Roz Savage passing Diamond Head just before arriving in Honolulu Hawaii after rowing across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco
Yesterday I met with Roz Savage, a british climate activist, using her activities as an ocean rower as a platform to agitate for sustainability. She started out rowing alone across the Atlantic back in 2005-06 and are now crossing the Pacific Ocean in three steps. In connection with COP15 she has conducted a walk from London to Brussels where from where she travelled by train to Copenhagen. She walked with a group of 4 collaborators for 12 days. Her activities is presented on her fabulous web-page: http://rozsavage.com/
We meet in the cafe of SAS Radisson, drinking coffee and looking out on the heavy traffic in the centre of Copenhagen. I was curious to discuss with her how her rowing and walking could be seen as performance art. If she in her work thinks about what kind of symbolic picture her actions create and how she deals with these symbolic gestures. Even though Roz dont see herself as an artist in any aspects, she is very concious about the metaphorical aspects of her activities.
Central to her projects is an idea about the number 10.000: 10.000 footsteps or 10.000 oarstrokes or 10.000 other small steps towards a larger goal. This can been seen as an example on how each of in our everyday life can contribute with seemingly small inferior act, that adds up and becomes part of a bigger movement or wave. A mighty force made up of millions and trillions of tiny small steps, that can move us all in the right direction. What it takes though is the awareness of common goals – that we all row in the same direction. This line of thinking also includes the idea of a breaking point. In the breaking moment all the tiny seemingly contradictionary movements add up to a certain level and all of a sudden everything moves in the same direction. What small act that is affecting the break point is not so important. Every little move in the mass of moves is just as important as the last move breaking the barriers for good.
The whole attitude of Roz is simple and positive. Her projects acts as metaphorical examples for others to follow – or maybe the word follow is wrong – its more like she is an example of the possibility of making a difference on a personal level. That each of us can redirect our lifes and take the necessary steps in the right direction , whatever that direction is. The strenght of the metaphor is also that it is positive. Its actually possible to step out of the normal way to do things, the stress, the economy, the ambitions, the careers of contemporary urban life and decide for something different – something that contributes in a positive way to the sustainability of the earth-system as a whole.
In our talk she was very precise about focussing on sustainability instead of climate crisis; keeping focus on a positive possibility instead of a critical negativity. As an activist tool this positivity has its advantages; it opens up doors for others to follow. The metaphor of the small step is accesable to everyone, and by using sports as her medium it really opens up to large crowds of people who wouldn’t otherwise engage in the climate debate. It also opens up the doors for politicians and decision-makers who might feel secure and open-minded since they are not confronted by radical anti-capitalists, but can stay within their mainstream references and still opt for change. Roz’ background as a management consultant and project manager at an investment bank makes her big change of life-direction a kind of accesible example – open for everyone to follow. Also for the average business men / women seemingly caught up in career logistics and lifestyle habits.
In these questions lies a whole debate around activism and critical positions.
