[p2p-research] Fwd: Doors of Perception: March 2010 - Who will control global urine flows?

Mon Jun 21 08:07:08 CEST 2010

Dearall,

see the first items on food policy below,

also, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqwd_u6HkMo&feature=player_embedded#

Sam, Paul: "somebody" who read one of your joint essays said, "it seems that
they are not critical about growth" ...

this strikes me as most likely incorrect, or perhaps you just didn't discuss
that particular issue in what they read ... (sorry, this was in a
confidential email, can't say who or what they read ...)

but it would be interesting to have your views on that,

Michel

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Doors Report <doors-report at list.doorsofperception.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 10:15 AM
Subject: Doors of Perception: March 2010 - Who will control global urine
flows?
To: doors-report at list.doorsofperception.com

Doors of Perception Report
by John Thackara
Who will control global urine flows?
March 2010

This free monthly newsletter starts conversations on issues to do
with design for resilience, and announces Doors of Perception events.
Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://www.doorsofperception.com/mailinglist/
Back issues: http://www.doorsofperception.com/mailinglist/archives.php

**** **** **** **** ****
THIS MONTH’S HIGHLIGHTS
Food and finance- - - Food and "poor washing" - - - Who will control global
urine flows? - - - Energy follows its bliss - - - Defence spending and
culture
spending - - - Our doomsday machine economy - - - How to tell a design story
- - - The art of mediated presence - - - Book events in The Netherlands - -
-
Simultaneity in Vienna - - - Connected community design in Glasgow - - -
Microbanker on a bike - - - Green map iphone app - - - Fashion Futures - - -
Sex
and Drugs book offer - - - Ludicrous architecture - - - Film about game
design -
- - technology for development - - - Doors of Perception Portfolio

**** **** **** **** ****

] FIVE COMPLICATED ISSUES AND A SIMPLE VIDEO

FOOD AND FINANCE (COMPLEX ISSUE 1)
Which country do you suppose receives the largest amount of food aid right
now? Haiti, after its terrible earthquake? Somalia perhaps, or Zimbabwe, in
sub-Saharan Africa? The answer is: the United States. The cost of its food
stamps programme will top $60 billion during 2010. The number of US citizens
receiving food stamps has reached 35 million and the program is growing at
20,000 people a day. The cost of feeding poor US citizens is five times the
$12 billion it would cost to address malnutrition for 90 percent of the
world's most malnourished children - except that this smaller number is not
being spent. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reports that less than two
percent
of development and emergency aid actually addresses malnutrition. What is
one
to make of, or do about, these grim and perplexing numbers? A first step
would
be the read the latest issue of the Food Ethics Council journal; it's all
about food and finance.
http://tiny.cc/YiAH3
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/us/03foodstamps.html?hp
http://tiny.cc/br35e
http://www.doctorswithoutbordersdonations.org/publications/reports/2009/MSF-Malnutrition-How-Much-is-Being-Spent.pdf
http://tiny.cc/O2T2g
http://www.foodethicscouncil.org/system/files/fec%205-1%201-3_0.pdf

FOOD AND "POOR WASHING" (COMPLEX ISSUE 2)
Proponents of genetically engineered crops insist that they will increase
yields
to end hunger, reduce costs, and improve the livelihoods of farmers and poor
people. It's less frequently mentioned that these crops will be grown from
seeds
owned and controlled by private companies. Hence the term "poor washing", in
which the interests of poor people are cited in support for a new green
revolution, especially in Africa. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in
Africa
(AGRA), for example, states that its aims are "to achieve a food secure and
prosperous Africa through the promotion of rapid, sustainable agricultural
growth based on smallholder farmers". It all sounds well-meaning and
innocuous,
but critics charge that AGRA and the Gates Foundation (AGRA is the Gates
Foundation biggest grantee, with over $262 million committed) are glossing
over
the forced displacement of populations, and privatisation of food, that this
new
green revolution entails. "AGRA and its biggest benefactor speak about 'land
mobility' - but this means moving farmers off their farms so the land can be
used for large scale mechanized agriculture...there is no mention of where
these
people will go and live, and how they will be reemployed". Read more here:
The Future Control of Food edited by Geoff Tansey and Tasmin Rajotte.
http://www.earthscan.co.uk/?tabid=310
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa:
http://www.agra-alliance.org/
Voices from Africa: African farmers and environmentalists speak out  against
a
new green revolution in Africa, edited by Anuradha Mittal with Melissa Moore
http://tiny.cc/OEabi
http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/voicesfromafrica/pdfs/voicesfromafrica_full.pdf
Greenwashing and poor washing:
http://tiny.cc/RAYTR
http://crossedcrocodiles.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/agra-monsanto-gates-green-washing-poor-washing/
Africa’s Land and Family Farms – Up for Grabs? by Joan Baxter
http://tiny.cc/Tx6Sf
http://www.americanpendulum.com/2010/02/africas-land-and-farms-up-for-grabs/

