“My experience is what I agree to attend to”—William James
Our experiences shape our consciousness: who we are, who we become, the choices we make about how we spend our lives. But our range of experiences--from drinking from a clean, clear Sierra stream to beholding a star-filled night sky—is diminishing. With the disappearance of unmediated experiences in nature, the opportunity to know what it means to be human in the world is compromised and our awareness of the fundamental truth of the interdependent and interconnnected nature of our existence becomes more and more attenuated. This obscured perception has personal, social and global consequences.
Through all manner of artistic expression--painting, video, music, sculpture, etc, the collaborative installation, A Catalog of Extinct Experience, will evoke the experience of that connected whole. We will engage all of the senses to awaken people to the wonder of experiences gone and threatened, and the import of such loss. Our aim is neither nostalgia nor despondency, but rather to inspire awareness, wonder and gratitude for our remarkable world and to spark the recognition that our own best, creative, evolving selves grow out of and depend on preserving a diverse and evolving planet.This concept is meant to be collaborative. I hope to create a generative container that brings all of our spirits forward.
Chris Desser is the founder, developer and 'curator' of the Catalog of Extinct Experience. You can reach her here
How to Engage with this Site
Function over form, for better and for worse. Scroll down, visit the various pages, pick parts at random--listen to a audio clip, click on a video, follow an article link or download an article. And read about the other people who are involved.
