from duncan in ecotopia, co clare, here and now

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday August 20, 2002 14:46 by duncan - oraiste duncancrowley at hotmail dot com

- EASA (European architectural student assembly), Vis island, Croatia, 27-11 aug 2002 - ECOTOPIA, world environmental gathering, dells woods, bealkelly woods, @ Scariff, county Clare, Ireland. 10-24 august 2002 - NETWORK, ongoing communication systems, both real and virtual, toward FUSPEY > fun, sustainable, peaceful, existence

14.18 tue 20 Aug. 2002

Greetings one and all, Duncan here, hope you are all well and things are going good for you.

3 things to tell you about
- EASA (European architectural student assembly), Vis island, Croatia, 27-11 aug 2002
- ECOTOPIA, world environmental gathering, dells woods, bealkelly woods, @ Scariff, county Clare, Ireland. 10-24 august 2002
- NETWORK, ongoing communication systems, both real and virtual, toward FUSPEY > fun, sustainable, peaceful, existence

EASA
(European architectural student assembly), Vis island, Croatia, 27-11 aug 2002

Basically 400+ architectural students, artists, musicians, and related people took over an old army barracks on the Croatian island of Vis in the Adriatic.
The island was not allowed tourists pre 1990 as it was the safe haven for the Yugoslavian government in times of war. 1990 the war happened and the Yugoslav army left without loss of life on either side. The barracks was used then as a refugee centre during the Balkan war.
There is peace now and amazing creative people in Croatia are trying to turn the barracks into something very special.

What is EASA,
EASA (European architectural student assembly) is a system whereby mainly architectural students meet up every year for 2 weeks and do workshops, communicate, make contacts and basically have an amazing creative fun time.

The theme this year was “senses”
This year there was 25 workshoops of all sorts
The workshop I was involved in was NETWORK with don foresta. We explored the idea of network, talked about the new renaissance or revolution, made art and explored ideas.
We also turned a derelict building into an art gallery the “samogor art gallery” and we are developing a virtual “samogor art gallery” in website form to continue communication and to act as a meeting place for new people and ideas.
Numbers were limited unfortunately, Ireland was offered 6 places but we could only fill 3 due to poor communication on my part, other commitments like work, and no interest by many

EASA will be on next year in Denmark. The theme will be “sustainability” and hopefully many more people will come along, EASA is not only for students. Anyone can ask to do a workshop and if accepted come and do it.

EASA is a non hierarchical system, it is 20 years old and it ROCKS

ECOTOPIA, world environmental gathering, dells woods, bealkelly woods, @ Scariff, county Clare, Ireland. 10-24 august 2002

years

ecotopia is a world environmental gathering. It is absolutely amazing. Last year it was in Bulgaria, next year it will be in Ukraine. It is in dells woods, 3 miles south of scarriff, on the killaloe road. In north east Clare (the banner county, and the most beautiful in all of Ireland in my biased view)

basically it is a 2 week long gathering of individuals from all over the world who are living in a sustainable environment in a beautiful forest on the banks of lough derg, one of the largest lakes of the river Shannon.

There has already been over 1000 people visiting, passing through or living here.
There are workshops on every day, with issues ranging from recycling, anti war action groups, how to build a tee pee, drumming, anti nuclear protest, nature walks, Celtic spirituality, what to do if arrested, global economincs etc

There are films about current social injustices and revolutions ie, Prague, new papua, argentina, reclaim the streets, northern Ireland punk scene in the 70`s and lots more
All electricity is from specially Paddy designed bicycle powered generators

There are tee pees, morrocon tents, yurts, geodesics, a campsite, tree houses and a whole lot more
Food is from the vegan kitchen, is very tasty and served 3 times a day. Im missing lunch now due to this piece of NETWORKING

Just to see it is an amazing thing in itself, my mam is coming down tomorrow morning and there are so many lovely people here. Here because they care about whats going on in the world, they want to learn about global politics, economics and injustices and do something to positively challenge it.

We are trying to live as sustainably as possible and learn how to do it more so.
Every day you live and learn, and personally, I am learning loads here. It is AMAZING
On Thursday there is a full moon party in the woods, should be class

Its on till next Saturday night, so come along and experience.. It could be the most strange and wonderful thing you have ever experienced in your life so far.

NETWORK
ongoing communication systems, both real and virtual, toward
FUSPEY > fun, sustainable, peaceful, existence

While in Croatia I worked with don foresta, an American man who has been living and working from paris since 1971
He is working with the MARCEL network, an online communication system for the inclusion of artistic experimentation in the ongoing revolution / renaissance

Revolution / renaissance. Whats that about. Basically it’s the fact that we as human beings are beginning to totally readdress the way we see life. the fundamentals of how we see things are changing for different reasons. The last time this happened was the renaissance around 400 years ago.

Why is this?
Advances in science and technology have allowd for 2 major breakthroughs which have shaped our new view
- in the 1920`s technology was developed to look into the atom, it was thought then that the atom was the smallest physical piece of matter. They found that the atom is 90+ % empty space. Science now sees it that existence is nothing more than dynamic flows of energy that manifest themselves in different forms. LIFE IS VERY STRANGE
- in the 1960`s technology was developed to see the first real picture of our home, a photograph of planet earth taken from a spaceship in space. We live on a planet which is floating in space, again LIFE IS VERY STRANGE

so what has the network got to do with this?

We live on a planet, we have limited resources, we have lots of people living here. If we continue living the way we do we will end all life on this planet. We have to learn how to work with nature.

Most people live in terrible conditions due to war, famine, lack of food, persecution etc.
Unjust economic, political, social systems keep this so as the powerful few can continue to exploit so as to keep rich for the short while
More and more individuals around the world are learning about what’s going on and with that are doing something about it. Millions are taking to the streets to tell the worlds leaders they have to change their ways and more and more are joining day by day.

How is this all possible?
Because of the 3rd major world revolution after the agricultural @ 8000 years ago and the industrial 300 years ago
The information revolution

we are communicating information and with that educating ourselves, we are exploring what is right and what is wrong and taking positive direct action to make a difference. Networks are the key to communication, they are growing and growing toward a FUSPEY state, fun, sustainable, peaceful, existence.

Find out about it, learn, live, love

that’s about it. Sorry for the length, this statement is a communication tool which works in many systems on many levels

come to ecotopia and be amazed. Links below to relevant sites

www.indymedia.org - main media, (an open system) of the revolution
www.oraiste.com - my website, with lots of interesting pictures and discussions, contribute
www.EASA -----------------
www.ecotopia2002.org ---------------
www.mmmarcel----------------

sin e

slán libh

Duncan O`Cruadhlaoich

p.s can someone please post this information on www.archeire.com , Ireland unofficial architectural website. Paul clerkin is the host of the site and he is a member of the internal board of the AAI, association of architects in Ireland. AAI is for the advancement of discussion about all angles of architecture. I am banned from archeire for some reason. Still no proper reason why, “people don’t like your views”. No problem with that personally but how can architecture progress if its virtual discussion space is a closed system, an almost fascist like sytem which doesent allow for dialogue of all sorts, progressive Ireland????

On that note I am leaving Ireland to finish my studies in England. I have been accepted to brookes university in oxford to finish my final 2 years.
I am leaving as I find the architectural scene here dead. Very few people are interested in learning about architecture in todays global sense. I found the overall attitude in my college, boring, sterile, depressing, childish for the most part. There were some great times but overall I feel as I have been wasting my time there. There is so much to do.

I love my home, Ireland and will be sad to leave. But I feel I must

Slán aris

Dunk 14.39