WHO WILL CONTROL WORLD URINE FLOWS?  (COMPLEX ISSUE 3)
The complexity, interdependence, and monopoly control of food systems is one
reason they are not resilient: disruption to one element disrupts the whole.
The
same goes for sewage systems. The sanitary revolution tranformed public
health,
but there are increasing doubts about the long term sustainability of
large-scale, centralised, water-based sanitation. The highly inflexible
nature
of existing sanitation systems, burdened with over a century of capital
infrastructure investment, and assets that require 30-50 years to pay back,
make
centralised sanitation both economically unsustainable and institutionally
rigid. Large-scale sewage systems also waste a valuable resource:
phosphorous.
Phosphorus is an important element for many essential processes in the body.
In
combination with calcium it's necessary for the formation of bones and
teeth.
But mining phosphorus for food fertilizer is consuming the mineral faster
than
geologic cycles can replenish it. Urine is a potential source of the
mineral. So
far, there is no indication that Bill Gates wants to monopolise world
supplies
of urine: this may be because it's complicated to do so. To capture, value,
and
reuse urine requires a multi-dimensional transformation in how we think
about
and treat sewage. Technologies, regulations, business models - and
especially
attitudes and behaviour - all have to change. Dena Fam, a design researcher
at
the Institute for Sustainable Futures in Sydney, is involved in some
facinating
projects to 'close the phosphorus' loop locally. "Sewage is a resource, not
a
waste product", Fam explains, "yet conventional sanitation systems struggle
to
capture, recycle and reuse sewage constituents in sustainable ways". Fam and
her
colleagues will pilot urine diversion, recovery and reuse at UTS with the
aim of
illuminating the interdependent factors that determine successful uptake and
potential scale-up of radical sustainable urban sanitation. Read more at:
'The challenge of system change - analysis of Sydney's sewer system'
in Design Philosophy Papers 3/2009
http://tiny.cc/1aYMx
http://www.isf.uts.edu.au/publications/fametal2009challengesystemchange.pdf

ENERGY FOLLOWS ITS BLISS (COMPLEX ISSUE NUMBER 4)
"Industrial civilization is a complicated thing" understates John Michael
Greer
in his blog this week,"and its decline and fall bids fair to be more
complicated
still. But both rest on the refreshingly simple foundations of physical
law".
Greer uses the behaviour of a cup of coffee to explain why projects to
replace
for fossil fuels using sunlight, or any other readily available renewable
energy
source, or nuclear, are doomed to fail. "People don't realize", adds Greer,
"that when a plane full of tourists flies from LA to Cairo so they can visit
the
Great Pyramid, that one flight uses as much energy as it took to build the
Great
Pyramid". He's right, I didn't realize that. There's so much to realize
these days.
http://tiny.cc/VN1W9
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2010/02/energy-follows-its-bliss.html

