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Making stuff and doing things

By Ari | Apr 25, 09 09:49 AM

So much has been happening, and I don't think we've posted a general update in a really long time. So for those who are interested...

Shira and I went to Winter Camp in Amsterdam with our friends from freeDimensional back in March. The event was a convergence of networks held by an organization that studies network cultures. People from all over the world came together to work within their network (on whatever their network works on - tech manuals, volunteerism, women and technology, whatever) and the Institute of Network Cultures watched us work and engaged us in learning what networks really are, how they're different from other cultural institutions, and how networks can work together in metanetworks.

We learned a lot. I'm always so challenged and excited by meeting with activists from all over the world - it really shakes up my ideas and understanding and makes me open my mind to other ways of thinking and doing. The hackers and open source folks in particular really spoke to me. I love the idea of technology being free and for the people, and am realizing that I want to help make that happen.

Our freelance business has been booming, which is nice, because traveling costs money! We've been working on some amazing projects for some very cool clients. The people we work with are all non-profits, culture workers, activists, and other progressive folks, and sometimes when I'm doing layout I'm also reading the text I'm formatting and thinking, "holy shit this is awesome!" (I'm talking about you right now, Scenarios USA!) Our clients really are helping to change the world.

However, a lot of work also means tough scheduling - sometimes a project goes longer than planned or an event date changes and suddenly a production schedule that was manageable becomes insanely difficult to navigate. There are only so many hours in the day! Recently I had three long documents (a gala journal, a curriculum, and a tech manual) due on the same day, over and over again, the deadlines constantly shifting as the projects got drawn out with extra edits and last-minute content updates. That was rough. But as I said, our clients are awesome, and even late nights and early mornings and weekend emailing is cool when it's for such amazing projects. It's nice to not only get a check and some nice print samples at the end of a project, but to really feel like whatever you've contributed to is going to make life better for people.

Ahimsa, our vegan intentional living project, is going so well! It's a very exciting process, meeting with people to create sustainable and affordable housing alternatives - the coolest thing is that we have no idea what we'll end up with. This open-endedness is a hallmark of our project; everyone in the group has been so flexible about the final product, which is really freeing. It's life as a design problem: Here are our needs, here are our resources; now how can we meet those needs with those resources? Easy! You go step by step and you can't go wrong. Diana Leafe Christian's Creating a Life Together has been such a help to us. She's helped give us confidence that even if people drop in and out of the project, and even if the project changes and takes on new forms, or splits, that that is progress and that is forming community. (For instance, there seems to be a greater need in Ithaca for increased access to and understanding of mutual aid, so Shira held a meeting that built on other community efforts to help that to form. This is a totally separate project from Ahimsa but is in other ways very related and overlapping. It's cool to see the "multiple centers of initiative" that Diana says are an indicator of a healthy community, in action, right here in our town. This flexibility is more freeing and useful than thinking anyone can come up with a single, perfect solution that will meet all of everyone's needs.)

Where is the project at right now? We're in between meetings, which we've been having every 2-4 weeks in Ithaca. These are consensus process meetings where we've been crafting a shared vision statement and educating ourselves about our housing options. We're gearing up for a spring retreat, where we'll camp out, do some storytelling and make food and music together, and have a bunch of big dialogues that will further define what we're all creating. And we're looking at properties, in case we find something we could afford outright that will allow us to escape the rent race so we can all save some resources and work together more easily. We're thinking hard about whether we want to pay a premium to be downtown in closer physical proximity to the greater community, or get more for our money by living out in the sticks. I'm leaning towards living out in the woods somewhere, personally. I want to do some building! Also, I dig how cheap it is to do natural building and I would like to influence policy by making alternative structures and getting them approved by building inspectors. Every dent we can make in the industrial housing complex with livable, healthy, DIY alternatives, is a step toward equitable housing for us all.

Shira and I have both been very productive creatively lately. Shira played at a house show at Ghost Cat Collective, and we both had work in an Ithaca Underground art show at the Underground Pirate House. Thanks to Ithaca Freeskool, I led a two-session workshop on DIY web design, and Shira's been going to a great photography group. I've been so inspired lately by all of the self-publishing and activism and organizing I've seen around me. When I have ideas sometimes I just write them down and don't act on them - but lately, I've been trying to just act immediately. I made a little zine I've been meaning to make for years, and some Ithaca buttons, and have been passing them around, curious to hear what people think of them so I can make them better.

Finally, it's spring here in Ithaca! I'm taking great heart from the warm wet smells of earth and blossoming trees, and from the sight of green life coming up from the ground so effortlessly and abundantly. I love how the seasons change, and how each transformation impacts us. We've been able to go out in just t-shirts, no hoodies! We've planted seeds! The windows are open and the cats are joyously sunning themselves in windowsills!

This has been a long and rambling post and I've barely covered half of the things that have happened in the past few months, but maybe the above gives you an idea of how deliciously, marvelously, inspiringly jam-packed our iCal is. I feel so grateful every day that I live in such a vibrant (local and global!) community that's challenging me on so many levels to create a better society in the here and now.

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