Week 2: The Library Of Radiant Optimism For Let’s Remake The World

Hi everyone,

This Tuesday is the second evening in a year-long series of weekly conversations and exhibits in 2010 focusing on examples of Plausible Artworlds.

This week we’ll have a converstion with Brett Bloom and Bonnie Fortune about The Library of Radiant Optimism for Let’s Re-Make the World, which is both a historic archive and a generative project focused on connecting current related practices. During this event, books will be available for folks to take, a live video will be projected, and The Book of the Month Club will be launched.

The Book of the Month Club is an opportunity to share some newly selected titles with you. Each month during 2010, a new book will be scanned and uploaded to their website. Books that are hard to find, or particularly capture the spirit of the Library, will be selected to share with you during the Book of the Month Club project.

The Library of Radiant Optimism for Let’s Re-Make the World was started as a way to gather, look at, and catalog a groundswell of optimistic and visionary activities in the late 1960s and early 1970s represented by how-to books. Many people organized around freely sharing information and materials. The books they generated embrace a grass roots exchange of information and themes of self and community empowerment. These books are written from the counter-culture. Their authors were interested in communicating their direct experience as it related to their experiments for living in harmony with the natural landscape, building sustainable communities, and more. They offer practical applications of optimistic ideas for radical change.

http://www.letsremake.info/

Transcription

Week 2: The Library Of Radiant Optimism For Let’s Remake The World

[0:00:00]

[Background Noise]

Scott: Alright. We see you on the wall now.

Male 2:  [0:00:59] [Inaudible]

Scott: Larger than life. I’m waving back but you can’t see me.

[Laughter]

Male 2: Hey, Scott.

Scott: Hey.

Male 2: [0:01:25] [Inaudible] some pictures. I didn’t get enough chance to [0:01:29] [Inaudible] and share to people.[0:01:34] [Inaudible] going to talk about. But maybe you could [0:01:38] [Inaudible] and start talking about [0:01:40] [Inaudible]

Scott: Sure. I guess what we could is we could upload the images to photo which –

Male 2: [0:01:49] [Inaudible]

Female 1: Yeah. Just to get pumping. We’ll just do what you were about to do.

Scott: [Laughter] Rock on. If you want me to do it, I can, you know if you want to focus on the talk but it’s up to you.

Male 2: Oh, okay.

Female 1: [0:02:06] [Inaudible]

Male 2: Yeah. I’m going to send them. Which should I send them to?

Scott: Oh, emailing? You can send it to projects@basekamp.com. That way several of us will get it.

Male 2: [0:02:26] [Inaudible]

Scott: If you send it thru Skype I think it’ll send to everybody in the Skype chat there, unless you have any separate one.

Male 2: I’ll set up a separate one here [0:02:40] [Inaudible]

Female 1:  Let’s start he talk.

Male 2:  [0:02:53] [Inaudible]

Scott: I was actually just suggesting that we wait just another moment because there are very many people here. Why don’t we wait. I was gonna say till quarter after but that’s in three minutes. That’s probably okay. Why don’t wait at least until then. And then go ahead and get started and people can join in when they do.

Male 2: Alright. [Cross-talk] [0:03:16] [Inaudible]

Scott: Yes. Definitely.

Male 2: Right?

Scott: I’m not sure.

[Background Noise]

Male 2: Wait a minute [0:03:45] [Inaudible].

Scott: Yeah. Michael is coming. He’s running a few minutes late.

Female 1: What’d you do?

Male 2: [0:04:02] [Inaudible]

Scott: Yeah I think that’s sent to everybody. [Cross-talk]

[Laughter]

Female 1: Aah.

Scott: No worries, it’s all good.

Female 2: Doing great. [0:04:27] [Inaudible]

Unidentified Male: Oh, you guys haven’t seen the library yet.

Male 2: No, we haven’t. [0:04:57] [Inaudible]  [Cross-talk]

Scott: I’ll grab a couple and put them on flicker and send you guys a little of it.

Male 2: [0:05:16] [Inaudible]

Scott: That was my way of saying I think that’s a good idea. Cool. So, now it’s nearly 6:15. We should probably check in. Matt, who is on this, why don’t I ask people who would like to join the audio and we’ll start adding people now.

I probably should have done that ahead of time. I think we got caught up on the recording side because we didn’t want to be a tree falling in the woods. Although we could if we had to. But now that we don’t have to, that’s probably a good thing.

[Background Noise]

I need to add. Where is Adam and Jessica? Okay, anyway, Matt, we can add to the chat. Oh, yeah. [0:06:55] [Inaudible]. Awesome. [Background Talk].

[Background Noise]

Okay. There’s someone here who is really trying to join but we cannot seem to add them easily.

Unidentified Male: Seventh?

Scott: Yes.

Male 2: [0:08:22] [Inaudible]

Scott: Yeah. That happens sometimes. Like last week, we had to ask some of them to restart. Adding Abby now? So, Matt, can you hear us, by the way?

Male 3: [0:08:36] [Inaudible]

Scott: Okay, great.  I think we’re going to go ahead and get started soon. We’re jus – preferably week by week we’ll inch minutes closer to starting at six.

Male 2: Alright.

Scott: So … Did anyone else on the track ask to be added to the audio that I [0:08:59] [Inaudible]. Okay? Okay, cool. So what do you think, Greg? Do you want to – oh you’re adding us to [0:09:13] [Inaudible].

Greg: Well, I mean I could stop to it.

Scott: Okay. [0:09:21] [Inaudible] it’d be pretty cool.

Greg: Well, I can do that. It’s up to you. I mean …

Scott: Mabel’s copy. Oh, thank you, Steven.

Male 2: [0:09:33] [Inaudible]

Scott: Where’s Mabel? I don’t see Mabel, Steven.

Male 2:  [0:09:42] [Inaudible]

[Background Talk]

Scott: Great. So if you can give us just one more moment. I think – oh, fantastic.

Male 2: [0:10:46] [Inaudible]

Scott: If you don’t mind, can I just try to get Adam and Jessica on the call real quick? I believe they have a class that’s supposed to patch in here. And I would sort of hate to miss them. Although I don’t want to put you off any longer so …

Male 2: [0:11:12] [Inaudible]

Scott: Right now, audio? 1-2-3-4-5-6.

Greg: She’s, Jessica doesn’t seem to be able to get to …

Male 2: [0:11:36] [Inaudible]

Scott: No, absolutely not.

Greg: Our U stream is buffering.

Scott: But that’s okay because if we need to we can always refresh it.

Greg: Okay, you got it.

Scott: Okay, cool.  Now writing Adam. Fantastic.

[Background Noise]

Male 2: [0:12:54] [Inaudible]

Scott: Hi, Adam, can you hear us by the way?

Adam: [0:13:07] [Inaudible]

Scott: Hey, fantastic, yeah. So did you guys have your class hooked up to this tonight?

Adam: Yes. [0:13:17] [Inaudible]

Scott: Awesome.

Male 4: Hi, everybody.

[Laughter]

Scott: So if you guys could turn your microphone up a little bit, Adam, we could actually hear you. I think it’s just a little bit low.

Adam: [0:13:51] [Inaudible]

Scott: Oh, that’s not possible?

Adam: Yeah. [0:13:55] [Inaudible]  

Scott:  Oh, that’s totally fine.

Greg:  Whatever you’re doing now is better.

Adam: I’m talking louder.

Scott:  You’re yelling.

[Laughter]

Excellent. Okay, why don’t we go ahead and start chatting so that we’re not just waiting. So yeah –

Adam: Is there a [0:14:29] [Inaudible]

Scott: There is a text chatter. You guys not in the text chatter? I thought you were. Oh, I guess you’re not. Hold on a second. Here you go. Great. So how about this now? Can I sort of replace this Greg?

Greg: Yeah. [0:14:50] [Inaudible]

Scott: [0:14:50] [Inaudible]. Well, first of all, welcome everyone. Thanks for coming to our little weekly chat. [Laughter]. Can you all hear me? Okay.

Male 2: Scott, which one [0:15:10] [Inaudible]. Did you invite us?

Scott: Yeah, I believe so.

Adam: [0:15:14] [Inaudible]

Scott: Oh, I see.

