thisiskeith

on an unobstructed path to glory

Fairtrade installation

Nice outdoor installation to support the Big Swap campaign for Fairtrade Fortnight. You take a picture of your head and text in your unique ID to enter a draw. The three lucky winners have their bonce impressioned into Fairtrade chocolate. (whether this subsequently gets merchandised is unknown, but doubtful)

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It’s next to the Golden Heart opposite Spitalfields Market, by the way.

Permaculture principles

I've been interested in sustainability for a little while now, probably since I heard about peak oil and started to create a bit of a conscience for myself - not enough to actually do something about it, but certainly enough to feel I should be a bit more informed. That's why when I saw a post on Maschmeyer a few weeks back simply titled 'Permaculture', I knew I'd be interested. 

In short, the central challenge that permaculture responds to is society surviving, and prospering, on limited natural resources. I read around this a bit, and (depending on your position on the "We'll all be underwater next week" <----------> "Everything's fine, carry on as you were" continuum) some of it is quite fantastical stuff regarding living it mud huts and surviving on pumpkins. But, when you ignore the extreme, the philosophy that basing eco-system design on techniques that have survived the course of evolution over millions of years (if it ain't broke don't fix it) is inarguably a sound one.

So, on to the 12 principles of permaculture. What strikes me here is how many of the principles below can be carried directly over to a creative process, and can even be applied to the design of the process itself. Certainly over the last two years there's a lot more attention in technical builds on leveraging established systems, re-usability of applications, shared platforms, etc. From a user experience perspective, there's a lot we can take from ongoing observation and modification - as the permaculture design is based on evolution and incremental change. 

The biggest point is that, strategically, we (or at least some) are moving to towards a 'light more fires' type approach. Part of this is due to the fact that technology now allows it, but a large part is because the lack of resource to fund big bang campaigns now demands it. That being the case we could certainly do worse than glancing over the principles below, particularly those around 9'o'clock.