COSMOS NIGHT: FLOOD OF LIGHT
A micro-production staged at Arts Letters & Numbers, September 002019 for resident artists and community members.
The staging of Cosmos Night: Flood of Light coincided with the rising, waxing moon. Spoken words contextualized an invitation to sense the reality that the so-called “dark” night is actually filled with photons—some of which reflect brilliantly off the moon as they stream past Earth from the sun.
This continuous stream of cosmic light has shaped the geo-bio materiality of our planet for billions of years, including our own species’ evolution. Yet, our modern language and habits of perception make it difficult to apprehend the non-separation of “darkness” and light in the night sky—or to “see” reality non-dualistically. Moon/cosmos-viewing sweets were offered and hojicha tea was brewed in the near darkness of Earth’s shadow.
As a bright crescent of sunlight reflected off the moon, participants were invited to savor, empirically observe, and reflect on sensations of the non-separate nature of “darkness” and light. Guests were gifted a 22-page risograph zine of image-text juxtapositions poetically illustrating our species’ non-dual embeddedness within planetary/cosmic forces.
_____
We offered this micro-production for the joy and meaning that results when humans cultivate relationality with geo/cosmological change. It constitutes a practice for recalibrating our minds and the languages we use as we live through unprecedented realities of the Anthropocene.
Our aim is to provide aesthetic media for accessing what is magnificently beyond us by re-weaving brains, bodies and minds back into the cosmo. We take this to be a vital aesthetic-ecological act.
Related FOP posts and additional documentation:
COSMOS NIGHT: FLOOD OF LIGHT, August 002019
HOSTING COSMOLOGICAL CHANGE, September 002019
**Unless otherwise noted, micro-production documentation images are courtesy Lisa Hirmer.
* special thanks to Mochi-Rin for crafting moon-viewing sweets.
_____
Cosmos Night: Flood of Light
September 002019, edition of 33, 8” x 5.5”
22 page risograph, saddle-stitch binding
includes poetic and graphic transpositions of In Praise of Shadows, Sandokai, D.T Suzuki, yūgen, Tan Twan Eng, We'Moon, Shurangama Sutra, No-Gate Gateway + David Hinton, Baisaō, Kinkaku-ji
Limited quantities available. Please email if interested in purchasing copies.