DEFENCE SPENDING VS CULTURE SPENDING  (COMPLEX ISSUE NUMBER 5)
A few weeks back I was talking to Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, a partner in the
Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta, when we were drowned out by the roar
of a
Eurofighter passing overhead. "One of those costs the same as a medium-sized
opera house", Kjetl observed drily. Kjetl's throwaway comment prompted me to
start looking for numbers comparing military versus cultural spending on a
country-by-country basis. In round numbers, Germany appears to spend 25,000
euros per person on defence, versus about 100 euros per head on culture. I
have
to assume that the gap in the US and UK, were the numbers to be available,
would
be a good deal wider. Time to despair? Not necessarily. Read more at:
http://tiny.cc/O15cN
http://www.doorsofperception.com/archives/2010/03/culture_cuts.php

WHY OUR GDP-CHASING ECONOMY IS A DOOMSDAY MACHINE (THIS ONE IS EASY)
This one's easy: watch this New Economics Foundation video.
http://tiny.cc/MSywB

]      DOORS OF PERCEPTION STUFF

HOW TO TELL A DESIGN STORY
I spent a terrific day in Falmouth, England last week with 60
about-to-graduate
design students. They are preparing to present their work at an important
exhibition, and I was one of the guests invited to act as a friendly critic
of
their plans. I pleaded: don't plaster your exhibiton space with 60
portfolios,
because visitors, dazed by hundreds of portfolios elsewhere in the show,
will
blank out. Over the years I have often seen years of work by design
researchers
wasted, or at least ignored, because they did not communicate well. If
you're
about to graduate, here are a couple of stories about such near-disasters,
followed by 15 tips for design research presentations.
http://tiny.cc/ay7W5
http://www.doorsofperception.com/archives/2002/11/does_your_desig.php

THE ART OF MEDIATED PRESENCE
ICT developers have been working on videocommunication since 1946 - but the
experience still sucks. If massive amounts of bandwidth are not the answer,
are
there more artful ways to enhance remote communication? Preparations for the
ElectroSmog International Festival for Sustainable Immobility in Amsterdam
(and
the internet) are gathering pace. Doors of Perception has agreed to co-host
a
session on Friday 19 at deBalie, in the afternoon (13h-15h). Our focus will
be
on practical design and artistic steps that could be taken right now. Our
panel
will includes Martin Butler, a dancer and choreographer; an Alternate
Reality
Game designer; and Caroline Nevejan. a founder alumnus of Doors who recently
completed a PhD on expert on witnessed presence. (See following story).
http://www.electrosmogfestival.net/news/

DID YOU SEE ME?
The performing arts conjour up the presence of someone who is not there
using
words, lighting, orchestration, and choreography. They've done so for
centuries.
Technology-mediated presence confronts similar design challanges to the
performing arts: how to set a context, how to induce attribution, how to
show
the unsaid, and more. Caroline Nevejan is guest editing a special issue of
the
journal AI and Society on the theme Witnessed Presence, and invites papers
from
engineering, social science, philosophy, architecture, psychology, art &
design,
performance arts, IT.
http://tiny.cc/njjsT
http://www.xs4all.nl/~nevejan/index.php5
http://www.being-here.net/

ME, AND MY EVER-EVOLVING BOOK, IN NEDERLAND
Rule one in book publishing (where I worked for ten years) is: promote your
own
book, because nobody else will do so with as much commitment. In that
spirit,
please note that my new book, Plan B, is now out in Dutch. I use the word
"new"
here in a contemporary, post-linear sense. Although Plan B is based on In
the
Bubble: Designing In A Complex World, which was published by MIT Press, this
latest version is much changed: I reduced the original English text by half,
to
45,000 words, and then added five new chapters on: Sustainability; Metrics;
Food; Development; and Telepresence. This prompted my publisher, SUN, to go
with
the title of the Brazilian edition, Plan B. I'll talk about its content
(and hopefully debate with you) at the following three events:
Wednesday 17 March: 17h (time to be confirmed) Lecture/debate with Marcus
Fairs, Design Academy Eindhoven;
Thursday 18 March: Book presentation at Nederlaands Architectuurinstituut
(NAi) early evening;
Friday 19 March: Electrosmog at deBalie 13h; Plan B presentation at de Balie
16h.
http://tiny.cc/e0aWC
http://www.sunarchitecture.nl/publicity/news.html#4b8d06ea28d495.26988266
or just buy the book at:
http://tiny.cc/XnxqI
http://www.sunarchitecture.nl/catalogue/categori/sun-statements/plan_b_9789085067870.html

