 Lynn and I are wrapping up being in residence at the studio / writing work space of the legendary art writer Lucy R. Lippard in Galisteo, New Mexico (July-Aug 2026). An extraordinary and productive time. Very grateful.
While initial research on this project began as early as 2020 with the name "Memento Vivere", it formally took off while in-residence this summer at the writing studio/work space of the legendary art writer Lucy R. Lippard in Galisteo, New Mexico (July-August 2026).
Beginning as early as 2020, I started notes with the title of "Memento Vivere". But now I have a working table of contents, working title, and a manuscript started for "How We Live: A Critical Practical Philosophy of Life Now". The idea of it is really exploring a question: "How do people (really, actually) live (after all)?" To the question, ‘how do we live?’, I am exploring individual and collective strategies for survival, well-being, and inspiration that span the diverse, complicated ways of humans on planet Earth (and perhaps beyond, a little bit). Drawing upon anthropology, history, psychology, rhetoric, and philosophy, I expect to propose this project to the publisher in this coming academic year of 2026-2027 sometime. Cheers! -B. Bennett-Carpenter, Galisteo, New Mexico, 30 Aug 2026 Excerpt on "fast energy" and "slow energy" from "Transformation & Transcendence Roundtable Podcast" - "What is energy?" (23 August 2023)
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbtjZ0-A2MU/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsi=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Full video/podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY1WgtKDvLk&t=433s ‘"Where" we live is usually thought first in terms of governmental jurisdictions – e.g. this city or town or village, in this county or territory, within this state or territory, within this country.
But many other types of geographical maps can identify our ‘place’ differently. And maps with other sorts of schematics can alter our sense of where we are all that much more. So, for example, do latitude and longitude coordinates, on the one hand, or natural geographical identifiers, on the other, e.g., instead of Michigan, USA, it’s the Great Lakes region (north america). · Maps identifying corporate reach/territory or maps of pathways of goods to and from producers and consumers are other, of many, options. · Maps applied to the world from individual psychology and group psychology can tremendously impact, and may even be said to constitute, people’s experience of ‘where’ they live. · ‘Place’ as an affective state structured by cognitive evolutionary psychology.' -Memento Vivere Notes, No. 8. [20201009] 'It’s a mistake to think of information as ephemeral, and even more so as spiritual – at least ephemeral-only and spiritual-only because information is just as chunky and solid as it is ephemeral and just as material as it is spiritual. One way to avoid this mistake is returning to the resonance of the word “form” that’s at the center of it all. Anything with “form” is already a thing of some sort and not “airy nothing.” Still, form is often partnered with a foil of either content or matter: form and content, or form and matter. I guess this is where we have to resort to the prefix of “in-“: the “innards” of form or what’s there that does the forming. In-forming is active, is an action, is a verb. Information, in this sense, is both a noun and a verb.
“A difference that makes a difference.” It has a double existence as that which is what it effects. Compare the medieval conversation on sacraments. Sacraments, semiotics, and simulation/simulacra belong in the same conversation.' -Fragments of Memetica, No. 43. [20210320] 'Perhaps there is always an urgency to ‘how we live now’ or ‘how we shall live’.
In 2020, with a global pandemic, a crisis of leadership in the West, and the threats of environmental catastrophe on our doorsteps, the urgency appears as pressing as ever.' -Memento Vivere Notes, No. 7. [20201009] 'Addressing memetica is a rhetorical and philosophical project – necessarily rhetorical because the whole business here are words, but also philosophical because the words really do connect to the truth of things in the world.'
-Fragments of Memetica, No. 42. [20210228] 'My version of memento vivere will mean operating within memetica ecologica because there is no other way, on the one hand, and also, on the other hand, allowing for the flip side, the non-memetic to not be denied – it won’t be anyway – which makes for a certain kind of "enlightenment" by way of "a dark night".'
-Memento Vivere Notes, No. 6. [20201004] 'What does field research of memetica look like?
The “field” depends on the specific “object” / phenomenon/a.' -Fragments of Memetica, No. 41. [20210228] 'What gives us life? And what takes it away? Those are most basic questions for how anyone would live.
What’s a desirable life look like for you (you plural and you individual)? That’s a quality question. Some talk about a good life, a meaningful life, a purposeful life, a you-name-the-desirable-quality life: happy, productive, useful, enjoyable, honorable, faithful, beautiful, you-name-it.' -Memento Vivere Notes, No. 5. [20201004] 'With phenomena, we “break them down” and “take them as wholes or a whole”: parts and wholes.
We may incorporate both reduction and complexity: reduction including differentiation of “objects”, and complexity including system(s). We have means of observing, interacting, engaging, and negotiating phenomena: “objects”, events – of classifying, taxonomizing, and of ordering.' -Fragments of Memetica, No. 40, adapted. [20210228] 'Memento vivere is the question of how we live within or in interaction with memetica ecologica.
What are the particular ideas and actions that make up our lives within or in interaction with our ‘world’ of embodied information? Our brains and bodies (they are one) DO. What do they do? Their actions have effects. What are those effects? The effects (of those actions) calcify and become routines and artifacts. What are those routines? What are those artifacts?' -Memento Vivere Notes, No. 4. [20201004] 'A conception of memetica includes broad programs for human society:
democracy liberalism christianity socialism communism islam fascism/authoritarianism oligarchy capitalism indigenous holisms -----various “world systems”.' -Fragments of Memetica, No. 39, adapated. [20210225] 'Memento vivere invites many questions and many paths. Some of them could be:
-What do we do? (work / activity) & & -How are we? (being / non-being) -What do we have? (resources: time, energy money – systems of value exchange) -Where are we? (space[s] / organization And how does that look? routines) -How do we get energy? (re-creation: for self · others · life)'. -Memento Vivere Notes, No. 3. [20200926] '“Understanding everything” quickly gets into particulars, starting with either particular items or cases, on the one hand, or broad strokes outlining, on the other hand. This can be one version of an empirical vs. theoretical scaling/phenomenon discussion.
One broad-strokes version of this gets us right into the “big 3” discussion of disciplines: arts/humanities + social sciences + natural sciences; then add “professions” and consider also mathematics and philosophies. Consider diverse and integrative theaters of living.' -Fragments of Memetica, No. 38, adapted. [20210225] |
AuthorBenjamin Bennett-Carpenter writes philosophy and rhetoric. Teaches at a public university in North America. Consults/coaches (executive, life, creative). Archives
September 2026
Categories |
RSS Feed