#azraelencarnacion

[primitiveprimelab]

"ITS EASY TO FORGET WE IN THE OCEAN"

New essay up on Medium on how billy woods paints a song. Read it here.

[yours-notyours]

Listen/purchase: Yours/NotYours by Azrael Encarnacion

All album photos by JeNYC Photography

[primitiveprimeblog]

Girls with Vases by Cathy Lu

TIPPING POINT

by Azrael Encarnacion

Girls with Vases (I) by Cathy Lu (currently featured on Hi-Fructose’s website) is such an interesting painting. It depicts a vase on the verge of being tipped over by a swarm of girls. What I immediately notice and what draws most of my attention is the dynamic between chaos and order in this scene. Because you think you see teamwork concentrated in certain areas, such as the pyramidal climbing of the vase on the left, or the lifting of the vase's base on the opposite side. Giving the impression of ants collaborating to carry a crumb of cake back home. 

Even the girls hanging off the top right rose seems purposeful to balance out the weight and prevent the vase from falling but is that their intention?

What is the overall intention of any of these groups? Are they all working together or just grouped together? Is the pyramid meant to provide a boost or the result of everyone trying to climb atop one another? Are the girls at the base trying to tip over the vase, or just looking for something underneath it? Are the girls hanging off the rose attempting balance or just holding on so as not to fall?

The vase itself seems the victim to whatever the girls are attempting, despite their organization or lack thereof. It could just be innocent play or rebellion or something else altogether or a combination of a few things altogether. This painting seems to bring to my attention that I don't know what the girls are doing as a whole but the result will likely break this vase.

There's something delicate about vases because they're so easy to break. Paintings of basic vases, especially with flowers are commercially common and while meant to be peaceful home decor or hallmark friendly, usually affect me as boring. Such images feel as if someone were trying to spell through the vibrant colors and lack of context that this is ideally pretty. There's something exciting about the way Cathy Lu, whether knowingly or not, disrupts that for me.

Will the vase break? If not, how close will the girls get to almost breaking it? It's suspenseful. If it does fall, will any of the girls get hurt? It's worrisome. But above all, for me, were they trying to tip the vase over in the first place? If not, that's the most intriguing impression of the scene for me. This reminder that our smaller actions have bigger consequences we aren't aware of. And that from an outside view, seeing the full picture, it might for a second seem like the consequence was precisely what was intended.  

[primitiveprimelab]

Wrote an essay on billy woods x Messiah Musik's song 'Frankie' from their 2022 album, Church. Read it here.

[primitiveprimelab]

On Drake, Pop Music, & Hip-Hop Culture

ALL SKUS ON ME by Azrael Encarnaión

“Is Drake Hip-Hop?” Yasiin Bey, (a.k.a. Mos Def) was asked in an interview with The Cutting Room. His answer, in a pure what-memes-are-made-of moment, is that Drake is Pop and akin to “shopping with an edge.” This is in reference to the generally likeable sensibilities in Champagne Papi’s music; sensibilities that lend themselves to such commercial experiences as shopping at a Target store.

Since then, various voices have chimed in, from radio personalities to Hip-Hop blogs, streamers, and podcasts. Hot takes ranging from casually entertained to flat out rap beef instigation. Even Drake himself jumped into the mix, offering his defense by way of a 1997 clip of Wu’s Method Man defining Hip-Hop. Meth’s definition, which mentions wordplay and rhyming does help Drake’s legitimacy; but a lot has changed since 1997. Does Hip-Hop even mean the same thing anymore? How has the relationship between Pop and Hip-Hop changed since Method Man’s statement? Is it possible that today, an artist like Drake, who makes Rap music, isn’t necessarily Hip-Hop?

[ Read full essay here ]

[primitiveprimelab]

NIYI OKEOWO

Mr. Color is the on-going 3D visual project by artist and art director, Niyi Okeowo. Centering on themes of afrofuturism, isolation, anxiety, exploration and geometric structures. These are a few of the pieces which spoke to me but you can see more of Okeowo’s work via the Mr. Color Tumblr page.

