KOANS FOR A NEW NOW (2023)

A written observation of the Hypernatural Forces symposium opening HYPERNATURAL, the NEW NOW Festival for Digital Arts at Salzlager, Zeche Zollverein in Essen, Germany, which took place June – August 2023.

*Above: Screenshots of frames from KOANS FOR A NEW NOW. To experience it in full, visit the* *live Miro board*.

I was commissioned by the NEW NOW Festival to observe the full-day festival symposium on 2 June 2023, and create what they termed a “professional” written response. I created the following koans – paradoxical stories or riddles in Zen Buddhism intended to scramble logic to provoke enlightenment – from my observations and responses, and arranged them taking inspiration from John Cage’s treatment of his lecture texts in his book Silence, as well as from his own koans.

All the texts are distilled or in dialogue with the 13 hours of lectures on the day. For the full experience, please visit the live Miro board to view and explore at random – no particular order or direction intended. Links from each koan will take you to the point in the symposium that inspired it.

KFE