The Pod a Piece of Stuff by pluta (jane curtis) Boycotting Shell is just the beginning. Sean Healy, a coordinator of the Pod, an arts, media and activist centre in Newcastle, shows us round... The POD (submitted by ploota.) How did the Pod begin? sigh... nostalgia... a group of us were terminally bored in the midst of a particularly low point of the social scene in newcastle 2 years ago, and some of had been nurturing ideas about setting up an art gallery, an environment centre and activist centre, cafe, net access spot, hang out space etc.. and all the ideas ended up converging in the course of a few weeks... and so we decided to rent an old warehouse and make as many of those ideas happen together by pooling our resources, time and various talents.. How has the Pod evolved? (bad pun sorry) well we helped stimulate a Newcastle Fringe festival into existence in 96, and that process of going in over our heads showed us some of the ways funding bodies gave out money, and so we approached newcastle council to give us cheap rent in one of the many vacant buidings they owned - and they did! and so cheap rent helps us do a lot of things without having to concentrate on fundraising as much... What are some philosophies behind the Pod? the earth is flat - or maybe it isnít... exploration is good. the continued accelerating extinction of species is bad, cultural diversity is good, global warming and current population growth is bad, cars are bad, and that the cattle on the planet outweigh the humans, self sufficiency is good, that 20% of the world (u + me)consume 80% of the resources is bad, DIY is good, overconsumption and the advertising that drives it is bad, local is good, questioning is good - everything you know is no longer true, including the above. How is the Pod organised and how are decisions made ? Chaotically, with increasing attempts to become more organised - as somebody pointed out - the people who make toy guns probably have a better strategy in place in terms of actually realising their goals than a group of people trying to stop nuclear weapons destroying life as we know it. we have weekly meetings where anyone can throw in ideas, but the core members discuss any of the bigger decisions... How does it continue to exist? not sure. the same way electrons fly around the outside of atoms giving some appearance of solidity What has been the response of the community ? varied. a lot of creative people support it, a lot don't know what to make of it, don't think its accessible, don't understand what we're trying to do (neither do we), but we're always keen for more people to get involved so we can work together and make our collective dreams step closer to true. How has the Pod impacted on Newcastle culture, music, and politics? hard to say. i think it's increased the amount of people who say yeah - i can do that, or i could organise one of those if i wanted.. and i think more things are happening now than 2 years ago.. but who's to say who's responsible? What are some projects the Pod is involved in? Virtual Newcastle - a navigable tour of newcastle Evolver - a website to showcase newcastles artists, writers, musos etc The New Pollution, a national zine and ezine directory and anthology Is the Pod unique in Australia? in some ways... thereís probably a mcpod near you.. How do people find out more? Go to http://users.hunterlink.net.au/~ddsbh , write to 3/231 king st newcastle nsw 2300 or ph 02 49270470 tween 12-5 weekdayz. Some proud Pod moments... 101 bikes for newcastle - a wild campaign we had where people donated old bikes from the garage, and not only did we stop em from going to the dump, we fixed em, sold over 80 of em real cheap - raising some moola and giving a small victory to pedal power over the smog machines.. the 2 raves we had at the warehouse with the vibe tribers from sydney having the capacity to stimulate the 96 fringe festival into existence in newcastle, and helping the 97 fringe grow... cultural stomp - tho it wasnít strictly a pod event, just organised at the pod, it was a great and huge multicultural celebration and concert when that fish and chipshop owner came to town... Related Web Site Created on Thu, 16 Oct 1997 and last modified on Fri, 27 Feb 1998.

LOUDonline - http://www.loud.net.au - Wed, 8 Jul 1998