Forgotten spaces

There's something so interesting about abandoned buildings. Perhaps it's the stories empty shells could tell, perhaps it's the feeling of loss they evoke, but Tom Kirsch - urban explorer and photographer - exposes something quite emotional in his art.

Based in Brooklyn NY, Kirsch scales walls and vaults barbed wire to access prisons, hospitals, churches, factories and houses exposing nature clawing back unused spaces. He claims nothing is set up and everything is just as he found it. The results are stunning if a little haunting, and strangely evocative. I imagine it's a similar feeling to watching a person fall apart - devastating yet utterly compelling.

Considering the conversations we're having about our relationships to the spaces we live in, it's interesting to see people's reaction to unloved and degraded buildings. How would you feel if somewhere you cared about fell apart like this? Is it only unloved buildings and unloved people that are allowed to get to this state?

To see more urban exploration, click here.

Postconsumerism 2

What kind of tipping point will 2008 be?

With the seismic shifts of the credit crunch and escalating oil prices hitting us just as public concerns for the environment reach an all time high, 2008 is beginning to be seen as a crunch year heralding in fundamental social changes. I was wondering if 2008 will have anything in common with earlier tipping point years and what we should do in response.

Will 2008 be 1929 again? The Wall Street crash was the most devastating economic crisis in the history of the US, triggering the Great Depression, mass unemployment and a decade of decline across the world’s industrial nations. If this is what we’re in for get your cash out of the banks before they collapse.

Will 2008 be ’45 again? Britain came out the war on the winning side but skint. A decade of austerity followed. People grew their food, made do with what they had and wasted nothing. We came out of it with the Welfare State. Get your name down for an allotment.

Will 2008 be ’73 again? The OPEC oil crisis led to increasing price of petrol and the (temporary) end of the big American car. In Britain, escalating cost of living intensified industrial strife over the following decade. Power cuts, strikes and 3 day weeks defined the 70’s. Buy some candles.

Will 2008 be ’98 again? For months the media whipped up fears of a recession but it turned out to be a storm in a tea cup. The economy kept going and was ultimately buoyed by the dotcom boom. Stop reading the papers.

Or will 2008 be nothing like any of the above yet just a little like all of them? People trade down to more eco-friendly cars not only for environmental reasons but because petrol is just too expensive; people start growing their own food because food prices skyrocket; people stop betting everything on the housing market because the banks can’t afford to give anyone a mortgage so there is little growth in value; and then the banks start offering better saving rates because they need to raise capital and so people achieve a healthy level of personal savings.

OK, making forecasts like this is just asking for it but here’s one that seems likely: the big cultural debate of the next decade will be between the advocates of sustainable living in the broadest sense and those who still encourage conspicuous consumption.

Maybe.

Phil

Postconsumerism

Funny old thing, serendipity. There I was reading an article from last weeks Campaign predicting the end of conspicuous consumption, when one of our clients called to ask what I thought the implications of long-term economic slowdown would be for his brand.

So what do we think? Are we about to enter a long decade of austerity? Will people have to pare down their desires and aspirations? Will we all be growing our own veg and learning how to mend stuff again? Will an economic downturn be a blessing in disguise for the environment as, for example, rising petrol prices pushes drivers towards non-petrol cars? What implications will all this have for the lifestyles people chose for themselves and for the brands that we work with?

These are big questions, let’s see if we can pool our collective brainpower and come up with some bright insights.


Phil

Dance-powered eco nightclub

On July 10, Club4Climate, an eco group led by real-estate magnate Andrew Charalambous, will launch a new sustainable nightclub at Bar Surya in King’s Cross. In addition to using a dance floor that captures enough energy to supply 60 percent of its power needs, the club will require that all patrons sign a pledge to help fight global warming; it will also waive the £10 admission fee for those who can prove they travelled there by foot, bicycle or public transport. Low-voltage lighting and recyclable materials will be used throughout the club, which will reportedly also serve organic spirits in polycarbon cups and employ a recycled-water system for flushing the toilets. Club4Climate hopes to open similar sustainable dance clubs in New York, Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro, and has partnered with gap year organization Projects Abroad for the manpower to do that, according to its site. Part of Club4Climate's profits will be donated to Friends of the Earth. Learn more here.