Mind / Matter II : Wayfinding in Uncertainty

(This is the first of two connected but stand-alone workshops. The second will be held on Sunday 10th with different guest-speakers and performers.)

When it comes to knowledge and knowing, we rely on our (sometimes not so) brilliant minds in order to produce certainties. Knowing - we think - is something purely rational. Uncertainties supposedly need to be eradicated so we can move confidently through our world and be in control. 

But times are changing. As our world becomes more complex, even chaotic, it is harder to navigate with clear and predictable images of future events. An era of great uncertainty is lurking around the corner, and we are moving closer to the edges of certainty - not-knowing and vagueness are seeping in. We feel it’s high time to explore these liminal spaces and see what other instruments and approaches we have to deal with not-knowing aside from our minds and what can be found in the fogs of uncertainty and ambiguity.

In two connected yet stand-alone workshops we will explore those liminal spaces beyond and between our certainties and experiment with other forms of knowing and sense-making. Each workshop will move fluidly between experiential moments, cognitive inputs and reflection time. Artists, body workers, philosophers and scientists will join us to cross-pollinate transdisciplinary insights and make sense of uncertainty’s seemingly unexplored practical nature.

Our minds need to make space and slow down from time to time so something else can emerge, ideas, gut feelings, intuition. As humans we are physical beings, our bodies are much more than taxis for our brain, they are our sensorium to connect to and make sense of the world around us, they are true bodies of knowledge. Our bodies matter, they literally ARE matter.

What does that have to do with the theme of this year's Science Week - Common Ground?

The Sufi philosopher Rumi allegedly said “Somewhere between right and wrong, there is a garden. I will meet you there.” 

Rumi’s garden seems a fitting metaphor for liminal space. It’s here where we don’t have certainty, where things are fuzzy and ambiguous. Here we can meet and share our uncertainties and find common ground on which to grow a shared reality.