Technologies of the Self : The Way of Tea

itlookslikeitsopen studio

Sunday, February 19, 2012 1:00pm until 3:00pm

Time oozed from my pores,
Drinking tea
I tasted the seven seas.
-Shinkichi Takahashi

The tea plant, camellia sinensis, likely originated in Himalayan region. By the 8th century it had developed deep cultural significance in Asia, and regional forms of tea drinking had developed in China, Japan, Korea and elsewhere. Influenced by Ch’an/Zen practice, aesthetics is cultivated through the communication with tea, tea wares, and people; facilitating calm awakening in dialog with nature.

In the third in a series of five “Technologies of the Self” events, Sherab Chen will demonstrate "The Way of Tea" (茶道 or "Tea Ceremony") based on his extensive research and experience with Asian tea culture. Participants will learn how teas are prepared and shared with friends in a traditional manner. Such an event is called a Tea Gathering (茶會/茶席). Sherab may demonstrate a "modified kongfu cha" style, incorporating elements of the 功夫茶 kongfu cha traditions.

Sherab is translator of English, Chinese, Tibetan, and Sanskrit and a long time practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism. He studies and practices tea culture with OSU student group TEAgether. He blogs in English and Chinese at <http://awakeningaroma.blogspot.com/> and <http://lightoflapislazuli.wordpress.com/> among other places.

***Facilitators are not expecting payment and all sessions are by donation. Please contribute to the cost of their visit, and the rent and maintenance of the studio space, with a small contribution.

[Photo by Sherab Chen)

Technologies of the Self : Mindfulness Meditation

itlookslikeitsopen studio ; 13 e. tulane rd.

Sunday, February 12, 2012 1:00pm until 3:00pm

To know the self, and to care for the self, is first to observe it without judgment.

Mindfulness meditation practices have roots in early Buddhist vipassana dhyana, but the basic practice of attention and awareness is universal and the value of this type of meditation now has overwhelming scientific recognition.

The second in a series of five "Technologies of the Self" events, Daron Larson will lead participants in an introduction to the concentration, sensory clarity, and equanimity necessary for attentional fitness.

“Mindfulness meditation is not a means of escaping from life, but a strategy for engaging more directly with it. Just as physical exercise increases strength, flexibility, and endurance to support the activities of our lives, mindfulness meditation develops concentration, sensory clarity, and a greater openness to embrace whatever happens in the present.

Directly encountering the obstacles to waking up to our lives, instead of overwhelming us, begins to nurture compassion in us as we realize more clearly the nature of suffering which we all have in common.” -Daron Larson

Daron has worked as a psychiatric social worker and is a student of Shinzen Young. More information is on his website at www.attentional-fitness.com/daron

***Facilitators are not expecting payment and all sessions are by donation. Please contribute to their visit and the rent and maintenance of the studio space with a small contribution.

[Event photo by Daron Larson.]

Technologies of the Self: Ecstatic Trance Session - 2/5, 1:00 pm

Looking inward can uncover unexpected figures and uncharted landscapes.

While many shamanic practices are lost or inaccessible, if the basic format of our minds and brains is universal, doorways into the alternate reality and the non-conscious mind can be recreated and rediscovered.

The first in a series of five "Technologies of the Self" events, Susan Josephson will lead participants in an introduction to "ecstatic trance" through ritual body posture and sound. Susan's technique for calling the spirits is based on the work of her late mother, anthropologist and founder of a neo-shamanic new religious movement, Felicitas D. Goodman. (Her work lives on in an organized fashion in New Mexico at the Cuyamungue Institute <http://www.cuyamungueinstitute.com/> and in Germany at the Felicitas-Goodman Insitut <http://www.cuyamungue-institut.de/>, and in numerous books and articles.)

We will settle into two trance postures for the session. The first, the Singing Shaman, and the second a divining or metamorphosis posture, to be announced. Young adults welcome.

Susan Josephson is an artist, philosopher, and educator, currently residing in central Ohio.

***Instructions for participation: Please arrive on time, the door will be closed at 1:15 so that the session can begin without interruption. Fasting will enhance the experience, but at very least do not eat within 30 minutes prior to the session. Wear loose-fitting clothing and avoid wearing metal. In this folk tradition, metals on the body, excepting gold and silver, are believed to interfere with the experience.

***Facilitators are not expecting payment and all sessions are by donation. Please contribute to their visit and the rent and maintenance of the studio space with a small contribution.

Technologies of the Self: Conceptual Context

Every Sunday at 1:00 in February and the first Sunday in March the studio on 13 E. Tulane Rd. (itlookslikeitsopen.blogspot.com) will host “Technologies of the Self,” a series of workshops focused on traditional and non-traditional methods of reconstructing or deconstructing personhood through ritual and awareness. All events are by donation.

This program is intended to introduce participants to a set of spiritual disciplines for self knowledge and self transformation. No particular religious affiliation is expected nor need one enter the experience without a critical attitude. It is for you to decide if these practices are beneficial to your own project of life acceptance and adaption. It is my hope that all the practices presented in this series will benefit artists, activists, seekers, and others.

The presentation of these “technologies” is also intended to challenge scholars and academics to step outside purely theoretical or objective modes, and enter into another kind of knowing. Social theorist Michel Foucault, best known for his work on sexuality and theories of power, turned at the end of his life away from “technologies of power” to those technologies which “permit individuals to effect by their own means or with the help of others a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct, and way of being, so as to transform themselves in order to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality.” (http://foucault.info/documents/foucault.technologiesOfSelf.en.html) For Foucault, technologies of the self are value-neutral. Neither necessarily good nor bad. They bring to bear regimes of truth onto psychic and somatic inner-life, and through practices of knowing, reformulate the subject, or deconstruct it. Foucault’s primary interest was in how the Greek maxims of “know yourself” and “take care of yourself” were transformed into early Christian techniques of self-disclosure and self-renunciation with the goal of spiritual purity. Here other, largely non-Western, forms and philosophies will be presented for exploration and consideration.

2/5 - Ecstatic Trance with Susan Josephson    http://www.facebook.com/events/209487835811000/

2/12 - Mindfulness Meditation with Daron Larson    http://www.facebook.com/events/174591049313517/

2/19 - Tea Ceremony with Sherab Chen   http://www.facebook.com/events/337423969611899/

2/26 - Krishna Kirtan with Satish More  http://www.facebook.com/events/292017704194841/

3/4 - Restorative Yoga with Ann Tepperman  CANCELED 

seth.josephson@gmail.com for more information.

KEROAÄN . Envenomist/Shiflet . Joe Panzner

Sunday 1/15 8:00pm until 10:00pm

Time

KEROAÄN is a musical artificial intelligence developed by Ian Fraser and Reed Even Rosenberg that performs by implementing XENAKIS'S Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis. This non-standard synthesis is played in real time by the KEROAÄN program. Pushing and pulling between sections of hard noise, singing glissandos, jagged melodic scribble and other sonic curiosities, the program liberates the computer from its position as a mere tool of hyper-productivity and transports the machine into a state of creative and performative being. Operatic in scope, a live diffusion of KEROAÄN features lasers, strobe lighting, and fog synched to both audible and structural qualities of the music as an infinitely morphing chorus of digital voices croon, cry, scream and everything in between.

Envenomist & Mike Shiflet
Local drone champions will bring the darkness to extinguish your light. There will be bass.

Joe Panzner
Critically-acclaimed critic-musician will provide blistering synthesis over pretty much everyone's head but his own.

http://www.facebook.com/events/361809453835464/