34
Looking for examples of High-Context Living
(slrpnk.net)
Hi, I'm working on a page for the /c/writing worldbuilding resource wiki on "High Context Living" and I'm hoping some of you might have good examples/stories!
My working definition at the moment is "the sort of custom, DIY systems favored by offgrid homesteaders and people without other options, which trade user-facing complexity and unique quirks/challenges for significant efficiency and lower cost in parts and materials."
It's probably easier just to share the zine that named the concept (included below with permission of the creator (who wished to remain anonymous)).
Very, very low tech, but maybe interesting info dump from the bog creature's farm life:
Water for my garden comes through a gravity system from a smallish reservoir that refills from a permanent water source, but the source slows to a trickle in summer and so the water level is going down gradually now. I have to coordinate planting and watering to not only have sufficient water for the next day, but also throughout the whole summer. Also, if I ever left the garden tap on and the reservoir runs dry I'd have to wait months for it to refill again. To know how much water the plants need and how much I can take out of the reservoir takes a lot of experience (which I don't have, wish me luck).
Water in my house comes from a well (same problem as the water source, limited supply in summer), and the house has a water toilet with a leaking mechanism (I know, I should either repair the damn thing or switch to a compost toilet, haven't had the time). So far the solution is to keep the tap of the water tank of the toilet closed and just turn it on to flush twice a day. If a guest found my unflushed toilet they might think I'm a filthy bog creature, and they are not wrong!
My AC is a system of curtains, blinds and windows which I open and close or even soak for evaporation cooling at certain times of the day - if I get it wrong my rooms overheat and I have to go hide in the cellar during the hot hours. I still want to add a 5l bottle on top so the curtains soak gradually during the day - that would be my automatic AC then, yay! If I had to explain to an AC junkie how to work this system it would be a challenge.
I actually like it when my half broken and fragile system slows me down and forces me to be mindful and respect the passing of the seasons, because that is what I'm after in my life. If unlimited water just came out of a tap I'd spend it without thinking. Same with electricity everywhere. I'm on the grid now but lived here on 1 solar panel and a car battery in winter and it made me painfully aware about my energy use. Switching on the light without having to count Ah still feels like xmas and also slightly frivolous!).
Seasonal living used to be way more common, we just lost this in the factory age and following the clock has become very normalized. Harsh new climate quirks force people to either tech up or return to systems that honor the seasonal differences (or a bit of both). By adjusting yearly, monthly, weekly and daily schedules to outside temperature, water availability, sunlight availability, etc., life becomes less resource-intensive. Most of my home systems and 'life-research' have to do with this topic, about re-discovering how to fit into external conditions gracefully with a smallish footprint.
Lately I have been tending towards dropping more complicated tech in favour of really basic solutions. For example, I once built a stupidly complex solar cooker with tracking system and motors. These days I'd just paint a pot black and leave it in the sun all day next to a couple of mirrors leaning against a few rocks. Because with resources, money and time running short nobody needs to fiddle around with a sun tracking system.
This is exactly the sort of stuff I'm looking for, thank you! I think when these systems are coupled with lower expectations they can be way more efficient than the infrastructure defaults - that's something I might have to work into the definition if I can back it up
I also suspect they are way more efficient. Whenever I make these comparisons about how I would have made things a few years ago (during my EE bachelors years and brief high tech insanity phase) I realize how I save time for the things I really enjoy: sit under a tree, watch my live stream and the duckies floating on it, listen to the wind in the leaves. But I also save money, energy and materials. For at least some measurable difference: I think I managed to not visit the shops for over two weeks - because for every problem I encounter I try to find a way to solve it with what I have around here. I don't spend the fuel and I don't buy all the stuff I used to. At the moment I mostly use trash and leftover materials from around the farm. I rebuild, recover, reuse what I can.
Here's some random thoughts about building materials and building, since I have been hopping around other people's building sites and my own quite a bit throughout my life:
I look into how to use the naturally available stuff - stones, sticks, clay, plants .... even nicer to work with than trash, but a bit of a learning curve for the average urban-grown person. So I have to compromise of course. I did buy wire mesh for the chicken house, for example, because I don't trust my ability to combine the natural materials so that weasel and mongoose stay out. I am learning to build stone walls by simply playing around with the damaged walls next to my place. It's a useful skill in a place full of stones. What is a useful skill to learn depends on where you live.
When I first started building I used bricks, cement, concrete, metal. These are not people-friendly materials, they are materials of the empire. A lot of energy goes into their production and usually they arrive from far. When you use them your skin hurts, your back hurts, your lungs hurt ... Most modern building sites are sick - building in the wrong places without respect for the place and its former inhabitants, using harmful materials and creating a harmful work environment. And a bit of a feminist view? Did you know there are so many man-sized tools, bags, devices, ladders, helmets on a mainstream building site? Men come home from these places broken, needing repair from 'their' women. We should rethink this way of nest-building and make it a little softer.
To find people-friendly ways of building you have to rethink smaller. Or think modular - a good house is one that can grow with its community. Studying traditional ways of building in different regions can help determine what makes ecological sense where.