Body Futurism
As society turns toward the body, a new politics of the flesh is on the brink of eruption.
Writing
Alexander Rothaug, Poetry. About the painting
Since 2023, this blog has been the home of my writing on social forms, health, and spirituality. My old blog, Subpixel Space, contains my writing from 2016-2024. For all of my work organized by theme, see the Archive page.
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New here? Start with Body Futurism, Theory of Social Forms, or Prototyping Social Forms of Care to understand the themes that I'm writing about now.
Theory of Social Forms
Social forms are the templates for ordered, formal, rule-based, and productive spaces of social practice.
Forms of Life: A Philosophical Exhibition on Centers
I'm hosting an art exhibition on March 28th on the theme of Centers: modern monasteries, clinics, and community spaces.
Prototyping Social Forms of Care
Social innovators are experimenting with new social forms of care: centers, campuses, parlors, and practices.
Interview: Jared Zhang of Fresh Air
Jared Zhang is a conceptual artist and community designer. He and his collaborator, writer and spiritual entrepreneur Ireland Adgate, ran a 30-day pop-up educat
Protocols for Emus
Aggressive, egocentric, emu behavior is a social invariant. How have protocols evolved to handle it?
Notes on Buddhist Modernism
How Buddhism has transformed in order to address Western spiritual problems.
How do Words Heal?
How is “healing” different than “curing?” I like the definition of noted cancer care specialist Michael Lerner: “Curing means to take a disease of a problem awa
Spengler on the Phenomenal Foundations of Culture
What tools does Spengler offer for phenomenological analysis of culture?
Concept Clinic: Results From Our First Experiment
The results of the first trial pop-up Concept Clinic at Edge Esmralda.
Practice Review: Peoplehood
The much-written-about "SoulCycle without the bike" is a thin practice with an even thinner mythology.
Book Reviews, Spring 2024
Most of my reading these days is focused on psychology and deepening my understanding of cultural determinants of health. I keep a digital bookshelf of things I
The Loneliness Apparatus
The notion of “loneliness” is playing an increasingly prominent role in public health discussions around the world. What will happen when the loneliness propaganda is fully internalized?
Field Report: Vitalia, The City of Life
Experts and enthusiasts from around the world have gathered on the island of Roatan to discuss longevity: the science and art of extending lifespan. I dropped into their two-month "pop-up city," Vitalia, to get a taste.
Prelude: Connecting the Dots on American Psychiatry
The terrain of American mental health is as vast and colorful as this country’s geography. I’ve been interested in exploring the landscape since 2019, when I da
About the Painting
The painting is Poetry by Viennese painter Alexander Rothaug (1870–1946). It depicts a classical stone ruin in a forest, overgrown by ivy and grasses. On a stone bench sits a female figure with a lyre, likely Erato, the muse of lyric poetry. She extends her hand toward a deer and a blackbird, who appear enraptured by her presence. Despite the decaying ruins, the scene teems with life and motion.
I have chosen this emblem for the blog because it seems to me that the question of spirituality today is similar to the question of poetry: amidst the detritus of classical civilizations and the rummage room of modernity, how are new meaningful wholes to be made? The practice of poetry is a kind of magic, which creates new wholes out of nothing. And poetry is itself a technology of healing; to write poetry is to make oneself more whole.