TEA IN THE DARK — smudge studio

Tea in the Dark: Koans for the Anthropocene

Tea in the Dark is an ecological act. It assists in re-weaving modern consciousness into cosmological rhythms of continuous change, thereby easing life in the Anthropocene.

In the spirit of ancient wandering tea monks who inspire us, we welcome friends, colleagues and strangers to ask us to make tea for them in collaborative exchanges, and in response to specific contexts and occurrences.

We prepare, share, and drink tea through forms and gestures that co-arise and then pass away with the elemental conditions of each occasion.

We do this as acts of hospitality and as koans for living daily life the Anthropocene.

Tea in the Dark: Koans for the Anthropocene humbly acknowledges our encounters with traditional Zen koans.

Koans are an ancient and yet still evolving instrument for living responsively on Earth. As artists, we experiment with expanded forms of koans. We take this to be a skillful means for practicing daily life within ever-changing planetary conditions. Koans deepen our capacities to respond to the context at hand. Much of what unfolds within daily life, especially within the Anthropocene, is grounded in uncertainty. Cultivating capacities to co-exist creatively within the enigmatic nature of existence is central to our project.

The preparation and consumption of tea is a mutually responsive practice of hospitality. Making, sharing, and drinking tea within varied conditions and forms exposes us to sensory experiences of change. It also inserts pause and reflection in habits of mind, gesture, and pace. Tea practice can transmute vast scales and cosmological forces of elemental change into humble, live-able human experiences.

We have co-created inventive forms of tea practice across widely varied geographies, times, spaces and forms of conduct. We continue to experiment with tea’s potential to enable skillful improvisation, poetic transposition, empirical observation, ritual conduct, and hospitality as mediums for intentional co-existence.

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Digital Chakaiki/茶会記 for Tea in the Dark

Click on each image below to load the full project description and see additional documentation via the FOP blog.