Excerpt: Water, body, intelligence
Yes, my friends, the conceptual revolution we are beginning goes this deep. We need to rediscover the mind of nature, to return to our original animism, and the ensouled universe it perceived. We need to understand nature, the planet, the sun, the soil, the water, the mountains, the rocks, the trees, and the air as sentient beings whose destiny is not separate for our own. As far as I know, no indigenous person on Earth would deny that a rock bears some kind of awareness or intelligence. Who are we to think differently? Are the results of the modern scientific view so impressive as to justify such arrant presumptuousness? Have we created a society more beautiful than they? In fact, as the example the quantum particle suggests, science is finally circling back toward animism. To be sure, scientific paradigms that countenance an intelligent universe are mostly heterodox today, but they are gradually encroaching on mainstream. Take the example of water. Emerging from the shadows of homeopathy, anthroposophy, and research by marginal figures like Masaru Emote and the brilliant Viktor Schauberger, the idea that water itself is alive or at least bears structure and individuality, is now being explored by mainstream scientists like Gerald Pollack. We still have a long way to go before anything like the sentience of all matter can be accepted, or even articulated, by science. But imagine what that belief would mean when we contemplate mountaintop removal mining, polluting aquifers with fracking fluid, and so on.Whatever mechanism–greenhouse gases, deforestation, or solar fluctuations– climate change is sending us an important message. We and Earth are one. As above, so below: what we do to each other, even to the smallest animal or plant, we do to all creation. Perhaps all our small, invisible acts imprint themselves upon the world in ways we do not understand.
from The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible page 51.
Gordy’s camera straps
Considering much of my work is done through digital interfaces, I often question if I really need to be photographing with film or not. Regardless, I like to maintain a tension of intention, joy, meditation, and serendipty while working, and the film process gives me that. There is something beyond this romance to working with film, a temporal element of recognising whatever I am using can be passed on. And while the act of photographing can be deeply subjective and self-involved, the element of unselfing is always important to keep in the mix, for me. All to come right back to aesthetics and making sure details work together with the functional elements. Gordy’s Camera straps features their customer’s straps on their blog, including this one of mine. A simple leather strap with my custom colour of choice. Ain’t she a beaut? Some people name their cars (me also) and I’d like to name this friend. Any ideas?
