work – escaping plane flights…

As an artist, I go where the work is, sometimes this means I need to move betwen projects that happen in different cities – or in the case of the last week between the city and the bush.

I travelled to Mildura on the  Victoria/NSW border last week for three days. It just so happened that this corresponded with the hottest week in Victoria in recorded history. So I flew in an air-conditioned plane there, drove around in an air conditioned hire car and stayed in an air conditioned hotel. I also ate out because my hotel room didn’t have a cooking area. SO i pretty much broke every rule in zero martyn in every minute of the three days i was there.

Victoria crumbled last week – especially in terms of power. As the temperature gauge got hotter, so people cranked their air-con higher. And as they did that the power failed due to the massive demand. Now obviously there are people out there that need cooling, like the elderly and the sick and the young. But there are a lot of people out there living in large houses and there is inly one or two in the household and they have the air con on so cold that they have to put a jumper on. It’s ludicrous, and then they complain when their power goes down…

I dont know how to reconcile the previous week – it almost feels like it belongs in a different ledger. I need to work to live, and the only way to get to Mildura in a reasonable time (it would have taken 2 days of travel by car) is to fly.

As mentioned in my rules -the work I do will be totalled up and then a separate carbon cost added for it.

This is where the Murray and Darling rivers meet near Mildura. A very beautiful spot, I swam nearby which was lovely.

Water trading is a part of life up in this region, as people trade what they don’t use to others. It feels liek Mad Max or something, trading the commodities that are scarce.

How far away are we from water wars?