[primitiveprimelab]

Diogenes the Cosmopolitan

Alexander the Great once walked up to the philosopher, Diogenes, who was sunbathing, and asked if he could grant him any request--Diogenes replied to Alexander, “you can stand out of my light!”

The idea of being a citizen of the world, or cosmopolitan, has been around for quite some time. In the 5th-Century B.C., philosopher, Diogenes the Cynic proclaimed himself as one, refusing to limit his identity to a singular locality. A controversial figure of his day, Diogenes rejected not only local citizenship but also other values, such as possessions and social status. So much so, he owned little to nothing and lived in a tub or cask in the streets of Athens. He considered society a pretentious construct that filtered out one’s true nature, at times inspiring him to take to town with a lantern in broad daylight in search for an honest man.

An interesting fact about the philosopher is his exile from his native city of Sinope (present day Sinop in Turkey, then a colony of Greece). His father was a banker and either Diogenes, or his father, or both were at some point involved in a counterfeit scandal of minting debased coins; that is, reducing the value of the money by tampering with the amount of the material it should be made out of. Banished, Diogenes lost all his possessions and citizenship. Whether Diogenes took up his cynical philosophy as a result of this earlier experience, or if it instead humbled the man, allowing him to find a better way of life is anyone’s guess. 

His reported disdain for cultural conventions, supposedly, went as far as going against the norms of even sleep and eating, choosing to do either whenever he felt like it, rather than the time(s) of day that society selected as appropriate. Manners and tact, were also fake to Diogenes, he wanted people to be as real as they could be.

“If I were not Alexander, I would want to be Diogenes.” --Alexander the Great

When you read of his exploits, ranging from comically sarcastic remarks to explicitly vulgar public behavior, there’s almost a mission, on the behalf of the philosopher to teach his society a hard lesson. Possibly a spiteful lesson. Whereas he lost his citizenship and possession so too, should everyone else. 

Because of this disposition, one could argue Diogenes’ view of cosmopolitanism—Under the framing of his tendency toward brutal honesty (emphasis on brutal)—Being a “world-citizen” is less about a uniting camp-fire principle of global community. In fact, Diogenes could not practice true world citizenship as much of his world was still limited to a mainly Euro-Mediterranean and Asia-minor geography. Instead, for Diogenes the Cynic, cosmopolitanism is perhaps simply a fact as blunt as a club used to strike a sleeper awake. Easily supported by the common experience we each undergo everyday (unless we’re astronauts)—That of being aboard the same floating planet moving about in space.

In his defense, much of the stories about him are fables, and even some of the previously accepted facts have come under question, so hold space for any misinterpretation. Also, Diogenes believed in self-control and individual excellence; his rejection of the unnecessary was slightly akin to a minimalist view, that included the political complexity of one’s place of origin minimized simply to the planet one lives on.

[primitiveprimelab]

Road to Abolition:

Geographies of Racial Capitalism with Ruth Wilson Gilmore An Antipode Foundation film (directed by Kenton Card)

“The relationship between slavery and race, race and unfreedom, freedom and labor, is one that we constantly try to untangle. At our peril we ignore it; but also at our peril we make it too simplistic. Because the complexity of it matters for what we do in the current moment to undo the catastrophe of mass incarceration.” -Ruth Wilson Gilmore

A look into the work of geographer and abolitionist, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, who specializes in the study of prisons, carceral punishment, it’s industrialization and policing. A professor of Geography and Environmental Studies, as well as Director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at the City University of New York, Gilmore constantly intersects the dynamics between people and place, and more specifically, human interaction with long-lasting environmental well-being.

