I started the 2008 with a pressing need to downsize. I took a look at my duds and realized that most of this stuff has neither a useful nor meaningful significance to me. I live in an area which, while beautiful, also often has to reconcile with nature’s whims. Seeing locals jam their cars full of must-haves and running off into the night every so often makes me wonder… if that were me, could I even locate the important stuff at a moment’s notice? I reckon I’d probably end up with a backpack full of maracas and licorice.
So I packed up a sizeable amount of my junk (I probably still have too many shoes) and sent it off to the local charity, hoping that they would find some benefit in it. Considering everything that made the exodus made me realize that I don’t even know the history of how 99% actually got into my hands from idea to sale. As not only a craftsman but a merchant, I have a comprehensive understanding of distribution processes, cost of goods sold, profiteering and all of that stuff that’s commonly accepted under the larger banner of “how to be successful” but it’s so easy when we’re deciding what to purchase as either a business or consumer to overlook the reasons WHY certain things are so.
Sure I want to be able to purchase things at the most economical price available but will I really buy that 200-piece $1.50 art set knowing that there is no logical way that it could be assigned such a cheap value? I definitely have been guilty of overlooking and even ignoring such incongruence. But I have positive hopes, especially in this global world, that if we just spent an extra moment to consider why we are bringing certain things into our lives and really understood how those things came to be we might be able gain greater internal satisfied and not be so dependent on stuff to provide that for us.
With this project, my Totem experiment, I’ll provide detailed accounts on WHY I create the things that I do and for curios that come from other places, I’ll attach its history and an explanation of why I find it relevant and/or interesting.
For more information about how stuff becomes stuff, the please watch THE STORY OF STUFF, an short film which most excellently illuminates extraction, production, distribution, consumption, disposal and future tips.
