What

Fight the Kipple is music from the interface of electronic and organic sounds… But what exactly is kipple and why fight it?

What is Kipple?

Kipple is a word coined by Philip K. Dick in his book Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep? (the inspiration for the movie Blade Runner). In the book it is described as the clutter of useless junk – that reproduces when your back is turned. Whether it’s junk mail or piles of rubble, by morning there’s always more.

I love the life quality Philip K. Dick gives kipple – like mould, it grows when no one’s looking. It’s easy to understand the characters’ need to fight kipple. If you live in a part of town where kipple has already taken over (like J.R. Isidore in the book) then it’s just what you have to do to survive.

But what does this mean to me?

Why fight it?

I personally like to widen Philip K. Dick’s definition of kipple. To me, it’s not just the paper tsunami avalanching from my desk, piles of things “awaiting sorting”, or weeds overtaking the garden – it’s the distances that creep into my relationships, the damage I can do (even without realising), my negative attitudes and selfish desires that get in the way of me truly connecting with God…. It’s all sorts of things in my – and our – lives that, if we don’t pay attention, bring their own slowly creeping destruction.

Of course, this can all sound a bit negative (like I really have watched too many dystopian sci-fi movies). There’s plenty of fantastic things worth celebrating about life – it’s just that I don’t want kipple taking over any of them. And that’s why I choose to Fight the Kipple.