The Dark Mountain Blog
Uncivilisation 2010
posted by Paul Kingsnorth
12th January, 2010
It’s barely half a year since the Dark Mountain Project was launched, but with the new year still young, it’s time to shift things up a gear. We have been thrilled and flattered by all of the interest there has been out there in our frankly experimental attempt to create new narratives for new times. There’s clearly an appetite, born from current events, for what we’ve been trying to say.
Today we announce an event and launch a campaign which mark the next stage of this project. We need your help to get there: between now and 15th February, we aim to raise £4000 (or $7000) to cover the costs of publishing our first book-length journal – and we’re offering a range of rewards and recogition to those who help us reach that target.
As we had hoped, a movement is genuinely beginning to coalesce around the Dark Mountain Project; a movement of creative, thinking people, who have stopped believing the ‘one more push’ narrative of the green activists; who are bored with the clever cynicism of much contemporary art and literature; and who don’t believe that the much-vaunted ‘sustainable’ future will, could or even should become a reality.
There are two key ways in which the project of Uncivilisation will move forward in the first six months of this year: the first issue of the Dark Mountain Journal, and our first festival.
May is when it all happens. That’s when the journal will be launched; and it will be launched at UNCIVILISATION 2010: the first Dark Mountain festival, which will take place on the (bank holiday) weekend of Friday 28th to Sunday 30th May. That’s the weekend that you should block out in your diaries immediately, because you’ll end up feeling very sorry for yourself indeed if you miss out on the chance to come and get involved in the Uncivilising project.
First, the journal. Issue 1 of Dark Mountain will be a book-length, cloth-bound hardback, designed and printed by our artisan friends at Bracketpress, laying out, for the first time, the beginnings of Uncivilisation in print. We are sifting through contents and potential contents now, and it is thrilling stuff.
We already know this issue will include essays from award-winning writer Jay Griffiths, author of Wild, two highly acclaimed poets, Glyn Hughes and Mario Petrucci, and other writers including Alastair McIntosh, Simon Fairlie, Ran Prieur and John Michael Greer. There will be new poetry from Melanie Challenger, Mark Rylance, Mario Petrucci and Louis Jenkins; interviews with philosopher Derrick Jensen and Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog; fiction from Paul Kingsnorth, Nick Hunt and others; and comics, artwork and other splendid visual displays. It’s going to be quite something.
As is UNCIVILISATION 2010: the Dark Mountain Festival. Dougald and I have just come out of a planning conflab for this, and we’re both hopping about with excitement. In and around the revamped Pavilion in the beautiful town of Llangollen, nestled amongst the dark mountains of north Wales, we’ll be presenting a weekend-long menu of talks, readings, live music, workshops, demonstrations, art exhibits, walks and more. It’s no coincidence that UNCIVILISATION 2010 clashes with the opening weekend of the Hay-on-Wye Literary Festival. While the literary establishment gathers for its annual love-in, we will muster an opposing army at the other end of Offa’s Dyke for a very different kind of gathering.
We’re looking forward to talks, debates and arguments from writers and thinkers including Alastair McIntosh, Tom Hodgkinson, George Monbiot, Melanie Challenger, Glyn Hughes and Jay Griffiths; a writers’ panel discussion on the failures of literature to tell the real stories of a collapsing world; music from Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Chris Wood, Chris T-T, Marmaduke Dando’s Powerdown and Will Hodgkinson’s Ballad of Britain; outsider art and photography exhibits; a theatre and bookshop; a specially-curated Dark Mountain Cinema; and practical workshops on topics ranging from ‘collapsonomics’ to Uncivilised poetry to foraging for wild food. There is more to be announced, so keep coming back here for updates.
As you’ll see, the Dark Mountain website has also undergone a snow-white, winter deep-clean. You can explore our blogroll and hopefully find things a bit more easily – and you can also buy festival tickets and journals in advance.
As of today, we’ve put the first 100 festival tickets on sale at a reduced price of £55 (After this tranche is gone, the standard price will be £60 each). This covers the whole weekend’s activities, plus camping. Book now, as they say, to avoid disappointment.