Her provocative stance on prison abolition (and police abolition by extension), is misinterpreted, due to failure to understand abolition is not about absence but rather, presence. To replace the old systems of punishment with the presence of newer systems based on social support in areas including but not limited to education, health, and social services. 

Gilmore furthermore insists, sustainable social solutions must have general impact that can be applied globally for the benefit of the most, if not all the people of the world.

[primitiveprimelab]

When Future Feels Too Soon

CHALLENGING EXPECTATIONS:

An expectation anticipates a specific outcome or continuum. Faithfully extending the normal course into the future. It’s within the family of assumption and prediction but not quite either. Like an assumption, it sort of jumps the gun, and from a set of known factors, leaps forward to guess the future. Yet, it relates often to a prediction because the criteria for the guessing itself, can be widely random.

Us humans, with our faculty for problem solving and analysis, have a natural tendency for guessing what comes next. If we hear a knock on our door, we will expect the sound to be caused by another human’s hand on the other side of that door. We will not expect, for instance, that the door has suddenly become sentient and now “speaks” by  making knocking and clicking sounds. This normal expectation gives us a useful shortcut for navigating simple questions like “who’s knocking on my door?” It helps us not freak out when surprised, as we surely would, if we lived in a world where a knock on our door could be from a human, the door itself or a complete other unknown variable.

That said, a knock at the door can be alarming enough when you’re not expecting anyone.

In large, the future’s unknown nature can frighten us, introducing surprises we can’t reconcile into the stability and order we wish to establish, to feel safe in the present.  

Our expectation that the present will continue undisturbed, into the near predictable future sits comfortably as a reassuring hope. And while useful for quelling anxiety, it’s not too realistic.

I write this because I’m scared of the future. Some fear death, others the vacuum of infinite space; but to me, nothing is more alarming than the sudden, merciless fact of a new now—One which knocks the present ground right out under my feet. It’s not a crippling fear or phobia, most days in fact, I’m too preoccupied with what’s happening right now to think about tomorrow. More specifically, I’m too preoccupied with what’s happening to me. So then, how could the future (when it arrives) not feel like a sudden invasion when I haven’t even fully taken in, all that’s happening around me today?

It’s become a recent realization how little I pay attention to the present world. How little I know about what got us here. The relationship between past and future, and how the two are forever linked in an endless succession of now has always excluded, in my mind, the concept of agency. That is to say, I didn’t truly know I could play a part in it too. But that’s exactly what happened before, others took certain actions that created the world I currently live in. And more over, in the current world I live in, new others are taking action to shape the future. Some share my vision, some don’t.

Some aim to course correct past pathways, others ignore the past and bravely leap into the future. Some have wonderful ideals and suggestions beyond their own experience, others selfish but dually practical contributions. Some walk grayer areas of in between, neither completely clear nor murky in intention or consequence. All these orbiting satellites of potentiality are intimidating when you feel your place is with the silent audience and not the performance stage.

Expecting you can’t participate.

But that comes from already feeling silenced—Changing that, is what I’m decidedly working towards. And it doesn’t come from perceiving the future as an ambushing enemy—Tho certain entities within that future, no doubt benefit from my absence—But rather, true agency comes from realizing I always had a voice, and the future has always expected to hear it.

Images: Designs by architect Vincent Callebaut 

[primitiveprimelab]

Detroit-based artist, character designer, Jabriel Najjar captures the futurist cross section between fashion, culture and robotics

View more of Jabriel’s artwork on Instagram

[primitiveprimelab]

No Face: A Helpful Spirit

For better and sometimes for frightening worse, Spirited Away’s secondary antagonist, No Face, is motivated by a need to be useful to others.

I don’t think I’ve watched Hayao Miyazaki’s animated classic, Spirited Away enough times to cling to the periphery character, No Face, the way I have over the years. The fantasy adventure film released in 2001, follows a 10-year old girl, Chihiro, as she enters a spirit realm, where she must develop courage, compassion and strength in order to save her parents (who have been turned to pigs) and return home.

