FrPrjkt phase 2.5 Brief

fRPrjkt is an experimental business plan that works with the idea that the people within the business, who utilize and or enable the business are the priority, fair profit is the result. Working together will enable the communication so that the business can develop along with the needs and wants of the community in which it lives. When people are first, the environment, social justice, cultural diversity and economic equity are components of equal accountability. As social connections, fair play, love, consideration and compassion are as much a part of human nature as is competition, bullying, war and fear; it is time to recognize the major imbalance of our culture and strive to achieve balance.

fRPrjkt believes that working can be part of finding ones highest potential. Meaningful work is a necessary part of healthy societies; as it is how we participate and give back to the whole and how we can create our niche in the complex modern lifestyle. When we understand that health is an interconnected reality we share with the living universe, we find a wondrous heritage we can honor if we decide to enable it with attention and action. FrPrjkt is looking to be that experiment, so that homo sapiens sapient may actually flourish and not just sustain life on this gracious planet.

FrPrjkt phase 2.5

fashionRIP Project is a multi-discipline installation of 7 chapters. It combines recyCouture, science & arts in an exploration of sustainable lifestyles that respects ecosystem balance, sustainable economics, social justice & cultural variety. Starting with the garments, the story grew and called for grander action. The fashionRIP Project is poised to become an experimental business. It needs to start somewhere.

.I believe it is relevant for transitioning cities to offer the local community (individuals, for profits, nons and nots) ways to interrelate and become more than a sum of the parts. We are in a great period of change as our ability to understand the human impacts to natural processes has advanced along with our technology. We now understand that our lives have been enabled by the natural services provided by the air, water and mineral cycles, the flora and the fauna that have participated in the evolution of this planet. We are finding ways to minimize future damage and clean up the mess we made. We realize that our own species also needs healing. The fashionRIP Project’s mission is to explore ways to enable that healing in a business format. I believe it is the responsibility of each person to be mindful of others and the whole. A business can implement that same regard.

We need economic equity so that all humans may realize their full potential. We need to explore possibilities and expand the beliefs our species relied upon as we now know that we truly are in this “life” together along with energies and forces we are only beginning to understand. It is this attempt to heal and reconcile the differences while creating ways to enable meaningful work for today that propels fashionRIP Project.

The plan: FrPrjkt
Share location as in to buy a building as a co-op but maintain individual business models with in the space. This will maximize learning potential and resource development for other similar start ups.

Fr Projkt needs studio space, some dedicated to fashionRIP, so the message can evolve as i/we learn. Workshops’ for skill teaching and sharing, active promotion for people working, teaching and/or taking classes at fRProjkt, gallery, presentation (good space for local talent to flourish) and retail spaces. Will do contract and freelance options (health plan needs to be implemented) and in house marketing for other sustainable businesses and groups. This is about doing many things, so that each thing can be informed by outside brilliance. Understanding the connections will optimize possibilities. The narrow expert is not gone, it is just not the only way to be amazing.

By helping each other we help ourselves become economically stable. Cooperation will be valued over competition as humans are capable of both, we need to understand how to create the healthy balance, that is why fRProjkt is an experimental business it is built to optimize ideas and grow with them The informal research is another component of fRProjkt.as that informs the art which informs the marketing business and …ahah! Organic (bio) pattern cycles.

Moving into Chapter 2

below is the "what it is" blurb that i am sending to 4Culture to see if fashionRIP can pull her own weight ...well at least help! I haven't anything left to sell and refuse to give up on this practice that is my passion.


fashionRIP Project is first of all, an arts installation to be constructed in 7 chapters. It combines recyCouture (form of refashion), video, music, photography, collage, painting, writing, etc. to create the desire for sustainable lifestyles, co-operative economics and social justice.fashionRIP illustrates the positive returns of informed change without denying the problems our species created and now must face. Viva la evolucion! As art can inform the viewer it also informs the artist. As the first chapter “Species on the Verge” is ready to install and the video is up on Youtube, I learned a lot. The fashionRIP blog is a record of that process and it links to the production notes on how that will inform the next chapter and RIPs move towards a multidiscipline co-op location. As I see all things connected, this exploration of the journey through an idea illustrates how life can be a wondrous individual evolution. (Aint all bells and whistles, grins and cheers this kind of journey is an odyssey you must be willing o explore)

Why the fashionRIp Project

Fashion is like an iceberg. Most people just see the tip of it and yet under the surface there is a huge destructive industry that is hard at work pumping out mounds of product under some (not all!) intolerable conditions in a race to sell as fast and as many items as possible and then to have them appear as outdated as soon after purchase as possible. This is necessary in order to create desire for the products of the next season. When stuff sells, people have jobs and the economy looks good.