Adam: [0:15:18] [Inaudible]

Scott: Yeah. If you click into there first. I think you have to click in first, you kind of can’t [0:15:25] [Inaudible]. Stay there. Now you can [0:15:28] [Inaudible].

Greg: Alright. So I’ve got Jessica in. oh, she got banned?

Scott: Yeah. For some reason it’s saying that we cannot add you to the text chat. I don’t really know why that would be. It says …

Greg: Jessica [0:15:45] [Inaudible] is using an older version of Skype that does not support  multi person chat?

Male 2: [0:15:50] [Inaudible]

Scott: Yeah, we did that first but let’s try that again. We’ll try one more time and if not, the … Oh, look at that.

Greg: Here you go. Oh.

Scott: Oh, you got bounced.

Greg: Same thing.

Scott: You got bounced. Sorry, guys, that’s actually really annoying, isn’t it?

Male 2: Okay. I that a [0:16:10] [Inaudible]  

Greg: Yes.

Male 2: Thank you.

Scott: Rock n Roll. So great. Welcome everybody to our little chat. We’ll be adding more people throughout the evening, more people’s audio. So if anyone sees someone on Skype that [0:16:38] [Inaudible] that’s pleading to be added, please let us know. We just might not be noticing it, okay? Great. So first of all, I want to welcome Brett and Bonnie, our invited guests for the week.

Brett: Hi Scott. Hi Greg and Steven.

Bonnie: Hi.

Scott: Hi.

Greg: Hi.

Scott: And hi everybody –

Greg: Natalie, hang on a second. Sorry.

Scott: Cool. The way the evening will go is – just to let everyone know, this week, Bret and Bonnie will be giving a more straightforward presentation probably for about 20 to 30 minutes or so and after which we can have a Q&A and a less structured discussion.

So first of all, everyone at the class, once we actually get to that point it would be great if you guys could flag us whenever you can on text or kind of like step up to the  computer’s microphone so that we can hear you.

In any case, and then we can just spend the rest of the evening on that. And near the end, what we’re going to be doing with this week and future weeks throughout the year is focus a bit of time at the end, kind of reviewing some of the ideas and interests that came up through the evening.

And see if we can come up with some course proposals for the public school. At the end we’re going to be generating public school courses at the end of every week or at the end of every Tuesday night, I mean. So Brett and Bonnie, just let you guys know, we’ve been in dialogue for probably about ten years now.

And one thing I should probably say now that I just remembered; if everyone can press mute on your Skype until you want to say something, that will be excellent.

It will help keep the feedback really low. But, at any case, we’d known each other for years now and one of the reasons specifically though that we invited Brett and Bonnie to come in talk with us tonight is because they’re working on this called The Library of Radiant Optimism for Let’s Re-make the World which is a long-term project that they’ve started. I won’t describe it in detail.

I’ll leave that to them. But as sure, we’re looking at this project as what we’re calling a plausible artworld because they’re focusing on some highly optimistic work and DIY manuals from the ‘60s and ‘70s and the range of practices that grew out of that era. They also do work together.

In many ways is inspired by that era and the work that they are compiling in their library and they seek to work together with other people who are similarly I think reinvigorating some of those practices from that time. And so we’d like to focus on that side of what they’re doing, those networks that were created and are continuing to be created now. Anyway, Brett and Bonnie, would you guys mind going ahead and giving us an intro to The Library of Radiant Optimism?

Brett: Sure, Scott. [0:20:29] [Inaudible]

Scott: Awesome.

Brett: [0:20:36] [Inaudible]  Bonnie and I discovered [0:20:52] [Inaudible]

Scott: Okay. We’ll let them know thru the text chat. You guys can go ahead and keep on going.

Brett: Okay. That sounds good. So Bonnie [0:23:49] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: So the first. I’m Bonnie. [0:24:22] [Inaudible] the first few books that were [0:24:25] [Inaudible] project came from our personal collection. And [0:24:31] [Inaudible]. And it’s [0:24:35] [Inaudible] because the book document not only, it [0:24:56] [Inaudible]. So pretty great book and Brett can tell you about [0:25:40] [Inaudible] now.

Brett: Alright.  [0:25:42] [Inaudible]  published probably and it’s been around for less than a thousand hard bound black and white [0:26:14] [Inaudible]  produced [0:26:15] [Inaudible]  from internet and useful source. Yeah. [0:26:28] [Inaudible]  it’s really interesting [0:26:34] [Inaudible] experiment [0:26:35] [Inaudible] your [0:26:36] [Inaudible] as well as create small efficient psychological values [0:26:44] [Inaudible] rethinking [0:26:47] [Inaudible] . [Cross-talk].

Bonnie: This is where we are guys. We found this book in a [0:28:00] [Inaudible] near it in [0:28:02] [Inaudible]. And this is a radical [0:28:05] [Inaudible] community of the [0:28:10] [Inaudible] community now.  

Brett: Primary [0:28:13] [Inaudible]

Bonnie:  The primary community now and made by people in our town in the [0:28:18] [Inaudible]  all of the academic art [0:28:25] [Inaudible]

Brett: Yeah. [0:28:35] [Inaudible]

Scott: No.

Brett: [0:28:48] [Inaudible]

Scott: Sorry, sorry. Hey guys.

[Background Talk]

Brett: So, another part of what we have [0:28:59] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: Oh, oh yeah. [0:29:19] [Inaudible]

Brett: [0:29:56] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: [0:30:18] [Inaudible]

Scott: Guys, sorry about the continual audio [0:30:38] [Inaudible]. We’re just adding people up [Cross-talk] Okay. Super.

[Cross-talk]

Bonnie: [0:30:48] [Inaudible]

Brett: [0:31:15] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: [0:32:30] [Inaudible]

Brett: [0:33:14] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: [0:34:00] [Inaudible]

Brett: [0:34:55] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: [0:36:36] [Inaudible] Is there anything we can do to change that? So [0:37:51] [Inaudible] they’ve been making illustrations imagining what  people would look like by [0:38:34] [Inaudible]. We produced a different kinds of poster that you would see right here on this table and [0:39:08] [Inaudible] on the wall here. We’ll put a [0:39:13] [Inaudible]. This is one thing [0:39:18] [Inaudible] library. [0:39:21] [Inaudible]. We definitely [0:39:36] [Inaudible]

Brett: [ 0:41:35] [Inaudible]

Scott: I was just going to say Brett. No, never mind.

Brett: Yeah?

Scott: I’m sorry dude. Just not to trample over you, but yeah, we have a stack here, like basically a box of books that Bonnie and Brett shipped here that we’re giving away to people that come.

So if you’re local and Philly and you are just listening on Skype, just flag us down, let us know the [0:43:06] [Inaudible] for you if you‘ve joined tonight and get to wing by some other time to pick it up. I’ll post photos of the library right now. Philip, Philip. Greg was just saying he’ll post photos of the library on flicker right now and we’ll send you the leg.

Brett: [0:43:24] [Inaudible] website later as well.

Bonnie: So, tonight [0:44:04] [Inaudible] Library of Radiant Optimism for Let’s Remake the World book of the launched book. And this is [0:44:33] [Inaudible] project . We’re [0:44:36] [Inaudible] uploaded a new title and [0:44:43] [Inaudible]. Our website and [0:44:48] [Inaudible]. [Laughter] but [0:44:56] [Inaudible] . The first title in [0:45:02] [Inaudible] child. [0:45:05] [Inaudible]

Scott: Hey, Bonnie.  Sorry. Can I interrupt you for a quick sec? Hey, Bonnie? Hey, did you guys – is the video down? Because it looks like other people are not getting the video. We thought it was just us.

Brett: [0:45:23] [Inaudible]

Scott: It’s okay. We’re just checking.

Bonnie: [0:45:27] [Inaudible]

Scott: Okay. Cool., cool Carry on. If –

Brett: [0:45:30] [Inaudible]

Scott:  Just in case you didn’t know. Thanks. But yeah, please go on about the book of the month club.

Bonnie: [0:45:37] [Inaudible]  The video will be back in just a second.

Scott: Awesome.

Bonnie: In the meantime, [0:45:47] [Inaudible]  Brett?

Brett: I dunno. No. [0:45:51] [Inaudible]

Scott: Oh, really.

