Off the Grid: Re-Assembling Domestic Life

249 Pages·2014·2.418 MB·English

by  Phillip Vannini, Jonathan Taggart

Off the Grid
Off-grid isn’t a state of mind. It isn’t about someone being out of touch, about
a place that is hard to get to, or about a weekend spent offline. O ff-grid is the
property of a building (generally a home but sometimes even a whole town)
that is disconnected from the electricity and the natural gas grid. To live off-
grid, therefore, means having to radically re-invent domestic life as we know
it, and this is what this book is about: individuals and families who have
chosen to live in that dramatically innovative, but also quite old, way of life.
This ethnography explores the day-to-day existence of people living off-
the-grid in each Canadian province and territory. Vannini and Taggart
demonstrate how a variety of people, all with different environmental con-
straints, live away from contemporary civilization. The authors also raise
important questions about our social future and whether off-grid living cre-
ates an environmentally and culturally sustainable lifestyle practice. These
homes are experimental labs for our collective future, an intimate look into
unusual contemporary domestic lives, and a call to the rest of us leading
ordinary lives to examine what we take for granted. This book is ideal for
courses on the environment and sustainability as well as introduction to
sociology and introduction to cultural anthropology courses.
Visit www.lifeoffgrid.ca, for resources, including photos of Vannini and
Taggart’s ethnographic work.
Phillip Vannini is Canada Research Chair in Public Ethnography and
Professor in the School of Communication & Culture at Royal Roads
University in Victoria, BC, Canada. He is author of dozens of journal a rticles
and book chapters, and author/editor of ten books.
Jonathan Taggart is a Vancouver-based photojournalist and member of
the Boreal Collective. He holds a MA in Intercultural and International
Communication. His photography exhibits have captured national audiences
and his pictures have appeared in magazines and newspapers across the
country, such as Canadian Geographic, Yukon: North of Ordinary, BC Business,
and The Tyee. Among other awards, he is the recent winner of the 2012 West-
ern Canadian Music Award album cover design.
Innovative Ethnographies
Series Editor: Phillip Vannini, Royal Roads University
The purpose of this series is to use the new digital technology to capture a
richer, more multidimensional view of social life than was otherwise done in
the classic, print tradition of ethnography, while maintaining the traditional
strengths of classic, ethnographic analysis.
Available Forthcoming
Ferry Tales: Mobility, Place, and Time In Solidarity: Ally Ethnographies of
on Canada’s West Coast by Phillip Friendship and LGBT Activism
Vannini by Lisa Tillmann
Digital Drama: Teaching and Learning
Art and Media in Tanzania by
Paula Uimonen
Concrete and Dust: Mapping the Sexual
Terrains of Los Angeles by Jeanine
Marie Minge and Amber Lynn
Zimmerman
Water in a Dry Land: Place Learning
Through Art and Story by
Margaret Somerville
My Father’s Wars: Migration, Memory,
and the Violence of a Century by
Alisse Waterston
Off the Grid: Re-Assembling Domestic
Life by Phillip Vannini and
Jonathan Taggart
iii
Off the Grid
Re-Assembling Domestic Life
Phillip Vannini and Jonathan Taggart
First published 2015
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Taylor & Francis
The right of Phillip Vannini and Jonathan Taggart to be identified as
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Vannini, Phillip.
Off the grid : re-assembling domestic life / Phillip Vannini and Jonathan
Taggart.
pages cm. — (Innovative ethnographies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Sustainable living—Canada. 2. Self-reliant living—Canada.
3. Alternative lifestyles—Canada. 4. Simplicity. I. Taggart, Jonathan.
II. Title.
GE199.C2V36 2014
640.28'6—dc23
2014016461
ISBN: 978-0-415-85432-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-85433-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-74440-6 (ebk)
Typeset in in Caslon, Copperplate, and Trade Gothic
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
1. Grids 3
An Ocean for a Fence 6
Tangles of Lines 8
Inhabiting Place, Incorporating Materials 11
2. The Pull of Remove 21
Voluntary Simplicity? 24
Showering with Grizzlies 27
In Love with Place 32
3. involvement 39
Wood and the City 39
Affect and Ways of Heating 44
Hot and Cool Energies 51
4. (Off)Roads 57
Tank Farms and Utilidors 58
Roads, Access, and Insulation 62
v
vi COnTenTs
5. Power Constellations 69
Have Cessna, Will Travel 70
The Farthest Home 72
Costs, Efficiencies, Externalities, and More 75
6. Comfort 87
Groovy Yurts 87
Lighting the Way, on a Bike 90
The Thoreau Effect 96
7. Convenience 105
Growing, Storing, Cooking, Eating, Shitting
Organic Food 106
De-Concession 110
Sun-Dried Everything 113
8. House Building, DiW-style 123
Building with Dirt and Garbage 126
Regenerative Life Skills 131
Vernacular Architecture 134
9. slower Homes 141
It’s Sunny. Tell the Kids They Can Come
Inside and Play the Wii 146
Synchronous Power and Unplugged
Appliances 150
New Age Homes for a New Millennium 153
10. Breaking Waters 159
Onerous Consumption 162
Self-Sufficient Homes 165
Alternative Hedonism 168
COnTenTs vii
11. Camping, Out on the Land 179
Frozen Fishing 183
12. The new Quietism 189
Non-Users 191
Lifestyle Migrants 196
In Search of Stillness 200
13. A Better Way of Life? 207
Amidst (Fallen) Trees 210
The Way Back 214
References 217
index 229
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Preface
Off-grid isn’t a state of mind. It isn’t about someone being out of touch, about
a place that is hard to get to, or about a weekend spent offline. Off-grid is
the property of a building (generally a home but sometimes even a whole
town) that is disconnected from the electricity and the natural gas grid.
Off-grid buildings are therefore self-sufficient for light, power, and heat.
But as it goes, people who live in off-grid homes also tend to be independent
for procuring other vital resources, such as water and food. To live off-grid,
therefore, means having to radically re-invent domestic life as we know it,
and this is what this book is about: individuals and families who have chosen
to live in that dramatically innovative, but also quite old, way of life. We call
them “off-gridders.”
Off-gridders homes are, in many cases, experimental labs for our collec-
tive future. The lessons they are learning today about living with renewable
energy are the lessons we will all need to learn tomorrow in order to make
our lives more sustainable, more respectful toward the environment, and less
dependent on non-renewable resources. This book is an intimate look into
unusual contemporary domestic lives, but it is also a call to the rest of us
leading ordinary lives to examine what we take for granted about our homes,
our needs, and our wants. We believe that this book will be valuable in
courses on the environment and renewable resources as well as ethnography.
We also hope that our work will appeal well beyond the academy.
From 2011 to 2013 Jonathan Taggart and I spent two years travelling
across Canada to find off-gridders and visit off-gridders’ homes. Sometimes
we were able to stay with them for a short period of time. Sometimes we were
allowed to take photographs and record video and audio. And sometimes we
even had the chance to practice off-grid living ourselves through short stays
ix