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The beginning.

The Five Obstructions

28/1/2014

12 Comments

 
PictureVon Trier has reason to be smug.
Long before The Mud, long before earthbag houses and composting toilets, when I was teaching in the Turkish city of Antalya and spending absurd amounts on Penne all’Arrabbiatta and chocolate souffle, a friend invited me over to watch a Lars von Trier movie. I buckled up and braced myself for two hours of marginally pretentious wallow into the dark side of the human spirit. But I was in for a surprise. Not necessarily about the pretentiousness, but because the film profoundly changed the way I view creativity. OK, all well and good, but what’s all this got to do with the mountain blog and earthbag houses, and alternative living? Well, because if there’s one film you should watch before embarking on a building project, I’d say 5 Obstructions is it. 

5 obstructions is a documentary starring von Trier’s mentor, filmmaker Jørgen Leth. To summarize the film very briefly, Von Trier sets Leth the task of making five short remakes of Leth’s 1967 film The Perfect Human. The snag is, each time he issues the suffering filmmaker with an obstruction. One obstruction is that Leth has to remake the film in Cuba and with a maximum shot-length of 12 frames, another is that the film should be a cartoon. It quickly emerges just how crucial the obstruction is to stimulating and guiding Leth’s creativity. When, as a punishment for failing to complete an obstruction properly, von Trier tells filmmaker Leth to redo the movie with no obstruction at all. Leth all but throws a fit, blurting something along the lines of ‘you can’t do that! That’s the cruellest thing to do to an artist, give them absolute freedom.’

In the years that followed, I pondered many an hour on Leth’s outburst. Because we so often hear the opposite, that artists need to be unfettered in order to create. I, for one, had long entertained the notion that to write, paint or make things, I required a vast open landscape devoid of
boundaries and impediments. There were to be no financial limitations, no side job to sequester large portions of my attention, ample time, endless resources, and an ever-supportive, all-positive audience. I thought those were the factors necessary for cultivating the most original ideas. Without obstructions, inspiration could float in like an exotic, vibrant-winged butterfly and then manifest on the page, or the canvas, or in The Mud. But I was wrong. That's not how it works at all. Time has shown me over and over again that it is the obstruction that pushes the creativity gas pedal, not freedom.

PictureBack in the obstruction-free beginning.
So, to return to The Mud. When I first moved onto my beloved 2000 metres square of land back in 2011, it looked just like the undefiled canvas I had coveted. Everything was in abundance: earth, rocks, daylight hours. The sky stretched open and blue like a cloudless door to the God of Great Ideas. The view rolled on and away from me in an unobstructed green tumble. The mountains were so ridiculously steep and bold, they seemed to laugh at the mere suggestion of limitation. I wondered whether it was unethical to lay down rules in such a happy circle of unconstraint. But I loved my spot deeply, and I wanted to protect it. So I made Mud Laws or Mud Obstructions.
The 5 Obstructions of The Mud.

1. No concrete is permitted anywhere on the land.
2. No smoking within the borders
3. No squares and straight lines.
4. No killing of animals.
5. No major expense.

I’m not going to spend time defending the whys and wherefores of each obstruction. None of them exist as moral condemnations. They are my preferences. And the beauty of owning your own land is that you’re entitled to a little caprice. What is more exciting is the creativity each obstruction has fostered. Not being able to use concrete, for example, generated a wealth of bright ideas regarding mortar, mosaic grouting and house foundations. The banning of corners, though not always successfully obeyed (I’m eons from the architect Hundertwasser) resulted in a house that makes me sing when I sit in it, and simultaneously strong enough to withstand earthquakes. My budget was instrumental in producing some of the most inspired parts of the home, as either the natural resources on my land or other people’s rubbish became my materials. Broken tiles, grass, bottles, branches, reeds, thrown-away cupboards, broken windows, cracked crockery and reject furniture all turned into an enchanting game of ‘now what can we make out of that’. Banning smoking (and in a country like Turkey an outdoor smoking ban is none too easy to implement) changed the entire dynamic of the land. It affected something beyond the physical, and my space became a place of creation or peaceful contemplation, rather than busy socialisation. 

I write all this because normally, when problems and limitations arise, we are so apt to feel stymied. In fact, one of the attractions of writing over building is that ideas can remain just that; perfect bubbles of non-matter, before they are subject to the humiliating degradations of the physical world.
But Gaia (and von Trier come to mention it) have changed my perspective on the art of creation. In construction, time, money, available materials, energy and the weather are the big 5 obstructions everyone has to face. Sometimes rain calls off play. Other times it’s just too hot to lift a rock. Sometimes you simply can’t find the power to bang in another nail. It gets dark and you haven’t managed to finish the plastering. The roof beams cost three times more than you’d hoped. These are all construction classics and so often result in frustration. But I now look at those obstructions as my friends rather than my enemies. Who knows? Perhaps God stuck them onto the canvas of the Earth just to prod our otherwise lethargic imaginations. And perhaps von Trier has a right to a little pretention, as well.

Picture
From the branch door to the stone window sill, broken tile mosaics and grass on the roof, all arose out of the fifth obstruction.
12 Comments
claudia
30/1/2014 04:12:28 am

Great blog Kelly! I can relate on so many levels, particularly Being authentically you, creating your own perfect reality!
Love your painted rocks and your fabulous mud tree!
It's the dry season here now and I am spending every moment outside surrounded by a thousand shades of green, buzzing cicadas, and avocados dropping at my feet!