We’re also launching a funding campaign to raise the costs of printing the Dark Mountain journal. The book will be designed and printed by the wonderful Bracketpress of Rochdale. We’re due to deliver the final text to them on February 15th and we need to pay them around £4,500 for their work. That’s about £4,000 more than we currently have in the Dark Mountain bank account, so we’re asking for your help to raise the difference.
This isn’t just about shaking a hat for donations, though: in return for your contributions, we’re offering copies of the journal and a range of other Dark Mountain bonuses to those who contribute. Here’s the deal (in dollars, because we’re using an American website: rounded-up sterling price in brackets):
- Donate $10 (£6) or more and you’ll get 50% off the price of the journal when it comes out
- For $25 (£15) or more, we’ll send you a copy of the journal, hot off the Bracketpress, to wherever you are in the world – even the South Pole!
- For $50 (£31) or more, you get a copy signed by both of us – and by any of the other contributors we can get to sign it for you
- If you’re willing to contribute $100 (£62) or more, you’ll not only get a signed copy of the journal, but your name will be printed in big letters in a roll of honour at the back of this issue – and you’ll also have our undying thanks
- For $250 (£155) or more, you get all of the above – plus a VIP ticket to UNCIVILISATION: The Dark Mountain Festival. (Small print: this basically means we’ll buy you beers all night and introduce you to the speakers and bands.)
- And anyone who’s able to contribute $500 (£310) or more will get three minutes on stage on the Saturday night of UNCIVILISATION to talk about anything you want. (If you’re shy, we can think of an alternative way of honouring your contribution…)
There are lots of ways that people can help this project on its way, and not all of them involve money. In particular, we’re grateful for the huge number of contributions people have sent in for the journal. The standard has been extremely high – and reading them, we can see how strongly you have connected to the ideas and the arguments we’ve hosted here over the past few months.
If you sent us material and you still haven’t heard back from us – we promise we will be in touch very soon either way. Many thanks for your patience; we were overwhelmed and have had a hard time keeping up. If you are still thinking of contributing, please do: lines are now open for contributions for issue 2. And we are still looking for acts to perform at the festival: if you have any thoughts, whether you are a speaker, a poet, an artist, a musician, gardener or have any other skills you think need airing, please do drop us a line soon. We’re also open to recommendations for people you’d like to see in the line-up.
The aim of the Dark Mountain Project has always been to curate a conversation and to let things happen naturally, rather than simply broadcast our own Very Important Thoughts. It is in this spirit that the festival will be held; coming along will make you not a spectator but a participant, in any way you choose to interpret that.
Finally, we will use the next few weeks on this blog to introduce the work of some of the writers who’ll feature in the journal and at the festival. We think that all of this should keep us all pretty busy for a while. Happy new year!
Posted by Paul Kingsnorth on 12 January, 10
Posted in: Blog
Comments: 28 comments - Read them and respond
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Congrats on the new journal. I look forward to reading it and funding it…lol…just money is tight and it will be next week.
But before the publication, I notice something though, since I can’t get to the festival, there isn’t any reason to fund beyond $100. You might want to consider that.
Best of luck and I expect you’ll easily raise what you need.
Thanks! And good point about the funding campaign. So… what do you reckon we should offer people who can’t make it to Wales, as an alternative? Maybe we could hold a group Skype conference just for them with some of the speakers? Or are there other ideas I haven’t thought of? Anyway, we should definitely do something.
Perhaps someone could film the festival – you know, important speakers, music, best workshops, go round the site talking to people and get their thoughts, that kind of thing – and edit it onto a DVD and sell that on the site. It could be a sort of rockumentary, an undocumentary, of setting the site up, interviews with Paul and Dougald, soundtrack from some of the performing bands, cover art by the illustrators/artists, an accompanying booklet with an intro from a writer (like you’d find on the backs of those old jazz records), and photographs from the event…all manner of possibilities.
The donators above $100 get a free copy. That might not be incentive enough for the higher bracket donations, but it could be one thing they get extra.
