Neighbourhood Cosmology

     The research team of acoustic anthropologist AgentMX7 and visual ethnographer MYSTERYFORMS are commissioned off to the flood-drenched foothills of Del Monte, to conduct a series of studies on the indigenous communities co-habitating within the little-known post-colonial township of Neu Berg, as part of the ICS Cross-Cultural Immersion Invitational program (C2I2) to promote and cultivate awareness and empathy among tribes and nations of the far eastern subtropics.

     Phase I of this study centers around neo-tribal ritual and worship, as manifest in their music and art; their rhythms and tonalities, their visions and symbology.  This is no mere dance music, MX7 reports, this is consecrated ceremonial music played in their regular Sunday worship; played across gymnasiums and town plazas, blasting through military-grade soundsystems;  elders and children-alike partaking in this hallowed commune.

    ...This body of work, including painting, video, dance and sound design, is an exploration into parallel cultures and new realities; a home-made, ghetto cosmology based on and stemming from an intimate and personal spirituality. 

     Ancient truths are spoken in a new symbolic language of ritual, pattern, repetition, symmetry and geometry. Steeped in devotional vibrancy and dynamic self-surrender, theirs is a religion of chromatic self-cultivation that culminates in a frenzied fervour for the Divine and an uncleavable oneness with the Universe.

     Recently premiered at the East Richmond Cultural Centre as part of the annual Asiatic Heritage Exposition Fair, we now present the acoustic module of this important study -in its entirety- for public broadcast, to be followed by a comprehensive exhibition of our visual research in the weeks ahead.  All proceeds will go towards the perpetuation of the C2I2 program, as well as funding for a return trip home for MX7 and MYSTERYFORMS.

...in honour and invocation of the One who soon cometh...

Benedictions

     The ICS Arts Crafts and Livelihood Program continues to forge ahead with a this new integrated study, entitled Benedictions, conducted by ICS resident visual artist MYSTERYFORMS and agent-apprentice MX7 as part of their current work-study practicum.

     This brilliant, vibratory opto-acoustic rendering of their research is prefaced with the following invocation, ceremoniously setting the thematic approach and atmosphere of the piece:

A Point in the Unknowable

     

     Extraordinary events since their last project, A Patient Transit, leave the family and staff of ICS/MYSTERYSEVEN in utter disarray and disorientation.  The abrupt and unforeseen passing of their newest and youngest member, J.M. Jr., thrust the crew and project into a seemingly sunless limbo.

     If A Patient Transit pushed the fledgling team towards reconfiguration and reorientation, the current circumstances sent the remaining members in a silent scramble for purpose, meaning, and motivation.

     The inimitable junior member infused the team with an unalloyed innocence of action and a joy of discovery - rare in these times.  Yet, as M.L. Navajo intimates, "Contrary to leaving a void in our lives, he has shown us a light to catch hold of and a crystalline purity to attain to.  For we that remain, the urgency of the search is increased tenfold".

     "A Point in the Unknowable is our initial re-search attempt, not at understanding nor comprehending, but at acceptance and surrender," agent MX7 writes.  "This work is not our lament, our personal blues;  instead, it is our coming to grips with the larger forces of design secretly at play; an awestruck and humbled ode to His mysterious ways."

     Digital copies available here; includes a digitized album poster designed by MYSTERYFORMS with threadwork collaboration from M.L. Navajo for the Ecclesiastical Society of San Joaquin and the ICS Arts, Crafts and Livelihood Program for Cultivated Living.

Prelude to a Showdown

"Tension mounting and temperature rising,

Looking Death square between the eyes;

Who will shoot first??"

     Embarking on a new ICS directive, we find Agent MX7 once again collaborating with the friendly neighboring camp of SEEKERSINTERNATIONAL.  Since their initial Manila Brukout convergence, the two factions have come together once more to further their experiments in bringing their studies to the people.

     As with all their past efforts, the project takes on a life of its own;  distinctly shaping itself into a study on the natural forces of resistance and opposition, coupled with their outward manifestations as conflict, struggle, and tension.

     Our kind ICS allies at Galaxaburn have graciously presented us with this lost footage, granting us an exclusive glimpse -and a friendly warning- about the impending approach.