]   OTHER NEWS AND EVENTS

SIMULTANEITY IN VIENNA (CONFERENCE 19 MARCH)
"Gone is the time where can just focus on technology, or political change,
or
personal change. The challenge of the times require tackling all aspects of
change simultaneously". Thailand-based Michel Bauwens, founder of the Peer
to
Peer Foundation, always has something wise and interesting to say. His
keynote
talk at the Lift conference in Vienna on 19 March is about "an integrative
approach to enabling open infrastructures (and) value-driven social
practices... we need to change ourselves, as well as our ability to
cooperate
in groups".
http://tiny.cc/n0ZaZ
http://liftconference.com/lift-at-home/events/2010/03/lift-austria/program

GREEN GORILAZ (CONNECTED COMMUNITY DESIGN)
Congratulations to Ian Grout, their professor, and a team of students from
the
Glasgow School of Art : they are this year's overall national winners for
‘Sustain our Nation’ – a competition run by the Audi Design Foundation that
challenged young designers to create design-led social enterprises.
Glasgow's
winning project, Green Gorillaz, sets out to to create a connected community
within the Wyndford estate of North West Glasgow.
http://tiny.cc/TmDoD
http://getgoglasgow1.org/getgoglasgow/Welcome.html

BANKERS ON BIKES (MICROFINANCE VIDEO)
Andrew Hinton has made a short film about a banker opening up access to
money to
rural communities. Two-thirds of India’s one-billion-plus population live in
the
nation’s 600,000 villages, and South Indian bank manager J S Parthiban set
out
to to improve their economic circumstances. He encouraged beggars to open
bank
accounts in New Delhi, and pioneered micro-loans to villagers in his home
state
of Tamil Nadu. "Microfinance is not without its detractors" says Hinton,
"but
Parthibhan is a man operating with a real sense of conviction and purpose".
Hinton's film was one of the winners of the BRITDOC/Co-operative Competition
"It's Good To Know"
http://www.vimeo.com/8758822

THINK GLOBAL, MAP LOCAL (GREEN MAP IPHONE APP)
Green Map System proposes a new
way to answer the question: "What's Green Nearby?" A mobile version of Open
Green Map enables you to interact with the world from "a unique perspective
that
is ideal for any internet-enabled phone". What’s Green Nearby?™ provides an
array of green living resources, arranged with those nearest you first.
http://www.greenmap.org/

FASHION FUTURES (RESEARCH PROGRAMME LAUNCHED)
The stated aim of Fashion Futures, a joint project between Forum for the
Future
and Levi Strauss & Co, is to "put the global fashion industry on the path to
a
sustainable future". Fashion Futures 2025 describes four scenarios of what
the
world could be like in 2025, and asks: How will the industry react to
shortages
of cotton and other raw materials? How could the fashion workforce be
affected
by shifting supply chains and technological development? How might
technology
influence fashion and change the way it is produced and sold? As the project
evolves, all materials will be available to download and use free of charge.
http://tiny.cc/2802v
http://www.forumforthefuture.org/projects/fashion-futures

SEX AND DRUGS AND ROCK AND ROLL (NOW AVAILABLE)
Ted Polhemus is an insightful and entertaining ethnographer of popular
culture.
Ted's latest chronicle, "sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, protest, architecture,
design, streetstyle 1947-2022" ranges from ‘Sweet Sixteen’ to Grey Power,
Playboy to Punk, the rise and fall of suburbia, and beyond. Ted wants to put
his
new text out there before it is incarnated in physical form, so If you want
a
free digital copy email ted.polhemus@ dsl.pipex.com. If you are a book
publisher, or exhibition or tv producer, and you don't know Ted's work, you
are
missing out:
http://tiny.cc/JJVnh
http://www.tedpolhemus.com/main_homepage461.html