Brett: [0:45:56] [Inaudible]

Scott: That’s completely fine.

Brett: [0:46:11] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: [0:46:14] [Inaudible]  and in the meantime we’ll go [0:46:17] [Inaudible]  the posters here.

Scott: Thank you.

Bonnie: [0:46:20] [Inaudible]  And we are – we think that [0:46:26] [Inaudible]   we haven’t shared them with others and this is our [0:46:43] [Inaudible]  of the library project and one of  the reasons that we [0:46:48] [Inaudible]  was that basekamp provided us with the [0:46:53] [Inaudible]

Brett: [0:49:31] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: [0:51:02] [Inaudible]

Brett: And we found many people [0:51:31] [Inaudible]

Scott: Great. Guys, thank you so much for that key end to your project. I think  if we went ahead and had a quick conversation without that presentation,  many of the people here wouldn’t have any idea what kinds of things you’re talking about or what range of practices you’re looking at. Yeah.

By the way, anybody that wants to, anyone on the call can feel free to unmute at any time to ask a question. Or I’ll say you can send to your text chat as well. It might be worth [0:53:02] [Inaudible].

Brett: Hey, Greg.

Greg: Yeah

Brett: [0:53:09] [Inaudible]

Male  1: Oh, sorry can you –

Brett : [0:53:17] [Inaudible]

Scott: Sorry guys. When people ask you a question --  I was sort of was guilty about this. This is Scott speaking right now. Can you just briefly introduce yourself, just sort of saying who is speaking so we can all know. One of the requests we had from last week was that people had no idea who was talking. This is Adam, right? Is this  Ad –

Unidentified Male:

Scott: Oh, okay. I didn’t hear.

Unidentified male: [0:53:44] [Inaudible]

Brett: Okay. [0:54:23] [Inaudible]

Scott: So, guys, the mike’s on right now. So if you wanna say anything, ask anything, just flag me and I’ll unmute it. And then I can help flag it down too.

Bonnie: [0:56:21] [Inaudible]

Scott: Hello, yeah. No, we’re here. We just have ourselves  muted  so you don’t hear the interment and kung fu while you’re talking. And we’ll unmute as people have questions or wanna say something. Did you have something that you wanted to say? You can. But I think you need to get a little closer.

Unidentified Male: I mean, these books, you’re just selecting them  previous – I mean, you’re selecting as the book of the month from previous  publications, right in the 60s and 70s. They are not books that you are actually bringing up, right, like publishing and writing.

Brett: [0:57:04] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: Yeah. [0:57:46] [Inaudible].  We will be uploading a new file this month. We actually [0:57:50] [Inaudible]  the books that are in our library or the books [0:57:55] [Inaudible]

Brett: Yeah. And we are also publishing our own books but that’s not part of [0:58:20] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: [0:58:52] [Inaudible]

Brett: [0:59:19] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: [1:00:35] [Inaudible]

Brett: [1:01:34] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: Do we have some more questions [1:03:04] [Inaudible]

Scott:  Yeah. Steven had a question. We can read it out loud if that would be helpful or Steven can actually read it out loud if you’d like to ask or you –

Bonnie: Sure.

Scott: I was just thinking that it might be good to repeat it for everyone, one way or the other. Steven, are you there? Would you like to or would you rather one of us do it?

Steven: [1:03:28] [Inaudible]

[Laughter]

[Cross-talk]

Scott: Brett, I hope your mom and dad are in town are listening to this.

Brett: [1:04:40] [Inaudible]

Steven: [1:04:53] [Inaudible]

Brett: [1:05:02] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: [1:08:55] [Inaudible]  

Scott: Yeah, just unmute it.

Michael: Hi there. This is Michael at [1:09:00] [Inaudible]. I’m interested in what you guys mentioned about sort of idea of cultural amnesia or ways and which  I guess there can be extended projects or ways to activate some of this material that you’re sharing. I guess the second part of the question would be, has there been any interest in terms of connecting with the intentional community that you guys mentioned in Tennessee that’s still up and running. I hope that makes sense.

Brett: Yeah. [1:09:42] [Inaudible] in Tennessee?

Michael: Yeah.

Bonnie: I mean [1:09:47] [Inaudible]

[Cross-talk]

Brett: [1:10:01] [[Inaudible]

Bonnie:  [1:12:19] [Inaudible]

Brett: [1:13:44] [Inaudible]

Bonnie:  So another question?

Scott: Yeah. Hi. I think Greg had the next question. Do you still remember?

Greg: I have no idea but I’ll make one up.  No. I remember. IN fact it’s about remembering in a particular way right? I’m curious how these books carry a certain sense of nostalgia and how that might affect sort of the potential for the book to be acted upon because it seems like you guys are really about the intentionality, the thoughtfulness, the content really, less so in the context of kind of culture.

But still along that some of the questions that Steven was raising. Is nostalgia a dangerous emotion or how does that factor in to you as you read it and how potentially the view in public might interpret these texts? As like, ha-ha, goofy or wow, this is incredible stuff, you know.

Brett: [1:15:21] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: [1:18:47] [Inaudible]

Brett: [1:19:31] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: We’re trying to include more issues of [1:20:27] [Inaudible]

Brett: yeah. We’re also doing [1:20:43] [Inaudible]

Scott: Thank you. That was great. That absolutely covered it more. Thanks. So Hank had a quick question actually. And then Steven did. Hank was asking who your audience is or  if you have a target audience or if you market your projects at all? She was curious I guess about who you’re speaking to? Oh, sorry if you wanted to say [1:21:31] [Inaudible]  okay.  Hey, Gerick. Hey. Come on guys. Come on in and have a seat, guys. Brett and Bonnie and everybody, we just have some more people coming in and –

Female 1:  Hi people. [1:21:44] [Inaudible]

Scott: Hannah, did you have anything else to ask about that or did I –

Female 1: Well, I mean, I guess, you know, I work in the design field and I guess, you know, I just been recently really interested in kind of how projects relate like if there’s a specific target for this information getting distributed and who, you know, if that’s thought about in the process.

And in turn, you know, we can all sit and discuss this information. I guess it’s just interesting to me that process of if there’s a goal in mind as far as distributing these information or if it’s just open discussion with likeminded people. I guess that’s kind of – yeah, the basis of my question.

Brett: [1:22:42] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: [1:22:47] [Inaudible]  control center. So that meant that there were  [1:23:08] [Inaudible].  There were discussions sort of like a community center. Okay. So within that space there was cultural [1:23:23] [Inaudible]  Brett and I both noticed almost at the same time that [1:23:35] [Inaudible]  and that really sort of [1:23:48][Inaudible]

Brett:  And there also  seems an explosion and interest in these terms of [1:23:58] [Inaudible] issues and [1:24:00] [Inaudible]  but I think there is a research and  interest on this kind of information and it often goes, like we’re saying the history of these things. [1:24:25] [Inaudible] so the history [1:24:29] [Inaudible] working on the internet which are called [1:25:03] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: [1:25:11] [Inaudible]

Brett: So, its –oh thanks.

Scott: Yeah. He’s not on the call yet but he will be in a second.

Brett: Okay, guys. So [1:25:22] [Inaudible]. That’s quite [1:25:30] [Inaudible] in art to figure out sometimes. We’re also. We also [1:25:36] [Inaudible] who lived in Cummings. [1:25:38] [Inaudible].

[Cross-talk]

Female 1: [1:26:02] [Inaudible] Aaron’s question and then I’m going to put Steven Wright’s question which I think is great  about other international histories that [1:26:17] [Inaudible] and so we’ll take Aaron’s now? Is that okay with everybody? And that question is, what do we mean by  [1:26:30] [Inaudible]

Brett: Okay. So  Aaron is, in terms of plausible artworlds, we’ll just say that [1:26:35] [Inaudible].  We jokingly call ourselves librarians but we’re not trained as librarians. [1:26:55] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: Yeah. Exactly. The first reason [1:27:38] [Inaudible] of our practice. We only [1:27:42] [Inaudible] and we use  [1:27:44] [Inaudible] that’s because that’s the world that we’re involved in. But yeah, there are  many [1:28:01] [Inaudible]. It’s not a library  [1:28:11] [Inaudible]

Brett: Yeah. But it is a [1:28:21] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: But it’s a [1:28:21] [Inaudible] at the same time so [Cross-talk]. And we actually had a [1:28:31] [Inaudible]

[Cross-talk]

Brett: We’re going now to Steven’s question.