It’s a shame that UNCIVILISATION 2010 clashes not only with the Hay-on-Wye Literary Festival, but also with the Transition movement’s annual get-together. A tricky one for me personally, given that I’m a Transition author, and I’d imagine perhaps a tough choice for many other Dark Mountaineers.
Well if you can’t wrangle a plane ticket to Wales, then I second the suggestion you film the event. The posterity implications aside, listening to the lectures and guest speakers would be worth the price. It would be a good money maker too.
Thanks for these suggestions, folks; very useful. We’re going to reword the funding campaign slightly soon. We will definitely try and sort out filming the event also, or parts of it, and making the films available on the site here afterwards.
Tickets are selling well, by the way, so if you plan to come, grab yours before the price goes up!
Dear Paul & Dougald
This all looks really exciting! Just a thought / question about people with families / young kids like myself. Does each adult need a seperate ticket? What about children? I guess you’ll want to be as inclusive as you can?
All the best
Dave
Hi Dave -
Thanks for asking. Adults need a ticket each, yes, but children under 16 come free. We’re working on getting a few childrens’ things underway, though obviously most of the events are adult-focused. But Llangollen is a very child-friendly town, with cafes, pubs, canal boats, steam trains and the like.
I don’t know if this fits or seems a little cliched but there are some decent craftsmen pole lathing, doing green woodwork, bow making, iron-age forging etc etc who can contribute some very interesting life experiences to gatherings such as the Dark Mountain Festival could be. They fit in well to locations like Llangollen and would certainly fit with the foragers. They could add a little hands on stuff for those who are interested, have some very interesting perspectives on the future, and, networking-wise, I’d say it could work quite well with the movement. I know a lot of contacts. What say you?
Alas, currently very skint. Will think of how I can contribute/raise money as soon as I can.
Music-wise etc in terms of acts for the Dark Mountain Project Festival, I think we all ought to nominate some decent local bands who would be both entertaining and affordable. From round here (the Midlands) I would nominate Splatt!! http://www.myspace.com/thebandsplatt , Erica Nockalls http://www.myspace.com/ericanockalls with Miles Hunt http://www.myspace.com/theactualmileshunt and Tim Parks http://www.myspace.com/timothyparkesmusic
Great to see plans for the festival coming together, but I hope you’ll be able to cater for those who might only want/be able to attend specific days. I guess there will be plenty of folk like me who would love to join in with the ‘day’ stuff, but would prefer to scurry off home in the evening to reflect and digest, rather than dance the night away… Is there any provision for day, or perhaps even morning/afternoon tickets in the offing? Fingers crossed…
Gav – on the woodworkers, etc. Yes, I had been thinking along these lines too. Do drop us an email on info@dark-mountain.net. And thanks for the band links – will take a look.
John – at present we’re focused on selling weekend tickets. When we’ve sold a good number of these we’ll set our minds to other options. It may well be that we will sell day tickets on the door come the festival, but we’re not selling them online, at least right now.
No probs. Have sent a link just now. As I say, these bands are great and I think would fit in pretty good, but if people could use this to rave about bands in their area who they could see fitting in, you might have more to go on. Cheers
This has been a niggle in the back of my mind. I gotta say something, and none of it implies that I am not a fan; I am. But but but… you want for us to give you money for the printing. Then for the book. Then for the festival. It sorta seems like more of BAU… selling more stuff. I reread your purpose… “new ways of seeing and writing about the world”… and I don’t see anything about new ways of *being* in the world. I am troubled.
Hi Vera,
Well, it’s the old trap, isn’t it? How do we do anything without money? In this society, the answer is, we don’t do much; or at least we can’t print and design 1000 copies of a good quality book for nothing. Similarly we can’t pay for a festival venue, book campsites, pay the expenses of performers etc etc for nothing either.
So if we’re going to do any of this, we need some cash. We don’t have any ourselves – so the question becomes, how do we get it? We obviously don’t want to be selling advertising, or being sponsored. We don’t want to get into the business of applying for big grants from official-sounding bodies who might tie us up in red tape or water down what we do. We have applied for some more informal grants from supportive bodies or individuals. But that still leaves us short.
