2023 03 28: Marina Zurkow: First advisor meeting

Met with Marina and a good continuation from the last talk, even through my thesis focused into a different topic (prior I was thinking of a climate exhibition where the room would become more intolerable as more people moved in it). Particularly James Bridle ‘Ways of Being’ – a book she suggested last meeting – has landed well and became a continuation point.

Discussed my EEG work and she centered in quickly on appropriation of healing modalities using repetitive beats or psychedelic experiences, and asked my background, why am I drawn to this. In a way, “am I a tech bro who did Ayahuasca”? (my words, not hers). The value of my past came out as I explained my Dad teaching me about Taoism (and some Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism) as a child, reading Tao of Pooh and Tao Te Ching in college, meeting fellow ravers in the mid 90’s who grew up in Fairfield, Iowa in the Transcendental Meditation school system (MIU and the high school), learning about Vedic and Hindu traditions from this community, seeing TM applied in David Lynch films and television shows,  learning to meditate from an LSD experience in 1996 (where the chemical experience itself taught me where to go in meditation), then keeping that interest going throughout my adult life, getting sober at 21 and not using chemicals anymore to achieve personal growth or insights, but rather non-chemical tools like meditation, reading Be Here Now in my early twenties and learning more how Richard Alpert went from LSD to meditation. This type of history and possible citation could help contextualize my work to new audiences.

Discussed a number of artists to look at (in notes link below) and discussed if my work could be a connected to the “more than human” world, as discussed in “Ways of Being”

https://jasonjsnell.notion.site/2023-03-28-Intro-to-Thesis-Project-62af517e96f04f83b18f323441dfef1e