Mission
Introduction
The Department of Safety exists within the contexts of various narrative elements which can be composed together to form an overarching (although non-hierarchical) “grand” or “meta” narrative.
While we wish to avoid imposing and/or forcing the D.o.S. meta-narrative upon the “Other,” we feel that a concise explanation of each D.o.S. micro-narrative will aid the reader in their quest to achieve a more informed, consensus-based understanding of the contexts and presuppositions in/out of which the D.o.S. and its proprietors operate.
Thus, we present. . .
The Department of Safety Manifesto:
From Our Meta-Narrative Context To Yours
Fireman Phil quotes cheesy “postmodern” Author Don Delillo
“It’s a cumulation in a way, machines made and shaped outside the little splat of human speech. . .. The Volunteers were mainly art students but there were others as well, history majors and teachers on leave and nomads and runaways, coming and going all of the time, burnt-out hackers looking for the unwired world, they were people who heard the call, the whisper in the ear that sends you out the door and into some zone of exalted play.
“Working with the hands. Scraping and painting. Stirring the indolent mixture. Seeing brushstrokes mark a surface. Pigment. The animal fats and polymers that blend to make this world.
“They were nice to me. They ate and slept in a set of abandoned barracks at the edge of an enormous air base. Toilets, showers, cots and an impoverished commissary. They were a good-humored workforce with an array of skills. They fixed things, sang songs, they told funny stories. When their numbers grew beyond the capacity of the barracks, they slept in pup tents or sleeping bags or in their dusty cars.”
Uh, gee thanks Fireman Phil. Now, on with the Manifesto.
Sustainability
The primary goal of the Department of Safety is to continue to facilitate the “artistic yen” sans stereotypical notions of purely for-profit capitalism while creating a sustainable artistic environment / community. In the words of Bret Lunsford, “Call it an Art-Business, The People will understand that even if that is not necessarily your first aim.”
There once was this theorist named Plato. He had definite notions of a utopian vision of the way his “ideal state” would run. We are—by no means—attempting to create an elitist utopia. We just want to sustain ourselves while creating art in community.
Art/Creativity
The idea of this unique space is to provide a place where artists can interact, inspire, critique, and give back to each other and the community-at-large by creating art. This is not a new idea.
Community
We all live in various communities in which we create and decipher meaning. Our immediate live/work/art community, the Department of Safety, provides a place where communities can come together, interact, discuss ideas, formulate manifestos, and generally enjoy the company of others. While local community ties include Anacortes, Fidalgo Island, and the Skagit Valley area, we warmly invite other communities to create with us.
Phenomenology
Though numerous hermeneutical lenses apply to different situations, we have chosen that a situationalist psychoanalytic phenomenology is one of the best ways in which to D.o.S. interacts with its environment. Influenced by the likes of Sheppard Fairey, D.o.S. is under the presupposition that stereotypical North American society is saturated by much that is bland, shallow, and possibly ethically misleading. Thus, D.o.S. aims to create environment in a manner that is not 76pt IMPACT font, but that is not necessarily minimalist either. Rather, we aim to focus on detail and the unassuming presence that daily phenomenon (could) play in sustainability.
By the way, manifestos are dead and so is irony.
Ronald McDonald versus Karl Marx
Ronald McDonald and Karl Marx. Seemingly polar opposites of the modern era, yet a closer look reveals them to be strikingly similar. Both leave a red and yellow legacy. Both need “workers” to survive. Both have curly bright red hair. Both scare children and adults alike. We recognize that the D.o.S. may sometimes toe the line between Marxism and Capitalism, what with our dedication to communal, not-for-profit living while still providing some services on a fee-based system. Thus, our washroom facilities, in all of their red and yellow glory, are dedicated to the Ronald/Marxian feud that constantly holds us in tension. We know that we cannot escape the iron grasp of this market-based, capitalistic system, but this does not mean that we can’t do our own thing from the inside.
WE ARE WE
We are not selling this. We are not marketing ourselves or attempting to make the D.o.S. appear as something that it is not. We are not legitimizing our language games. We are living (or trying to live) according to some ideas that we had, some concepts that we wanted to try out in the “Real world.” Rather than sit around and foster notions of elitist abstractions while wasting potential creativity, we decided to try something new, something that would challenge us while enabling us to work on a project in line with our values, philosophies, aspirations, and [gasp] ideologies. We are normal people trying to do nice things, both in our own community and “other” communities outside of our small contexts.