On Trigger Point Theory and Activism

The three-day workshop I led earlier this week here, was about finding the place where all the edges come together, using aesthetic analysis to observe them and then choosing the smallest possible point, at the site of maximum degradation, to activate sustainable healing for the entire system, as acupuncture can in the body. I developed the theory to apply to environmental restoration. But I do think it applies more broadly.

So where is the Trigger Point here in Copenhagen? Kiribati, the atoll nation that will be the first to go? Muhammed Rasheed, of the Maldives, insisting there must be a meaningful agreement by Saturday? In the legal difference between the word "shall" or "must" in treaty language? In the image of a police baton coming down on peaceful demonstrators? If this is the biggest Happening the world has ever seen, then based on how Allan Kaprow always worked, the real impact isn't in the event or it's site but in the story of the event... whose story, told where?

For me, listening to the BBC "debate" tonight, it was in the subtle timbre of audience applause when people spoke truth to power. You can hear differences in applause: not just duration or volume but the acoustic trajectory of sounds of approval and connection. Not for Kevin Rudd, saying he'd toe the line the others toe. It was for Kumi Naidoo of Greenpeace, when he said, "the people are ahead of the politicians," and I might add, possibly ahead of the artists too. And that's a good thing.