connecting the dots
where "the hearth" comes to life: a brief introduction
a new series, a new staircase
…maybe even a new corridor, who knows.
welcome to connecting the dots. thanks for being here.
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if gnoses represents “the home”, connecting the dots represents “the hearth”…its vital and creative center.1
in this new section of gnoses, specific archetypes, art forms & artworks, concepts, cultural figures and myriad phenomena will be [loosely] explored and discussed through the three disparate, wide-angle lenses gnoses is rooted upon:
cultures at large, the human spirit, and the natural world.
each post = a new ∙ within the ever-evolving constellation that is the home. “the home” that herein represents gnoses.
gnoses is abstract and borderless; a nonlinear paradise; an innocuous pandora’s box; a spontaneous playground for experimentation and investigation; tabula rasa with no rules.
connecting the dots is the fire that cools, the body and the work and the art; a confluence of ethos, pathos and logos, with telescopes as eyes and a thousand ciphers roaming about as seekers of some ineffable, impenetrable Truth.
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connecting the dots is the hearth in the vast library of muses; where we begin to understand the home, and become curious students of its mysterious design; where, if nothing else, bemusement fills our cup and memory as we know it surrenders to the behest of the infinite jest. laugh with me. and please, let this experience be more dada-ctic than dida-ctic.
the void is the vessel
i’ll be honest, for the last month, i’ve been swimming in and out of some self-induced creative coma, ruminating in the void about how i ought to “structure” gnoses, online and in life. or if i want to “structure” gnoses at all.
the ideas are there, and i’ve got loads of personal work i could be putting out, sharing with the world wide web…but that certainly is not the point of ‘this’. the quandary lies more so in the application of said ideas, said work, said art—figuring out how (and when) to apply these fragments-of-self in a more thoughtful and fluid manner.
i started this substack to experiment (note to self: repeat 10x or until this mantra sticks); to uncloak my shadow from the fortress of doubt; to just fucking get over it, whatever the thousands of thoughts ‘it’ is; and care less about how good or great or perfect something is.
the shaping of the body, of the work, of the art: these are ceaseless, mostly inextricable endeavors…certainly, for long and well after something has been ‘released’ or ‘published’.
yes, it would be great, wonderful, if people actually read what i (or you) write. all the better if the act of reading results in a certain resonance or piercing of the body/mind/spirit (good or bad), so much so that the reader feels compelled to share it with others; and maybe, just maybe, engage with the person on the other side of the screen; spark a conversation with the author.
it’s fun to speak into the void ^ [incantation, prayer, spell casting], but it’s way more fun, way more tantalizing when the void speaks back. like a spontaneous synapse between you/me and the ether. us and it, us and them, a cosmic fax machine. that’s really what i’m aiming for here: a conversation with the ciphers that be. an incessant stream of inspiration. thoughts and critiques, small albeit precious remarks from you, from it, from them: the audience.
the void is the vessel. the void is the vessel. the void is the vessel.
i want the whole picture. the comprehensive above and below.
and in the words of Richard Wagner, Anam Cara and late German composer (among many other things), i want 'the consummate artwork of the future…the integrated drama,' the Gesamtkunstwerk.
2 Hilma af Klint’s vision of a spiraling building to house her most important works comes to fruition several decades later at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City during the largest Hilma af Klint retrospective to date between October 2018 and April 2019.
the above artworks and photo provide one small example of Gesamtkunstwerk: where artist and ether, architect and viewer, artwork and curator, all come together to form a comprehensive oeuvre d’art, or work of art.
my intention with this section of gnoses is an attempt at Gesamtkunstwerk, to build a village of voices, including yours, and allow it to evolve into something much greater than the sum of its parts. please, if you would like to involve yourself in any capacity (as a writer or otherwise), send me a message at: hellodarbymae@gmail.com. i really look forward to hearing from you.
:)
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in this tragicomedy that is life, all we can do is act
and love
and do our very best.
at least most of the time.
that’s all, mein freunde,
that’s all…
꙰
p.s. learn more about Gesamtkunstwerk in the first edition of connecting the dots, coming very soon.
“The swan series was created after af Klint completed her work for the spirit temple, and it feels far more deliberate and intentional than her earlier work. Here, af Klint takes her search for spiritual enlightenment a step further, seeking to interrogate the forces that shape human experience in a thoughtful and rational way. The result is the beautiful and mysterious swan series, one of the most unique artistic treasures in human history.” -Inaya Siddiqui
A.L. Kroeber, defined the hearth as “a vital or creative center (the central ~ of occidental civilization)” (Webster, 558). Extracted from Sandra J. Lindow: The Dance of Nonviolent Subversion in Le Guin’s Hainish Cycle (The New York Review of Science Fiction).