Living Skin Manifesto (Jan 2024)
To the appreciation and formation of continual spirit in art. Not a science, not a prayer, but a reach into the blackened dark. Believe in necessary desecration and introduce fragments of skin. The warmth of a membrane founded in pure discovery. Amorphous, squinted, protected, a Living Skin.
To the appreciation and formation of continual spirit in art. Not a science, not a prayer, but a reach into the blackened dark. Believe in necessary desecration and introduce fragments of skin. The warmth of a membrane founded in pure discovery. Amorphous, squinted, protected, a Living Skin.
Introduction
What would it look like for knowledge and art to be as living entities? Can knowledge and art be considered bio-artifacts? How can we take care of, nurture, and become partners in nature with these forms? Is it possible to discover new processes to facilitate their movement, growth, and evolution?
Considering New Celestial Bodies
We understand “knowledge” to exist completely separate from the bounds of time. Knowledge, the concept of all things known and knowable, an "information bank” neither tangible or finite, exists as a body, a celestial body, boundless in every direction. The same formation surrounds what is known as “art”: all ideas and expressions form a similar, but distinctly separate body of notions that have been expressed or will be expressed.
As beyond sentient these bodies are, it must be understood, and can only be understood, that these bodies graciously lend itself to our human discovery, and their birth or existence cannot be defined by the rules of time. Both bodies occupy the past, present, future, simultaneously, and do not rely on a defining concept time to be. All knowable things learned and yet to be learned, and all things expressed and yet to be expressed, simply exist in their respective bodies, whether or not humanity has discovered their reality.
But while these bodies exist independent from humans or time, only through human discovery do we find relevance to it; All are brought to life when it/they are first experienced, and all things living are constitued by birth. The Body of Knowledge, or fragments of such, are first experienced through the simple act of learning. The Body of Art, or fragments of such, are first experienced through the simple act of expression. Consider the formation of the Neoclassicism movement, or the creation of the Communist manifesto; these experiences equate to discoveries, or conversations with the bodies of Knowledge or Art.
It must also be considered, the relevance of discovery as it relates to the individual. Consider the moment a new brush stroke is added to a painting, or the first time the Communist Manifesto is read; these equate to personal discoveries and conversations with certain instances part of the bodies of Knowledge or Art. These instances, when framed in relation to the unique individual, begin to take form as a finite constructs.
The New Existence Framework: A new perception
To discover is to introduce, to introduce is to birth, and to birth is to begin living.
Every single person makes way for new life by discovering an instance of Knowledge or Art. These discoveries surround a singular instance by a marker in time, associating the instance to our familiar bounds of time, alluding to temporality and thus coming to resemble life. Every unique encounter to an instance marks its birth to that individual, no matter if the same instance had been discovered by other individuals a thousand times before. Living Skin identifies these new instances or particles as Nodes.
What would it look like for knowledge and art to be as living entities? Can knowledge and art be considered bio-artifacts? How can we take care of, nurture, and become partners in nature with these forms? Is it possible to discover new processes to facilitate their movement, growth, and evolution?
Considering New Celestial Bodies
We understand “knowledge” to exist completely separate from the bounds of time. Knowledge, the concept of all things known and knowable, an "information bank” neither tangible or finite, exists as a body, a celestial body, boundless in every direction. The same formation surrounds what is known as “art”: all ideas and expressions form a similar, but distinctly separate body of notions that have been expressed or will be expressed.
As beyond sentient these bodies are, it must be understood, and can only be understood, that these bodies graciously lend itself to our human discovery, and their birth or existence cannot be defined by the rules of time. Both bodies occupy the past, present, future, simultaneously, and do not rely on a defining concept time to be. All knowable things learned and yet to be learned, and all things expressed and yet to be expressed, simply exist in their respective bodies, whether or not humanity has discovered their reality.
But while these bodies exist independent from humans or time, only through human discovery do we find relevance to it; All are brought to life when it/they are first experienced, and all things living are constitued by birth. The Body of Knowledge, or fragments of such, are first experienced through the simple act of learning. The Body of Art, or fragments of such, are first experienced through the simple act of expression. Consider the formation of the Neoclassicism movement, or the creation of the Communist manifesto; these experiences equate to discoveries, or conversations with the bodies of Knowledge or Art.
It must also be considered, the relevance of discovery as it relates to the individual. Consider the moment a new brush stroke is added to a painting, or the first time the Communist Manifesto is read; these equate to personal discoveries and conversations with certain instances part of the bodies of Knowledge or Art. These instances, when framed in relation to the unique individual, begin to take form as a finite constructs.
The New Existence Framework: A new perception
To discover is to introduce, to introduce is to birth, and to birth is to begin living.
