I am a West Coast native, half Oregonian, half Californian. A handful of places are sacred to me -- places where I have built a lifetime of experiences and memories.
In recent days, most of My Places have been directly threatened by wildfire, with news every morning of more being incinerated — Big Basin, Butano State Park, Otis, the Santiam Pass, Diamond Lake, Limantour ridge – and with many more on high alert. As I write this, all of My Places are blanketed by lung-burning smoke and the sick orange light of a sunless sky. It’s still hard to get out of bed in the morning. So I write this instead, and I paint a new color deck of the sky, because I have to do SOMETHING.
As an artist and writer, I’ve been making work about the climate crisis and humanity’s place within the natural system for more than a decade. But this year, with the pandemic, the economic crash, the fires, food insecurity, political polarization, autocracy, and more, I am seeing with fresh eyes the fundamental interconnection of each of these issues with so many others. Why did I not see it clearly before, that all of these things directly affect each other in complex ways that we barely understand and cannot control?
Christina Conlin
New Color Deck: Smeared Blood, 11:30 am, 9.9.20
Some call this the Global Challenge or the Human Predicament. Others call it the study of existential risk or deep adaptation, or, in French, collapsologie. It is the study of the interconnected web of existence and the ways in which pushing on one thread in the web can unpredictably tear or even destroy other parts of it. These global stressors, which have grown out of our consumer culture of global trade and instant gratification, may connect in ways that lead to the breakdown of our socio-economic and ecological systems, perhaps soon. That is the difficult truth that is becoming clear to many of us. Together we must think through how we can navigate this uncertain future.
I am not a cynic and I don’t read dystopian stories, because I don’t want to marinate my mind in that imagery. As an idealist and inveterate optimist, coming to this realization is especially sobering. But I also enjoy thinking about and working on big, unanswerable questions and have long been drawn to futurism studies, the Work that Reconnects (Joanna Macy’s excellent program), and other place-making and community-building models of resilience.
Christina Conklin
New Color Deck: Nuclear Winter, 12:15 pm, 9.10.20
The Human Predicament and resilience work are two sides of the same conversation. We know things are bad and going to get worse (see: 2020). Our “new normal” is not going to be calm punctured by occasional disasters, but rather an ongoing state of global disequilibrium and an increasing number of regional catastrophes, with periodic stretches of more stable conditions. That is a big dose of Reality 101, but I feel much more aware and awake, now that I have connected the dots.
What strikes me is the both/and of these times. I both know that I will dedicate the remainder of my life to working on behalf of our world, and I know that I have relatively little influence over what happens next. I both know that big changes are on their way or already here, and that my privileged life may protect me from many of these changes for a long time. Most others in the world, including other species, are not as fortunate.
This summer I’ve been making a study of the resilience field, talking with activists and leaders around the world about their work, views, and goals. So many people are working to build the world we need that I feel both great hope and tremendous uncertainty.
Our cultures could dissemble into either an individualistic free-for-all or a totalitarian hellscape. So what are we each going to do to write a different story — of a plausible future in which we strengthen our values and communities and reintegrate ourselves into the living world?
Here are a few great things that are going on right now in the resilience movement.
Christina Conklin
New Color Deck: Moldy Pumpkin Latte, 2:42 pm, 9.9.20
The Global Regenerative CoLab is a new and very active network of professionals working in the resilience field. A simple vetting process gains you access to a wide array of global meetups, presentations, and resources that address all aspects of world-building. In just a few sessions I’ve met urban planners in Thailand, systems thinkers in Germany, cultural creators in Australia, and social entrepreneurs in Wales. It’s a jackpot of fascinating conversations and diverse viewpoints.
Pando Populus in Los Angeles grew out of John Cobb’s 2015 conference on ecological civilization and integral ecology. It connects big ideas with on-the-ground praxis by challenging college students in the LA area to design implementable, achievable projects that further LA’s sustainability goals. It is also creating a demonstration campus along with the women religious of Maryknoll, who are part of a national network of progressive nuns.
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century economist is a recent book by Kate Raworth that uses nine planetary boundaries, as defined by the Stockholm Resilience Center. By connecting these boundaries with social and economic factors that press on them, Raworth defines a safe and just space in which humanity can live.
Commanding Hope: The Power We Have to Renew a World in Peril by Thomas Homer-Dixon is a new book that sets out an excellent framework for engaged thought and action that is fully aware of the interconnected dangers we face. I was very impressed by a talk he gave this spring and my copy is on its way now. His earlier book, The Upside of Down, is an excellent primer on the Global Challenge
Working with Commonweal, the Bolinas, California, retreat and resilience center, I will be developing a resilience network over the coming months that hosts roundtable conversations with diverse voices in the field, and facilitates creative engagement in framing and mapping this complex set of issues. Our nascent website is resilienceproject.ngo. Please stay tuned!
Christina Conklin
New Color Deck: Tobacco Stain, 7:46 am, 9.8.20
Christina Conklin creates sculptures, works on paper, and interactive installations about our relationship with the world using materials such as found plastics, seaweed, salt, and slide dyes. Her book on the climate crisis in the ocean, The Atlas of Disappearing Places: Our Coasts and Oceans in the Climate Crisis, will be published in April 2021.
This article is part of the MAHB Arts Community‘s “Covid19 Diaries”. If you are an artist interested in sharing your thoughts and artwork, as it relates to the disrupted but defining period of time we live in, please contact Michele Guieu, Eco-Artist and MAHB Arts Community coordinator: micheleguieu@gmail.com. Thank you. ~