Facing reality and our own Dark Mountains – thoughts on Uncivilisation 2011

It’s been nearly 2 weeks now since Uncivilisation 2011, the second festival of the Dark Mountain Project, and the post I was going to write about it still hasn’t materialised. I’ve had this before – come out of an intense and interesting experience full of intent to chew it all over before recording and sharing it all, only to find normal life resolutely getting in the way with it’s chores and distractions until the whole experience seems a distant memory. The growing gap between one and an experience can help to sift through which ideas and experiences stick with you most though, and so before the memories become too distant I will share what my thoughts here.

I first came across Dark Mountain prior to the first Uncivilisation festival in Llangollen last year, and having perused their blog for a time and seeing a cracking line-up for the festival I went along (though on my own and with some trepidation). It felt like a pilgrimage to me – leaving Southampton alone and travelling through unknown country into the mountains of Wales to meet up with a motley collection of environmentalists, transitioners, collapse-planners and various eccentrics, all there to take the time to ask the deeper questions about the world, its stories and the crises we face. I had a great time there taking in the discussions and ideas, and also meeting up with some people I’d only virtually met before (such as Keith Farnish who I’d occasionally worked with online before).  However, I did feel that the venue did leave some things to be desired (the bar & food selection and building-enclosed space just felt rather, well, civilised…), and felt as if there was a sense of confusion in the air with people not quite knowing exactly what to expect of this project and where to go from there.

This year though, that feeling had changed. The second volume of Dark Mountain writing had appeared, much had moved in the world since its beginning and by now the atmosphere around the project had begun to become more focused and  collaborative. As others have pointed out, something which could almost be called a scene or movement (although not getting caught up in that word) started to come out of solution during this year’s festival, a feeling of latent possibilities hanging heavy in the air around the festival. The Sustainability Centre also provided a more natural and wooded setting, which helped enliven the atmosphere and bring an uncivilised tinge to it all from the start.

I again made a small pilgrimage this year – this time camping for a couple of days beforehand with my girlfriend in a peaceful bushcraft campsite conveniently only a few miles away, striking out from there through idyllic English countryside to climb the steep hill at the top of which the site was. I also had more company to go with this time, which helped too!

After a great first night of music from the PowerDown in the atmospheric woodland classroom to Marmaduke Dando, Huckleberry Mockingbird and Get Cape Wear Cape Fly in the more normal main space came the hectic Saturday – there must be a word somewhere to describe the frustration one feels at a really interesting event or festival where everything looks great but you can only choose one thing at a time!

Topics and sessions included a session on Collapsonomics (with hackers, ex-bankers and a Russian penal reformer involved in the Irish/Icelandic/Soviet and impending American collapses), a session on scythe history and use, looking deeper at the Luddites relationship with technology during its bicentenary (i.e. not against it but against technologies which had a destructive impact on communities as proletarianisation and the enclosures kicked in), and a session on the perils of ignoring the ‘sacred’ in a non-religious context with Vinay Gupta and others. There were many more sessions I couldn’t make, such as ‘From Techno to Tao’, a new myths writing workshop, wild booze, a kids council, the value of walking and pilgrimage…

As ever, often the best and most productive part of a conference/festival/weekend event seems to happen between sessions and especially in the Saturday evening (like at the Transition University Conference I helped organise in February where many a connection was made at the pub in the evening, which coincidentally the same conference saw several Dark Mountaineers paths including Dougald Hine’s to cross once again).

After another atmospheric powerdown and a mysterious but powerful woodland performance called Liminal, a night of songs, tunes and poetry by the fire began in what Marmaduke  Dando called a “campfire democracy”. Being not overly musically blessed I sat back and listened in on some great music and camaraderie. Having decided at 2am that it really was bedtime our group headed tentwards, but on the way ended up being drawn into the Hexayurt built that day where deep discussion was occurring – who could resist a Hexayurt of mystery at 2 in the morning? The discussion went from stories to insights to debates and outright arguments, all in a few metres right plywood yurt seating at some points dozens of people.

What struck me apart from the discussions was how both there and at the campfire small temporary communities had formed, which despite many people being strangers only hours before had open and supportive atmospheres beyond what we normally find in day to day life, and even when tensions ran high this atmosphere persevered. Vinay, who was curating the space, felt he had failed by losing his cool, but I actually found the whole experience to be an insightful experiment in temporary community and how to deal with problems whilst keeping the space – a crucial skill and social technology for the future. After more chats ranging from climate change to the flaws of electoral democracy in the face of crisis, we went to bed only after the cockerel began crowing and the dawn had started to arrive.

The next day (with a good deal of tea in the belly) came sessions on how to ‘uncivilise’ our bodies tensions and movements using techniques (with crossovers with Aikido), the future of the University with Dougald and friends  on The University Project and Hedge School 21, and a moving session on West Papua with the exiled resistance movement leader Benny Wenda asking for our help in the tragedies of West Papuan conflict with Indonesia. A farewell speech and song concluded the weekend, heralding our too soon return to normality, but not without having started some new and exciting new conversations and providing a lot of ideas and thoughts to chew over for a while to come.

The Dark Mountain Project to me is not about pessimism or ‘hippy-survivalists’ as some like to portray it, but represents a challenge to our culture to face reality honestly and question whether the assumptions and stories we tell ourselves are useful in these times.  Optimism grounded in the stories and cultural myths of the present appear as fantasies when challenged like this.  If we are to have a chance in navigating the times ahead as the tide of environmental, social and economic crises rises ever higher then we need to learn to tell optimism from fantasies and pessimism from reality and tell our new stories from a position of honesty.  We all need to confront our own stories we hold about the world and face reality ourselves if we are to be able to contribute to these new stories.  I hope the Dark Mountain Project continues to help connect people who are questioning old stories and telling new ones as we all face our own Dark Mountains.