PERMISSION GIVING
I’m Kirsten: urban designer and curious
anarchist.
We live in a culture where anything out of
the ordinary seems to require permission asking. At a dinner table it’s polite
to ask May I have the salt. In the city it should be unnecessary to ask “may I
feed the hungry” I’m here to ask you a
simple question.
Why do you ask "MAY I ?"
DISRUPTION
What I am doing now is called disruption.
I’m taking a commonly held idea or behavior (Business as Usual) and questioning is validity, and
application because its simply not serving us. I’m happy if you use the words disruption
and rebellion interchangeably.
START HERE MAP
The reason I am standing here is because I
drew a map. A colleague of mine was working on a project where the slew of
permissions required are sure to tank the project before even begins. So I drew
the start here map and we began
looking spatially at where invitation to change the city outweighs the
authorities ability to exact permission.
OPPRESSION
The opposite of permission is invitation
and what our rather crude map revealed is that in areas of poverty inequality
and injustice, the invitation to intervene is warm and unambiguous. Where the
status quo is to be maintained, creative expression is kept docile by
administrative burden. I am going to share with you two examples that makes
this clear.
IN THE CITY: NO ONE CARES
About a year ago, a Durban art critic and
curator came to the city to understand what passers by thought of our public
art. What better way to solicit conversation than that quintessential south
African braai. And so food for thought was born. Of course once he sought
permissions it all changedlets start with ‘open flame’!. Once permissions had
been granted, this poor man found himself sufficiently far from any piece of
art to neutralize the original idea, serving certified hallal sausages from a
gas skottle only to be accosted by a passing protest because the only reason
some man would randomly be serving free food in this manner would be to distract
them from getting to parliament.
OUTSIDE THE CITY: EVERYONE DARES
Lets fast forward to a place of
invitation. A place where those who are seen as agents of rebellion are now agents
of change. The street artists, the skateboarders and a crazy botanist. In a place of neglect, there is the
desire to create a place of dignity and belonging.
A devastated river
system every child’s playground, the city's backyard.
This is the Kuilsriver.
I’m involved in a
rehabilitation project with local residents where we are looking to reorientation
the manner in which this space is utilized and maintained. When I asked if they
had permission, they pointed to the home of every surrounding resident
explaining how much time and cost was being plowed in by each individual.
ITS BEAUTIFUL HERE
Albert Camus says this:
”The procedure of beauty,
which is to contest reality while endowing it with unity is also the procedure
of rebellion”
In not asking for permission, we disrupt dysfunctional structure.
To serve people. To serve justice.
We design a Beautiful Rebellion.
SIYABULELA
And there was Siyabulela on the steps of
City Hall.. As an aspiring film maker, he is traveling around South Africa
pasting up this somewhat gaudy plastic backdrop at various venues inviting
artists and passers by to use his impromptu stage.
CREATING A STAGE FOR OTHERS
I myself had arrived at on my bicycle in
the midst of an unsanctioned group ride through the city. I asked him if he had
permission to be there, His answer was simple: by the time someone says yes,
the artists would have left.
Ironically I had been followed by police while riding and
when we came to a standstill at City Hall they said nothing of Sibulela's taped
on pop culture defacement. Not their department.
The cops and I used his stage as a
negotiation space for my defiance.
DON'T SLEEP HERE
The danger in inappropriately asking MAY I
is exactly that. We will miss the moment where life happens. Rather than
incessant intellectualization and justification. We need to move to implementation of
ideas. No more prohibitively expensive conferences and gala dinners to talk
about poverty alleviation.
Take out your tape and Start here.
WDC 2014. This stage.
I always thought if there was a World Design Capital fringe
movement, Id be at the helm. Inspite of all the excellence that has emerged
thus far. The question that no one seems to be asking is what happened to all
the projects that weren’t selected. Over 1200 design interventions.
Entrepreneurial opportuniies and moments for collaborative potential were
submitted. 400 odd were chosen and now only a fraction of those remain
Their in lies my greatest criticism of the yellow monster..
WDC2014 subjected an otherwise creative
and organic design community to asking MAY I ?.
WHAT IS YOUR PROJECT
What is your
creative idea. Here is free hashtag. Don’t ask MAY I? Start here.
THIS RAINBOW NATION
Because...when yellow is over, we are going to
need to dig deep. Intervene and be involved not because the world is watching,
or because yellow is cool, but because we simply must.
Lets waste no time in permission asking,
and needlessly seeking validation.
This is the heart of disruption. To refuse
to accept this human condition - serve justice without adding further
injustice. Less “I am” and more “we are”
Get out there and get it done.
This sounds a lot like anarchy..or a disruption of anarchy.
[THE MASK]
This is THE call to action. To disrupt
through empathy.
While these masks for me evoke images of
protest and revolt, they are an invitation to look through the eyes of another.
The eyes of Everyother.
Spend less so that you can give more.
Talk less so you can listen more
Get out of you car. Get out of your life
Live in moderation
Stop
asking May I ?
Ask
how much, mow much more, how far, why not, who else?
As I conclude I wanted to say something
about authority. I’m a parent of 3 young children. I have often found myself
saying ‘because I say so’. Expecting compliance and setting strict rules. The
most disarming moment for me in this authority is when I am asked not about the
rules I have set but by the compass that guides them.
THE WAITING
Stop asking for permission. Look for
invitations.
Stop allowing action to be hijacked by meaningless
debate.
Ask the right questions first of yourself and
then of others.
Visit our open source led hub @75 Harrington Street find a way to get plugged into making change real.
DISRUPT YOURSELF
Start
here.
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