User:Claxhanson/Projectproposale
Context
"Any system of meaning is political, because meaning is power, as we all know, though meaning is capricious, and promiscuous, and shape shifting."1
To give a bit of context to what I’m about to say, outside of my artistic practice, which has for the past three years been an 'inquiry' into the limits between fact and fiction, I’ve been passively crafting for myself a practice of astrology, accumulating both a deep interest and some experience in understanding what it actually is, what it might stand for, and what it means.
One thread that weaves together every work I do is the delight in words, the myths they carry, what they allow for, and the joy of language. Words, symbols, and myths, are not irresponsable fabrications, they respond to necessities. They do not exist in isolation but always in relation, in wider context. They carry with them meaning, and they embody a set of heavily inherited intentions, philosophies, and patterns of thought. Language, as meaning, has been and is still massively weaponized to service the expansion of authoritative and excluding power dynamics.
Today, I stand with the idea that astrology is intrinsically political, and that re-admiting astrology into the cultural conversation is a radical stand for what both the capital and the state mock, marginalise, yet constantly try to appropriate and exploit. There is something fundamental about it, which is the way it forms narratives out of mundane experiences, in synchronicity with celestial movements. For example, the word revolution, itself, such an important word in our vocabulary today, comes from 'revolvere’ 'revolucion', in latin, which meant the full cycle of a celestial body around its axis. Just like we need to understand, adapt, re-use, and re-manipulate our words, through time, we need to care as well for the translation of the tales and myths that make up our societies.
How can we understand 'power', or abuse of power, as not only isolated scenarios, but as a set of ever shifting concepts, all aggregated together and maintaining each other through collective understanding ? And how can we still articulate positive, tactical, discourses, when it feels like there’s still such a gap between the state of current events and even a remote experience of tangible, global, social justice ?
I understand my thesis as a contribution to this present day conversation, as relying on two suggestions :
1_ The study of our historical engagement with celestial bodies, whether divine or not, provides with a reflective and generative surface : it consequently represents an important archive of human experience.
2_ The study of this archive, and its analysis through the array of factors that constitute our present day societies, is an essentially grounded cultural and political engagement.
What do you want to do ?
I would like to expand the work I’m doing for my thesis into the form of a wiki repository. This wiki will be a sort of book of knowledge, where I can work on setting a framework for my practice. I want to developpe a space where we’ll be discussing and crafting an insurgent and subversive practice of astrology, that relies on the necessity of sharing experience, and of relating thoughts with each other. "I believe that building community around astrology is a meaningful, uplifting practice, which emphasizes the significance of collective study."2
Who do you want to reach ?
There is an already growing comminity of astrologers, and a lot of work that that is done towards presenting a fresh understanding of astrology, as not only a practice of cultivating intuition, thoughtfulness, and empathy, but also as an emancipatory language practice, that empowers conversation and encourages questionning. "A good astrologer does not try to answer questions, but tries to open up to questions that might have not been asked enough."3
I guess I’m trying to create a space where we can take further, and archive, and revisit these conversations.
It is neither only something that circulates within the astrologer community, nor something that is a vulgarisation for non practicians.
It’s a place where I want to capture and archive not only the information that will be produced during my research, but also the process of research. I want this project to be a tool for me to reach out about the work I’m doing and eventually give space to build conversation about it.
Relation to a larger context :
1 : 'How to Tell When You’re Going to Die: Astrology for Writers' - Johanna Hedva, Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, Online Studium Generale lecture
2 : This quoted formulation of the question is interpreted, but was heavily inspired by the thoughts of Alice Sparkly Kat. — http://www.alicesparklykat.com/postcolonialastrology/
An etymology of saturn : http://www.alicesparklykat.com/articles/61/An_Etymology_of_Saturn/
Extract of Astrology and storytelling : http://www.alicesparklykat.com/articles/37/Astrology_vs_Astrologism/
3 : Aliza Kelly - Stars like us : "a reminder that there’s no such thing as destiny — it’s all about
4 : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/djenneba/mercurys-brood-astrology-anthology?lang=fr "astro anthology for the people, curated by black queer astrologers"
5 : @Queenjupiterastrology : "🔮 Astrologer / Educator / Creative / Friend ✨ She / Her 🦂 🎙 Podcast - The Strology Show 🪐 Director @astrologyvoices 🧿 Founder @nfluxmag" — https://www.freshvoicesinastrology.com/