(ek’sen-tri-fi-ca’-tion)
From the root word eccentrify - which is to personally manipulate, decorate customize and transform: creating something* absolutely unique and mind-blowing.

*Something in this case means anything: an object, a situation, an activity, a moment in time, your life.

Recipe for Eccentrification:
Add 3 beans to a homogenized world. Stir vigorously.

The ultimate goal of The Winking Circle is the eccentrification of the world. Eccentrification? What is that you may ask. Well, eccentrification comes from the root word eccentrify: which is to personally manipulate, decorate, customize and transform, creating something absolutely unique and mind blowing. "Something", meaning an object, a situation, an activity, a moment in time, your life.

Confused? Let me give you some examples. To eccentrify your car could mean to hand paint a picture of Sasquatch on it and reupholstering it in fake brown fur. To eccentrify a bike could mean welding some custom 5ft forks on it. Decorating the outside of your house with shiny hubcaps and other found objects is a great way to eccentrify your neighbourhood. Building a gigantic adventure playground in your back yard is another way. You can eccentrify a wedding by dancing like a crazy fool without the aid of alcohol. Something as simple as making your workplace more fun, or trying to make up tricks that have never been done before on a skateboard are examples of eccentrification. You can eccentrify yourself by dressing outrageously or overcoming societal taboos and expressing love to strangers. Basically living, loving and creating excessively and eccentrically. Following your personal whims, without caring what "they" will think. Besides, down deep, "they" are just jealous because you're having so much fun while they are stressed out and unhappy being cool, rich, successful, beautiful, trendy and all that crap.

By now you may be thinking, "Who are these weirdoes?" or "this sounds kinda interesting, but what do those things have to do with the eccentrification of the world?" Well let me paint a little picture of what an eccentrified world could look like. In an eccentrified world Hollywood would be a wasteland and movie theaters would be empty because people would be busy entertaining themselves. They would be making their own movies and showing them in homes or local community centers, playing their own instruments and hosting spontaneous street dances. There would be no stars because people would be too busy starring in their own lives.

There would be no mega clothing brands because people wouldn't want to be walking billboards for super rich guys. Clothes would be colourful, vibrant and crazy. People would dress in costumes, not outfits. People would learn to make their own clothes again.

Subdivisions wouldn't be so boring anymore. Houses would be painted brighter, with more colour combinations. There would be more whirligigs and lawn ornaments. You would know something about the personal eccentricities of the owner by how their houses were decorated. There would be parades pretty much every weekend, although more people would be in them than on the sidelines watching them. Summer nights would be filled with people milling around laughing and talking, singing and dancing.

Landfill sites would be filled with television sets.

Going for a drive on the highway would be interesting, like visiting an art gallery, because of all the cars you would see lovingly customized and personalized by their owners. Cars would not be judged by how fast they go or much leather is inside but by how much stuff is glued on the outside or by the dazzling array of blinking lights on the roof.

In an eccentrified world, corporations wouldn't rule, people would. More people over 30 would skateboard.

Are you getting the picture? Are the colours we are using bright enough, vibrant enough? Is this the kind of world you would like to live in? Is this the kind of world you would like to help create? Have we gone completely mad? Are we foolish dreamers, or just plain fools? Do we really think that we can change the world?

Yes. We do.

And we are willing to back up these dreams with our lives. We are willing to play the fools in the decaying arena of consumer culture. We will drive hand painted cars and dance in public, we will make our own movies and love our enemies, we will laugh too much and weld 5ft forks onto our own bikes. We will live by the Wisdom of the Three Beans. We are willing to face the jeers and the ridicule of those who say it cannot be done. We are willing to be leaders in a world of followers. We cannot fail, because in undertaking the task of eccentrifying the world the process is the product. We will not regret having not lived at the end of our lives.

We are The Winking Circle; if you think you can handle it you are more than welcome to join us, if you still think we’re weirdoes, that's fine too.