March 2008

I like simple aphorisms that make me happy when I say them out loud. I’m not alone in this. I’ve noticed a few sites in my world that started with a simple but idealistic precept — that individual change can be fun and in aggregate can be funner(tm) — have matured and born fruit over the past few years. One is the self-explanitory site changeeverything.ca. Funded by the best damn credit union/bank in the world, Vancity, the evolution of this online community/blog was guided by Kate Dugas.

Then there is the Learning to Love you More website, associated with a book of the same name, instigated by Miranda July (the writer/actor of that excellent Me You and Everyone We Know film). The exercises suggested by the site are designed to encourage participants to engage in simple but intimate ways with their neighbourhoods, the physical place which includes plants, animals and other people. Trish Mau introduced me to this site and she has been completing some of the exercises judiciously.

Then I went to the Creative Activism show last night which was also the inaugural opening of the Toronto Free Gallery (just down the street from me). I got to make a ‘city repair’ request of Urbane Repairs representative Martin Reis, who was sitting behind a desk typing up request slips, claiming to be able to make the ‘city fun’ and ‘do in a week what takes the city 5 years’. I hope my request for a bike lane and local traffic only on St. Clarens between College and Bloor gets some prompt attention.

And just this morning I ran across this lovely site (again associated with a book) Things I Have Learned in my Life So Far which uses typography and video as a creative frame for recording social/environmental interventions that demonstrate what the site contributors have learned so far. Beautiful, thoughtful videos are the result.

So to conclude, there is a trend here: The pithy aphorism comes off the page or out of someone’s mouth. It becomes action, it touches others, touches a place. Then gets recorded, uploaded. Finally it inspires someone else to try her own hand at a living action and to share what she has learned, adding to the community cultural bank.

A very good model indeed.