Poet John Campion to read Consilience at CNMAT

The cover (sidewise view) of Campion's book, Consilience, is an image of trans-Pecos, cave art from Coahuila, Mexico (five thousand years BP). It shows various instances of the shaman approaching the edge (between this world and the other?) and in the midst of the mind-altering flights across dimensions. The historic photo was taken by the great anthropologist, Solveig Turpin--now deceased.

 

 

The poet John Campion, founder of The Open Theatre and Ecotropic Works--tracking the intra-relationship between human culture and the environment will read the 4th book-length work (Consilience) in a projected quincunx. Campion's poetry has been compared to landscape architecture on the page registered in ecosystemic fields. To facilitate the comprehension of the effort, the entirety of the text will be projected on a screen as he reads. 

 

This form reflects an inwoven, complex process involving philosophy, anthropology, and microbiology that seeks to find an ecotropic language and shape that employs the strange and new content the last 150 years have brought forth. Campion seeks a unified field to more closely reflect the reality of our world and help us contend with the questions where do we come from/what are we/and where are we going? 

 

Too often the implications of what we have learned are not reflected in our language or in our culture. For example, we commonly say that we must protect nature and the environment that we all depend upon. Campion suggests that this language is no longer sufficient to help us live in the now and does not reflect our growing and uncertain understanding of reality.  To illustrate the point, Campion argues that we do not merely live on or in an environment nor do we only provide an environment for others (say symbionts), but that we are manifestations of co-extensive, co-evolving environments, from which we emerge, conjoin, and change. How we think is how we think about it.

 

The public is invited to attend.  Four reading sessions of two hours each will be held on Friday Sept 20 at 7:30, Saturday Sept 21 at 10:30 am and 3:30 pm, and Sunday Sept 22 at 10:30 am--all at The Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT), 1750 Arch St, Berkeley, CA.

 

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SCHEDULE of READING SESSIONS

 

The Public is Invited to CNMAT 

(1750 Arch St., Berkeley)

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John Campion

Reads his entire book-length poem Consilience

(The Fourth in a projected Quincunx of book-length poems)

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Equinox weekend 2024

 

September 20

Friday: 7:30 pm—9:30 pm

(Reception will follow)

 

September 21

Saturday: 10:30 am—12:30 pm

AND 3:30 pm—5:30 pm

(Reception will follow session two)

 

September 22 (Equinox)

Sunday: 10:30 am—12:30 pm

(Reception will follow)

 

* The entirety of Campion's poem Consilience

—a landscape architecture of the page

registered in ecosystemic fields—

will be projected on a screen as the poem is read