Looking at adverts since the middle of the 19th century, „new“ and „cheap“ have always been good arguments for advertising mineral water or washing machines. So why not use these trigger words to advertise a change in our relationship with things?

In his essay „The Rise of Cheap Nature“, historian and human geographer Jason Moore uses the term „cheap nature“ to describe the destructive relationship between humans and the resources of nature: What has no price tag may be consumed.

„new cheap nature“ is a social artwork that promotes non-material values and the profitable question: „What do I really need?“ or a bit more campaigning: NEW - there is nothing for sale! CHEAP - not buying is the cheapest! NATURE - in the end you are there!

The work on this online shop is not free of irony. To immerse oneself in it, to recognise what is meaningful and also beneficial and then to confront it with the hustle and bustle of ‚normality‘, for which it does not seem transferable, no matter how much good will is involved.

Culture, roughly speaking the rules of coexistence, needs images and stories so that it becomes imaginable; and also so that new forms of coexistence become imaginable. The paths we take are well-trodden, asphalted. Turning off needs a lot of effort and, above all, good arguments. Changing behaviour, or being prepared to think about it in the first place, begins with learning to unlearn.

Every good old shirt and its story in this online shop is an advertisment for not buying a new one, for shifting relations to what sorrounds you. If a piece gets added to the online shop, the story becomes a little more ‚true‘, because more people share it.

Why does an online shop not have opening times like a shop? Just because it is possible to do ... this argument proves more and more wrong.

In order to seriously pursue the switch to renewable resources, we also need a kind of culture of variable energy supply. If not everything is available all the time, the power plants and the grid do not have to be dimensioned for a maximum. In addition, less energy is also easier to produce with exclusively renewable forms of energy.

The opening hours here are based on the average grid utilisation, which according to Austrian Power Grid is highest in the period from 8.00 am to 2.00 pm.

Let's say no. Basically, a service or product cannot be sustainable on its own. Cars with electric drives are also driving the world into the ground en masse. Only behaviour or ecosystems can be sustainable.

But - let's say yes. The intention with this online shop is to create a metaphor for how the relationship with things can be such that it is part of sustainable behaviour. If this succeeds, the effect of the online shop could at least be described as sustainable.

Pretty sure you already own this type of garment. If you look in your wardrobe, you will discover a shirt, a jumper, a hat, a pair of trousers or whatever that is connected with emotions and memories. It is not possible to buy a thing like that, it takes time and attention.

At this point, of course, the invitation to share your most emotionally valuable piece of clothing here.

It is probably best to quote the 300-year-old words of Hans Carl von Carlowitz, which he formulated in the impression of deforested regions and which we today think should be the future (original in German):

„die größte Kunst, Wissenschaft, Fleiß, und Einrichtung hiesiger Lande [wird] darinnen beruhen, wie eine sothane Conservation und Anbau des Holzes anzustellen, daß es eine continuirliche beständige und nachhaltende Nutzung gebe, weiln es eine unentbehrliche Sache ist, ohne welche das Land in seinem Esse [= Dasein] nicht bleiben mag.“

[the greatest art, science, diligence, and organization of these lands [will be] based on how to establish such conservation and cultivation of the wood that there is a continuous, constant, and sustainable use, because it is an indispensable thing without which the land cannot remain in its existence.]

Hans Carl von Carlowitz, Sylvicultura Oeconomica, 1713