In brief, MôS (‘moss’), MôS stands for “Masters of Succession.
Not the succession
of Kings & Queens
but of frogs & bees.
In the land of beneficial succession, in the world you want to see, what do you want to be?
One caveat:
your by-product is of
beneficial succession
to air, water, soil & selves.
Our work, to design for beneficial succession, is based in whole systems thinking.
As MoS Participants artistically redesign systems in relationship to all that is, we practice and educate as a mere by-product of making our stuff. Ultimately, the goal is to care for others and the earth while we are doing what we do. To do that MoS collaborates to create interconnected mini economies or village centers. These mini experimental economies are in-turn stewards of the bio-region & the whole.
MôS Collective is a like-minded community of individuals working together toward the beneficial succession of air, water, soil & selves as a by-product of our lifestyles.
We implement the concepts of Permaculture, Biomimicry, symbiosis, embodiment, restoration, regeneration to focus on local quality of life.
Join the village collectivity.
Do what you want. Work on a creative passion project alone, or with others. Create connections to:
• Receive supplies you need
• Give your excess/waste as a resource
The MoS Collective only works in relationship to each other. The more participants we have the more functional our economy/our village plaza.
A society in a well designed biome spills forth freely with a healthy flow for all. We barely have to organize ourselves with a good foundation of being apart of the earth system rather than separate from it. We are in relationship to the system whole — everything is connected and complex. There’s no escaping it. In societal design we are in sync with nature, rooted, symbiotic so might as well work with it. Bring on the serendipities all day, everyday.
Join our Sci-fi Eco-Piazza
Vocabulary
Microbes to Metropolis
The Name “Masters of Succession”
“Masters of Succession” is a spin-off of the term “Master of Composting,” a certification program. We thought, why not have the Masters of Air, Water & Soil .. and People? “Why not be Masters of the Universe?”, we laughed. Super heroes, scholars and the empire… royalty. Since MôS is both creatively ridiculous and seriously serious—this title is fitting. So we had a name for an offering for Figment Festival 2010. Our first collective activity was a weekend of arts celebration on Governors Island, NYC, which we collaborated with Earth Matter, compost education facility on the island, to pick up compost and teach about different types of soil production in serious and ridiculous ways.
We are also inspired by all the comic book readers and fantasy lives out there. .. more on that to come.
Masters of Beneficial Succession
(MoBS)
MoS’ MoBSters work in affinity groups to become mini MoBS which then become Master MoBS.
Lifestyles of Bioremediation & Symbiosis
(LoBS)
MoS mini MoBS live LoBS. #LivingLoBS.
Succession verses Succession
TERRA PRETA
Terra Preta is a method of stockpiling soil found on the grounds of a passed Amazon culture. The culture was gone but the soil survived. They made the most noteworthy soil. It just got better and better. Soil succession.
MôS is not in pursuit of the succession of Monarchs, Queens and figureheads, but of soil, Monarch butterflies, frogs & bees. Everyone in The Archy designs toward healthier air, water and soil to create a spiral of beneficial succession. Food waste makes soil better, which grows better crops, which makes more food waste for better soil plus add more goodness, wow! (Terra Preta soil Wiki definition) Today companies like Monsanto, or Bayer who bought Round Up conglomeration of a toxic nightmare food production system that kills soils and makes farmers dependent upon the seed and Round Up forever– there’s more. SO please compost and build soil for future food and to mitigate methane.
The Archy
We are not a hierarchy but an archy. There are several leaders, 3 or 5 or dozens. In the chance that there is only and if there is only one leader nothing happens. Things go dormant until someone else participates. Sometimes there’s a long lull in activity and other times we are quite active. To be an official Archy make up a dream title and submit it with your name. Then hopefully you’ll want to add something to the mix of what this is.
Symbiosis
When one thing thrives off the other in mutual benefit. Masters of Succession live with the understanding that we are a connected web; and freedom comes with collaboration. It’s a responsibility to design with symbiosis in mind. Autonomous individuals find matches in a village that support each other because we are all working toward better water, air and soil.
The Mud Ball Ball
#mbb: The Beneficial Mud Ball Beneficial Mud Ball Ball. This is a yearly celebration of lifestyles of symbiosis and bioremediation. It is also an Ephemeral Piazza. We come together to make a stockpile of mud balls to clean waterways, seed balls to add biodiversity. We eat oysters to save the shells to rebuild oyster reefs. We have a procession and ceremony at the waterfront grateful for our water protectors and Action Jacksons. A continuing story unfolds.
The Ephemeral Piazza
(plaza not pizza but pizza is good in piazzas)
Participate in the weaving our ephemeral village center, plaza, (or piazza). Invite us to make a piazza (or pizza) program at an ecologically mindful event. MôS Town piazza is a collaborative experimental regenerative, restorative economic and social village center. It’s the inspiration of the MoS Founder’s hometown village center that was in-turn inspired by European centers. The Ephemeral Plaza is ephemeral because the piazza is not anywhere — like on a piazza. It can be anywhere the people of the town are meeting to be social and economic. When that activity stops the piazza is gone. After which it returns to on line (though we’ve taken the online piazza down but might come back with the right organization or partner collaborating.) The piazza is roundish, not a town square that ignores terrain, hydrology and contours. It’s not the main drag heading West that doesn’t hold people in a cocoon of comfort, trust and safety. It’s a protected roundish space with shops and an open paved area, maybe a fountain in which to play. In the piazza nature is our inspiration and a catalyst with which we work together instead of against. It’s so many things.
MôS Town
An on/off line residents who come together MôS Town often calls Mud Village as well. We come together to experience this symbiotic connectivity of each other as succession-makers in serendipitous relationships. There are no such place as an eco city so here’s the best we can do. It is an experiment, like a game maybe but it’s real, and get together, we make and sell things. It is a network in which to not only survive, but to thrive. In the real world we hit road blocks in our regenerative efforts and get disconnected from what is possible. It’s frustrating and difficult. As a part of MoS Town we can complete the loop better, see our efforts go a little further, and with the help of other people’s services and products we can continue to become more interconnected and effective. Our passion work becomes more resilient, more affordable, effortless and less toxic.
MoS Town is a place where we can give fully our gifts (or to test out what out what they might be). What are our parts in the big globule of life? What benefit do we offer the community?
In MôS Town, our individual offerings work in concert, in connection with other individuals. We are an inherently a great big organism of purposeful moving organisms affecting one another.
We focus on a heightened quality of living today by taking care of our place and a regenerative abundant future. A place where we can see the rippling effect of our actions or lifestyle patterns. The unfortunate and the fortunate.
To help build the platform for MoS Town & Ephemeral Piazza contact us. We have it started and it can also be a shop of products and services. Help build to this community building app. For now it’s a draft on this site.
A Mycelial Network
(wiki definition) It is single cell white thread lace just below the surface of the soil, breathing oxygen and coordinating the health of the ecology through its’ roots and rhizomes.
Participants
What we call guests, partners, collaborators, members, team, crew, residents, leaders and so on. We are all participants of the collective while we are participating. When we aren’t participating we are not participating. Keeps it simple for writing purposes — seems to work best.
It’s possible to have people joining us who are bewildered or assume it is what it isn’t. That’s always fun. Are they participants? They are more like museum “visitors” for which we have pamphlets, 3D glasses and audio tours.