Spring Blooms & Eco-Shifts
A Livable Futures Update for a Greener Season
Dear Livable Futures community,
Spring greetings from the lower plateau of the Great Lakes region. Today I'm planting pansies in a pot and seeding peppers and petunias (couldn't resist all the p's!). How are the seasons changing around you?
I apologize for the delay with this month's newsletter, but you've all been in my thoughts. Much of March was spent co-creating a new OASIS – our latest transmedia performance ritual focused on rest and recovery – with collaborators in Costa Rica. The Spanish invitation for the work, "quieres descansar conmigo?" (would you like to rest with me?), perfectly captures its essence. We learned so much from our wonderful community at the National University of Costa Rica, and I'm excited to share more in future posts.
This work builds on my long-standing passion for humane and healing technology activism, and we're incorporating a Virtual Reality element in future iterations. Stay tuned.
Equinox, Eclipses, and Earth Day
March and the spring equinox have flown by and here in Ohio we are preparing for the upcoming eclipse on April 8 (the path of totality passes through central Ohio). Then there is Earth Day on the 22nd. How are you planning to observe Earth Day? What are practices that you find supportive? I will admit I often feel kind of conflicted on this day of observance (shouldn’t every day be earth day?) but I do appreciate the opportunity to re-set my intentions and that’s what I’ll be doing again this year.
What is one small shift I can make to decrease my negative ecological impact?
What is one small shift I can make to increase my positive ecological impact?
My focus this year has been on reducing waste and consumption overall. I am failing at this aspiration daily, but as I wrote in earlier posts, I believe in the practice of re-commiting as a means of “staying the course” on hard to change habits and big goals.
With the fresh energy of spring, I re-commit to finding a new composting solution (backyard composting is no longer an option), buying and discarding less food, and dwelling with the ecological history and future of everything I purchase or use. This involves taking responsibility for the full life cycle of the objects in my life, a practice brought into focus for me by artist and set designer Nadia Lauro.
Inspiration from Nadia Lauro
Nadia Lauro creates stunning scenography for dance and theater, often referencing non-human forces and forms. But in everything she makes, she also considers what happens after the installations, performances, and tours are over. Where will the beautiful carpeting be rehoused or donated? A community center? A gallery? A home? How can the materials be repurposed or recycled? Ideally, she strives to create without waste. Her awareness is a beautiful state of intention to bring to all the objects in our lives, and it has definitely curbed my consumption and made me buy much less casually.
I am also grateful to current Livable Futures contributor Dominique Gedanke Flaksburg, who led a workshop in class recently heightening our awareness to the material life of the objects with whom we share our lives. Dominique describes herself as an Earth Centered designer working within the realms of education, design strategy and intuitive entrepreneurship. Her work reminds me again and again to emphasize the loops and spirals and lineages of what I create. I am excited about the new curriculum she is developing emphasizing ecological and indigenous knowledge for students in Design.
Sustaining Practice: A Message from D. Michelle Perry
I follow D. Michelle Perry here on Substack. I received this gem from her today and wanted to share it with you all:
“It’s okay if things change, if there’s an ebb and a flow of engagement…if there's this expanding and contracting… kind of like breathing…If our creative practice is alive it too breathes and changes. Change is a sign of life, not an indication of failure."
She offers the question:
What does your creative self most need to hear today?
And I think that’s a lovely place to close this last missive of March, What do you most need to hear today and how can you give this to yourself?
Can you make a mantra of it? Here’s mine:
Change is a sign of life, I celebrate the ebb and flow of my energy as a sign of life.
Centering livability means, in part, centering spirit and grace with unapologetic loving kindness and deep awareness of relationally to place and to each other.
May you enjoy the ebb and flow of all things today and may you live with ease,
Norah