On Stromatolites
The oldest mark-making organisms are cyanobacteria. The stromatolite — a layered sedimentary structure produced by microbial mats that trap sediment and precipitate minerals — is…
Fragments, references, and materials
Note 042 — Fragment
The geological strata are a text. The language it is written in has no speakers, no grammar, no intended reader. It is, in this sense, the most perfectly asemic writing in existen…
On Prehistoric Cosmology at Lascaux
The shaft scene at Lascaux — a bison with lowered horns confronting a falling human figure with a bird’s head, beside a bird on a post — has generated more interpretive lite…
On the Egyptian Hieroglyph as a Double Object
The Egyptian hieroglyph is a sign that is simultaneously a picture and a sound. The owl means m. The mouth means r. The eye means ir, meaning “to do” or “to make…
Note 045 — Fragment
The moment a writing system becomes purely phonetic, it becomes faster and it loses depth. This is not a criticism. It is a description of the trade-off. Every technology involves…
On Chinese Calligraphy and Qi
The Chinese calligraphic tradition has theorized the relationship between the mark and the maker’s inner condition more extensively and more rigorously than any Western trad…
Note 031 — Fragment
The scale from the immediate to the cosmic is not a journey that requires leaving the studio. It is a quality of attention available within it. The mark made at two in the morning…
On Consciousness in the Studio, I
There is a state that the first hour of making sometimes produces and sometimes does not. It is not mystical and it is not dramatic — it would not read as significant to anyone ob…
On Consciousness in the Studio, II
The phenomenology of making involves a peculiar relationship to time. In ordinary time — clock time, scheduled time, the time in which the rest of life is organized — the session…
Note 050 — Fragment
Flow is not the goal. It is a byproduct of sufficient attention applied to a sufficiently demanding task. The mistake is to pursue it directly, which prevents it. The practice is…