conventional wisdom on prosperity, consumption and the role of creativity and play in problem-solving. 

"If the previous centuries were about protecting society from the tragedy of the commons," the authors posit, "Then this century will be about redesigning society to promote their triumph." 

We see this emerging worldview in crowdsourced entrepreneurship, global grassroots organizing, shared services and revolutionary potlucks.

This shift, suggest the Triumph authors, is a re-envisioning of how we perceive labor and capital. People (and I would argue natural resources) are not merely resources to use for our own gain but are collaborators or sources: 

". . .those who see the world as a commons see the world and the people in it as source; as that which gives forth. In giving forth, a source is profuse in its self-initiated production. One does not engage a source to harness it to one's personal agenda, but to involve it in the genesis of one's own future."  

Author Jay Walljasper describes the commons thusly: "The commons is more than just a nice idea; it encompasses a wide set of practical measures that offer fresh hope for a saner, safer, more enjoyable future. At the heart of the commons are four simple principles, which have been practiced by humans for millenia: 1) serving the common good; 2) ensuring equitable use of what belongs to us all; 3) promoting sustainable stewardship so that coming generations are not cheated and imperiled; 4) creating practical ways for people to participate in decisions shaping their future." See shimmering examples of these principles in action here. 

Image credits. 

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(Universal) Guidelines for Participation + Communication

"InterOccupy offers these guidelines to support conversations grounded in respect and accountability;  interactions guided by principles rather than personalities. 

Be Curious and Open to Learning: Listen to and be open to hearing all points of view.  Maintain a attitude of exploration and learning.

Balance Advocacy and Inquiry:  Seek to learn and understand as much as you might want to persuade.  Conversations are as much about listening as it is about talking.

Show Respect and Suspend Judgment:  Setting judgments aside will enable you to learn from others and contribute to others experiencing being respected and appreciated.

Seek Alignment rather than Agreement: Alignment is shared intention, whereas agreement is having a shared belief or opinion.

Be Purposeful and to the Point: Notice if what you are conveying is or is not “on purpose” to the question at hand.  Notice if you are making the same point more than once.  Do your best to make your point quickly with honesty and depth.

Own and Guide the Conversation or Process:  Take responsibility for the quality of your participation and the quality of the work conversations by noticing what’s happening and actively support getting yourself and others back “on purpose” when needed.

Be Excellent to Each other: Share what’s important to you.  Speak authentically; from your personal and heart felt experience.  Be considerate to others who are doing the same."

Content and photo credit.