Rammed-Earth Workshop Vernon 2022

Greetings fellow contrarians, artisans, non-conformists, idealists and romantics. Welcome One an All. This second slide show about Rammed-Earth workshops is typical of what is learned and practised to develop the skills and schema needed to build simple Rammed-Earth structures.

The soundtrack and the first slide, however, tell the story of things less obvious. The vastly underrated British blues guitar maven, Snowy White who has played with Chris Rea, Al Stewart, David Gilmour, Gary Moore and Peter Green et al, sets the tone with Part II of ‘The Journey’ from his album ‘Bird of Paradise’ (1983), with the sage and cautionary words,

“I don’t mind if I’m misunderstood.

I even think it might do me some good.

I don’t care what the others say,

I’m expectin’ some people to put me away.”

As a teenager in 1983, I identified instantly with the sentiment because I had long since been convinced that life itself, at least for me, was  an essentially mystical and moral journey that would lead to some deep personal insights into life and the true nature of the universe. Of the former I can enthusiastically attest, but of the latter I am more circumspect other than to say my investigations appear to yield deeper resolution and perspicacity than many so called experts, [especially psychologists such as feckless grifter, Mattias Desmet].

There are endless questions to be asked and few are answered but nevertheless, we that are remotely ‘alive’ and conscious must ask all the same. I knew back then as I know now, that the hinges that secure the bat-wing doors on entryway to the cosmic saloon of unsolved mysteries beckons as furiously as the fuse of perception burns at both ends threatening an imminent and ignominious oblivion. It’s cosmic roulette, donchya know and as the I Ching boasts ad nauseam,

“You’re the best man for the job...so give it everthin ya got” 

“Yeah, well we don’t got too much choice on that do we,” comes the Shamsinian reply.

Ah, yeah, I know Shams was a Persian Shafiite poet around in the 12^th C and not really from a contemporary Brooklyn ghetto. But hey, were living in a pastiche reality as far as the MSM goes, specially when reporting about conflicts that feed their instatiable military industrial complex.

Do you sense angst yet?

Are you content with the cosmic koan that delights in reminding you that this is how it is? Or, are you the New Ageist who believes that you sat with 30 pretty angels perched on the head of a pin negotiating yer "gaaad" contract so that others can have their noggins blown off in an endless litany of colonialist coups such as the Maidan, Syria, Lybia, Iraq and Yemen, to name but a few, whilst you sip your ‘Wine ‘n Wheatgrass Colada Oatie’ on the banks of the Nile?

Real Rammed-Earthers are by definition, willing to go off the beaten track, and have long since left the plantation. They dont like being told how to think and what to do other than living by the natural law ethic of DO NO HARM - and even shape their lives with the aim of preventing harm to others to create a better world! Are their minds befuddled from not having drunk sufficient draughts of Hegelian Kool-Aid? Time to demand a Reset, looks like Schwab pipped you to the post on that one, son.

Which brings me back to slide numero uno, the Jonathan Livingstone Seagull caption, and what connection this has, if any, to Rammed-Earth? Well, Rammed-Earth is also off the beaten track, its a minority sport which requires dedication, commitment, independent thought, idealism and effort. I.e., it’s not the normy-thing to do, really. I mean it breaks with the monopolistic ethos of built in obsolescence, it negates the need for artificial heating and cooling in many climates and much to MonSatan and Duponts chagrin, is about as natural and anti-toxic as it gets. 

To be fair people who opt for Rammed-Earth are attracted to it for all sorts of reasons but there is no question that it evokes a different mindset, brings one closer to nature and uses unconventional techniques and design theory.

Slide 1 represents Jonathan Seagulls story of the search for purpose which he found in achieving hitherto impossible speeds, perfecting acrobatic stunts and working the updrafts to near stratospheric flight. In the throes of mastering his craft it began to dawn on him that perfection was not just an ideal but an irresistibly attractive force, like some sort of magnetised intelligence. 

In my 25 years of trying to reproduce sound recordings perfectly I began to understand that the search for perfect sound was a metaphor for my longing for a better life.

Rammed-Earthers are not so different but perhaps more humble in ambition. They at least want peace, security durability and harmony in their abode of choice. My drawing on these philosophical ideas is in part because I see a congruity from a design point of view between the trajectory of Rammed-Earth, high-level design aesthetics, and the aesthetics of life itself, at least in the way I think life can and should be. (What else is an unrepentant idealist to do?) A captive to the consumerist paradigm might call it a matter of life-style choices but I see it as representing the choice between conventional and inevtiably catastrophic compromise and an evolutionary and dynamic pragmatic idealism thats only a small mind-shift away.

On a technical note the sound-track was faded, in and out, to perfection time and again, but the slide-show program just kept scrubbing it out, apologies for that. 

My ‘philosophiquy’ and its connection to Rammed-Earth may seem dubious to some but one thing is for sure, Rammed-Earth is quite an exclusive some would say esoteric building option, (something we are trying to change in our small way), and has the elegance, build-quality and design integrity of an entirely higher aesthetic to that of normy-builds.

‘Nuff sed for the mo’ tho, but fret not, there’ll be more postings as we catch up with current design ideas and emerging techniques. 

Cheers till then.

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