Throwing barely worn clothing out is bad form, so now we donate them to charity or swap. This is all good intermediary action but we need to look deeper. Think transport carbons, soil depletion by monocropping, toxic processing, sweatshops, landfill acreage….fashion has a platinum link to every one of them.

The refashion and eco friendly material designers are stepping up to redefine what style means. I see this as moving into a positive direction but it cannot be done at this level alone. We need to look Capitalism in the face.

We make the world real by being part of it and that world is in need of major overhauling (these 87 degree days of Fall!). To address the economic structure is primary as this has become the basis of development and research and yet the principles it adheres to are in opposition to many sustainable conditions. We can decide to confront this honestly and change directions. This is one of the reasons
I started the fashionRIP Project Phase 2.

The original FashionRIP Project is an experiment in communication. As a multi media approach to illustrate tangible and intangible ideas clustered around the theme of sustainable life I use recyCouture fashion like others use paint.

As this is a collaborative project; every day brings surprises, inspirations, mental drama ups and downs growing pains and rushes, it mimics the process of living with intent and that is the bigger underlying theme we can all share.

We are, we exist and life is a wondrous journey if we choose to follow it from the inside out. With that evolved viewpoint we will do better than this

& we are. Pat yourself &/or each other on the back and go forth to share the new ideas you learn; that is how we evolve.

YouTube Success

The trick is to export using Quicktime into an Mpeg-4 file....what was taking over 4 hours (we had to stop the process as SCAN closed for the night!) to upload went up in minutes!

I realized that i needed to explain the "Making of the Species on the Verge" video short better. Getting feedback from people is instrumental!

"Hello all,
the promo cut done at SCAN by Bridgett Barker is now on YouTube!
Please send me your critical comments (yays and boos) as every step changes the next and we all want to do better...its fun to make these positive changes and not get trapped; so please respond!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWd4qq2vnsE
L, deborah"

Love my critics!

stripping audio

So close and then....
Bridgett and i had a different audio opinion and though she had worked for hours to add variety to a the audio track (was two 30 second bits that we tried to loop through the greater part of 5 minutes -bad idea!) i had to say it didn't work for me.
OUCH!
Though the piece could be used for her private portfolio, i had to retain my fashionRIP aesthetic for all public releases. She wanted to punch me and i understood...oh i so understood.

Working with audio software and the copyright free allowed bits is either a fast and annoying to hear or a time devouringly slow, task.

As the original bits she had found in GarageBand were great for the piece (her first instincts were terrific) i told her i would try to find some music that worked with that ragtime-y sound; i felt semi-obligated after that dashing i had delivered.

And then it dawned....I have a piano man in the family who rocks the boogie woogie and i will record it today; it should fit in, it's copyright ok and release ez! and though he is modest he came to our rescue. Jack is the man!

The best of this story, Bridgett and i have learned we can totally work open, honest, out loud and get to deliver the goods, as we respect each others viewpoints. Ultimately we both understand more about working together and project development and are building a better friendship in the process.
So don't be afraid to have differing ideas, just know that you will!

working well with others

Overall this was an amazing event.
A group of people, many strangers to each other all pitched in to lend their hands, talents, guidance and support to shoot the "Species on the Verge" video for the fashionRIP Project.
This is still my take on it, however there were a few personality clashes i am now learning about.

This is good.

How can we set up groups to be efficient and effective, where members speak up before the claws come out and are okay with saying they need space to think? Groups that really are in agreement to disagree in order to create? How do we plan for unexpected and diverse dynamics? Can we....you betcha!

We are discussing this for the next chapter and because some of the RIP folk are taking classes where teams have to work on projects and there is not much, if any, foreplay. Socialization is not just a what is...it can be a "what if" and a "better than". This wheel has many missing spokes.