Toroidal Bodies: A Speculative Cosmology of Transversal Wholeness w/ Cheryl Hsu

“Toroidal Bodies” was one of three philosophical art experiments or “happenings” that took place as an invite-only series from April to May 2023 on the Stoa. “Toroidal Bodies” unfolds the view-protocols of Collective (W)hole-making.
The AI featured in this session is created by media artist, David Rokeby.
-- series --
Collective (W)hole-making:
A Philosophical-Art Experiment of Intersubjective Cosmopoiesis
Host:
Source-keeper: Cheryl Hsu
Co-hosts:
Intersubjective Field-holder: Nicholas Shore
Steward of the Stoa: Peter Limberg
Collective (W)hole-making (originally titled Collective Soul-making) is a research-art project investigating the potential of intersubjective cosmopoiesis. Co-hosted with Nick Shore and Peter Limberg, this three-part series was specifically sourced and crafted for its spatio-temporal umwelt -- the virtual field of the Stoa.
Collective (W)hole-making is a living social sculpture and an intersubjective alchemical vessel. It assumes a strange posture of radical provocation: erupting forth the esoteric wisdoms sourced in and through the volcanic vessel of the body, rhizomatically relating with other bodies in space, refined through the potentiated geometries of our zeitgeist. The hypothesis is bold: through the entangled posture of surrendered devotion and clarified sovereignty, a collective organism might source and midwife the animist arising of new life-worlds that desire to come into being.
Collective (W)hole-making took place on April 17, April 24 and May 1 of 2023, initially under the title of Collective Soul-making. At each happening -- Cheryl Hsu, the source-keeper -- presented a philosophical artefact that acted as the strange attractor of the field:
Toroidal Bodies: A Speculative Cosmology of Transversal Wholeness
Participation Mystique: A Praxis Experiment in Intersubjective Cosmopoiesis
Alchemical Soul-Making: An Imaginal Ethos of Potentiated Eros
Each happening was intended to be a whole-in-itself, “occasions” of experience constellated into the tripartite Care-View-Action protocols of Collective W(hole)-making. At each happening, the participants sensefully attuned to the allurement of its potential through the intersubjective practice of collective presencing.