Summer of (un)making - TOFU Mail Letter (Autumn 2023)

Natacha Roussel and Hellekin, who run the decentralized social media platform 'petites singularités,' invited TOFU to investigate the potential of Japanese knotweed growing near their 17th-century barn house. Since they also work on the implementation of GNU Taler (a free software payment platform that could potentially be a Digital Euro), TOFU was eager to learn more about this solution, which sounds like the popular chocolate-based bread paste. However, upon discovering that more work needed to be done, and considering the primarily cash-based local economy, TOFU decided to shift its focus to opening up the recipe for the Japanese knotweed energy drink known as EROI Drink.

"A Practical Guide to Making an Energy Drink from Japanese Knotweed" has been published on petites singularités in both English and French.

[EN]
https://ps.zoethical.org/t/a-practical-guide-to-making-an-energy-drink-from-japanese-knotweed/6973

[FR]
https://ps.zoethical.org/t/un-guide-pratique-pour-la-fabrication-d-une-boisson-energetique-a-partir-de-renouee-du-japon/6974

The knotweed bar was opened using the special table structure of the house, which extended toward the street. The 'Made in France' knotweed root extract, "Renouez avec la Puissance," was served to the visitors. Additionally, the extract was also tested by the members of NIPPONIA, a group of young people who collectively bought a 'castle' with a 9-hectare piece of land.

In between production periods, I also climbed the Pyrenees (via Larrau). Camping in the middle of a sheep pasture surrounded by free-roaming horses was quite an experience. I thought all the animals go to bed early, but the horses kept running around throughout the night, which made me nervous and prevented me from falling asleep until early morning. After that, hundreds of sheep started to climb up the mountain again, forcing us to do nothing but stay still.

Upon arriving in Zagreb as a resident of makerspace Radiona, I soon realized how big the semi-(il)legal A4 street adverts were. Since I had come to the city to search for local "(un)made objects," I decided to adopt the same format and create my own street adverts. To avoid immediate judgment, I invented the 'missing cat' framing method. I transformed the 'whiskers' into tearable number sheets.

The advert reads, "(un)made objects wanted - take pictures of the following items and get a free beer coupon!" I defined "(un)made objects" as three things in the context of Zagreb:

1. something that you don't know where it comes from but find extremely useful
2. something that you have in abundance and don't mind giving away for nothing
3. something that you have fixed so many times

I received the following images from people in Zagreb

Again, in between production periods, I found myself in the mountains. I embarked on a solo climb of rocky Filipov Kuk in Baške Oštarije but decided to turn back when I started encountering metal handles on the rocks. I thought to myself, "I still have a lot to do in Zagreb; let's head back."