Bonnie: Steven asked,  he’s kind of wondering why we focused on the United States and he’s talking about [1:29:03] [Inaudible] in France and [1:29:05] [Inaudible]  in this country as a  separate secularly [1:29:08] [Inaudible]. But not only that. And here is the [1:29:15] [Inaudible] Argentina, Turkey [1:29:20] [Inaudible] and I think that’s a really big question. And we have been talking about adding books [Cross-talk].

Brett: [1:29:33] [Inaudible]  from Denmark that we want to add. I ‘m sure the books [1:29:39] [Inaudible] in Canada and in the United states.  [1:30:10] [Inaudible].

Bonnie: Yeah. I think [1:31:23] [Inaudible]  from power points to sound to other things. These are things that we are [1:31:45] [Inaudible]  at to the library [1:31:48] [Inaudible]

Brett: Alright. So let me add a question for Aaron.

Bonnie: Okay. So this is another question about plausible artworlds. [1:32:04] [Inaudible]

Brett: [1:32:06] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: Aaron is asking, you mentioned that you use that in your project in your daily lives and then added that in art context as well. And since you did [1:32:17] [Inaudible] I wonder in that case what other context you define as art?

Brett: Okay. So I think those contexts [1:32:25] [Inaudible] already by other people. So [1:32:31] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: We have [1:34:44] [Inaudible]  

Brett: Okay. I’m just typing in [1:35:27] [Inaudible]

Scott: I was curious if Adam, if any of your students have questions. I wanna hear from them. If Adam’s still with us, I’m not sure.

Unidentified Male: [1:35:50] [Inaudible]

Brett: I’m sorry? [1:36:04] [Inaudible]

Unidentified Male: [1:36:07] [Inaudible]

[Cross-talk]

Scott: Okay. Guys, I just wanted to mention something really quickly. Actually Bonnie, can you hear us okay?

Bonnie: Yeah. [1:36:30] [Inaudible]

Scott: Okay good. I just saw that you were breaking up but they seemed like it wasn’t like a very contemporary way of breaking up with us., but your just saying the audio you can hear. You’ve heard about all that, right? So I guess we won’t get into that.

Bonnie: [1:36:47] [Inaudible]

Scott: Yeah. That would be a text message. But yeah, if everybody would be into it, or if anybody would be into this, we could still continue to discuss this but as it’s now quarter till the time when we usually stop out chat,  one of the things I wanted to  --

Brett: Scott, [1:37:10] [Inaudible] one more question [1:37:11] [Inaudible]

Scott: Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you said that you didn’t. I apologized. Yeah. Totally.

Unidentified Male: [1:37:17] [Inaudible]

Scott: Oh, yeah. Rocking.

Unidentified Male: Alright, Scott. Did you ever build any of these things [1:37:27] [Inaudible]

Brett: Yeah. There was a lot of things that were kind of related [1:37:41] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: I think I checked this out [1:37:46] [Inaudible]

Brett: Yeah. [1:37:49] [Inaudible]

Scott: Oh, yeah. We can see you guys now actually holding up a lamp. There might be a delay.

[Laughter]

Greg: Ask Brett to move back towards the [1:40:56] [Inaudible]

Scott: Oh, Brett. Can you move back towards the camera ever so slightly? We want to  -- ooh, look at you, very spooky. Oh, look at both of you, very nice.

[Laughter]

Anyway, we wanted to take at least one photograph of that. So thank you very much. Yeah. It just took us a while to get the U stream to capture it properly. And you know what it was, it was a several second delay. So it’s sort of a little disorienting which is probably good.

Brett: Yeah.

Scott: But guys, I wanted to quickly, oh I just want to make sure I did … Adam and Jessica, I didn’t hear the name of the person you asked that question, but if, did that sort of address what you guys were asking?

Adam: Yes. [1:41:54] [Inaudible]

[Laughter]

Scott: Awesome. Yeah. We’ve talked about building some crazy stuff here. IN fact, when Adam and Jessica were in Philadelphia on New Year’s, part of our plan was we were going to build some of the stuff. But then I think after talking more with Brett and Bonnie, it seemed that wasn’t really necessary and it probably was more important to really focus on the book of the month club and have that going. In any case, one thing –

Brett: [1:42:25] [Inaudible]

Bonnie:  [1:42:48] [Inaudible]

Scott: Yeah. I was hoping you guys would be wearing them during this chat, but anyway, oh well.

Brett: What’s that?

Scott: I was hoping you’d be wearing them now during the video, but …

Brett: [1:43:50] [Inaudible]

Scott: I’ll share it with the rest of the group here. We’ll all try to fit in together.

Brett:  [1:44:01] [Inaudible]

Scott: One thing I just wanted to mention is it’s a little less than ten minutes before we usually end. One thing that – pretty much every single one of these weekly chats, there’s some interest to follow up with everyone. And I have to say, that’s probably on us but usually that rarely happens.

One of the things we want to do – yeah it’s like there’s sort of these micro discussions that seem like there’s a real desire to continue. And they really don’t, partly because everyone’s busy but also partly because it’s probably not that easy. And we wanted to change that or at least make that a number of people ahd wanted to  change that. They’ve been asking us and have been pitching in to try and help make that happen.

What I was mentioning right before the class question was that one of the things  the people from the public school wanted to help do during the year. Just like you guys are doing a year- long thing here  with the book of the month club, they wanted to offer the public school like the  Philly branch of the public school has a place to basically to follow up on interest that any of us have that we would like to  explore further. So basically, anything that has come up in the form of questions or interest that people might have that they just didn’t  ask per se.

Or even something that you guys have said that anyone either in class there or in Skype or anyone else listening or anyone here would like to follow up on. We can form that into a very simple class proposal. Most of them probably won’t happen. But the ones that gain some interest can happen. So I just wanted to throw that out there and suggest that for this year we’ve turned on comments on the events on the basekamp site.

We’ll be posting links to the audio just like we did for last week and also any links to public school courses that are created thru this process which set a number of them were last week probably because we were talking with them, but also I’m just thinking we may want to do that again. So that was a long winded way of saying, if you have ideas about those, feel free to type them in or post the comments and all, or say them now. I’ll send the link where you can post comments if that helps.

Adam: Sure.

Bonnie: [1:46:50] [Inaudible]

Scott: Yeah.

Bonnie: [1:46:55] [Inaudible] happened in Los Angeles?

Scott: Yes.

Bonnie: [1:47:02] [Inaudible]

Scott: Basically the public school has branched into different locations. There’s one that has started in Chicago and one that started in Paris, Belgium and

Brett: Brussels

Scott: Oh, I’m sorry, did I say Belgium? In Brussels and in San Juan. Anyway, I won’t go on about it,  but I’ll paste the link so that you at least have a sense [Cross-talk]. Here’s the link to last week, the comments for last week which has links to the audio and we’ll be pasting links to the course. And then I’ll go ahead and also past the link  to this week’s. Just so that – oops. Yeah, paste the link to this week’s chat so you guys know where you can make recommendations for courses.

Female 1: You talked about this AAAARG.org thing?

Scott: Exactly. And in fact, the great thing about the way that’s set up now? Here’s where to post comments for this week. Sorry guys.

Greg: We lost your stream.

Scott: Anyway. Yeah, the AAAARG. Org is a place where like Bonnie and Brett like we had talked about posting the PDFs of their books from their library. And the great thing about creating a course is that we can tie any course to any publication on AAAARG very easily.

They have a back end where the two sides are tied, so we can potentially carry on with a number of discussion threads or as course proposals that connect with any of the publications  in the Library of Radiant Optimism.

Greg:  For instance I just proposed to class for the Philly Public School for making things out of buckets. So we could potentially use some of your texts – buckets.

[Cross-talk]

Yeah. Wouldn’t it be a great class?

Scott: Yeah. Actually, we’ll send the link just so that you guys get a sense of what this is about and how approachable it is to suggest the course. It’s not something that you have to spend weeks or months putting together.

