Chris James
Books, Films, Art & Photography
About
About
In 1995, I taught myself HTML, the language of websites, bought a domain name, DISMANTLE.ORG, and built The Dismantlement Website. The main purpose of the site was to promote my environmental ‘manifesto’ of dismantlement, which is the systematic dismantling, over a 250-year time span, of all those things that are detrimental to the health and survival of the planet. The aim is to reach, by the year 2250, the same quality of air and water, the same stable climate and the same global population that existed before the Industrial Revolution.
The Dismantlement website ran for 24 years, until one day it wasn’t there anymore. I had been sent, but never saw, a notice saying that my domain was coming up for renewal (having erroneously thought I owned it for life). I wasn’t there to act, and the domain name was bought by someone in China. I tried to buy it back from them, but they wanted $50,000. I offered $50. They declined. End of website.
With Dismantlement we are attempting to shape our destiny by controlling our expansion and keeping it within the bounds of our growing tray, the Earth. As in the art of bonsai, we do this through cutting, pruning, wiring and careful tending. Dismantlement is all about containing ourselves without losing our shape… about restricting our outward growth without curbing our inner development.
The Dismantlement website came after my book, The O.D., the first draft of which was completed in 1991. The reason for initially presenting my ideas in a book of fiction was to convey them in a more palatable, interesting way to people who may not share my fears of where humanity is heading. So, although the Dismantlement website is no longer, the premise of dismantlement lives on in The O.D. and in my other books.
