E-Soul

K

(@kevin)

Posts: 60

Estimable Member Admin Registered

Topic starter

Let's start with an enigmatic post ...

Hallo world! (Dreamland)

Dreamland

Are we smart? (Dreamland)

Dreamland

Are we smart? (Dreamland)

Are we smart?

Or how smart are we?

Our survival

Our urban colonization of the Earth

by us sedentary humans

started out with a stewardship

akin to colonies of termites

cultivating fungi in their self-built nests,

while we used local mineral

clay and excrement

to create shelter and cultivate

edible plants.

But as the city sprawled,

extending its eventually industrially-produced

brick-metal-concrete-asphalt claws

and fuming its carbon-toxin-laden breath,

it started to claim and cover more

of the non-human animal,

plant and mineral world.

We had put our survival first,

above all other life,

while these increasingly alienating

hubristic machines,

and the human creators who enabled them

to roam freely and untamed,

actually aimed at polluting and taking over

each and everyone in the environment,

with humans and their cute pets

becoming robots

and machines ruling supreme

on an Earth turned into

a literal spaceship Earth.

As the city sprawled

we had put our survival first

Our survival first

Are we smart?

Or how smart are we?

This insolence ignited the spark

for the growth

of an urban counterculture,

of indignant more ecocentric,

less egocentric humans

who want to create an urban habitat

that is again beaming with life

by reintroducing local fauna and flora,

revitalizing the cityscape with city-wide

public parks, gardens, ponds and lakes.

It would mean a return to cultivation

of edible plants in the city centre

just like in our ancient cities.

It would mean a removal

of the car-centric infrastructure,

a reclamation of the streets

by making room for free public transport

and healthy ways of moving around

as pedestrians, cyclists and skaters

in large, open, partly-paved public playing grounds

which we as playful beings can share

with our fellow city dwellers and visitors.

During frequent inclusionary block parties,

the live creation, performance and reflection

on urban culture

will contribute to thriving communities

using hip hop music, rap poetry, breakdance,

street art, bmx, skating and slow fashion

to inspire people,

to make them feel the responsibility

to contribute to a better tomorrow

We as playful beings

We can share

We with our fellow city dwellers

We and

We as playful beings

We can share

We with our fellow city dwellers

We

Dreamland

We

Dreamland

We-we-we

We

We as a collective want to tell the story of this reclamation,

of the currently on-going, soul-crushing, fierce battle, taking place in the public arena,

We want a more healthy, safe and appealing city and country life for us all,

not just for machines,

not just for machines

We want to capture how this invasive yet exciting new technology feels like

and translate it into ever-morphing, dark and light, physical and virtual mediascapes.

We dream and yearn for the day we can grab some veggies,

fresh from the city streets,

while biking through a vibrant, biodiverse urban dreamland..

Dreamland

Dreamland (How smart are we?)

Dreamland

Dreamland (How smart?)

Dream, dream, dream,

dream, dream, dream,

dream, dreamland

Dreamland

... more to come!

Posted : 15/12/2021 7:38 pm

K

(@kevin)

Posts: 60

Estimable Member Admin Registered

Topic starter

Here's the video of the Dreamland Manifesto created by the E-Soul Collective: https://vimeo.com/657019254

Posted : 21/12/2021 12:45 pm

T.S. Anna reacted

Henry Byrne

(@henry)

Posts: 9

Active Member Admin Registered

Kevin, thanks for the link. Could you run me through what you think this means, who it is for and why? Also, you mentioned a manifesto. Is Dreamland the manifesto or somewhere else?

Posted : 22/12/2021 12:00 pm

Henry Byrne

(@henry)

Posts: 9

Active Member Admin Registered

Love the test, really nice writing,

Posted : 22/12/2021 12:06 pm

K

(@kevin)

Posts: 60

Estimable Member Admin Registered

Topic starter

@henry The video is the manifesto!

Our work 'Dreamland' is a poetic reflection on the future of the city in the form of a multimedial manifesto in which problems and solutions are raised.
Indigenous peoples and ancient cities like Angkor already showed how we can live sustainably in cities. In our day and age we suffer from pollution by making use of relatively inefficient machines but we can also benefit from new iterations of machines that allow for a more healthy life in our increasingly crowded cityscapes.
We think the continuous creation and presentation of urban arts on inclusionary playful platforms can play a pivotal role in creating lively public spaces that reflect what is going on in the local community and in the world at large.

Posted : 22/12/2021 12:22 pm