An Evolving Exploration into the Head, Heart and Hands of Energy Descent
Transition Culture has moved
I no longer blog on this site. You can now find me, my general blogs, and the work I am doing researching my forthcoming book on imagination, on my new blog.
In Wayne’s World 2 (“you’ll laugh again, you’ll cry again, you’ll hurl again”), the two hapless heroes Wayne and Garth, decide they want to run a rock festival. They book Aerosmith to come and play, but are aware that they don’t have any money to pay them. They are constantly reassured by a series of Castaneda-like visions of Jim Morrison in a desert not to worry; “book them and they will come”, he tells them. In the run up to Transition Bristol’s BIG Event it was an analogy I told the organisers a few times as the scale of what they had planned dawned on them. This was indeed a big event. Hosted in Bristol City Council’s City Hall, this was a big leap of faith for the Transition group which only began less than a year ago. As it turned out, people came, and the event was a huge success (lucky I hadn’t told them that as far as I remember, in Wayne’s World 2, nobody actually does turn up).
I wrote a while ago about the Transition Tales project that Transition Town Totnes did recently in King Edward VI Community College in Totnes. Over 3 sessions, the students were introduced to peak oil, the extent to which their lives depend on oil, the art of creative thinking and storytelling, and were then invited to invent news stories from 2030 which they then read out as newsreaders of the future. Now, finally, the film that was produced from the footage we took with the students which was then edited together by Alex Munslow and Donna Shilling, is online, just click on the screen below… it’s rather good fun I think… We’ll be doing a lot more of these in April.
I wrote the other day about the rapid spread of the Transition concept in New Zealand, and it still continues apace. There are now 34 ‘Mullers’ in the country, which have been springing up in the wake of a tour of the country by Richard Heinberg. Now on YouTube you can see James Samuel, one of the key drivers behind the emerging movement there, giving a workshop with Richard Heinberg at the EcoShow in Taupo.
Part One is James’s overview of the Transition concept and how it might translate to New Zealand. It is fascinating to see how the Transition concept is communicated in different places and in different contexts, and also to see how people are making use of the wonderful thing that is YouTube to communicate their work and their ideas.
Last week was very busy. On Wednesday night I was in Exeter to give a talk for Low Carbon Exeter, as part of their season of talks. I was met at the station by Andi Tobe and we were ferried in a Cycles Maximus pedal powered rickshaw to the venue. It was an amazing way to travel, although I did feel rather guilty just sitting there while we were pedalled along. The talk went well, over 100 people in a big church, and some excellent questions. The next day I was up at 5am. and off to London for the Be The Change conference at the Westminster Hall.
What follows is an article from the Western Mail newspaper by Christina Zaba which looks at how the Transition concept is spreading across Wales. It shows how much was initiated by the talk in Lampeter a few months ago, and how since then the idea has begun to spread all over the country. This Saturday sees the first coming together of Transition Initiatives from across Wales to explore the need for a **Transition Wales Network**. The event is a 11am, Saturday 17th November at the Royal Welsh Showgrounds, Builth Wells. If you are interested in going, contact martin(at)mfitton.wanadoo.co.uk. More detail on this event can be found below Christina’s article.
How might our response to peak oil and climate change look more like a party than a protest march? This site explores the emerging transition model in its many manifestations
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In Wayne’s World 2 (“you’ll laugh again, you’ll cry again, you’ll hurl again”), the two hapless heroes Wayne and Garth, decide they want to run a rock festival. They book Aerosmith to come and play, but are aware that they don’t have any money to pay them. They are constantly reassured by a series of Castaneda-like visions of Jim Morrison in a desert not to worry; “book them and they will come”, he tells them. In the run up to Transition Bristol’s BIG Event it was an analogy I told the organisers a few times as the scale of what they had planned dawned on them. This was indeed a big event. Hosted in Bristol City Council’s City Hall, this was a big leap of faith for the Transition group which only began less than a year ago. As it turned out, people came, and the event was a huge success (lucky I hadn’t told them that as far as I remember, in Wayne’s World 2, nobody actually does turn up).
