Rūta Žemčugovaitė

@thedankoe I grew up in a new-age family, and building a business is nothing compared to that 😂 beliefs mean nothing if they are not applied, tested, broken, rewired.

business is a gateway drug into spirituality

Since when @substack has decided to wipe my personalized welcome email to my free subscribers and insert a new pitch without me even knowing?

Artistic visioning becomes permanently embedded in the greater ecology of society, even if society is the place where those visions come to die.

@TylerAlterman I think re-worlding is more interesting in this case!:) Worldbuilding > worlding.

The most ambitious art is the art of worlding Learning about it helped me solve a puzzle: On the inside, I feel like an introverted artist. But on the outside, I'm constantly creating social containers: residencies, classes, writing groups, etc. The realization hit the day after a crazy theme party I threw with @Vrazumikhin. My gf said, "Your art is to make a world, cookie" The phrase struck me – that she thought of what we were doing not as “community-building” but as “art.” And now I’ve started feeling inspired to work with other “worlders” develop this art A definition of worlding could b something like: the art of creating habitats, i.e. immersive social and physical environments that ppl live inside. These habitats can be either ephemeral (eg LARPs) or enduring & ubiquitous across many aspects of life (eg a punk scene). Their cultural structures (eg shows) will often be afforded by physical structures (eg venues). These physical structures support cultural norms & activities through both architecture and ornamentation. Think about how a church is often built for good acoustics (for preaching and choirs) and is also ornamented with styles and visuals that reinforce a religious lifestyle You could say that this sort of thing has already been done by social animals for millions of years. However, what matters for worlding as an *artform* is that it's done from a particular stance: that of passion and imagination. It's about beauty, not just a sense of necessity or responsibility Furthermore, what you get from regarding worlding as an *artform* is more of a bias toward experimentation. I want to see ppl rapidly innovating new ways of life together. And by treating it more like a theatre production than an “intentional community” we’re less likely to drink our own cool-aid and end up with cults So far I mostly see this sort of worlding in more empheral contexts, like immersive theatre. With the exception of things like Burning Man, I've yet to see many artists take on the multi-year challenge of creating entire flourishing cultures *as* an art project If an artist is moved to take on the complexity of this challenge, they'll work not primarily with paints & and canvas, but with: * Events (conferences, salons, parties) * Interior design * Physical hubs * Social norms * Introductions (relationships are worlds) * Group mythos & identity * Relatedly, a canon (eg LessWrong, the Bible) * Relatedly, hypersigils (eg The Jungle, HPMOR) * Community infrastructure (eg mutual aid, book clubs, potlucks, salons) * Group practices (eg singing, meme-ing) * Ambience (lighting, background music) * Collective vision boards * Forming crews * Catering * Symbols * Fashion And so on But the main material that worlders work with is *organic*, *alive*: people, relationships, groups, and vibes. Such things can't be controlled and remain beautiful at the same time (see the "yikes" section in the chart below). The more integrative the world being made, the more the appropriate metaphor becomes something like ecology or permaculture rather than architecture or design. So worlding is not an art for control freaks; it's one for collaborative personalities. It can't be done as a lone visionary artist – that’s the domain of sociopaths and cult leaders. No one can create an ambitiously beautiful culture alone. The mode of production is in worlding is peer collaboration with the ppl in your world Worlding also can’t be done from the outside: you are one of the painters and you are also the canvas being painted. You will be living in – and thus transformed by – the habitat you’re co-creating As worlders create their art together, they look at their habitat like a painter and ask: What colors does this need? Oh, it needs to not take itself so seriously – I’ll introduce a clowning workshop. Oh, I need to be less at the center of it – I’ll encourage a friend to run their own events. Aha, it’s becoming a bit monoculture – maybe my gf can invite some of her Colombian friends to the next hang As a case study, here is the world that I be worlding in NYC: The base layer is not a group identity or a grand vision. It’s simply tight & poetic friendships with earnest, big-hearted ppl. I try to introduce ppl to one another so they can form their own friendships that don’t depend on me. This nebulous web of relationships is like a river that cool structures can then float on top of: group houses, experimental parties, collaborative art, the proto-university I’m co-founding with @Prigoose @danielgolliher @madhu___s & @__drewface (Weirdly, the main “group practice” in my world so far seems to be teaching each other semester-long classes rather than something simple like a book club or meditation group lol) The thing I’m worlding isn’t an isolated community; you can’t draw a boundary around it. Its liveliness comes from tessellations with colorful other worlds: the Fractal coliving collective, tpot, my friend Becca’s writing community, NYC itself, etc Importantly, it has no capital P Purpose. If it’s “about” anything, it’s just to have fun and live vividly. That said, in the future I would love for parts of this world to be of even greater service to other worlds. But not out of a sense of responsibility! More because I think it would make this living work of art even more beautiful. I also have yet to play around with group mythos & identity. I see a lot of people *starting* their worlding with these things, but IMO that’s like playing with fire, since shared narratives can often oppress difference. And I love difference (it’s why I live in NYC 🗽) Curious to hear from the other worlders out there. What worlds are you worlding? (Maybe if I meme this buzzword enough it will catch on) Let’s create new ways of life together 🤓🎉🌌