They can develop into more full blown curriculum but they don’t have to. And some of the courses are extremely simple. Like one is called how to get in and out without being seen. And others are more developed of course.

Brett: Sounds like a [1:49:57] [Inaudible] It’s awesome. Alright?

Scott: So anyway, please add your comments to that length right above the last comment. Also, you should know that we’re eating fortune cookies that – What’s your name? Gerard Rock. And I think we should at least read you one fortune specifically for Bonnie, get it?

[Cross-talk]

Bonnie: Wait, I don’t get it.

[Laughter]

Greg: And mine says a good time to start something new.

Bonnie: BY making buckets.

Greg: Exactly.

Scott: Well, yeah. Guys, thank you so much for joining us. I know we’ll carry on but being able to talk with you with everyone on audio has been a real pleasure.

Brett: [1:51:09] [Inaudible]

Bonnie: Yeah. This is really fun.

Brett: So [1:51:16] [Inaudible] We also encourage you to [1:51:26] [Inaudible]

Scott: Hey guys. We have some burning desires.

Gerard: Late question. I arrived a little bit late. Make PDFs of everything. I kind of have been doing that for quite a few years. Do you  have  server you want to upload it to, or where do you, where you want it to go?

Brett: [1:52:14] [Inaudible]

Gerard: Scott and I can do that.  I mean, we have a pretty substantial library of stuff that’s pirated to share.

Brett: Cool.

Bonnie: Sorry. What’s your name? And do you have a place to access the server that you have set up or --?

Gerard: No. I was asking if you knew of a good server to use. My name is Gerard.

Bonnie: Oh.

Scott: Yeah. I was just gonna recommend –

Gerard: For wide access. Scott was recommending one right now. So …

Scott: Yeah. In fact this site is tied to the  public school that were stating about. And the great thing about  proposing classes on the public school, I was suggesting that we do that in relations to this chat tonight, that you can also do things in relation to other things too. And you can tie  any of the PDFs that you upload to these courses. Great.

Gerard. Thank you then.

Scott: Awesome.

Brett: [1:53:19] [Inaudible]

Scott:  And we could definitely anybody who’s on. One other thing that might be kind of nice if anyone’s still listening. It looks like pretty much everyone is, we promise not to create a spam list but if you would like to send your emails to us, we can keep you in touch about this particular threat of conversation because there will be some ongoing updates. So many of you are already on our list, but the ones that aren’t, please let us know if you want to receive info. And we’ll do it. But anyway, that’s the least exciting of it. Thanks a lot, guys. It was great.

Greg: Thanks, guys.

Bonnie: Thank you. That was a lot of fun.

[Applause]

[Laughter]

Scott: Stay warm everybody.

[Background Noise]

[1:54:37] End of Audio

Backchannel


Chat History with basekamp/$6091908a676b1f3" title="#basekamp/$6091908a676b1f3">The Library Of Radiant Optimism For Let's Remake The World (#basekamp/$6091908a676b1f3)

Created on 2010-01-13 02:14:57.

2010-01-12

BASEKAMP team: 17:49:46
Hi Brett & Bonnie
BASEKAMP team: 17:49:48
we're here
Brett Bloom: 17:49:55
hi
BASEKAMP team: 17:49:57
settings up audio
Brett Bloom: 17:50:02
cool
Jonathan Wagener: 17:50:17
howzit everyone
BASEKAMP team: 17:51:06
Hi jonathan - we're setting things up now & will start in 10 mins or so
stephen wright: 17:51:06
Hello all!
BASEKAMP team: 17:51:12
Hi Stephen
Jonathan Wagener: 17:51:16
ok awesomesmiley
BASEKAMP team: 17:53:37
hey B&B can we do a quick call to check the recording levels?
Brett Bloom: 17:53:43
yes
Brett Bloom: 17:54:04
call bonnie
BASEKAMP team: 17:54:51
bonnie can you set your skype status to active
Brett Bloom: 17:54:58
it won't
Brett Bloom: 17:55:21
there it is
BASEKAMP team: 17:55:26
hmm really? i don't think we can call an inactive skype person :/
BASEKAMP team: 17:56:19
can i try you too stephen? we need 3 to conference call
Brett Bloom: 17:56:23
it says call refused when she tries to call you scott
stephen wright: 17:56:36
call me
BASEKAMP team: 17:56:39
yeah - we're trying to set a conf call, so we can add more. cool
Brett Bloom: 17:57:20
bonnie's skype crashed
BASEKAMP team: 17:57:24
ok
Bonnie: 17:57:33
I think I am on this chat
BASEKAMP team: 17:57:35
we can try again in a moment
Bonnie: 17:57:38
hey!
BASEKAMP team: 17:57:59
hey bonnie let me add you
mattadams: 18:05:33
haha am i here or am i supposed to join a conference call?
BASEKAMP team: 18:06:03
hello everyone
Aharon: 18:06:20
hiyas! smiley
bfreee" title="dbfreee">Dave Beech: 18:07:02
hello
Brett Bloom: 18:07:11
hello
crapworm" title="scrapworm">scrapworm: 18:07:29
hello smiley
Greg Scranton: 18:07:38
hey everyone
mattadams: 18:07:43
hola
Greg Scranton: 18:07:48
just working out the tech on our end here at Basekamp
Brett Bloom: 18:07:59
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/library-of-radiant-optimism-for-let-s-re-m...
Brett Bloom: 18:08:42
the link is so yous can see us. weird delay happens sometimes between skype and ustream.
Brett Bloom: 18:13:00
posted file k_isaacs-136.jpg to members of this chat<files alt=""><file size="311377" index="0">k_isaacs-136.jpg</file></files>
BASEKAMP team: 18:14:03
hi stephanie
mattadams: 18:14:46
hmmm no audio on the ustream. just me?
Bonnie: 18:14:54
no audio on ustream
Bonnie: 18:15:00
we dont want feedback
BASEKAMP team: 18:15:02
so who wants to join the audio chat?
BASEKAMP team: 18:15:05
Matt, right?
Bonnie: 18:15:06
its just for a visual
mattadams: 18:15:06
ahh gotcha
stephen wright: 18:15:16
I'm on already
BASEKAMP team: 18:15:20
smiley
mattadams: 18:15:22
yah would like to listen smiley
Aharon: 18:16:02
can not hear a thing from ustream
BASEKAMP team: 18:16:04
hi adam & jessica
Brett Bloom: 18:16:12
sound will come from skype
Brett Bloom: 18:16:16
ustream is just video
Brett Bloom: 18:16:21
otherwise mad feedback
crapworm" title="scrapworm">scrapworm: 18:16:22
I would like also to listen from skype as poss
Aharon: 18:16:37
i c.. lol
stephen wright: 18:18:20
mabel tapia is asking to join
BASEKAMP team: 18:19:01
we don't see mabel?
BASEKAMP team: 18:19:12
jessica & adam - do you wantt to join the audio now?
BASEKAMP team: 18:19:55
mabel can you "request contact details" from us?
mabel: 18:20:16
ok
mabel: 18:20:20
yes
Bonnie: 18:23:32
Hello everyone!
Jonathan Wagener: 18:23:40
howzit
Brett Bloom: 18:23:47
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/library-of-radiant-optimism-for-let-s-re-m...

