IDENTITY: FU, you and everyone we know
Click here if you want to inform the Future.
Technically, typing those 9 words out like I did just now, was all it took to start this ‘zine. That and about seven months, several hundred emails, dozens of phone calls, seventy-something volunteers (factoring in a 17% flake-out rate) and seven slap-up meals in exchange for specialized help and knowledge. But here we are finally, all moved into our shiny new cyber cottage and about to ask the 23/6 boys next door for a cup of sugar.
Living in New York is sweet like that, especially for an ideation pyromaniac like myself. Good ideas are like brush fires – all it takes is densely populated fuel (i.e. creative people, of which New York has an abundance), the merest suggestion of heat (i.e. flagrant optimism, of which I have an abundance), a persistent wind (ahem) and voila, you’re officially onto something.
Not that I knew what this something was going to be in the beginning. The initial idea was to somehow record and upload all my conversations with family members, friends, colleagues and crazy people on the subway – dialogue which I noticed had become increasingly peppered with random observations, predictions of hot-topics-to-be and unsolicited recommendations for what I should be doing for myself (as a proud shopaholic) and for the brands I break apart and put back together in my day job, given the changes supposedly about to come.
This monthly delivery of brain-bytes is work in progress - which is why the theme of our first issue is Identity. The aim is to introduce ourselves by sharing future-focused thoughts about the way society defines people (us) and their passions (ours). As you’ll see, these range from protecting the culture around music we love, to navigating the tricky relationship between fashion and self-esteem; from figuring out where to eventually buy property that suits our pedestrian lifestyle, to learning how to read the label when selecting a bottle of wine for dinner. So our perspectives and frames of reference are very different but what we all have in common is one simple objective: to move the world forward.
Mahatma Gandhi challenged would-be do-gooders to “be the change you wish to see in the world,” and I have taken this maxim to heart since leaving London six years ago. New York is a creative wonderland, stuffed to bursting with loud and colorful people whose opinions could also be described thus. But I’ve met relatively few individuals who actually do something about the stream of possibilities coming out of their mouths. So by consciously sharing ways to bridge the gap between daydreams and reality, I hope we are fueling a brush fire of ideas that will burn a path to the future - and embodying the changes we wish to see in the world, with each issue.
The Camper shoe company captures this notion perfectly with their new tagline: “Imagination Walks.” For although we float in oceans of inspiration around the world, we need goals to know in which direction to get moving. Month by month, step by step, our mission is to get imaginations walking (in fancier shoes) towards their chosen destinations. Please feel free to join us.
by Onika Simon
Subscribe to feed
comments
Congrats, this looks great.