Voicecraft Dispatch 2023 | What is of Value?
Recent releases (public and private) and some short reflections on 2023
At the commencement of a new era,
Since our last Voicecraft Dispatch in November there have been two new public releases, each part of the Commons Series.
These conversations take a metaphysical and practical approach to the untangling of value, with insight relevant to economics, politics, and ongoing response to the metacrisis. Joining were philosopher and master craftsman Forrest Landry, civilisation researcher and theorist
, and writer and thinker .Show notes to part 1 (including links to listen via podcast) are available here.
Show notes for part 2 (including links to listen via podcast) are available here.
It has felt for many in the Voicecraft context that these are among the most critical conversations we can be having right now. And for those who have been engaging with the likes of Layman Pascal and his recent piece on the Metamodern Business Bureau, see also a conversation between O.G. Rose & Layman here (recorded chronologically between the Voicecraft dialogues above.)
These explorations remain and alive and evolving. If you find them meaningful and would like to contribute your thoughts, consider dropping a comment below.
Some brief reflections
There have been many other questions and threads of meaning explored in the Voicecraft context this year. Giving proper voice to those is a challenge. Topically you could name things like artificial intelligence, psychoanalysis and transpersonal psychology, community healing and cultural transformation, meta-shamanism and mystery, psychedelics and altered states, metaphysics and beauty, meaning and telos, commons and the sacred, war and unity, economics and power, eldership and dreaming, the relation between humanity, science, technology and nature.. and the list would go on.
Then there are a whole series of relationships and stories and experiments and lessons which constitute so much of what really colours the texture of the year that’s been. There are simply too many to speak to as I write today, finding moments between travel and end of year duties.
What’s more, to speak to them is to speak across membranes and contexts. Done well, it’s tremendously valuable. But there is privacy (at least) to keep. And it remains an ongoing process to learn how most appropriately to share and signal relational value from inside to out.
For instance, this email goes out to everyone on the Voicecraft mailing list. Then it hangs there.
Some of you might be here for the content primarily. Others to stay in the loop for local gatherings, or to stay in the loop for course offerings and opportunities to participate online. Some are here to keep in touch generally, and others just curious (why did I even sign up to this mailing list curious).
From that perspective, just what is appropriate to share, when what makes Voicecraft worthwhile is so much more than my story, my lessons?—and just a fraction of those might possibly be of interest anyway.
Perhaps through it all, most of us are here with a common desire for there to become genuine pathways for deeper participation in the knowing, understanding and transformation of the relations between psyche, culture and nature in our time. That it’s vital to seed many efforts at enriching contexts for communication where the abstractions and patterns of the big picture meet with the intimacy of shared presence, with courage, care and integrity. To affirm life, respect mystery, honour the challenge.
In the Voicecraft context there’s a particular emphasis on what it means to honour that challenge. One I mostly prefer to leave open to interpretation.
—
Now here we are at the end of the year. A year that saw the completion of the Voicecraft Live journey promised by the crowdfunding campaign that ran at the close of 2022. This process has opened many new beginnings, deepened relationships, and given vital signal to questions of energy, community and sustainability. It is with deep gratitude I say thank you to those who have been especially supportive with their time and energy to the work of Voicecraft Live in Melbourne throughout 2023.
Our final public in-person event of the year was titled ‘War & Unity’. A truly rare coming together of identity, perspective and energy, amidst the most challenging of topics and global tensions. I have here to share only the unlisted opening 7 minutes of an address I made. It happened before the real magic of the evening over the 4 hours that followed. But so it goes.
On the Voicecraft Network
The Voicecraft Network remained a unique and vitalising port amidst the storms of life and culture in 2023. Its influence was more subtle than previous years, but it’s poised to offer more than ever before in 2024 — its fifth year! More on that will be announced soon, accompanied by at least one release of a network session (likewise on the topic of War & Unity), which felt particularly exemplary of the many sessions held over the course of the year, and demonstrative of the building of insight and perspective that’s possible by virtue of practice and participation in the network.
2023 also saw Voicecraft receive its first censoring on YouTube. An ominous sign, but good to know. It was for a Culture Lab session about RFK Jr and many of the associated dynamics. I am particularly excited about these sessions for 2024 across a wide range of prescient cultural phenomena.
I’d like to share gratitude in particular for Tom Lyons for hosting a series of Earth sessions at the close of this year, and to several core contributors who have helped to keep the fire going and make possible an exciting year to come.
The continued weaving of relevance as realised online in the Voicecraft Network, in-person at Voicecraft Live events, and throughout public effort on the podcast is a core intention for 2024. Perhaps that’s why one of my personal highlights of the year was something about which I heard only in story.
During September’s Voicecraft Live I was away in Japan. The evening was hosted by Cam Duffy and Jurn (both of whom have appeared on the podcast over the years), with support from Terri and the rest of the group. They welcomed several new participants on the evening.
The topic around which invitations were made was ‘Weaving a Living Network’, and part of the evening played a twenty minute set of clips from a VC Network dialogue (including participants on this occasion hailing from the US, New Zealand, and other parts of Australia. You can watch it unlisted here.) I heard there was some spontaneous applause for a contribution made by O.G. Rose, a core contributor to the Voicecraft Network (who also appears in the Value & Civilisation series above).
It’s a simple thing. But it’s inspiring to me when diverse voices are appreciated by something like a resonance of heart: when common unity finds expression across contexts. A nod towards something self-making. A relationship between education, contribution and belonging that’s mutually enriching.
And so, with much omitted and more to come, with appreciation for your time, energy, and support—
Discernment on the Way,
Tim
P.S.
The first podcast scheduled to record in 2024 is in just a few days time. In fact it’s another VC Network live podcast recording you can read about here. It welcomes Brendan Graham Dempsey and Bruce Alderman for a conversation exploring the differences between Integral Theory and Metamodernism. It’s available to attend for members of the Voicecraft Network.