No Face, at first appears as a mysterious figure who starts to follow Chihiro (or “Sen” as she comes to be known in the spirit realm). Possessing powers of mimicry, No Face causes trouble after eating a greedy, bathhouse worker and incorporates not only the worker’s voice and frog body but also his personality. No Face, continues to devour other workers and their greedy personalities, eventually turning the spirit into a nasty monster.

As the name implies, No Face has no real face, the spirit wears a deceptive mask that hides its much larger mouth further below the mask. Yet, the mask does seem able to convey emotion, particularly dejection, as when Sen rejects No Face’s indulgent gifts to win her favor. 

Also, No Face has no identity. Its sex is undetermined and only seems male due to the powers of mimicry. Every experience immediately informs No Face’s behavior but the motives are always to be liked or helpful, especially by Sen. After handing her a bath ticket, No Face learns people like being given things. No Face repeats this manipulative gesture with gold to lure the other bathhouse workers, who moments earlier were thrilled to see the same gold left behind by a river spirit but weren’t allowed to keep any. However, receiving the treatment of royalty still isn’t enough for No Face, when Sen rejects yet another gift, this time a handful of gold. But she recognizes the bathhouse is a bad influence for the spirit, who reveals its loneliness to her. She helps No Face regurgitate the workers that were ingested and then invites the spirit (now reverted to its initial form) to accompany her on a journey to save her friend Haku. You get the feeling, this is what No Face wanted all along. To be helpful to her.

Not knowing how to be helpful, not knowing how to connect with others can be hell, a lonely void in fact. And when we misunderstand how to succeed in doing either, we can become manipulative and selfish or narcissistic. Giving fool’s gold to center ourselves as valuable, using others and mimicking opinions and ideas that aren’t our own in order to win people over. No Face is Miyazaki’s study into such behavior, but No Face also teaches us the value of accompaniment and learning. It isn’t in gifts, or protection, or advise, that No Face helps Sen, or rather Chihiro, its simply by being present because honestly No Face isn’t capable of anything else yet.

With Zeniba, No Face learns to knit, she says it seems like a natural talent. This is possibly a play on the fact the character design is based on a silkworm. But it’s the first time we see No Face praised for a talent. Zeniba insists No Face remain with her to continue studying, the spirit seems pleased with this, having both companionship and purpose.

[primitiveprimelab]

Khan Academy: Darwinism v. Social Darwinism

The Misrepresentation of Darwin 

Really happy with this video by the Khan Academy which packs a two-part punch to first, explain biological evolution via Charles Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection; and then, follows it up with a right hook explaining the difference between this biological mechanism and the sociological application, Social Darwinism.

Evolution fascinates me but as controversial as the topic remains, people often have misconceptions about what Charles Darwin actually suggested as his theory. Lots of times, the natural biologist’s work is judged for things it never stated. Some would even be surprised to learn the evolution-associated slogan, “survival of the fittest” was coined by someone else entirely.

Natural Selection is Darwin’s theory. Darwinism is the application of Darwin’s ideas, in often biologically unrelated areas such as race and economics. Darwin had no personal philosophy known as Darwinism, he had no followers who were called Darwinists. Even in this video, which correctly explains Natural Selection, the theory is termed “Darwinism.”

PART 1

Misinterpretation

The only other issue I have with the video, is the use of the word “misinterpret.” The Khan Academy fellows state Darwin’s theory was misinterpreted by Social Darwinism. While it’s true the concept was wrongly applied, I think it’s tricky to say it was “misinterpreted,” which leaves room for the implication that Natural Selection was misunderstood by proponents of Social Darwinism. That it was accidentally utilized in socially harmful ways due to a failure to interpret Darwin’s original concept correctly.

“Misrepresented” is a better word, the small but crucial difference being, misrepresentation answers how Natural Selection was applied by Social Darwinism without rationalizing why, which should be reserved as a separate but equally important question.

