A part of my investigation into Interconnectedness and Entanglement is to see whether I can formulate a way for people to feel connected, without having to have a social interaction. This would be particularly helpful for introverts who feel depleted by social interactions, but at the same time because of their introversion, also tend to feel isolated and disconnected (BetterHelp Editorial Team, 2024).
I have therefore been experimenting with ways of thinking, of meditating, of working with elemental materials, of meditating on deep time, deep space, stardust and the cosmos and bringing this into my art practice. I have intuitively found the meditation/meditative journeying method and decided to write it down into a step-by-step process that could potentially be repeatable for others and for an audience in order to help them understand my art practice more deeply.
In terms of how this methodology links to my theoretical research, I have created this method in order to share the following theoretical discourse:
- The Evolutionary Story of Stardust – the fact that elements from our Scientific Periodic Table were birthed over billions of years as cosmic evolutionary process from as far back as the Big Bang, and have, by way of stars being birthed and dying over and over, have turned into the elements that we know today, that can be found in the cosmos, on other planets, on earth and inside our own bodies. (Gee 2013; Hawking, 1988; Lovelock, 1979; Puig de la Bellacasa, 2017)
- Point 1 above reveals how elements on the Periodic Table came into being, and how they are the base ingredients for everything (i.e. we all come from the same ‘stuff’), and this leads into an audience then knowing that if they hold an element in their hand – for example, a piece of bismuth, or copper, or gold – they are holding stardust.
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I am currently using this working method to approach art-making:
- Sit comfortably in preparation for a meditation.
- Hold in then palm of your hand any natural material that contains or is entirely made up of elements that come from stardust, e.g. pure gold, a semi-precious stone, bismuth. Hold an open, relaxed palm.
- Gaze at the object and observe its properties: colours, shape, weight, texture, occlusions, opacity, etc.
- Close your fingers gently around the object and close your eyes.
- Breathe in slowly and deeply through your nose and exhale through your mouth.
- Bring your awareness to the centre-front area of your brain (the prefrontal cortex).
- In your mind’s eye – whilst making an effort to shut out the feeling of the object in your hand – imagine your energy/soul expanding and extending out through the top of your head skywards, through the layers of our atmosphere, then travelling deep into space.
- Envisage the dark matter surrounding all the cosmic bodies in our own Milky Way Galaxy, and deeper still into deep space beyond our known universe. Imagine that though your soul is floating out in deep space, it is still connected to your body here on earth. This is the place where the elements you’re holding in your hands were birthed. This is the place where all the elements in your own body were birthed We, here on earth, are connected to those things ‘out there’ in the universe because we are all made from the same stuff.
- Allow yourself to hover/float/exist in this universal space for as long as it feels comfortable, knowing that this space that transcends time.
- When it feels right, bring your awareness back into your body by imagining your energy moving back from deep space, back into our galaxy, back through our atmosphere, and finally back into your body, into that frontal part of your brain just behind your eyes.
- Open your eyes and open your fingers, and look at the elemental object you hold in your palms.
Sit quietly and ponder the idea that though this object may have been mined from rocks found on earth, their elements were born out of repeating cosmic events such as stars going supernova over billions of years.
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Step 2: for those wishing to bring this energy into their art-making:
- Take this knowledge and sensation to your art-making space.
- Place your elemental object in your immediate art-making space.
- As you make art, allow your mind to go back to that expansive space, deep in the cosmos.
- Breathing slowly and deeply, exhale that energy directly onto your art piece.
- I have therefore been experimenting with ways of thinking, of meditating, of working with elemental materials, of meditating on deep time, deep space, stardust and the cosmos and bringing this into my art practice.
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Objectives of this Methodology:
The objectives behind this methodology are two-fold:
- This methodology provides a practice-based research framework for my own investigations. I am currently using the above meditative journeying to observe whether, when used, I am able to evoke feelings of connectedness within myself.
- This methodology provides an accessible way for audiences to experience the enchantment, magic and wonder of the story of stardust and how it connects us all.
- The big picture objective – the Meta Objective – is the hope that when people realise how interconnected and entangled we all are – and by ‘we ‘ I mean to say all species and non-species, all human, non-humans and more-than-humans, the plants, the soil, the rocks, the oceans, the atmosphere, the cosmos, the universe – when people are able to expand their idea of who their kin are (Haraway, 2016), this should extend their matters of care (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2017). When we care more widely and more deeply, we become more accountable for our actions.
References:
BetterHelp Editorial Team (2024) Isolation Vs. Introversion: What’s The Difference? Available at: https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/general/isolation-vs-introversion-whats-the-difference-/ (Accessed 19 August 2024)
Gee, Henry (2013) The Accidental Species – Misunderstandings of Human Evolution. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press
Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. North Carolina: Duke University Press.
Hawking, S. (1988). A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. 6th Ed. London: Penguin Random House.
Lovelock, J. (1979). Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth. 2nd Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Puig de la Bellacasa, M. (2017). Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
Debbie New 