So what we chose to do was ask for pre-emptive support from those who consider themselves part of the project. All we’re doing, at its most basic, is selling what we have to offer in advance. We’re asking those who’d like a journal, in this case, to pre-order one if possible. Then we get the money upfront to pay for printing it. Ditto the festival.
It’s worth pointing out that no-one involved in this project is being paid anything and that we’re not going to be making any personal profits from any of this. Any money we raise beyond what we need this time round, if we’re lucky enough to get to that point, will sit in the bank and be used to pay for issue 2 of the journal. We’re keeping costs as low as we can. We are not paying any of our writers or performers at present (something that I would like to change in the future, as I strongly believe that creative people ought to be able to make at least some kind of living from what they do.) But even with all of that, nothing comes for free.
We thought this was a reasonably creative, and also fair and open, way of raising the money we need to do what we do. We’re open to alternative suggestions for fundraising at all times, of course. For my part, I don’t like asking anyone for money. But nothing comes for free (despite what some people on various parts of the net might have you believe!) so it’s really about how to best raise what’s needed as openly as possible.
Not criticising you at all Vera, I’ve scarcely ever broken even myself in my life and I struggle to fork out for anything like this, but the fact is that many of us (and you may not be one of them) too often don’t think much about where we spend our money, and it goes to the usual booksellers because they are in our towns or on the net while we’re at work, or whatever it may be, and then it’s only later we complain that our local branch of CorpoLit doesn’t stock poetry by anyone who doesn’t also, mainly, do stand-up, or that they are paying less and less of a percentage to writers and have only books by celebrities. Sometimes you have to make a stand, and sometimes you have to take a punt on something because you believe in it. Ok, you don’t HAVE to, but it’s worth it because enough of what we might otherwise be tempted to spend money on in the greater scheme of things, because it’s there, and because it’s easy, and because however in tune we may be our own vigilence for corporate crap we can’t always be 100% tuned in to it without us losing our sense of humour and fun and other things that are important, is utterly without value. If this comes off people might take notice. They might not. But, hell, if people reading this have the money they might otherwise be spending on overpriced cinema tickets, subscriptions to glossy mags full of plausible misinformation, overpriced booze in faceless places you’d have to work hard to get drunk in, and on sundry foreign-made gubbins, then, I figure it’s worth giving this a go so we can stop walking around with people forever putting words in our mouths and take charge of our own narratives again.
I agree Gav, it is about trying to break free of the monopoly that the powerhouses have over what we read, see, and, ultimately, think. Of course, we feel that we are free to think what we want, but the effect that various media have on our thought processes is immense, and it is a fundamental finding in psychology that thought is determined largely by the symbols that we process and the ideas they convey. That’s why great ideas take a long time to take seed, germinate and become part of our cultural landscape. I remember attending a lecture years ago where the speaker was arguing that Einstein’s theories of relativity were fostered in a climate of change in Eurpope that was beginning to question the nature of time and space, not just by scientists, but by writers (Proust, Joyce, Eliot), artists (Picasso, Braque), architects (?), and musicians (Stravinsky, Schoenberg), amongst others. He conjectured that Einstein could never have come up with his revolutionary ideas had he not been immersed in this burgeoning re-definition of reality. There are no doubt many other examples.
Challenging the old out-dated forms and concepts is critical to developing new perspectives, but this does not take place in a cultural vacuum. Darwin was aided by Malthus and Lyle; he said that he’d never have struck on the idea of modification by descent had he not read their works.
Genuinely new ways of thinking come along rarely, and there has never been a time more in need of a fresh approach than now (actually, is that nonsense?). Typically, those who control our media, and get to decide what we should be exposed to – or what they think we want – wield most power in shaping our thought. And they are loathe to take big risks, for fear that it will lose them money, or credibility, or their jobs.
Consequently, we need this independent, unfashionable approach – and we need it now.
As Paul said though, we still live in a world where money talks, and to reach out to a decent-sized audience, who may well be wanting a change but don’t yet know what it is, requires investment, else the authentic stuff that has integrity languishes on the web, and only a select sympathetic few become aware of its relevance and the challenge it poses.
