Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Initial Public Offering



Please click on the image to see the larger version.


Friends:


The undersigned, Chief Executive Officer, Chairwoman of the Board, director and shareholder of Carbon Corpus LLC (the “Company”), which takes corporeal form in the body of Michelle Wilson, in consideration of global warming, underwrites this initial public offering of the securities of the Company (“IPO”) and embarking on the IPO process, hereby agrees that, subject only to consummation of the IPO, the undersigned shall comply with each of the following covenants and agreements.

1.The Company exclusively surrenders all animal-based carbon credits to purchaser, and shall eat an exclusively vegan diet for the amount of time purchased.
2.The minimum period of purchased time is one week.
3.A week is defined as a seven-day allotment.
4.During the IPO period, the value of one week of corporeal carbon offset is $50.


By purchasing a share in Carbon Corpus, the purchaser (the “Patron”), will henceforth become a shareholder upon receipt of payment. The Patron will receive a certificate as authentication of this agreement.

This letter agreement shall be governed by and construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of the State of California, without giving effect to conflicts of law principles that would result in the application of the substantive laws of another jurisdiction.


Michelle Wilson
Carbon Corpus CEO

If interested in becoming a shareholder, please contact the artist at michelle(at)michellewilsonprojects(dot)com.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Carbon Cube



In January, this project will be featured in the Wilson Gallery (no relation) at Moore College of Art and Design, as part of the exhibition, Beyond... Moore is my undergraduate alma mater, and the opportunity to launch this project there is a great honor.

As part of the exhibition, I've proposed to build the structure diagrammed above. It will be a cube built of PVC pipe, measuring 8.5x8.5x8.5 feet. It equals the space that 35 kilograms of CO2 takes up it the atmosphere. That amount is the amount of carbon dioxide that is prevented from being released in one week of vegan eating, according to this study.

The cube will be in the gallery space, and visitors will be able to walk around, into, and through it to understand how much carbon dioxide would be saved. The piece is a visual reference to Christophe Cornubert's piece in Copenhagen, although mine emphasizes what can be prevented through changes in diet.

I'm not sure seeing how much can be saved will convince a dedicated meat eater to change. But I hope it will open up some dialogue. It remains to be seen in January!


Saturday, December 15, 2012

Food Police



I had a conversation recently with someone who misunderstood this project, who happened to ask me, "So, how much weight do you think you're going to lose?"

It took me a second to realize she wasn't joking. After clarifying the focus of this project, her comment has led me to think about the moralizing of food and eating that has happened in America. It brought me back to a night out with friends in my early twenties, when a friend turned to me as we placed our order and said, "I'm being bad: I'm drinking soda." Now, I'll admit soda is not a healthy option for a beverage, but her words implied a punishment was deserved for her crime.

I spent some time thinking this morning about how food moralizing is inflicted on women versus how it is on men in America. Women in this country learn, very early on, that thinness is equated with healthiness and our value as human beings. (This is not to discount the growing fat positive movement, which is awesome.) We are not taught to recognize healthy bodies, or even how to define a healthy body. I actually don't know how to describe what evaluation could be used to describe a healthy body based on non-medical knowledge and only on appearance, other than something like, "No evidence of rash, post-nasal drip or flu symptoms."

Which has led to dieting being a moral act, rather than a healthy choice. Kate Harding has a great post in the Shapely Prose archive about the "Fantasy of Being Thin," and how women are encouraged to diet as a means of coping with depression or saving a marriage, and how women often are convinced that weight loss will grant the prize of the good life. Or inversely, someone who is not thin does not deserve happiness.

Which leds me to food policing. Women do it to ourselves, telling ourselves that by eating the fat-free/low-carb/sugar-free/whatever we are being good, rather than making a choice about what we want to put into our bodies at that particular moment. This is not to criticize someone who is making informed food choices for personal, religious or health reasons, however they are defined by that individual. Instead, it is to clarify that eating a certain way does not equal virtue. The reward for dieting is not angel wings, a Ryan Gosling look-alike, or something else.

Not being a man, I can't claim familiarity with how men absorb America's perception of food morality. Though from the outside, I do think it is less focused on what is perceived as healthy for men and more focused on eating food that is equated with strength and hierarchy over the food chain: meat. Eating meat, by extension, suggests hunting and butchering, activities that are regarded as male. Additionally, the stereotype of eating meat is defined as pleasurable, while eating vegetables is perceived as work.

These concepts, albeit implying heteronormativity and generalizing though they may be, are examples of how our food morals are tied to gender roles - women must preserve their bodies in order to be beautiful (read:pleasing,acceptable, virtuous), men must eat that which demonstrates power.

Which brings me back to the comment about me losing weight. I'm not sure if the person automatically assumed that a woman doing a project about eating a certain way meant weight loss was a goal, but I think it may have been part of it.

So let me clarify: this project is not meant as a judgement on myself or anyone else. This project is not about altering my body or my weight. Not to deny the scientific evidence of the health benefits of a plant-based diet, but this project is to investigate how my carbon footprint and the carbon footprint of others intersect in the food system and food choices.

Click here to read the introduction and description of this project.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Artichoke Paper



This plant made me.
This plant made this paper.


Above are some samples of artichoke fiber paper. When I first learned to use vegetable fiber from Winnie Radolan, we would cut the fiber with some abaca to make it last longer. It was usually because only one or two students in the class would go through the five hours to cook a artichoke; most of us took easier, shorter cooking fibers like celery.

However, since moving to the Bay Area, circumstances came about that led me to investigate it again. Living in California, I have regular access to artichokes, in fact, the self-proclaimed artichoke capital of the world is a short drive away.


So now, I have the fortune of eating artichokes frequently. I could just compost the bracts, but I prefer to save them until I have enough, then make a mess of pure artichoke paper.


I have a connection to this paper is stronger than what I might have from half-stuff or even recycled rag. Part of this plant I cooked and ingested - it's molecular structure went on to become parts of my cellular structure; it went on to assist me continually making my body.

Another part of this plant went on to become this paper. Right now, the sheets above are blank, there is nothing on their surface. They are full of latent possibly.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Introduction




Carbon Corpus is a project examining environmental issues and alternative economies. This project aims to not only educate others about how to make less of a carbon footprint, but also to examine and critique the difficulties of achieving this goal in modern society. I am beginning this project by selling the animal-based carbon credits to my own body to purchasers. In exchange for their purchase, I will eat a vegan diet for the period of time they purchase. Buyers will also receive certificates of the authenticity certifying my commitment and the amount of carbon offset. As the project develops, I will document the process, my decisions, my successes and failures photographically on this blog.

During this project, I aim to engage in a dialogue with those who purchase my body’s carbon credits, by asking questions as to what permissions they feel such a purchase grants them, and how they are choosing to behave. On my part, in addition to a vegan diet, I will make an effort to source my food as locally as possible, either from my own garden or local farmer’s markets. I also plan to build my own solar cooker, to further reduce some of the carbon generated in my own cooking processes.

I invite others to comment, critique, or suggest alternatives and possibilities with the goal of finding solutions for food system based global warming. Please feel free to leave comments or to contact me at michelle(at)michellewilsonprojects(dot)com.