FREeCOLOGY, started by Los Angeles-based artist Andy Manoushagian in October 2008, is a number of things...
- An intermedia attempt to change the world [hopefully for the “better” (whatever that means)] using the smallest amount of resources possible through material and media exploration
- Figuring out how to exist in the 21st century apart from the seemingly encompassing negative energy that is EVERYWHERE while searching for the good stuff that has to be SOMEWHERE. Actions that promote individual EMPOWERMENT!
- A push for a more sustainable and ECOLOGICAL future!
- Emphasis on the psychological aspect that is never talked about because all we’re told to do to “save the world” is buy energy-saving light bulbs and hybrid vehicles
- What can I do if I can’t afford the lightbulbs that are 5x more expensive or (gasp!) I can’t go out and buy a new car?
- Re-appropriation, Re-purposing principles, habits, objects, anything, everything
Want to join up? Great! Not an artist? Doesn't matter! All you need to begin is...
- Awareness
- Creativity
- Little to no budget
- Necessity ("the mother of all invention")
Feel free to contact us if you're interested in getting involved (we're thinking of starting an newsletter)! OR if you can't get involved for whatever reason, you can start your own FREeCOLOGY movement; you can even call it something different, or nothing, if you want (check out the FREe YOURSELF! section to see how we did it). What really matters is that simply relying on the widely-accepted systems of buying, using, and throwing away is not sustainable. The only way to make it work ("it" being humanity continuing its exisitence) is to completely overhaul how we view our raw materials and the methods used to turn them into a product, as well as, the ways in which we've come to place value those products and their uses. Also, it wouldn't hurt to re-think our daily interactions and interconnections with other people.
