Times Square Catalog: Tools for Decarbonization

Times Square Catalog: Tools for Decarbonization

“We are as gods and might as well get used to it.” -- Stewart Brand, Whole Earth Catalog, 1968

This sentiment has echoed in the popular imagination, from initial responses in the late sixties to the Blue Marble photo of 1972 to our contemporary discourse on climate change. This project takes its form from the Whole Earth Catalog, a countercultural publication born out of the civil unrest and cultural recalibration of the late 1960s. The catalog promoted an anti-establishment self-sufficiency that championed DIY mentalities as a resistance to threats of authoritarianism that were of public concern at the time, hence its emphasis on tools and manuals. Many of the questions raised in the Catalog are relevant today, particularly ones of authority and responsibility. The format of the catalog itself became a tool for asking questions about decarbonization within the context of Times Square; namely, how culturally dominant modes of thinking about climate produce solutions-oriented tactics for decarbonization. These so-called “solutions” reproduce consumerist logics that are at the core of the issue to begin with. This project proposes a tool, in keeping with the Whole Earth Catalog, that challenges this false logic, instead opening up possibilities for flexibility in our responses to climate change.