Voicecraft Dispatch | Altered States Of Conversation, Acceleration, Anthro-Complexity, Invitations

A rename of the Voicecraft podcast, recent releases with Studebaker, O.G. Rose, Bauwens, Snowden, dialogues from the Voicecraft Network, forthcoming invitations to Underground Philosophy and TBD...

Voicecraft has always created contexts for altered states of conversation. For effecting and cultivating, expanding and deepening, the quality of experience and mutual participation in understanding that’s possible in communication.

My hope is that, especially for new listeners, this refreshed framing of the channel will offer a hint of poetic description of what you might expect to encounter. A bit of permission, perhaps, to move from confused to intrigued.

It also brings a new chapter of clarity in terms of where different threads of The Voicecraft Project in general can grow onward.

As long time listeners, collaborators and network participants have known for several years, an important thread of Voicecraft is the activity of group conversation, network learning and contribution, and a dedication to developing the voices and threads of interest that are held and surfaced by contributors other than myself. That this is integral to the cultivation of the field and broader endeavour of the work as a whole.

The Voicecraft Network YouTube channel is I think a more natural home for many network collaborations. In general it will feature a wider scope of media, including interviews, clips, films, group sessions of various experimental kinds, including synthesis sessions, Big Dinners, live events, collaborations between Voicecraft members and guests across threads which I may or may not also participate in.

A look through the history of both channels will give you every indication of what’s to come, and I look forward to seeing growth in the VC Network channel as a platform that can include more voices in the field with a slightly different sense of constraint, membrane and potential. At a level of spirit there is little difference between the two. Altered states of conversation (ASOC) are as much of interest to the VC Network channel as they are to the ASOC channel itself, as is the praxis of engagement which Voicecraft has endeavoured to cultivate in general. Both channels are of importance to The Voicecraft Project as a whole.

So with that said!

Today there are conversations across both to share, as well as invitations to participate offline at the next Underground Philosophy in Melbourne, as well as online at the next Big Dinner.

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The first release on ASOC this year featured the return of complexity practitioner and generalist thinker David Snowden. I always receive engaged feedback for these dialogues with Dave, and I found this, as with the others, to be tremendously generative. How can we respond with wisdom, at scale, to our entanglements?

Shownotes at https://www.voicecraft.io/content/e142-anthro-complexity-entanglement-wayshaping-and-addressing-existential-threat-w/-dave-snowden

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The most recent release features a dialogue with political theorist Benjamin Studebaker, philosopher Daniel Garner of O.G. Rose, and Commons / Civilisation theorist Michel Bauwens. I found our dialogue on the revolutionary subject very valuable last year, as I did with this. The new ASOC channel intro debuts here as well..

On geopolitical shifts, civilisational cycles, and the potential for new social coordination mechanisms in an increasingly frenetic world…

Show notes at https://www.voicecraft.io/content/e143-what-are-we-accelerating-towards-w/-benjamin-studebaker-michel-bauwens-og-rose-and-tim-adalin

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In between these the Voicecraft Network channel published the beginning of an inquiry into the relationship between movement and philosophy. This was inspired by Jurn, a member of the network and martial arts and breaking (dance) practitioner / performance artist. It welcomes Seth Dellinger, a Feldenkreis practitioner who regularly engages in dialogue with long time members and voices on Voicecraft O.G. Rose and Aspasia Karageorge. It also welcomes Corey Karuna-Manuwa, a practitioner taking on the lineage of Ido Portal.

There have been several hundred sessions in the network since 2020, and I hope with a little more frequency, they can serve to connect members with guests, friends, teachers, collaborators, listeners throughout the broader ecology. Perhaps the network channel is the right structure to serve as a coordination point of sorts for that extended field which Voicecraft has endeavoured to contribute to and connect over the years.

Separately, today I recorded a session with Tom Lyons on prof Jiang Xueqin and am thinking of releasing that on the network channel too. Let me know if you’re interested..

Finally, on invitations:

On Thursday 23rd of April Underground Philosophy returns to Caz Reitops. (Next week!) There were several learnings from last time’s gathering on Totalitarianism, and I look forward to iterating on the structure in aid of cultivating an energy of vital, insightful, dynamic engagement that bridges the intimacy of real thinking and connection with civic discourse.

The topic is Truth to Power. I’ve heard that’s a bit opaque. To me it’s a brilliantly glowing sign that points directly toward the opportunity to bring to voice what matters today. Perhaps you need to care about that already to find that in any way clarifying.

If you click on through the flow on this page here and eventually find your way to the Humanitix ticketing page, I hope you’ll find all you need. Having a bit of a journey between the call to attend and the act of booking a ticket isn’t really conversion rate best practice. But somehow I’ve always felt it’s necessary.

What of great importance goes unsaid today? How can we understand the situation of truth and its relation to power?

Learn more and book tickets via https://www.voicecraft.io/events

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And then there is the next Big Dinner on the topic of the Future Human. I’ll be sharing that on the website soon.. though it’s already up for members of The Big Dinner space which is connected to the Voicecraft Network, without requiring full membership to join.

It will welcome Voicecraft member Simon van der Els hosting a session attended by myself, Carl Hayden Smith, Sarah Janes, and others..

It’s on May 23rd. Roughly around midday for Europeans (11AM UK), and evening time for Aus / NZ. It’s a unique experience to dialogue with a zoom room full of people gathered at home for dinners around the world.

This will be a session much closer to working with altered states induced image and sensation brought into group process. In that regard it connects both Simon’s work as a neo-shamanic practitioner, Carl’s interest in Hyperhumanism (plenty of Voicecraft material on that featuring Cadell Last and Cameron Duffy), Sarah’s exploration and knowledge of the dreaming mysteries (also featured on the Voicecraft podcast at the end of last year) and the general approach, interests, and field cultivated in Voicecraft over many years. In general I consider the Voicecraft dialogic context an epitome of the kind of philosophical engagement that supports the exploration and integration of material brought up in altered states.

If you are interested in tuning into this or hosting a dinner, then for the time being the best thing to do is leave a comment or reach out. I am redeveloping the whole digital structure for how openish events like The Big Dinner, as well as offerings made by the Voicecraft network in general can connect with interested participants throughout the field. But for now, reading this will have to do!

I would also like to thank Layman Pascal for joining the last Voicecraft Big Dinner at the end of January, as well as to all of those who attended, gathering their family and friends. That was a beautiful session and a context of genuine open hearted renewal for me personally. It wasn’t recorded. Layman did join Simon and Tom for a dialogue exploring the topic of Meta-Shamanism earlier on which was however recorded for the Voicecraft Network channel, shared below. You can read Layman’s substack article which prompted the dialogue here. Layman, in showing up and sharing your time and energy with the network for TBD I am tremendously grateful. Legend!

Finally, as a personal update I rarely include in these Voicecraft Dispatches, I have been developing a lot more written thought over the last 10 months. I intend to publish a book before too long. Likely 12-18 months. One by-product is slightly more openness to share writing I usually keep private. So there’s a good chance you can expect more kinds of mail in addition to these dispatches. That might not suit everyone on the list, but for the time being I do not have the bandwidth to segment the audience. I do keep a local events mailing list which has already received invitations to the next Underground Philosophy. If you aren’t on that and would like to be, please let me know.

And please subscribe to the VC network channel. Almost everyone on this list isn’t! It will help create more value for more people.

Discernment on the Way,