Re: Andrew's accidental ecologies

Hi Andrew/All
Enjoyed this post, and like your Bateson/Guattari-inspired concept of accidental ecology. This, I think, captures in particular the sense of something that happened on the last day of htb, when someone (not sure who this came from) proposed that we make something more of the architecture platform. From a conversation around a table through which variable constraints were established, a group started moving around the room (facilitated in part by Troy’s piece of string). At some point, this nexus of string, chairs, and people, “reached its own accidental satisfaction”, and did, as you say, refuel the conceptual work. Then, prompted by a suggestion by Mike, we started moving around again, this time in pairs. Some of us ended up moving with and within what Sher came to name as Ganzfield tents - mobile platforms for exploring sensing space without the familiar orientation of discrete objects of visual perception. This, for me, is a kind of accidental ecology. I’m not sure however that, in their enaction, such emergent ecologies “sacrifice themselves in their auto-critique”. The event of their happening is a passing, but the after-affects of this continue to resonate as real – if virtual – relations on the chromatic fringes of conceptual prehension.

Not sure you need to fall on the side of pragmatist or philosopher. My sense is that like James, Guattari, and many others, you are both.

Best
Derek

"The Worm's" inner light