Reply
Kerry
3/2/2014 02:29:46 am

Thanks Claudia! Good to hear from you again. I've just planted a few avocados myself, but it'll be a few years before they're dropping at my feet.

Reply
claudia
4/2/2014 03:57:54 am

Why did I write Kelly? Oh these crazy daze!!

Hazel
3/2/2014 07:15:12 pm

Kerry, on first reading I resisted your theory because the term 'obstructions' sounded so negative. On 2nd reading though, I'm beginning to understand the necessity of certain obstacles to spur imagination.

I see now that frugality, simplicity, moderateness*, and renewable energy been a few of our self-imposed 'obstacles'.

(*I cannot in all honesty call it minimalism because of all our books, my collected rocks, thrifted baskets/wicker, and such; however, our home is as small as our building code would allow and is only 4 rooms.)

Rather than form following function, we have mostly built with aesthetics in mind even in our modest design. We wanted to be happy seeing our little house and homestead in a field as we came down the lane. With function following form though, we had to think the design all the way through to daily use of the space to make sure that it would work. This resulted in our most important tool: the thinking chair. ;-)

I do envy your ability to build what you like and how you like with (apparently) no building codes. I also am thrilled with your artistry and creativity. Your 'obstructions' are working!

Reply
Kerry
4/2/2014 01:28:56 am

Hi Hazel,
Yes the word 'obstruction' can feel pretty negative, I agree. (Von Trier's choice, not mine:)) I think he used it to mirror the concept of 'instructions', I see it a bit like water in a river, the obstructions force the water to change course and sometimes create new paths.
Wow, you are making me so curious about your house. Have you got any photos to share? Function following form, oh yeah, now that's a whole idea-fest in itself, I'm always thinking about that, and trying to balance the two.

Reply
Hazel
4/2/2014 04:50:48 pm

Ahhh...love the river analogy! You can apply that to life not just building.

Our house is just a modest Ontario cottage, very symmetrical and small...not artistic and organic like yours. My mother-in-law calls it a 'workers' cottage where the poor folks lived during the depression. Fine by me! ;-) We oriented the house to take advantage of passive solar heat and planted trees for summer shade and winter windbreak.

We do have solar hot air heat system, solar hot water, and two 10kW renewable energy micro-generation solar arrays whose electricity goes directly to the grid. It's a 20 year contract with the Ontario government, our retirement investment. I love producing and using renewable energy!

claudia
5/2/2014 03:45:38 am

Hi Kerry

I saw your new pics on Owen Geiger's site, and was curious if you sent them or he tunes in to your blog....
Just a few days before your pics were posted, Owen posted the article on the new thin earthbag walls. I am excited to try this for a couple of additions! Any thoughts?!!
http://www.naturalbuildingblog.com/thin-wall-earthbag-10x-faster-than-typical-earthbag/

Reply
Kerry
7/2/2014 12:44:30 am

Claudia, I looked at the thin walls. It's definitely going to be much easier to build that way. As with everything, there are pros and cons to both. Obviously the traditional thick earthbag walls are going to be superior in keeping heat/cool inside the house. I would assume they're far stronger in cases of earthquake too. But they are labour intensive to build, no doubt about that.

No I don't send my pics to the naturalbuildingblog, Owen is sharing out of the goodness of his heart and to promote earthbag and sustainable building.

Reply
claudia
7/2/2014 04:53:40 am

Thanks for the input Kerry. Agree. My circumstance here is a bit different. There are existing concrete buildings, the old house and the new strorage bunker built by my former partner. I live in the bunker. lol So I am going to use the thin bags for an interior wall in the old house and an exterior, non load bearing wall. I really don't want to use barbed wire and had decided to use hyperadobe in mesh bags instead. Now will experiment with the thin wall earthbags.
Owen provides a great service! I check out his site daily....

Reply
Kerry
17/2/2014 10:43:57 am

Thin bags on the inside is a great idea! Once you plaster over it, it will look gorgeous. And it's a super sound barrier. Never heard of mesh bags, but I'll take your word for it. The barbed-wire not only stops the bags slipping but adds to the tensile strength, but as it's an interior wall, it's probably unnecessary.

Reply
claudia
17/2/2014 02:24:34 pm

Owen posted a few videos of mesh bag walls. (The kind fruit is bagged in) They have been used a lot in South America. Actually using one continuous tube filled with hyperadobe which when tamped squishes together with the bag below. This approach was created by architects and engineers and is sound. I have been studying earthbag building for the last 5 years or so and have Kiki Hunter's book, but, I think part of my aversion to barbed wire is that it is too much work, takes up too much space (bag width) and I am surrounded by it because my pastures are leased out to cows. Also hoping to demonstrate something that is easily adapted to the impoverished community that I live in. Think I'm ready at last!! lol

Reply
jg
24/10/2015 05:25:34 am

Hi,any idea on the Eurocode and earth bags? I've looked everywhere..cant find a simple answer. Please,tks.

Reply



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  • Home
  • Building
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    • Earthquakes and earthbag
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    • Off-grid how to >
      • Off-Grid Prep Course
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  • About
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