[1/12/10 5:08:41 PM] Brett Bloom: the link is so yous can see us. weird delay happens sometimes between skype and ustream.
Bonnie: 18:24:06
thanks for having us!
crapworm" title="scrapworm">scrapworm: 18:24:17
glad to be here listening. hope to talk next time!
Brett Bloom: 18:26:44
but we are open to questions in the middle
BASEKAMP team: 18:27:48
hi natalie
BASEKAMP team: 18:27:52
welcome
Jonathan Wagener: 18:29:06
i will be on audio just now
BASEKAMP team: 18:29:19
welcome bojana
Aharon: 18:29:44
wasup with audio..?
bojana romic: 18:30:28
hi!
Aharon: 18:30:31
i can c bearded guy talking on ustream.. no sound via skype
Bonnie: 18:30:34
hi
Bonnie: 18:30:39
that's brett
Bonnie: 18:30:47
you shouldnt be able to hear him on ustream
Aharon: 18:31:07
i know.. am looking fwd hearing on skype..
Bonnie: 18:31:14
smiley
Aharon: 18:31:38
and the answer is..? smiley
Bonnie: 18:31:55
not sure why you cant hear him on skype that is up to Basekamp team
mabel: 18:32:23
I can't hear him either...  smiley
Bonnie: 18:32:29
http://www.halfletterpress.com/store/images/selfpub/library_guide_3.jpg
crapworm" title="scrapworm">scrapworm: 18:32:39
love the name and philosophy. I can hear
Aharon: 18:32:39
hello BR team!! wassup with skype audio again..? smiley
BASEKAMP team: 18:32:57
mabel, sorry but the UStream has no audio here, we're using Skype for audio
Bonnie: 18:33:02
                 http://www.letsremake.info/library_guide.pdf
mabel: 18:33:30
yes, I know. I have no audio by skype (sorry
Aharon: 18:33:35
i can not hear the skype audio!!
BASEKAMP team: 18:33:40
ah, no problem smiley
Brett Bloom: 18:33:48


IMAGE LINK: http://letsremake.info/images/spiritual_midwifery_small.jpg
BASEKAMP team: 18:33:51
aharon, let's add you then
BASEKAMP team: 18:33:56
ad to skype audio aharon?
stephen wright: 18:34:07
please add mabel too
Aharon: 18:34:09
pls do
Brett Bloom: 18:34:23
Spiritual Midwifery, By Ina May Gaskin, Book Publishing Company, 1976, 480 pages, paperback, ISBN: 1570671044





Spiritual Midwifery, now in its fourth printing, is a must read for students of midwifery but it is also an influential history of the counter culture. Ina May Gaskin and her husband Stephen Gaskin are founding members of The Farm in Summertown, TN, one of the longest running communes in the United States. The Farm was founded in 1971, Ina May published Spiritual Midwifery, in 1975 to document of the beginning of the Farm and the development of a successful out of hospital birth center, one of the first in the US. The book describes how the Farm was settled and how soon after there was a need for safe and secure medical care for pregnant and birthing women. The Farm Midwives learned how to be midwives out of necessity. An understanding local doctor aided them along with their education. The Midwives have gone on to deliver thousands of babies and are still practicing today.





The majority of the book is a collection of birth stories from the women of the Farm. The fourth edition has added birth stories from the Old Amish Families near the Farm whom some of the Midwives worked with, and birth stories from people who came to the Farm just to give birth. The book also includes a practical section for midwifery students with how-to skills infused with the Farm philosophy of home birth.





Ina May’s writing makes this book special, particularly in the way she frames the material. Although she never set out to be a midwife, she pays close attention to the way words affect how women perceive not only labor, but also their bodies in general. In the book, she weaves a powerful history of a group of people creating their own place in the world, calmly and peacefully, and how communication through specific language and touch plays a vital part in the success of their endeavors. There are also amazing photos of women giving birth.
Bonnie: 18:35:05
http://halfletterpress.com/FREE_STORE/bld_lvng_strct_lrge.jpg
BASEKAMP team: 18:35:13
hi Dave, we're adding you to the conference call now
BASEKAMP team: 18:35:34
everyone, please mute your audio - until we do Q&A in about 20-30  mins smiley
Bonnie: 18:35:34
http://www.letsremake.info/k_isaacs.pdf
Bonnie: 18:35:45
That was the pdf of the book for ya'll
Aharon: 18:35:57
cool
Bonnie: 18:36:00
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lefortune/4269551977/
Bonnie: 18:36:05
here are some more images
Bonnie: 18:36:15
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lefortune/4269557705/
Aharon: 18:36:18
..and adio audio..?
Bonnie: 18:36:36
Aharon still does not have audio Scott
Bonnie: 18:36:49
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lefortune/4270301944/
BASEKAMP team: 18:37:11
h iMabel
mabel: 18:37:25
great!! It works
mabel: 18:37:27
!!
BASEKAMP team: 18:37:30
please mute your audio everyone until we do Q&A in about 20 - 30 mins smiley
BASEKAMP team: 18:37:32
lovely
Aharon: 18:37:36
looks like it blocked me out
Jonathan Wagener: 18:37:43
Hi
Abigail: 18:37:48
hey basekamp, can you add me again, i got booted
BASEKAMP team: 18:37:49
aharon trying to add you again
BASEKAMP team: 18:37:51
ok
Bonnie: 18:37:52
can you see the map
Bonnie: 18:37:53
?
Abigail: 18:38:00
thx
BASEKAMP team: 18:38:11
adding you again
Bonnie: 18:39:45
k
BASEKAMP team: 18:42:13
mabel i think you need to turn your skype status on
BASEKAMP team: 18:42:33
we are trying to add you to the conference call (only we can add you)
mabel: 18:42:46
ok
BASEKAMP team: 18:42:58
but we need to have people accept our details request & turn on their status to 'available'
mabel: 18:44:03
it's done now isn't it?
BASEKAMP team: 18:44:09
yes - adding you now
mabel: 18:44:24
great!!!!!!!!
mabel: 18:44:34
working now
Bonnie: 18:44:40
aquaculture is done now.  we visited an amazing aquaculture space in northern denmark
BASEKAMP team: 18:44:45
smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley
mabel: 18:44:58
smiley
Jonathan Wagener: 18:45:05
Lol
Bonnie: 18:45:06
(wave)
Jonathan Wagener: 18:45:12
smiley
BASEKAMP team: 18:45:21
hi valentina
BASEKAMP team: 18:45:38
fantastic Brett & Bonnie
Valentina Desideri: 18:45:43
hello
BASEKAMP team: 18:45:51
Valentina, would you like to be added to the audio too?
BASEKAMP team: 18:46:00
we have a dozen people on the call
Valentina Desideri: 18:46:14
i have bad internet connection audio won't work
BASEKAMP team: 18:46:34
ok
BASEKAMP team: 18:46:54
Bonnie is talkign about the book "Radical Technology"
BASEKAMP team: 18:48:04
Whoa - that looks amazing
Brett Bloom: 18:48:24
http://www.halfletterpress.com/store/images/whoever_voted_for.jpg
BASEKAMP team: 18:48:33
For those not on audio, they are holding up an image of a DIY basemaent workshop
BASEKAMP team: 18:48:35
there you go
Brett Bloom: 18:49:02
http://letsremake.info/images/whatweknow.jpg
Brett Bloom: 18:49:08
poster from the gathering
BASEKAMP team: 18:49:09
Everyone please mute your audio, until we move to Q&A (the microphone icon in your call window)
Brett Bloom: 18:49:38
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lefortune/2221335047/sizes/l/in/set-7215760...
Brett Bloom: 18:49:47
images from the event
Brett Bloom: 18:50:01
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lefortune/2222111922/sizes/l/in/set-7215760...
Jonathan Wagener: 18:50:10
I want to try my audio. Please add me to the call.
Brett Bloom: 18:50:22
http://www.joaap.org/6/lovetowe/fortunebloom.html
Bonnie: 18:51:33
http://letsremake.info/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/lets-remake-1-212...
Bonnie: 18:51:40
The book that we put together with YNKB
Bonnie: 18:51:54
http://www.messhall.org/
Bonnie: 18:52:04
http://www.ynkb.dk/
Bonnie: 18:52:17
The spaces we have worked with that we are talking about
Bonnie: 18:52:30
thanks greg!
Bonnie: 18:52:39
#  http://letsremake.info/Lets_remake.pdf
Bonnie: 18:52:50
we have got a lot of optimism to share!
BASEKAMP team: 18:53:15
David do you want to join audio too?
Brett Bloom: 18:53:27
http://letsremake.info/images/book_club_poster.jpg
Jonathan Wagener: 18:53:35
Could I join?
BASEKAMP team: 18:53:41
yes
mattadams: 18:53:47
thats a mouthful smiley
BASEKAMP team: 18:53:48
loves the title BTW
Jonathan Wagener: 18:53:49
Don't know it it will work
Aharon: 18:54:33
it is down
Bonnie: 18:54:40
we need to check brett's connection
Bonnie: 18:54:52
http://letsremake.info/images/book_club_poster.jpg
Brett Bloom: 18:55:55
video should be back
Brett Bloom: 18:56:15
can you all see it?
mattadams: 18:56:16
it is
Brett Bloom: 18:56:28
The Library of Radiant Optimism for Let's Re-Make the World began with a mutual fascination for books from the late 1960s and early 1970s that shared the aesthetic and ethics of self-publication and self-education. These how-to books document cultural practices from the founding and maintence of communal living spaces and growing your own organic garden, to early sustainable design initiatives and home-birthing. The people and projects represented in the books selected for inclusion in the Library paved the way for today's environmental movement and sustainable design culture. The counterculture of this time took seriously the task of building the world they wanted to see.