I am grateful for all the responses. Paul, I realize you gotta play the game, and I won’t torment you about it no mo’. I’ll even admit I am looking forward to the tome, and will fork over the moolah. Just do me a favor and insist that Derrick Jensen does not just recycle one of this old essays for this… been doing it a little too much lately… ;)
What I really was getting at is something deeper. I have been glued like many of us to the writings etc of the various doomertainers, and while it’s been a real learning experience, I am also realizing that I have, in a way, been held in thrall by the clearly expressed horror of it all… sort of like the folks of an earlier era were held spellbound by the hellfire preachers. And I want to be doing less of that from now on, and more of “doing.”
Which leads me to muse… is the Dark Mountain Project basically a venue for increasing the doomertainers’ audience? I am ok with that, but I had thought that there was more to it. That it really is — at a deeper level — a path toward uncivilizing. And if it is that, then doing and being in other, unciv ways ought to be at the center of it.
“Seeing and writing” is good. But I think we all know that the only thing that will make a *difference* is living differently. Is the Dark Mountain Project committed to that path?
P.S. I am not using “doomertainment” as a pejorative. Just calling it what it in essence is… people writing and exhorting and keeping others glued to their rants and tales… but not necessarily doing anything else. And in another sense, it is itself part of the spectacle. This aspect of it has begun to make me uncomfortable.
Vera -
Why don’t you wait and see what the journal and the festival look like before you make any judgements? The Dark Mountain project is not ‘doomertainment’, no. There is no obvious dividing line between writing and ‘doing’. This is a cultural project. It is not focused on ‘practical’ ways of living if by that you mean how to forage wild food and go off-grid. Doubtless people involved are also doing those things. There will be some of them on show at the festival. But we are what we say we are – an attempt to write new stories. If the stories don’t move you, you don’t have to read them.
The Dark Mountain Project is also, of course, what you make it. Feel free to help make it something with positive suggestions.
Ok, you want concrete suggestions. Let me see…
When I read that you want to give the mike for 3 minutes to the rich donors, I felt dismay because I am wanting our (unciv) work to embody altogether *other* values. How about giving the mike to any attendee who has something particularly interesting to say, regardless of whether they can afford to pay extra? Put the rich donors on the evaluating panel, like Britain’s Got Talent. :)
Second, with the next edition of the journal, how about asking for contributions that devote only half their time to spinning thinking-type stories, and the other half of their time to doing-type stories of this is how I am attempting to live what I think? I am concerned that uncivvers are getting top-heavy on analysis and vague exhortations.
Vera–
As I understand it, the m.o. of the journal and festival is neither analysis nor exhortation, it’s imagination. The internet is chock-full of the former two, as well as how-to advice. Dark Mountain wants to be something different, I think.
Vera,
I’ve heard a lot of criticism from you, much of it based on misconceptions.
The journal is open to anyone who wants to write anything that chimes with the spirit of the project. Read the information on this website about it; read it carefully. We are entirely open to any kind of writing. You speak as if you know what will be in the first issue. How do you know that what you wish to see will not be in there?
Ditto the festival. We have asked again and agin for people to suggest things they’d like to do at the festival. Many have done; many will be coming along to provide us with wonderful stuff. it’s a participatory event. The whole point is that ‘the mike’ is open to people with interesting things to say.
Meanwhile, you haven’t submitted anything for the journal or made any suggestions for the festival. Neither have you come up with alternative ways of funding them, or offered us any of your time (for free, like ours) to help make things happen. Criticism is always welcome, but so is help, and I do get aggrieved when I feel that criticism is unfair and based on misunderstandings.
I regret I’ll be unable to come to the festival. It would be great if someone could make a film so I can see what I’ve missed. I agree with what Ed says about Dark Mountain wanting to be something different. I understand Vera’s emphasis on the importance of ‘doing-type stories,’ but would argue that there already exist scores of ‘doing-type story’ outlets, and DM is aiming to open up an altogether different type of debate. It’s not a handbook in how to be green, and shouldn’t try to be. There has been an enormous surge of ecological information over the past few years, and I’m not sure the world needs another source at the moment. DM offers the possibility of exploring the changes to our world in a different language. No-one else is doing this. That’s what makes it such an exciting project.
