Thinking the Float Tank: AUM Fiftieth Anniversary Conference; Cybernetics, Float Tanks, and Phenomenology Since the 1973 Esalen Institute Conference
On August 24-26, 2023, at West Den Haag, in The Hague, a unique philosophy conference titled Thinking the Float Tank, housed within a high art exhibit titled Gödel Escher Bach, opened a portal of self-reference to the infinite universe. How very appropriate that the museum of contemporary art West Den Haag is also the former Embassy of the United States of America, because this rare portal is a doorway for thinking and for being far beyond the regionality of Earth.
Photo: Dana LaMonda
VIDEO RECORDINGS
Thinking the Float Tank was professionally recorded by the creative team at West Den Haag, and made available on YouTube and Vimeo. Here are the links:
DAY 1:
Video Recording of Day 1 (YouTube):
YouTube: Thinking the Float Tank Conference Day 1, Thursday, August 24, 2023
Day 1, also available on Vimeo:
Vimeo: Thinking the Float Tank Conference Day 1, Thursday, August 24, 2023
DAY 2
Video Recording of Day 2 (YouTube):
YouTube: Thinking the Float Tank Conference Day 2, Friday, August 25, 2023
Day 2, also available on Vimeo:
Vimeo: Thinking the Float Tank Conference Day 2, Friday, August 25, 2023
DAY 3:
Video Recording of Day 3 (YouTube):
YouTube: Thinking the Float Tank Conference Day 3, Saturday, August 26, 2023
Day 3, also available on Vimeo:
Vimeo: Thinking the Float Tank Conference Day 3, Saturday, August 26, 2023
PHOTOS
Click here for photos and little video clips: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-Q2XsrVxa7TFNYhHzZvBqB8H_Bs4BC6P?usp=sharing
I took a bunch of these photos, but the better ones come from the official photographer for the event, Dana LaMonda. Please check out her art at her website, DanaLaMonda.com, and at her Instagram account here: https://www.instagram.com/danalamonda/.
“Thus God’s purpose in the creative advance is the evocation of intensities. The evocation of societies is purely subsidiary to this absolute end. The characteristic of a living society is that a complex structure of inorganic societies is woven together for the production of a non-social nexus characterized by the intense physical experiences of its members. But such an experience is derivate from the complex order of the material animal body, and not from the simple ‘personal order’ of past occasions with analogous experience. There is intense experience without the shackle of reiteration from the past. This is the condition for spontaneity of conceptual reaction. The conclusion to be drawn from this argument is that life is a characteristic of ’empty space’ and not of space ‘occupied’ by any corpuscular society. In a nexus of living occasions, there is a certain social deficiency. Life lurks in the interstices of each living cell, and in the interstices of the brain. In the history of a living society, its more vivid manifestations wander to whatever quarter is receiving from the animal body an enormous variety of physical experience. This experience, if treated inorganically, must be reduced to compatibility by the normal adjustments of mere responsive reception. This means the dismissal of incompatible elements into negative prehensions.”
–Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality, II.3 “The Order of Nature,” Section 10, page 161 (corrected edition 105).
VIDEO: INTERSTITIAL CLIPS AND BITS
Here is an interstitial video presentation of some of the photos and some of the clips that I made available on YouTube. I’ll be editing it and updating the link soon too:
BONUS VIDEO:
Thinking the Float Tank Interstices
Description:
On August 24-26, 2023, at the museum for contemporary art West Den Haag, in The Hague, the Netherlands, a unique international interdisciplinary symposium occurred. It was titled Thinking the Float Tank: AUM Fiftieth Anniversary Conference; Cybernetics, Float Tanks, and Phenomenology Since the 1973 Esalen Institute Conference. Thinking the Float Tank was the concluding conference for the summer-long group exhibit Gödel Escher Bach (May 19th – August 27th). This video exposition features footage of the exhibition, photos of the conference Thinking the Float Tank, and material from the interstitial spaces before, after, and between the formative moments of Thinking the Float Tank. “Life lurks in the interstices,” as Whitehead once put it (PR 105-6). The spirit of Thinking the Float Tank is here only gleaned. For footage of the presentations at Thinking the Float Tank, visit West Den Haag’s page at westdenhaag.nl, and on their YouTube page, and at randolphdible.com. Also visit danalamonda.com, for more from our event’s official photographer!
Graphics by West Den Haag
BONUS! After Thinking the Float Tank, I had some more adventures, and produced these videos:
Further Adventures Part I
The Grave and Gravity of Hedwig Conrad-Martius
Description:
I recently visited the Munich forest cemetery Waldfriedhof, where the phenomenologist Hedwig Conrad-Martius is buried with her husband Theodor Conrad, and their dear friend Katharina von Graffen. Conrad-Martius is one of the world’s most brilliant metaphysical philosophers, and her ontology of reality is going to change the world in coming years. The spiritual scientific significance of her universal ontology makes hers a very important contribution to humanity.
Further Adventures Part II
A Phenomenological Pilgrimage to Edith Stein and Hedwig Conrad-Martius
Description:
Part I: August 31, 2023. Randolph Dible at the grave of Hedwig Conrad-Martius, in the Waldfriedhof Forest Cemetery, Munich, Bavaria. First 22 minutes.
Part II: August 28, 2023. On the Pilgrim’s Path to Edith Stein, St. Benedicta of the Cross. Joachim Feldes in Schifferstadt (memorial plaque at the train station), Speyer (Monastery of St. Magdalena, Cathedral, Pilgrim editorial office), Joachim Müller winery in Maikammer, and finally Bad Bergzabern (St. Martin’s Church, House of the Conrads). A Phenomenological Pilgrim’s Tour by Joachim Feldes, Professor of Systematic Theology, Anglican Priest in Germany, and author of numerous works on Edith Stein, Hedwig Conrad-Martius, and other figures of early phenomenology like Hering, Koyré, von Sybel, and others.
Flyer for Thinking the Float Tank, by West Den Haag
Nikolai Beckmann, with the flotation tank he built with his brother Lorenz
Photos courtesy of Dana LaMonda
randolphdible.com 