PART 2

I’m sure the Khan Academy fellows (Kim and Emily) who hosted this dope two-part episode did not intentionally mean to excuse why Social Darwinism re-purposed Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection--And I hope I’m not coming off as too particular, shit I’m neither biologist nor teacher, they did an excellent job explaining what they set out to explain and clarify.

[primitiveprimelab]

Making Sense with Sam Harris: The New Future of Work

Discussing Distributed Work with Matt Mullenweg

Much like “social distancing” has become a familiar term, in light of adaptation to the novel Coronavirus, so too will the idea of “distributed work.” The concept has already been in existence as the internet and mobile technologies surrounding it, have relaxed the necessity for certain office jobs to be wholly limited to one centralized environment. More and more, the option to work remotely has become a norm in some companies. Distributed work is a business model that does away with the office completely, allowing the employees to work from home or wherever (and however) they feel most productive.

The pandemic has now forced many businesses to test the model, in order to keep their show on the road. And while this may be only a temporary solution for some, it may also be a taste of what’s to come for the future of work, at least in certain pockets of the economy.

A very possible prediction. In tandem with transportation options on the horizon and in response to increasingly congested/expensive cities—not to mention the newfound benefits to distance during a contagious bio-threat—It’s foreseeable that the future of crowded cities themselves will be more decentralized.  

Sam Harris speaks to Matt Mullenweg, creator/founder of WordPress and Automatic (which has also recently acquired Tumblr). The two discuss the concept of distributed work, it’s benefits, it’s challenges, stages, and seeming inevitability. Matt is very insightful and optimistic—And while the business model doesn’t work for every employer, it does provide an example of reviewing outdated concepts in order to optimize the value an employer should be seeking out of their company and employees.

[primitiveprimelab]

Playlists

Primitive Prime! Radio:

The Cosmic Drive Towards U

I’ve been telling friends this playlist is a bit sci-fi but when I thought about that description a little more, I realized it could be somewhat misleading. 

True, having recently reread one of my favorite Philip K. Dick novels, The Divine Invasion, some of its themes and scenes did linger in my psyche. Duality, spiritualism, and anamnesis—If you’re familiar with Dick’s work, you’ll likely understand why his sci-fi influence extends beyond gadgets and exotic world building. His focus, regardless of setting, is always centered on the human condition. In The Divine Invasion, the exploration of a fall from form (or grace) resonated with me the most. 

▲▲▲

We all likely undergo periods where we feel we have strayed from our intentions, purpose, or standards. Perhaps this more than anything else was the main thread of my playlist, selecting a few songs that felt at home in a sci-fi film but balancing them with introspective songs of fractures, whether breaking from others or simply from self. Cataloging our travel back to some forgotten thing, place or realization. Enjoy!

Spotify Playlist // PRIMITIVE PRIME! RADIO: THE COSMIC DRIVE TOWARD U

Collages by FLIRST

[primitiveprimelab]

Linguistic Landscapes

How Language Affects Thought // Lera Boroditsky TEDTalk

UCSD Associate Professor of Cognitive Science, Lera Boroditsky, has been largely interested in mind, world, and language. 

With the estimated 7,000 languages spoken world-wide, Boroditsky seeks to study whether this lingual diversity also contributes to a diversity of thought. Or, do the words we speak influence the way we think? In this talk, we learn how flexible the human mind is, in developing so many ways to navigate their surroundings, beliefs, and actions—With each of the approximate 7,000 languages spoken comes an approximate 7,000 “cognitive universes” perceived.

[primitiveprimelab]

WILLIAM SANTIAGO

Artist William Santiago uses the language of graphic design and fashion print to interpret the personal experiences and styles of his hometown in Brazil. His vibrant illustrations host bold colors and contrast, clear lines, and inspirations from many art movements including Cubism and Art Naif, among others. 

Behance Profile