I just found out about this project via Ran Prieur whom I have been reading nigh on six years, and am very excited by it and am thinking I’d like to get to Wales in May (always wanted to visit Wales).
Paul, I didn’t detect read as much criticism in Vera’s comments, rather an honest expression of her hopes and fears. I like her ideas and can relate to the considerations she has tactfully raised, and they do not at all seem about bashing (I love the para. with the “hellfire preachers”). I think she is expressing what she hopes this project is and is making sure of what she hopes it isn’t.
Your project is exactly what I’ve been looking for for a long time–conversation and community-building around the kind of ideas expressed in your manifesto and eight principles. The genius is in the storytelling approach.
Just a little la la comment….
Your finance structure (and subsequent defence of) is very clear. Good work!
I am a Westcountry man married to a Kurd living in Turkey. I say this because DM is born from the same island as myself, off the continental shelf. Out here where the Asian Plateau meets the lake of the Meder(descended from Noahs sun) Teranni(Earth Mother), Mediteranean, tribal loyalties are strengthened.
I am slowly starting to embrace the efforts of the communal DM ‘thinking’ into a personal moral philisophical framework or structure from which I boldy brave the mental airwaves of civilisation. This work is great! You are sowing seeds, they are growing. I take inspiration each time I revisit the site. DM is a resource I can access from ‘over here’ to stimulate and ultimately assist my work in preparing for the next.
I appreciate the gong needs to be banged for Wales festival, just try to keep the fabric of the site strong. Dont need it as one big signpost. The site is such an important reference point for navigators of climate confusions and all the rest! For explorers beyond the myth….
And to Vera
I think I am starting to try and take more responsibility on a personal level about how I balance thinking type activites with doing type activities. I dont need to make DM fit into how I think this balance to be achieved. It is what it is and it deserves a little respect from you. (As we must respect the god/individual in all folk we meet in life) Our culture is littered with examples of how we desperately try to mould our surroundings to fit our egos or our ‘needs’, on all levels.
This, to me, at this moment in time, is one aspect of what DM and uncivilisation principles outline. I am tired of religeous mantra. I am tired of a feeling of corporate moulds and streaming. I am uncomfortable with the imposition of order on creation! Isnt it the other way round?
Peace and good wishes from the Aegean for your efforts and for your festie.
I’m not sure how this will go down, but Anthony Gormley’s article in yesterday’s Guardian books section suggests he might make an interesting contribution if you asked him along to the festival: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/13/antony-gormley-climate-change-art
A taster, which sounds pretty Uncivilised to me:
“At the British Museum there is a carving of two reindeer, crafted from a mammoth tusk 12,000 years ago. The artist’s depiction of the antlers pressed against the flanks of the female in front, with the stag at the rear, of the eyes and the winter markings of the coat are the result of acute observation and enormous empathy with the life of these animals. It was by following the seasonal migrations of reindeer that modern Europeans survived between ice ages. When swimming across a glacial melt river, the deer were easily hunted. The making of this object was an expression of connection, identification with the continuation of life, its interconnectivity both in sex and in death and, by inference, the human position within a chain of being.
…
“We are now in a position to acknowledge that those stages in an evolutionary past that would, in previous times, have been thought of as primitive, are coexisting in this era and are not superseded – and actually the use of the fetish and the totem as reference points for a model of art are enormously useful.”
I’d also suggest maybe finding a number for Richard Powers, having just read a short story of his, The Seventh Event, in an old copy of Grant (#90).
“Nature has no philosophy. It makes no judgements and writes no books. Only we do that. We cannot look to nature for a moral foundation, for nature will try everything at least once, not least of all perpetual cheating and exploitation. The web of life does not mourn extinction. It USES extinction.”
As for music, an interesting Welsh band, The Damn Blags, are at http://www.myspace.com/thedamnblags