The Book of the Month Club is an opportunity for us to share some newly selected titles with you. Each month during 2010, we will be scanning and uploading a new book to our website. Books that are hard to find, or particularly capture the spirit of the Library, will be selected to share with you during the Book of the Month Club project.



We begin welcoming Library patrons on January 15, 2010.



The Book of the Month Club is realized in collaboration with basekamp.
BASEKAMP team: 18:56:39
btw, stephen wright is co-host since he's co-organizing Plausible Artworlds with us in 2010 ]smiley
Brett Bloom: 18:56:59
oh yeah, thanks stephen
Brett Bloom: 18:57:10
Charas, The Improbable Dome Builders, By Syeus Mottel, Drake Publishers, Inc., 1973, 191 pages, hardback, ISBN: 0-87749-490-8





“This book is dedicated to everything that is.” This simple dedication begins Charas, the Improbable Dome Builders. The book is a document of a Lower East Side community and their struggle to build a geodesic dome, beginning in the early 1960s with struggling New York City street life and systemic racism. Several men who would become CHARAS members led or were involved in gangs and moved in and out of prison while watching friends and loved ones succumb to drugs and violence. Carlos “Chino” Garcia and Angelo Gonzalez, Jr. two friends from the Lower East Side and involved in gang life from an early age, start the CHARAS story.



Angelo, after serving a long jail sentence and Chino, after spending a year in Puerto Rico at the request of the NYPD, meet up again in their old neighborhood with the idea to do something for their community. The two men were inspired by Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society plan which sought to eliminate poverty and racial injustice in America. Talking at a party they joked that they would start the “Real Great Society” in their neighborhood. The joking led to long discussions drawing in friends and neighbors in an apartment space on East 6th Street. Finally, the group was able to obtain the entire building as a meeting and organizing place to launch the Real Great Society in earnest. Much of what the Real Great Society project was about was developing community autonomy through self-directed economic and education projects. The project managed to do a lot for the neighborhood forming several businesses and setting up several storefront schools for teaching reading and basic math in East Harlem and the Lower East Side.





This project brought national attention to the Lower East Side. Despite its initial successes the group continued to do research and work toward finding the answer to affordable housing. This led them to contact R. Buckminster Fuller, after Chino learned of his design work. Fuller came and spoke at the Real Great Society loft to a rapt audience. This meeting led to the formation of CHARAS, an acronym of the first names of the original six members of the group, committed to implementing Fuller’s ideas for housing in their community.





The original idea was to build a dome in upstate New York so that city dwellers could experience fresh air. Budgetary constraints forced the group to begin building on an abandoned lot in the city. The group worked closely with Fuller’s assistant Michael Ben Eli, a PhD student in London at the time who often traveled with Fuller. In a strange collapsing of scale, Ben Eli commuted from London to the Lower East Side to teach the CHARAS members and friends about the applied geometry of dome building. Several CHARAS members had not graduated from high school and had a skeptical attitude to teacher student relationships. According to the book, there was a long period for CHARAS members and Ben Eli as the learned to communicate with each other. The commitment to the idea finally led to the building of a dome.





