A Menu of Living Cosmology is an unfinished video essay I created for an assignment for my master's degree.
 |
| Ideas for A Menu of Living Cosmology |
It was produced for a sequence of Coursera courses titled Journey of the Universe: A Story for our Times that reside in the Environmental Sustainability concentration of my MTA Portfolio.
Journey of the Universe has three key learning outcomes...
- Demonstrate an understanding of the unfolding of the universe, Earth, and humans by drawing upon both science and the humanities.
- Understand what cosmological events contribute to our existence.
- Assess the history & development of cosmological thought as it has unfolded over time & as it spans multiple disciplines in science & humanities.
There are three Journey of the Universe courses, but there was originally also a fourth capstone course called Living Cosmology.
The entirety of that final capstone course was concerned with creating and submitting a final project that expressed my understanding of the concept of living cosmology...
"This is what is intended by “living cosmology”, namely how do we live within a universe story in ways that transform us? How can we dwell within a broadened consciousness of a new story of evolution? How can this empower a new context for education, art, spirituality, and ethics along with ecology, politics, economics, and business?"
- Living Cosmology course overview
Ultimately, I decided to produce a video essay to explore and promote my understanding of living cosmology in relation to my love of food.
Throughout 2015, 2016 and 2017, I had been greatly developing my cooking skills so I thought it would serve as a good visual canvas to us to convey my understanding of living cosmology and the renewal of life in the grand scheme of our universe.
It remains an unfinished video essay because between when I originally submitted my rough cut, which didn't pass, and when I was preparing to make the final cut for re-submission, the creators discontinued the Living Cosmology capstone course.
Why they did that, I don't know. Maybe they just were not getting enough learners engaging with it and submitting projects.
But because I'd lost the opportunity to submit my video essay as a marked assignment, I never bothered to finish the final cut.
Regarding my original thinking behind my video essay and more specifics on its subject matter, I will let the introduction to my original submission explain the rest...
Living Cosmology Project Submission - A Menu of Living Cosmology: A taste of things to come
“When we today remember that the energy of our lives comes from the original flaring forth of the universe, and that the atoms of our bodies come from the explosion of ancient stars, and that the patterns of our lives come from many ancestors over billions of years, we begin to appreciate the intricate manner in which life remembers the past and brings it into fresh form today. Life adapts. Life remembers. Life learns.”
– Brian Swimme & Mary Tucker, Journey of the Universe, 2011:60-1
A Menu of Living Cosmology is a seven-and-a-half-minute video meditation which I have produced with the goal of further propagating the topics of living cosmology and to encourage the enjoyment and health benefits of ‘mindful eating’.
Initially my idea for this final project was to produce an actual food menu that would boast a global selection of cuisine designed to evoke the themes and ideas of the Journey of the Universe, e.g. the Thomas Berry Smoothie, Primordial Soup, Interstellar Stir Fry, Milky Way Pizza, etc.
In addition to drawing on the teachings of Thomas Berry and the Journey of the Universe specialization, A Menu of Living Cosmology is derived from another of my projects – The Universe Café – which I developed for a social enterprise initiative as part of my postgraduate studies.
The idea for the Universe Café is concerned with establishing a community hub that is focused on cultivating ethical, sustainable and mindful food and drink experience that uses the evolution of the universe – from the big bang up to the emergence of our postmodern civilization - as its thematic and aesthetic inspiration.
I am very health conscious and deeply concerned for the poor state of public and environmental health which currently exists because of ‘mindless eating’. Currently there is an epidemic of overeating and eating food that is neither good for the consumer or good for the environment from which it was taken.
I not only see this as a major environmental problem which needs to be solved, but I see the lack of widespread mindfulness towards what we are eating as an individually damaging problem which needs to be solved for the benefit of every human being on this planet.
I feel that one of the most effective ways in which to get people to take notice of living cosmology of which they form a part is to get them to take mindful notice of the food they eat and which is also a creative expression of that living cosmology.
“Nearly everything of fundamental importance in life depends upon the power of adaptation and of memory. Everywhere we look we find evidence of this process. Consider our foods. Grains, for example, are composed of many different sorts of complex organic molecules. When we eat them, they need to be carefully broken down and then woven together in a new way if they become part of our bodies. This complicated physiological process was worked out by trial and error hundreds of millions of years ago by cellular ancestors who are now long gone. But their accomplishments are not lost. They were remembered. As we eat, the grain is transformed into our skin, our muscles, and our organs only because life remembers its central achievements.”
– Brian Swimme & Mary Tucker, Journey of the Universe, 2011:57-8
Originally, my thinking to bring about this transformative change was to create and showcase A Menu of Living Cosmology as a taster menu of the Universe Café. However, while I did brainstorm and begin to design the menu, I realised that I would achieve more direct transformative change if I showcased the process of realisation I had gone through to conceive of the notion of A Menu of Living Cosmology.
I am a big advocate and practitioner of mindfulness meditation and two of the most mindful activities I have discovered are food preparation and food consumption. When I am being mindful while cooking or while eating, I find that I not only attracted a great deal more fundamental pleasure from the process culinary preparation and consumption, but I have come to make vastly more health food decisions.
Essentially, this mindfulness food headspace of meditation in relation to the themes of Living Cosmology is what I have sought to convey in the ‘video meditation’ I have produced.
However, I have only managed to complete a rough cut of the video.
Currently, I have been taken ill with a cold virus which has seen fit to take my voice hostage and I am not yet able to record any narration for the video.
Visually I think the video already does plenty, but I want to include narration as a series of questions and ponderings to further contextualize the broader themes of the content; as a well as providing greater direction of the ‘mindful food preparation and eating process’ which the video conveys and which it is my aim to cultivate in the viewer as well.
As the video is currently lacking my narration, I have not bothered to construct the final sound mix or to perform the final colour grade. When I do get my voice back and record the narration, its inclusion is liable to necessitate the adjustment of shot lengths and maybe even warrant a few additions besides. Already I have ideas for how I can further develop the video into its final form.
But, for now, here is the rough version without narration…
No comments:
Post a Comment