An improbable pattern
One of the many starting points for this blog was my three month stay in Greenland in 2008 where I felt like I was rain in a paper cup: “The beat of the sea on the shore always calms my … Continued
Navigating uncertainty at LungA School
Back in January Jonatan Spejlborg got in touch and invited me to co-design a week-long course for LungA, a school which he co-founded in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, a couple of years ago. LungA School is based on the model of the … Continued
Finding a new place to speak from
Over the last two weeks I’ve had the chance to speak about some of my research at two different conferences, the RGS conference on co-production in London and Degrowth 2014 in Leipzig. I’ve always found conferences a bit daunting but … Continued
Postcard from the road
It has been a while since I’ve had the time or presence of mind to post anything on PatternWhichConnects, mostly because of the busyness of changing places and finishing up my thesis. It seems like most other things in my … Continued
Blog tour: living with writing
The blog tour is a kind of online relay where different bloggers write about their work and writing process. By invitation from last week’s blogger and artist, Emily Wilkinson, I’ve been thinking about how to put my different processes of … Continued
Ragnarok and the fate of the Danish soul
posted in: Collapse, Community, Featured, Narrative, Re-membering, Reflections, Social commentary |
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[A society] has to have constellating images to pull together all these tendencies to separation, to pull them together into some intention. – Joseph Campbell I am sat at the optician’s, waiting for my new glasses to be cut, glaring … Continued
Figuring out life in parcels
It’s been about three years since I began PatternWhichConnects. Exactly how it started I can’t really remember any more. It was probably more of an inkling than a definite idea. At least that’s how I’ve come to think of it: … Continued
Expanding the possible – Uncivilisation 2013 and beyond
This is a culture that wasn’t afraid of ages, but made a waking dream of eternity and dwelt in it. – Jay Griffiths In the middle of the night I hear singing outside of the tent. It is a slow, … Continued
Draget – A photo-essay
Draget, the small strip of coastline on Thy where my family’s summerhouse is tucked away between conifers, is a moraine landscape that was formed by the glacier which covered most of Denmark when it retreated at the end of the … Continued
The Common Room
After the disappointment of getting ill and missing what sounds like two fantastic days of conversations and workshops at Redrawing the Maps last week, I was excited that Social Spaces and 00:/ were taking their Common Room prototype to Norwich … Continued
The reality of collapse – reflections on Uncivilisation 2012
About this time last year, I was sitting in the same place I am sitting now, mulling over similar thoughts, trying to convey sentiments that arose from the exact same place. A year ago, I put it thus: “Sitting in … Continued
Musicality
When the going gets rough and all statements seem worthless it is time to sit still, ruffle some feathers and leave the world to its own. I’ve been spending some days listening to the black bird outside my window, go … Continued
Stories about violence
I recently partook in a conversation about violence. Really, it was about appropriate responses to ecocide but it quickly focussed on the much narrower topic of whether violence is a legitimate response to the destruction of the community of life. … Continued
Self-abandonment and devotion
I continue to be excited, uplifted, exhilarated, even, by Rainer Maria Rilke’s Book of Hours – a collection of poetry that remains central to the journey of soul-making despite being written more then a hundred years ago. These poems speak … Continued
When the game is rigged and the ref is corrupt
Perhaps what we should fear most in this age of Collapse is the strain on our hearts that the weight of living in the Machine puts on us. Times are tough and toughness seems to call for protection, the building … Continued
Convergence and fragmentation
Once we start recognising recurring features in the world and begin seeing patterns that converge, we tend to merge disparate part of our reckoning to build larger concepts that explain. This is undoubtedly deeply rooted in our psychology and probably … Continued
Changes to the site
I’ve finally found the time to bring PatternWhichConnects up to scratch, or at least a little closer to what I originally had intended. When I looked back on the first year of running this site it was with part joy … Continued
Melancholia
It’s the hour of passing through the needle’s eye: “I am here” becoming “I was there”. Like smoke time dissipates into memory. We built good memories. Did you see me? I wonder. Laughter and giggles resounded from the tree tops … Continued
Icicles, darkness, moonlight and rainbows
It was a strange time to be writing. All my circles had converged on each other and patterns I had never dreamed of became apparent. A new line was being drawn and although I could not yet see it clearly … Continued
Out into your heart as onto a vast plain
Happy New Year. May the coming year bring you strength and joyous times wherever you are. The year gone felt like a bumper car ride with one hand tied on the back. Fun, scary, and a little painful. Rilke’s image … Continued
The coming storm
It’s one of those days. Words seem like enemy soldiers lined up on the surrounding hill tops, menacing silhouettes against a darkening sky, a firing squad waiting to pull the trigger at the slightest tremble. I tremble. This week has … Continued
A week in October
Trains, tired transformations, talkings and translucent trees. You find so many holes in time when you move faster than your two legs can transport you.
Where next for PatternWhichConnects?
I have been running this site for a year now. Closing a circle is always a good opportunity to reflect on what’s happened and where one is going. So here I offer a few reflections on my last year online … Continued
The Dark Mountain Project & Uncivilisation
Words and images can change minds, hearts, even the course of history. Their makers shape the stories people carry through their lives, unearth old ones and breathe them back to life, add new twists, point to unexpected endings. It is … Continued