Marriage, childbirth, death, and the need to work to support families form the backdrop of the CHARAS story to build a dome house. The process as described in the book is long and arduous and the dome house does not clearly produce lasting change in the community. Rather the process initiated by the former gang members of creating alternatives to poverty and the violence of street life through collective work is the most salient aspect of the book. The book includes an introduction by Fuller and plans for dome building in appendix. Domes were a touchstone for liberation through design, and captured the imagination of many people; this is one of the more interesting stories of their impact on radical culture.
Jonathan Wagener: 18:57:11
smiley
mattadams: 18:58:30
been reading about / watching tons of buckminster fuller this week. nice!
Bonnie: 18:58:42
cool matt
Bonnie: 18:58:48
you will love this download then
Aharon: 18:59:19
how is a book of a month become such a book..???
BASEKAMP team: 19:00:52
hi carolyn & henken
Aharon: 19:00:53
..but surely one of the creteria is how you chose/selct/curate these..?
Bonnie: 19:01:11
how do you mean Aharon?
Bonnie: 19:01:35
we select titles that we are interested in and fit the criteria of the Library
Bonnie: 19:02:24
And criteria for the Library are-books from the late 60s early 70s that are often "how-to" books.
Bonnie: 19:03:00
They are also often self published, but not always and they express some idea about building up another culture or way of doing things
Aharon: 19:03:02
@bonnie you have a range of books to be chosen as book of the month, surely, someone somehow chose it..?
Bonnie: 19:03:46
yes we have a range.  We have been wanting to add Charas to the Library itself for awhile
Bonnie: 19:04:09
so we saw this as a perfect opportunity to both add it to the Library and to put up a scan of the book as well
Bonnie: 19:04:35
does that help?
Aharon: 19:05:41
hummm.. did i hear that u chose a book from a range of them each month..?
Bonnie: 19:05:53
yes
Aharon: 19:06:10
who makes that selection/choice?
Bonnie: 19:06:16
we do together
Aharon: 19:06:29
i c.. thanks! smiley
Bonnie: 19:06:43
cool  smiley
Jonathan Wagener: 19:07:02
Very interesting
BASEKAMP team: 19:07:16
hi cecilia
Jonathan Wagener: 19:07:22
What do u do about copyright?
Cecilia Guida: 19:08:08
copyright??? and you? let me think and know what you're talking about
Aharon: 19:08:09
another thing.. i wonder if this can be elaborated by ppl, i have not heard the term "counter culture" for a veeeeeeeeeeeery loooooooooong time.... Do u use this term because it was a rather used one at times these books were made..?
stephen wright: 19:08:30
I have a question. I'm of two minds about "how-to" books. Growing up in the 70s, my parents had all sorts of these books around: user's guides to this that and the other thing. Joy of Sex. Build your own log cabin. How to tie flies. How to catch salmon. The anarchists handbook... I always figured that those books came too late. Kind of like Hegel's owl, that flies only with the coming of dusk. I mean, the action was relevant before the book spelled it out for everyone, by which point the cutting edge had moved on. -----
BASEKAMP team: 19:08:55
So stephen has a question, then Michael has a question after that
Aharon: 19:09:18
i had 1 b4.. smiley
Bonnie: 19:09:33
That's is an interesting thought Stephen. I wonder if that's why we feel the need to draw attention to these titles for a new generation, because perhaps there is time to "how-to"
BASEKAMP team: 19:09:38
oh, yes - aharon first
BASEKAMP team: 19:09:42
then stephen
BASEKAMP team: 19:09:44
then michael
BASEKAMP team: 19:09:53
keeping a queue smiley
Jonathan Wagener: 19:10:16
Lol
Bonnie: 19:10:52
thanks basekamp team
BASEKAMP team: 19:11:17
then greg
Aharon: 19:11:43
ok.. i get that.. it is contextual.. smiley
Bonnie: 19:11:56
yep
Aharon: 19:12:45
..and another one.. I wonder.. u just mentioned that u publish books as well as gathering/collecting in your library.. am just wondering if indeed this is a library or a "library"..
Bonnie: 19:14:21
you mean do we lend the titles out like a regular library?
Aharon: 19:15:10
in a sense that titles are produced by you(??) getting lended out/avaliable to download..
stephen wright: 19:15:36
the urban homesteading case is a good example of how recalling usership 's potential is empowering
BASEKAMP team: 19:16:39
the next question in queue was from Michael
Bonnie: 19:16:45
So, it's two-fold. We collect the book titles and share them through reviews online and the PDFs (Book of the Month.) But also, we self-publish our own titles-reviews of the books, or documents of projects that we have done
BASEKAMP team: 19:17:56
B&B you guys could take pics and make a pdf out of thost if it's too fragine to scan
Bonnie: 19:18:09
that's a good idea
Aharon: 19:18:16
i c.. so in that case am wondering why you call yourselves a library? it seems like this is not a description but more of a metaphor in the "as if" sense of a metaphor..
BASEKAMP team: 19:20:57
Guys, was that the first time you've visited that island as part of Continental Drift?
BASEKAMP team: 19:21:14
that was a quick Q i guess --
BASEKAMP team: 19:21:26
Greg is in queue for the next question
BASEKAMP team: 19:22:27
Hi Alex
Brett Bloom: 19:22:36
http://www.heavydutypress.com/books/farms_pdf
ourcreamesteem" title="sourcreamesteem">Alex M.: 19:23:32
Hey
Henken Bean: 19:25:10
I'm curious who your audience is or if you have a target audienceand if you market your projects if at all. Maybe it was already answered earlier-
BASEKAMP team: 19:26:37
So Henken is next in queue unless there was another one we missed?
Bonnie: 19:26:45
yep
BASEKAMP team: 19:27:02
smiley
BASEKAMP team: 19:27:36
we've finally downloaded the call to farms pdf & are projecting in the space
Bonnie: 19:27:44
great
Bonnie: 19:28:34
http://www.letsremake.info/library.html
stephen wright: 19:29:10
I totally agree with your point about re-evalutating the 60s, taking back their work from its dismissal, and repurposing the hard work that was done.
BASEKAMP team: 19:29:23
smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley smiley  smiley  smiley  smiley
stephen wright: 19:30:11
But don't you need to expand -- geographically -- what you mean by the 60s.
crapworm" title="scrapworm">scrapworm: 19:30:47
hey henken
Bonnie: 19:31:35
@stephen you mean will we include books that are from other regions and the counter cultural activity that happened there?
Aharon: 19:32:03
hummm... in terms of paw.. would you say that your artistic practice is curative..?  with an emphasis on curation of the "counter culture" lit within a library metaphor..???
Henken Bean: 19:32:21
Hey scrap!
Bonnie: 19:34:00
I think @aharon should be the next in the cue yes?
BASEKAMP team: 19:34:08
Hi Alan
BASEKAMP team: 19:34:14
adding you to the call now
Aharon: 19:34:17
thanks! @bonnie
stephen wright: 19:34:43
While you answer the other questions, let me contextualize mine: I live in France, and May '68 in this country is a secularly sacred moment of contestation; it changed everything (and opened the door to gentrification). But not only that, and here as in the States, the radical and caustic edge of that movement needs to be reposessed. But what about Mexico? Argentina? Turkey? India? The global spirit to do things differently and to do them oneself was very powerful. So I think you might want to consider that in choosing your titles of the month.
Henken Bean: 19:35:01
Yes thank you!
BASEKAMP team: 19:36:01
Alan btw, there werre lots of hellos to you after adding to the text chat & before you got on audio  smiley
Bonnie: 19:36:11
@stephen wright nxt in the cue
Bonnie: 19:36:20
hello alan
BASEKAMP team: 19:36:24
oops, alan calling you back
BASEKAMP team: 19:36:54
will try again
BASEKAMP team: 19:37:30
hmm, alan we have to add you
Aharon: 19:37:49
yup
Aharon: 19:37:49
smiley
crapworm" title="scrapworm">scrapworm: 19:37:56
not fully researched-- but I work in the International Center of Photography Library and there is a radical self-reliance spirit that seems to come out in Eastern European solidarity movements of late 80's/90's
Aharon: 19:38:09
thanks! will have a follow up though.. smiley
Bonnie: 19:38:39
k
BASEKAMP team: 19:38:53
hey alan - you got in the call!
stephen wright: 19:39:54
the problem is that south american counter culture was crushed and exterminated by american imperialism
mattadams: 19:39:54
pura vida!
Aharon: 19:40:51
hummm.. to follow on the question regarding your project as a paw.. you mentioned that you use stuff from your project in your daily lives, then added that in art contexts as well.. In a sense you did there a seperation between "life" and "art".. I wonder, in that case, what are the contexts you define as "art"???
stephen wright: 19:41:01
great! thanks
Bonnie: 19:41:29
you are welcome
Greg Scranton: 19:41:50
Photos of the "library" at Basekamp: http://www.flickr.com/photos/basekamp2010/
BASEKAMP team: 19:42:09
thanks for that Q stephen -- i would like to follow up with this maybe as a public school course proposal, as well as other ilnes of thought or questions that have come up tonight
Greg Scranton: 19:42:10
books will be added each month
crapworm" title="scrapworm">scrapworm: 19:42:14
scrap compilations of resource information fuel activated intelligence toward living systems without conflict! rock-on
Bonnie: 19:42:41
that looks great @Basekamp team
Bonnie: 19:42:48
thanks for putting it together
Greg Scranton: 19:42:59
sure Bonnie
Aharon: 19:43:47
i c.. thanks!
Bonnie: 19:44:19
http://www.letsremake.info/mnd.html
Brett Bloom: 19:44:47
for those who just joined or recently joined you can watch us without sound: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/library-of-radiant-optimism-for-let-s-re-m...
Bonnie: 19:45:11
breaking up
Bonnie: 19:45:52
I can hear you!
Greg Scranton: 19:46:07
Adam, if you or your students do have ?s perhaps text them in
BASEKAMP team: 19:48:26
can you show us those things again?
BASEKAMP team: 19:48:30
B&B?
BASEKAMP team: 19:48:37
took us a while to get ustream to show
Bonnie: 19:48:44
yes
BASEKAMP team: 19:48:48
TY
Bonnie: 19:48:51
I will show you the lamp again
Bonnie: 19:48:54
get ready
BASEKAMP team: 19:49:19
okay... but there's a delay
BASEKAMP team: 19:49:27
grr, now it's spinning. dang
BASEKAMP team: 19:49:47
alan we have to add you to teh conf call, whcih is why we keep declining your call
Bonnie: 19:51:02
YEAH!!!
Bonnie: 19:51:08
smiley
BASEKAMP team: 19:52:03
we keep trying to add you alan,... seems like you are in for a moment or so at a time
Greg Scranton: 19:53:25
bucket undies?
Bonnie: 19:53:40
undie-comfortable
Bonnie: 19:53:55
smiley
BASEKAMP team: 19:56:36
http://basekamp.com/about/events/public-school-and-aaaargorg#comments
BASEKAMP team: 19:57:22
FOR THIS WEEK

http://basekamp.com/about/events/library-radiant-optimism-lets-re-make-w...
stephen wright: 19:59:17
Thanks so much B&B! It's 2 am here, so I'll be acknowledging my comatosis and going to sleep, but it's been... radiant hearing about your project.
BASEKAMP team: 19:59:20
^^ COMMENT HERE
Bonnie: 19:59:36
Oh thanks Stephen we sincerely appreciate your feedback
Bonnie: 19:59:37
!
Bonnie: 19:59:48
Please keep in touch
stephen wright: 19:59:58
count on that
Bonnie: 20:00:07
sleep well
Aharon: 20:00:20
thanks guys for coming!!
bfreee" title="dbfreee">Dave Beech: 20:00:50
thanks everyone
stephen wright: 20:01:08
Long live radiant piracy!
bojana romic: 20:01:13
thanks, bye!
crapworm" title="scrapworm">scrapworm: 20:01:26
any brooklyn affiliates? we run some of our own inititives as "noetic lab school for noosphere" but not reaching a growing population and would rather have discussions for "creatively/collaboratively envisioning new futures" than  just high-brow Art discussions (such as bhqfu). thanks BASEKAMP and RADIANT OPTIMISTS!!
Bonnie: 20:01:26
lefortune @gmail.com
crapworm" title="scrapworm">scrapworm: 20:03:01
noeticlab@earthlink.net
stephen wright: 20:03:23
until next week!
Bonnie: 20:03:23
smiley  smiley  smiley  (wave)
Brett Bloom: 20:04:47
thanks!
BASEKAMP team: 20:05:35
you guys rock
mattadams: 20:05:59
thanks guys!
Greg Scranton: 20:06:11
L8R all. Thx a million Brett & Bonnie
Bonnie: 20:06:24
thanks