“Helping real people in real concrete ways on the ground - putting communities at the heart of all projects”
In this episode I speak to Dan Edelstyn from Optimistic Productions which he runs with his partner, Hilary Powell. The conversation weaves between talking about The Bank Job and Power Project, inspirations - such as Manifestos of Situationist International, who saw art as direct action. The quest to search for meaning after a personal crisis, into a journey of creating purpose and using art as a living thing, embedded deeply in the community.
The Bank Job Project was set up as an artist run, Rebel Bank in Walthamstow. Printing out their own bank notes, selling them as artworks to raise proceeds to fund local causes and buy up 1.2 million second-hand debt in their local area of Walthamstow. Then blowing this up outside of the financial system in London to show injustices of the credit and debt system.
Power - Their latest project Power focuses on energy democracy, using a cooperative ownership model to decentralise powering homes, together empowering agency as collective and personal power. Dan believes, “No one should own the gifts of nature” He sees both projects, as way to hack the debt and energy market, bypassing a broken power system.
“Bringing the community together to participate in acts of economic disobedience and collective questioning of power.”
Personal Crisis and Rebirth: Dan speaks about his quest to research his family roots and how this led to initiating a distillery in Russia, making vodka, resulting in their first intervention - ‘How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire’. Dan shares how a personal crisis led to a crossroads of questioning, searching for purpose, and meaning, leading to a journey of self-discovery. In his quest, taking inspiration from George Orwell, Tolstory, John Berger and Inspired by the words of Viktor. E. Frankl in his book ‘A Man’s Search for Meaning’. Dan expresses a phoenix moment of rebirth - “How we try to avoid the inner voice as it can involve huge change and the unknown territory of the future. But how we need to confront unknown territory to grow.”
The Challenge and Opportunity: We talk about the challenge of creating meaning plus pursuing the market’s needs, the flux between sustaining our needs vs commodifying our work to create an income. The importance of starting from the heart, learning by doing, how ideas grow through play, synchronicity and pulling that all together. Processes of using different creative forms to sustain a circular system in the community and insights on creating your own movement. Dan concludes that “the audience is craving for something that is authentic and true, they don’t want something produced from a mean spirt but from the heart.”
Alternative wisdoms - “to align yourself with who you are and what you really feel, to create a world where everyone gets to participate and contribute towards having hopes and dreams. ……..Being alive is learning”
To contribute, participate and find out more about Dan and Hilary from Optimistic Productions, please check details of their projects below and current Power Project Membership: –
https://membership.power.film
https://bankjob.pictures/the-team
If you are intrigued and seeking out alternatives, subscribe to the Shapers of Society podcast and pass it on to share with others.
