If there’s a theme with which I’m deeply concerned, it’s the re-enchantment of the cosmos as something mind-like, an evolving idea churning through the undercurrents of the psyche. Dreams are at the center of this cosmos, their cryptic symbols a twilight power that molds physical reality. However, to harness this power, one must be willing to experience the uncanny; something grownups seldom do. Hidden Places We Have Been is built around such a cosmology, a psychological fairy tale devoted to intense inner states and the deep structures of meaning that flow through us all.
In the not too distant past, I collaborated on a series of documentaries focused on the Apollo Program, the photography acquired after puncturing Earth’s atmosphere, and the humanistic implications of half a century of space travel. Apollo 9 Astronaut Rusty Schweickart provided some of the most alluring philosophical meanderings of the series, a portion of which is provided above.
Photographic murmurs broadcasted from beyond the horn of Africa, where inherited thoughts spool into the whirlpool of a dream.
Meditative meanderings around the city of Albuquerque…
The limitations of our senses have long been the subject of sandbox epistemology, triggering revelations that meander through porous minds. Echolocation, night vision, an arsenal of secret scents erupting in the muzzle of a hound. Our estrangement from the true sheen of world, ever-present since childhood, makes it easy to disavow the power of our own weaknesses, the shadow-moments and spectral whispers we usually write of as the residue of madness and dreams.
Years later, as I watch my backyard movies, I see a quiet prologue in these acts of play, strange notions spouting from some deep under-soil I’ve stepped across my entire life. These were tender experiments in world-building, imaginary elixirs doused against boredom in the most preadolescent of ways. Without realizing it, an anodyne was present in my make-believe, a spray of light while sequestered in dark times.
Where Do We Go From Here
Bedtime. Nightlights weave a protective aura. Shadows trundle across phosphorescent stars. There’s coolness to this light, a softness projected by every apparatus engineered to keep darkness at bay. An undulating glow galvanizes toy spaceships, model airplanes and posters that depict oceans, deserts, tropics, deep space. A room for a child with restless legs…
Artist: Summer Channel FEAT. Chrysta Bell | LABEL: libra rising
Empire Systems
Artist: Rafael Anton Irisarri | LABEL: Room 40
All that we perceive is stirred together by some great unknowing operating outside the parameters of contemporary science, like a goddess of ancient myth creating the world through elegant throes of dance.
Source E
ARTIST: Reverend Mitton | LABEL: Depths Of Heaven
Dense 808s and tricked out samples sway dancers sporting monochromatic gear from Future Fantasy Delight.
Insatiable
artists: Lange & Betsie Larkin | Label: Lange Recordings
A beautiful nomad wanders a primitive landscape while space and time pass before her, reinforcing the insatiable nature of existence.