Doing Less With Less

Image: Ronin by @neauoire

I’ve been a fan of the work of Devine Lu Linvega and Rekka Bell from before they decided to move onto a boat and sail the world. Their work occupies an amazing space of very digital, very contemporary and often cold and dark aesthetics while simultaneously feeling humane, intimate and personal. They’re some of my favorite digital creators.

When they sold their possessions and moved onto a boat to sail the world as a ‘floating studio’ called 100 Rabbits I was absolutely fascinated. I’ve followed their journey through their series of wonderful monthly patreon funded short documentaries. If you are someone interested in both experimental aesthetics AND experimental ways of living, I strongly recommend you check them out.

I think we all need to figure out better ways of living, both on the planet, in relationship to capitalism and consumption and with ourselves and one another. It’s very possible that the next era to come will not be characterized by the cheap energy, disposable raw materials and general churning excessive consumption of our current era. Learning to live and be content with less, on less, and consuming less seem like valuable skills. Living on a boat is an example of minimalism in terms of space and resources. It also represents a kind of untethered flexibility that I think we may do well to embrace in the next era of less, or in the current moment. One of the reasons we consume so much is the feeling that whatever it is needs to be done now, and quickly. We need to jet across the world for three days and then back. What if we were not so tightly coupled to schedules, external dependencies and urgent but not important complexities. What if we could take time to get where we wanted or needed to be, and allow the wind to blow us there slowly and indirectly?

I recently re-read the wonderful Walkaway by Cory Doctorow in which he portrays a kind of post-scarcity post-capitalist, utopian anarchist future. It’s beautiful and harrowing, I can’t do it full justice here but  I think you’ll love it. In it he depicts groups of people who live in zeppelins that bumble along slowly, going where the wind takes them. Untethered and free.

One of my greatest desires in my current life is for time. I think of myself as living in a time famine, a time desert. These conditions give rise often to an obsession with life hacks, productivity improvements and effectiveness fidgeting, but another solution to time famine is elimination, decoupling and drifting away. Doing less with less.