Into ∅

Caught up in accelerating cycles of production, the power of creation annihilated our own existence. Insatiable growth and prosperity spread a contagious disease, putting a price on everything and a value on nothing. As quantified bits of information set a breeding ground for competition, enclosures of all sorts dissolved the very substrate of social bonding, progressively reducing relationships to the exchange of financial value.

Productivity, efficiency and progress were quickly followed by anxiety, frustration and distress. The quest for the optimal individual led to fear, mistrust and loneliness, pulling away any idea of a common purpose or shared ambitions. Yet ever more connected, we felt further fragmented, drifting apart in a comfortable state of neutralization. Individual goals of advancement, acquisition and personal comfort at the expense of others atomized social bonds, leaving a social vacuum filled with violence and coercion. Daily life space had become one of order and control.

Everything seemed so entrenched and inescapable that we created our own palliative tranquilizers, distracted by machines in the name of entertainment. We projected ourselves, with all our worries and doubts, into an ideal plane whose frictionless architecture was supposed to appease the unbearable burden of our bodies - down to our very own perception of reality.

Fueled by the rhetoric of a bestial human nature, the Fall itself became a weapon of order, growing on the ubiquitous fear of a permanent emergency. It became awaited such a prophet that would put an end to our suffering and discord. A prophecy whose sole purpose was to enforce submission by shaking every certitudes and hopes. An end that would make us feel alive - and lucky to be so. At some point, it became the very fuel driving the machine to its ruin - the idea of a sustainable annihilation acclaimed in a macabre dance over our own graves.

It seemed the Fall could only be made of memories and tears. Its Void first filled the inside of our souls, morphing into an existential crisis. Struggling to let go of our anthropocentric trope, all we were left with were wandering hybrids, prototypes and virtual systems scavenging the last components and resources in a desperate quest to escape obsolescence. Over time, nature and wildlife reclaimed their rights among our bleak and silent remains. However, in its destructive power it allowed for new frames of thought. We assumed there was no alternative, but they are many.

Once the Void becomes purged of its ominous consideration, it can be used as a tool for hope. Not the hope to get back to a comfortable and secure life, but the hope in a living and thriving Whole. When there is nothing left to believe in, should we not believe in ourselves?

We cannot cope alone, but as psychic systems, we extend beyond our surroundings, constantly connecting and anchoring ourselves in the Whole. Its unconscious mass creates a new sense of purpose, showing a path to redemption. Its existence fills the radical incompleteness of the individual, whose self-reliance is achieved only in connection with others.

Driven by our primal need for communion, the same one that used to keep us on our screens, we will forge a new sense of belonging. We will search for tools and techniques that allow us to merge our intellectual and spriritual strengths. We will salvage our existence and our place. We will reclaim ourselves.

But we shall proceed with infinite caution, one step leading to the other. New links weaves as a common ground erects : through time and experimentations - and the temporality of a thriving Whole is a one of slow-pace. As in a ceremonial dance, we shall learn to gradually adjust our gestures to enter into a quiet and complex synchrony. Our quest for autonomy can't be driven by the very thing that brought us to this point. If we don’t want to be fooled by desires induced by an external apparatus, we shall reconsider ourselves. To avoid the collective becoming another commodity, trading authenticity as its new currency, what should we focus on to build something whole? What should we believe in?