The Immaterialist

resilient living in a limitless world

Category: oppression

December 19, 2019September 18, 2020

The second sex

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The spirit of a city reveals itself in its rawness, its unpolished corridors, and its hidden gems ✨

This morning my youngest son found a big, beautiful dead butterfly lying on our bedroom floor. He was delighted: the butterfly’s short life ending right there in our bedroom felt magical and beautiful. Now it is afternoon, and ants have already started to ingest it, and in a couple of days it will be gone completely. The other morning the large cocoon on the wall of our bathroom was empty; the butterfly had left it and had flown away. This is the natural cycle of life. Florae and faunae alternate or deteriorate, two terms and tactics that are the inspiration for the sustainable design strategy that can lead to the creation of resilient, anti-trendy design-objects.

Yesterday my youngest son said to me: If you were a child, I would be older than you. How is that? I asked. Because I am born before you, he replied. He is born in August, I am born in October. His comment made me think about time. How time can be experienced as fast and slow, how sense impressions can send you back in time and allow you to relive past experiences, and how time can feel like an illusion. Would you play with me, if I was a child? I asked him. No, you would be really small, I would take care of you, he said. ✨ #theimmterialist #timetravel #time #childwisdom

Aromatic abundance 💛

From Aesthetic Sustainability:

Sunday wildness 🌸

When we live unsustainably: when we over-consume insignificant short-lived goods, devour loads of mass-produced convince and fast foods wrapped in excessive packaging, dump trash in nature, turn our cheek to the animal cruelty that characterizes industrial farming, generate an excess of undegradable product waste, overuse energy-sources for electricity, air-condition, heating and transportation, when we, in short, are governed by convenience needs and a want for short-sighted pleasure and comfort, we are acting out of disrespect to our natural environment. And, by doing so we are increasing the divide between us and nature. Furthermore, as a part of such actions, we are automatically allowing for industries to continuously produce in unsustainable, unethical ways, because as long as there is a demand for unsustainable, unethically made convenience products, they will be manufactured. Such is the supply and demand logic in a capitalist society. But we, the common consumers, are all losing this equation: by being consumers, i.e., people who consume, devour, scoff, and demolish, and by consuming in accordance with the “more for less” logic, we are removing ourselves further and further from the most basic truth of all. A truth that each child knows and feels, a truth that indigenous people swear by, a truth that our ancestors honoured, a truth that we deep down know by heart, namely, that we and nature are one: that we cannot separate ourselves from nature, and that by unceasingly imposing harm on nature we are also harming ourselves.

In his Philosophical Enquiry Edmund Burke (1729-97) connects the sublime to vast, redoubtable (nature-)experiences. Thus inspired, one could depict a scenographic, sensuous image to illustrate the sublime aesthetic experience, which, customary of the time, was bound to nature. The scene unfolds like this: A wanderer is climbing a steep mountainside. At long last, he reaches the top; he is met by a glorious, breathtaking view, which makes him feel infinitely small. The sheer size and force of nature is overwhelming. Suddenly, dark, threatening clouds appear on the horizon. The wanderer immediately seeks refuge in a rockside cave, from which he can safely observe the scene unfolding outside. The storm hits. Rain, hail, and lighting erupt from the sky. The wanderer senses immediate danger. The situation is overwhelming--so overwhelming, in fact, to be paralyzing. But, at once, the threat seems to dissipate. He realizes that he is not actually in any physical danger; he is sheltered by the cave, and the storm will eventually pass. Instead of alarming, the power of nature now seems fascinating. Relief and a sense of calm wash over the wanderer. His senses, which only moments ago were in a state of paralysis, are beginning to intensify. Different smells, sounds, sights--all contribute to a new experience of self, intensified by the shift in mood. Using the power of reason, the wanderer has triumphed in the face of danger.

I have always been captivated by the aesthetic sublime experience. The difference between the beautiful and the sublime concerns the difference between order and chaos; between symmetry and asymmetry; between predictability and unpredictability; between demarcation and boundlessness; between form and formlessness; between proportion and irregularity; and, finally, between the kind of aesthetic experience that nurtures one’s comfort zone and that which challenges or breaks it. The beautiful and the sublime are at once diametrically opposed and mutually dependent on each other. In a sense, they embody the yin and yang of aesthetics. They are fundamentally different, but existentially dependent. For instance, it is nonsensical to speak about symmetry without at the same time understanding the concept of asymmetry, just as harmony cannot be grasped completely without its opposite, disharmony.

