reflection and refraction

when i started out on this journey i had two areas of inquiry that i wanted to explore; the liminal state as context for writing and the digital as a context for shamanic experience. over the last few months i have gone full circle in my understanding of these two contexts and how they relate to each other.

my first assumption about the liminal state was that you could clearly distinguish some kind of line between shamanic reality and material reality. what i came to realize was that these realities were always intertwined and overlayed. The idea of dividing consciousness into "ordinary" and "non-ordinary" states relies on the assumption that "ordinary" states of consciousness are indeed ordinary, i.e that objective reality is objective and not just the current dominant paradigm.

"The straight world didn't end. The straight world and the other world had bled into one another and produced the world that we live in today."

William Gibson, "no maps for these territories".


the further my explorations have taken me into shamanism the further i have understood how so called "altered" states of consciousness have no more or less validity as any other state of consciousness. No one reality is really any more "real" than any other, its all about what we can agree on, what we feel most comfortable with, what we can imagine, what the media tells us..

"all hallucinations are real, some hallucinations are more real than others."

Genesis P Orridge, from "go" ultraculture journal one.


it seems that increasingly culture is reflecting this model of reality. digital media is becoming increasingly more immediate and non linear and this has huge impacts on the ways we process information and therefore the ways in which we contribute to that process as artists.

this project has really brought up far more questions around these ideas for me than it has answers, it has fundamentally changed relationship with my creative practice. i really feel like i am starting everything a new.