16 September, 2011 at 9:25 AM

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to live in a world of total abundance with total freedom of expression and creativity? A world like this is the illusion of a week at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. Imagine a world where there is enough for everyone and it is a gift economy. Where you are given meals and drink without the expectation of exchange there and then, but on the understanding that somewhere else and at some other time you are gifting whatever you have to those who chance across you. This is part of the magic, but so is the agency to create anything you like, wear anything you like and enjoy others doing the same. There is very little centrally organised content other than curation, which means that this city of 50,000 people is built totally democratically. This means that every citizen is enormously empowered with the chance to get together and create life as they want it for a week.

Believe me, the effects of total responsibility for your experience are radical. It offers the opportunity for thousands of people to open up and be in control of their life for once, to express themselves in exactly the way that they want to and not be judged. One of the great effects of this responsibility is the way that litter (referred to a MOOP - Matter Out Of Place) is seldom seen. Every feather to every match that you bring is your responsibility to take away again and dispose of. There is not going to be someone else to do it.

It is obvious that there are some lessons to be learnt from this for wider society and the communities that make it up. The realisation of how powerful a creative force people are when they take full responsibility for their lives, stop blaming others for the way things are and actually start creating a world that they prefer is awe-inspiring. What would the world look like if more people did this? Is this the true engine of change? These are themes that we will be exploring at West Lexham. We are working on a little festival for May so we can all pour together everyone's vision of their brightest future, so see how it might fit together, look like and be achieved.