@TylerAlterman Convincing what is desirable, what is worthless, and what is worthy of destruction. Worlding slowly replaces our known stories, with stories of a different kind—imaginaries of different worldviews and beliefs—sometimes the complete opposite of ours, for better or worse.

@TylerAlterman Worlding is an internalization of another’s view. A cathect, shifting of emotional investment into an idea that individualism is a desired state. The way a colonialist deploys its worldview into a slave’s psyche is by making the slave see the world through the colonialist’s eyes.

@TylerAlterman Worlding comes from time when settlers/colonialists "worlded" indigenous ppl into their ways of seeing the world. Worldbuilding is a much higher degree of creation bcs u are creating not just an aspect of sth, but the whole universe. I wrote a piece on it rutazem.substack.com/p/trauma-as-re…

🌿🔊New album out on all streaming services: linktr.ee/dghaskell Inner and outer sounds of trees: Twig, leaf vibes Leaves stirred by wind Caterpillar mandibles Ice falling Rain Leaf litter, above and below Machines imposing human desires w/mics, geophone, accelerometer

Exploring the need to step away from a humancentric paradigm and towards a remembrance of the Earth as a divine being, Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee asks: How can we place Earth back at the center of the story? Listen to “An Offering of Remembrance.” emergencemagazine.org/interview/an-o…

Had the best time talking about #Solarpunk, #fungi, #mycelium, and #futures with @hongcongoworld. Check out their "Welcome to the Mycocene" virtual exhibition - amazing Solarpunk worldbuilding case🍄🤗✨🤍

Gm Myconauts :) 🍄👋 Be sure to join us later today when we chat with writer, multi-disciplinary artist and facilitator @modern_psyche about Solarpunk, Fungi and our visions for the future. Hit the link below to set a reminder 🔗👇

Join me and @hongcongoworld tomorrow, discussing solar punk futures, fungi, and world-building. 🤩

The auction for the next artwork in my exhibition for series @hongcongoworld will be kicking off later today at 5pm UTC! 'A Strange New World' 1/1 Edition Reserve price 0.05 ETH They are part of a larger timeline narrative of events which define the worlds story and setting. Hit the link below for more details👇✨ room33.wtf/auctions

——— from an upcoming essay at Regenerative Transmissions Substack. Regeneratrix: on communion with mystique, feminine, and unknown. rutazem.substack.com

There is something about the feminine that encompasses everything that is unknown. It will not reveal prematurely, it will ask you to grow and sharpen your senses that go beyond a physical validation of reality. Yet, it will ground you in both, the physical and the psychic.

The world calls us into the invisible, my life calls me into the invisible. There is something about bravery to trust your own subtle perception, your dreams, your visions—without a need to be validated by external reality—is what allows that conversation with unknown to unravel

I wrote a whole article (well, a couple) on this matter. But first one to read is this. rutazem.substack.com/p/refusal-to-h…

3. Because of this "ailment" you can't perform your "normal, everyday" life things: work, relationships, friendships, finance, home, hobbies, physical activities etc.

What is Refusal to Heal? It's then our bodies, psyches, and systems (!), are experiencing any sort of sickness (physical pain, chronic illness, mental illness, pathology, breakdown etc), and whatever we do to heal it -- nothing moves forward.