Theun Karelse: Tsunamipants

How do you relate to global crises in a way that is not demotivating? The discussion about our future is dominated by appeals for austerity and reduction. This is not a very inspiring message as it focuses on negative aspects of society. It is hard to see a positive revolution on a global scale, based on negative arguments. Instead we should focus on positive changes that inspire everyone. This debate should be dominated by the possibility of increasing the quality of life.

The Tsunamipants project shows the traps that are hidden in responding to problems by coming up with solutions that are built within the limits of the problem. This invariably creates new versions of the same problem, it doesn't solve them. That is the tragedy in which the inventor Martin Brolin is caught in Tsunamipants. Martin engages the extreme weather conditions that are associated with future climate changes and tries to engineer his way out-off danger. In his work Mr. Brolin suffers from lack of expertise, lack of budged, oversized ambition and being over-all mediocre. These are common human traits that run beneath the surface of positive social change. To be able to construct anything realistically and therefor longlasting, I suggest we start by acknowledging that there is nothing inherently wrong with being mediocre. I realise that this goes against giant forces in popular culture, but Martin is deliberately portrayed as a mediocre inventor, although I only later became fully conscious of why I was doing this.

In progress: http://libarynth.org/research_report_theun_karelse