Open Letter to the Australian Media

by richardpettifer

DEAREST MEDIA!!!

Just one week to go until the opening of the SENSATIONAL BRUNSWICK BEACH!

Just one week until you can lounge on the sand, watching in wonder while the sea levels rise to 43m!

Just one week until you can sit in your objective 4^th Estate, waiting while the citizens you serve wade through their misunderstandings!

Just one week until you can claim the Moral High Ground! One week until you can tell each other I told you so!

Just one week until you can select the facts which suit your agendas!

Just one week until you can destroy the profile of yet more artists wasting council money!

Just one week until you can pander to yet more artist’s semi-left-wing agenda with a softly written profile!

Just one week until you can not take a side, claim objectivity, wash your hands of responsibility and blame!

Just one week until you can lie on the sand in the sun and think about all of the things we have achieved in the world, and how great it is that we’ve done so, and how tomorrow will be the same as today!

Just one week until you can DISTRACT US!! ENTERTAIN US!! SEX US!!

POLICY & POLITICS

by SH

“The notion of ‘policy’ presumes a state or governing apparatus which imposes its will on others. ‘Policy’ is the negation of politics; politic is by definition something concocted by some form of elite, which presumes it knows better than others how their affairs are to be conducted. By participating in policy debates the very best one can achieve is to limit the damage, since the very premise is inimical to the idea of people managing their own affairs.”

– David Graeber in Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, 2004, p. 9.

…which makes me wonder what the contents of a “Climate Change Politics” created by the consensus of ordinary people would look like (as opposed to the “Climate Change Policy” proposed by governments approved by the majority). Bring your ideas to the beach! Or flag your dissent.

FLAGS and International Collaboration

by SH

Earlier on I made a map of the world without land. While it’s clearly an exaggeration, in order to avoid global catastrophe we need to work on a global scale: “A problem that concerns everyone can only be solved by everyone”, says playwright Friedrich Duerrenmat, and he’s right.

International naval signalling code

One way to address this is to create a common language, much like what has happened with naval signalling flags. Historically, countries and empires all had their own signalling systems but after the second world war an international code was devised (see above) largely adapted from the US version. Click here for info on how the code works.

Brunswick Beach Manifesto (draft, suggestions welcome)

by SH

WE ARE MAKING

a beach to prepare the people of Moreland for the rising sea levels

a small and localised image of a global problem so huge and uncertain that for most of us, it is almost unimagineable

an egalitarian space where everybody’s opinion can be heard

IN THE KNOWLEDGE THAT

all politics is politics in rehearsal

any informed person should be allowed to contribute to address a problem that concerns everybody; ignorance is an OK starting-point but willful ignorance is a problem

the future is uncertain. The scale and speed of climate change are both difficult to determine, but the existence of global warming cannot be ignored as an incontestable fact

we need to take a long view on the future

no measure will be great enough to halt the process of climate change once it has passed its tipping point

so it is urgent that we change our ways now

“we” means countries, governments, corporations, clubs, schools, universities, organisations, collectives, factories, households, families, people

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT: Climate Change Utemuster

by richardpettifer

Many Australians are familiar with the Deni Utemuster which occurs every year in Deniliquin, NSW. Each year a world record is attempted for most amount of registered utes in one place.

Suffice to say, from my visit to Deniliquin earlier this year, the phenomenal sudden influx of utes divides the community. Residents see its economic neccessity and it certainly puts Deni on the map. But obviously a sudden swelling of utes numbers is not everyone’s cup of tea.

Kangaroos at the Deni Utemuster 2011

Letter to Barack Obama, President of United States of America

by richardpettifer

Barack Obama
White House
Washington

Dear Mr. President,

My name is Richard Pettifer, an Australian artist from Brunswick, Victoria.

I noticed you are visiting my country in November. I am writing to invite you to a beach myself and fellow artist Sonja Hornung are constructing in our home suburb, which is 3km North of Melbourne’s centre. The project (“Brunswick Beach”) is about Global Warming and is a response to the deteriorating conversation we are having about the subject in my country.

Personally this conversation is inspiring despair and nihilism, and is a conversation governed by fear.

We intend to resist this by providing a common ground for community sharing and discussion. We would like to invite you to join us in this resistance.

World Map

by SH

Please click to enlarge and zoom

Model Beach

by SH

First model (all out of proportion -- I had to cut down the umbrella and make a new hut)

New and improved model. The hut's colour scheme matches our fave from Brighton, no. 78 (see previous post)

Note attempt at "deconstructing" beach hut to show its innards. The object in the far right corner represents the Monument to Freedom of Speech already present onsite

by SH

http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/witches-god-climate-change-8230-its-a-matter-of-belief-20111022-1mdpq.html

In search of a beach hut for Brunswick Beach

by SH

Tourists at the Brighton Beach Huts

Beach hut under construction

This is the worst photograph of both of us. It only made it in because of the amazing yellow jacket matching the amazing yellow beach hut.

Hut no. 73 (we might use this colour scheme)