LUDICROUS ARCHITECTURE (LANGUAGE POLICE CAUTION NEW BOOK)
A new book poses an intriguing question: what connects the design of a board
game, an athletic competition in a stadium, a videogame, an Alternate
Reality
Game, a location-based mobile game, or any combination thereof? Sadly, the
author of Toward a Ludic Architecture dampens my interest by telling me that
his
main question is "How are play and games architected?" - because architected
is
not a word. I am further dispirited to read that the author is available for
"conceptual design consultancy". Insofar as "conceptual design" has any
meaning,
which is not very much, it means that the designer is divorced from the real
world. But Ian Borden, a heavyweight architecture professor, says the book
is
"indispensable reading for anyone interested in the joyful qualities of
cities
and architecture” - so you be the judge.
http://tiny.cc/YAom3
http://www.etc.cmu.edu/etcpress/content/toward-ludic-architecture

PLAYMAKERS (FILAM ABOUT DESIGN AND GAME PLAY)
I often think that we should all just play more rather than write books or
make
films about the subject. But I'm on weak ground here: we once organised a
big
Doors of Perception conference on the subject. This must be why NESTA,
thinkpublic and Hide&Seek have invited me (and by extension, you) you to the
London Premiere of playmakers. This 35 minute documentary is the culmination
of
a six month project in which film maker Ivo Gormley followed the progress of
designers Alex Fleetwood and Holly Gramazio as they developed a new game.
Following the screening Gormely, Gramazio and Fleetwood will be in a
discussion
chaired by Margaret Robertson.
http://playmakerspremiere.eventbrite.com/
http://tiny.cc/jy6pm
http://museum.doorsofperception.com/doors5/doors5index.html

GOOD INTENTIONS, AWFUL LANGUAGE (TECHNOLOGY FOR DEVELOPMENT)
The aim of Kopernik, a new non-profit venture, is to "provide life-changing
technology to the poor". I do not doubt that Kopernik is well-intentioned -
but
I'm afraid that anyone who talks about "the poor" risks losing my vote. As
with
"the elderly" or "the disabled", this use of language dehumanises the people
it
refers to. Whatever: Kopernik makes technology designed for the developing
world
accessible through the Internet by harnessing the power of individual
donations.
Products in the scheme include the life straw for water purification, the
solar
powered lamp, and self-adjusting eye glasses. “By providing individuals with
a
way to donate directly towards the purchase of the products, we're creating
a
more efficient supply chain from manufacturer to recipient without getting
bogged down in the inefficiencies of large agencies that have historically
acted as the go-between."
http://www.thekopernik.org/

WHAT DO YOU GUYS DO? (DOORS OF PERCEPTION PORTFOLIO)
Bulb-planting has started early at Doors HQ: We've posted summary
descriptions
of the last ten years' Doors of Perception projects - the idea being that we
plan to do more projects like these ones, only better. All City Eco Lab
posts
are now in one stack; [City Eco Lab never had its own website]; so too are
all
posts on new economic metrics. We've started a new category on transition
and
resilience; here we reflect on our encounters with the Transition movement
and
the ways it is building resilience in communities around the world. Read
more
at:
http://www.doorsofperception.com/archives/doors_of_perception_portfolio/
http://www.doorsofperception.com/archives/city_eco_lab/
http://www.doorsofperception.com/archives/new_economic_metrics/
http://www.doorsofperception.com/archives/transition_and_resilience/

"CONFIDENT, CONNECTED, OPEN TO CHANGE"
According to a new Pew Center study 'Millennials' - teens and
twenty-somethings
who are making the passage into adulthood - are "confident, self-expressive,
upbeat , and open to change." Isn't this marvelous news. If you know any
Millenials - perhaps one lives in your house? - please suggest that they
need to
subscribe to Doors of Perception Report.
http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/751/millennials-confident-connected-open-to-change
http://www.doorsofperception.com/mailinglist/

-----------------

This free monthly newsletter starts conversations on issues to do
with design for resilience, and announces Doors of Perception events.
Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://www.doorsofperception.com/mailinglist/
Back issues: http://www.doorsofperception.com/mailinglist/archives.php

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