Our Future
Monday, August 9, 2010 at 8:26AM 
I believe we are about to experience a very different future. Our culture is about to make a radical shift -the large % of our western population is not in the least prepared for. We were born into a world engulfed in the modernest love affair with efficiency as was typified by Henry Ford's assembly line. We were quickly drowning in everything from Art Van furniture, Big Macs, divorce lawyers and credit car applications. We have gobbled up our natural resources at a dizzy break neck speed and we are just about to hit the wall. In fact we have hit the wall and we are now in that slow motion stretched out split second of crash dummy whiplash as home foreclosure rips through the cities and the suburbs and Wall Street tumbles into a sink hole of no return. America is the Titanic. The ship has already struck the ice. The gash has overwhelmed efforts to hold off the icy water. The ship's captain, his personal valet and the chief engineer knew what would happen in the next two hours but the rest of the ships passengers are picking out their dresses and straightening their ties getting ready for dinner.
We are working with a team of people on an Art Prize project called Plan B. This will be a home spun eco village on the bank of the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids Michigan in front of the Gerald Ford Museum from September 22-October 10. Sand and gravel water filters, a bicycle powered water pump, bicycle powered PA system for our performance stage, hand sewn tents made of used bill board vinyl, a puppet theater, black smith, leather worker, rocket stoves, chickens, rabbits, green house and container vegetable gardens....
We are seeking to create a powered down model of what our future could look like where technology is once again something regular people can tinker with and understand, a world where people not only work together but eat together and tell their stories. We want to create a place where we can become human again and hand off a culture to our children that has a future. Come and join us!
Reader Comments (9)
Perfect...your words are SO true and your Artprize vision sounds wonderful. Take care and God bless.
How can we join you?
I am very much of a kindred mindset. if you need another maker, I'd be happy to help.
Great post, and interesting project. I would like to participate, too. I think I can bring some cheese & tomato sandwiches over on one of the days - everyone needs to eat, right?
[...] win, I am sure she will persevere. The second presentation was made by Rick Beerhorst, called Plan B {detailed here}, which will be an encampment along the Grand River, in front of the Gerald R. Ford Museum, also [...]
Al would be helpers can meet at 106 Fuller SE Grand Rapids any Sunday night between 5:30-9PM for a potluck dinner and Plan B meeting. If you have an idea of something to contribute you can also just drop by. You can call us at 616-356-5586
very cool. you're calling people to change. plan B doesn't have to mean less...how about plan beautiful. do you have a rainbarrel set up to collect water for washing dishes or watering the plants and chickens? i am sure it will rain during art fest at least once. cheers!
I hadn't heard about your Art Prize entry yet so I just checked your website and was glad to see that you're participating in Art Prize! Our family loved your Wonder Wagon last year. I'm bummed, however, because we went to the Ford Museum on Tuesday night to check out some of the art, and we saw people working on some hut-like thing but we didn't know what it was...and didn't know if was your project! We'll look forward to seeing it again soon.
Holy shite, you understand and have put to words perfectly what I have been feeling for years and haven't been able to articulate fully. You are on the mark with what you said about your blacksmith friend. I have spent my entire life, mostly thanks to my father, collecting the skills and knowledge necessary to survive in a world with out our creature comforts. I love what you are doing and I wish I liked people enough to survive in a communal setting because me and my family would be moving to Michigan in a heartbeat. Thank you for putting a fine point on the crap that has been rolling around in my head.