Every single person makes way for new life by discovering an instance of Knowledge or Art. These discoveries surround a singular instance by a marker in time, associating the instance to our familiar bounds of time, alluding to temporality and thus coming to resemble life. Every unique encounter to an instance marks its birth to that individual, no matter if the same instance had been discovered by other individuals a thousand times before. Living Skin identifies these new instances or particles as Nodes.
- The origin of a Node is defined by its introduction to the individual, the moment an individual encounters.
- The lifespan or continuation of a Node is defined by how long it stays perceptible to the individual.
- The completion of a Node is defined by when either the individual or instance chooses to let go of the other - where the individual is ultimately left no longer conscious of the instance's presence (an instance of knowledge or art can be re-introduced and re-instated to life as it is rediscovered again in new fashion).
These 3 principles outline the New Existence Framework, and realizes knowledge and art as living.
As learners and expressers, we ought to position ourselves as partners with these instances of knowledge and art, not owners or collectors of them, respecting their life. The bodies of art and knowledge are sacred and unfathomable, yet we find ourselves existing with them. The desecration of knowledge and art begins when we consider our own importance and markings on this world as greater than these bodies.
Our human spirit is not meant to interfere with, "use", or "own" knowledge or art, but must naturally communicate with them in sort of collaborative intertwining. New life is sourced here—Neither we or these bodies can take credit for providing life, but is it ceratin, thes very acts of learning and expression are responsible for creating life. All we can do is but manage our spirit and reactions to these moments, and appreciate the essence of discovery as similarly to the romantics of birth.
A Defense and Embodiment
What does Living Skin's physical embodiment and relation to NEF look like?
With every person that passes through Living Skin and every node brought to life through NEF, Living Skin grows, evolves, and spans upon itself in every direction. Every book, every event, every conversation, every artwork, all hold a ceratin weight in building the network of nodes we call Living Skin.
Living Skin is working to be a covering for the Spirit of Knowledge and Art—a "skin" protecting the spirit against the invasions of human disregard. Human disregard actively contradicts the preservation of the spirit by practicing indifference towards our encounters with it. We often encounter an experience, process the experience, and choose to move on.
NEF reminds us to combat the forces of disregard by practicing and exploring new systems of preservation and protection for Knowledge and Art. Living Skin's appreciation for knowledge and art takes form as a Library and Gallery.
- A Gallery provides an intentional space to practice new expression, invite new thought, and appreciate various aesthetic.
- A Library provides an intentional space to learn and appreciate various resources of all forms.
The gallery and library are a means to feed and support its network of nodes, to foster spaces of learning and expression, to support the growth of its living skin.
Nodes as Bio-Artifacts
How are we to care for things that are alive? As we involve ourselves in the birth of new Nodes, we in-turn must actively protect and foster their life by responding to their mortality. Living Skin is critically researching new processes to house and nurture nodes by applying lessons of nature to seemingly unnatural things. What systems of life are innate to all mortal beings?
- A feeding and nurturing
- practicing continuation of thought sourced from the start of a new Node
- responding to the cycle of life, all living things nurture or guide another in some shape or form — we re-visit the journey of a node's feeding and discovery, in hopes of shaping and guiding it.
- Communing
- apart from the few animals that exist asexually, all living things respond to one another in some form of relationship, some short, some long, some harmful, some beneficial.
- a node stands independently, but through acts of community and nurturing, connections form between them to create a full network of nodes, which in totality, is identified as Living Skin (see A Defense).
- Putting to Rest
- how are we to put to rest an idea or subject that has fully run its course?
Living Skin hopes to feed, nurture, commune, and eventually admire the rest of every Node that becomes apart of its skin with the help of NEF and new, soon-to-be defined processes (by our definition, these "new" processes must already exist in the bodies of knowledge and art, we should be so lucky to find ourselves discovering it...).
Life-cycles...nurturing...an acceptance of nodes as bio-artifacts...a respective partnership with the natures of Knowledge and Art.
This is our mission and response to the NEF, to manifest a Living Skin.
Afterthoughts
Living Skin supports the act of learning, questions what it means to express one's self, and provides an evolving environment to experiment with the connections between discoverer and discovery.
Living Skin aims to be a protector of life surrounding Knowledge and Art by actively archiving and placing weight on these new discoveries. NEF instructs the way Living Skin approaches all things, and serves as reminder to respect the fragility of knowledge and art by recognizing their transience. Living Skin is on a journey to foster discovery, cultivation, and a partnership with the bodies of knowledge and art.
Make sacred the act of learning and act of expression.....Make way for new systems of reflection and communication with entities not bound to either time or the physical plane, as humans so clearly bound to both.
Statements
Living Skin, an invitation to feed, cultivate, observe, an object of knowledge and art framed in living skin.
Living Skin, a protective shell warding the Spirit of Knowledge and Art from the dangers of human disregard.
Living Skin, an application of nature to seemingly unnatural things.
Living Skin, a conduit in understanding information as bio-artifacts.
Living Skin, an archival initiative for the purpose of living and breathing preservation.