According to the German philosopher Gernot Böhme, different experiences of beauty are similar in kind, despite their apparently subjective nature, and are therefore characterized by a certain universality or by being common to all (or most) human beings. That is probably why we enjoy reading fiction about the experience of unity in the world, or why we get caught up in film sequences about other people's sensuous experiences of beauty. If there were no similarities between different human beings’ experiences of the beautiful and the sublime, it would not make sense that we feel a certain satisfaction characterized by the joy of recognition or understanding, compassion and identification, when exposed to a description of other people’s enlightening, beautiful or harmonious aesthetic experiences. Precisely this point--that the aesthetic experience is characterized by being universal, and that it thus defies national, cultural and zeitgeist-based differences--forms the basis of my definition of aesthetic sustainability. #theimmaterialist #aestheticsustainability #sustainability #beauty #bohme

From Aesthetic Sustainability:

"Last year I was a part of a design-week focused on sustainability in Bali. I spoke about aesthetic sustainability and the importance of investing in durable things: things that last, both functionally and aesthetically. And, I spoke about how decay at times can beautify an object; how wear and weathering can increase the value of a well-made piece of furniture or clothing. There was a question from the crowd: “What if you cannot afford to invest in a well-crafted table that ages with beauty?” It was a good and relevant question. Because despite the fact that investing in durable things that can last for decades and continuously nourish us aesthetically is probably the most affordable and reasonable in the long run, this is not an option for everyone. Sustainability has become the new luxury."

I recently started reading a couple of books on indigenous ways of life and approaches to balance, health, love, childcare, nature etc. The interconnectivity with nature, with our natural habitat, with our common land keeps popping up. And as a part hereof the notion that our immune system is dependent on the state of our natural environment: that unless nature is healthy, we aren't healthy. And that by reinforcing the resilience of our natural environment, we are reinforcing our own resilience and our strength and health: by not respecting natural limits and nurturing the earth we are not respecting our own limits and we keep pushing ourselves our of balance.

Diversity is one of the most important principles in ecological permaculture. As a part hereof the term polyculture is crucial, which can be defined as the raising at the same time and place of more than one species of plant or animal. In other words; plants and animals thrive in diverse environments, whereas monoculture literally suck all nutrients our of them and create an unbalance in the ecosystem. Diversity is the most natural state for nature. Monocultures (or the cultivation of a single crop in a given area) are artificial human inventions.

I took thess photos this weekend when I went for a walk with my son. He said: try to look at the cliffs from the side. They look like big futuristic cities!

Flourish: grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way, especially as the result of a particularly congenial environment.

Aesthetic nourishment: a feeling of being (momentarily) at home in the world ❤️ #theimmterialist #aestheticnourisment #aesthetic #aestheticexperiences #aestheticstrategy #aestheticsustainability #oasis #bliss #homeliness #palma

Being outside 24-7 in Bali - literally, as our house was open; it had no walls and no windows - did something to me. I never realized how much my well-being is dependent on being outdoors and being close to nature. Now i suffer when I am stuck inside, due to cold weather or due to traditional ways of building in the northern hemisphere. I miss the sound of a heavy rainstorm when it is approaching: I had never before heard it the way I did in our home in Bali. It sounds like the ocean. I miss the constant animal and insect sounds. Dogs and cows and goats and chickens and geckos and bees and birds... I miss the wind and the heat and the cold and the moisture. And I miss always walking barefooted. #theimmaterialist #tropicalliving #openhouse #junglehouse #rain #wind #sun #bear #moisture #bali

Unlike the late modern human being, wild nature doesn’t adhere to cultural and societal restrictions; it doesn’t “behave” very well and it isn’t very cultivated: it doesn’t try to be something it is not, such as smooth and firm (it is rough and mouldy, blossoming and withering, messy and diverse), and it isn’t easily “normalised”. We can attempt to tame it and we can farm it, but when human beings withdraw from an area (due to shortage or scarcity, or due to the deprivation of nutrients caused my monoculture and monocropping, or perhaps due to a global pandemic), or when fires, floods or draughts ravage an area, nature quickly takes over and after a short while it will begin to spread wildly 🌴🦋 #theimmaterialist #rewilding #sustainability #permaculture #monoculture #diverse #diversity #wild #nature #jungle #butterfly

"My biggest fear is that he, like I did, will unlearn these truths and inherent sensations as a part of his “cultivation” and his education. Because I, unlike him, don’t feel particularly connected to a specific animal, and I, unlike him, have forgotten the feeling of being completely safe in wild nature.”

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