Pulvis et umbra sumus. We are but dust and shadow. –Horace

Dust and shadow is FoAM's contribution to a transdisciplinary research and residency programme at the ASU (Arizona State University), exploring environmental issues specific to the desert of the North-American Southwest. We combine philosophical inquiry with speculative design and action research to explore divergent approaches to desertification (both ecological and cultural), zombie-utopias, panpsychism, beyond-human relationships and probabilistic future preparedness.

In collaboration with The Global Institute of Sustainability (GIOS), Laboratory of Critical Technics (LCT) and the Synthesis Lab of the Arizona State University (ASU).

• fragments https://d-u-s-t-and-shadow.tumblr.com
• photos https://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/sets/72157681429258454
• FoAM activity page: https://fo.am/dust-and-shadow/

• fieldtrip 1 / FieldNotes #1: https://medium.com/@foam/dust-and-shadow-field-notes-1-48e94d02540b
• fieldtrip 2 …

How all of this might unfold (TBC and subject to change without notice)

• Spring 2017 (may/june): fieldtrip, observations, questions, travelogue, etc.
  
• Summer 2017 (july/august): articulating research questions, literature research, mapping, etc.
  
• Fall 2017 (end november → ~15th december): FoAM presentation/talk at LCT, research retreat, formulating hypotheses/propositions for experiments, commonplace publication pt1
  
• Spring 2018: temporary FoAM lab @ ASU: prototyping, experiments (first iteration), FoAM's 'injections' in (graduate) courses (?), commonplace publication pt2 (fieldguide for further experiments)
  
• Fall 2018 (or spring 2019): Second action research cycle, ending in a public experiment, printed publication (and possibly an 'exploded publication' in the form of an exhibition)
  
• (+ continuous online documentation)
  

[…]

• in progress → reader_1

• https://www.zotero.org/groups/dust_and_shadow/items
• dark ecology
• http://tinyletter.com/hautepop/letters/disturbances-12-anti-modern
• romantic machines, panpsychism, animism, etc, vegetal mind, human scale systems, non-human technologies
• the mushroom at the end of the world as counterpoint to in the dust of this planet
• Spiritualise, Revitalising spirituality to address 21st century challenges (RSA report)
• A counsel of resistance and delight
• Why spirituality is key to more visionary politics
• You want it darker
• Sensing nature
• The TAZ
• art and witchcraft (and Adam Nocek's Reclaiming Witchcraft)
• radical ecologies
• The American Wilderness Act of 1964
• etc.
• https://sandsystems.org/
• http://dark-mountain.net/blog/the-devils-door-a-call-for-contributions-to-issue-12/
• http://dark-mountain.net/blog/in-other-tongues-ecologies-of-meaning-and-loss/
• reading notes for Humankind: Solidarity with Nonhuman People
• The Spell of the Sensuos
• http://www.decolonize.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/postcolonial-studies-reader.pdf
• http://www.maitres-fous.net/Ungar.html
• http://www.biosferanoosfera.it/scritti/Why%20I%20became%20a%20Panexperientialist.pdf

Synthesis research streams

• Rhythmanalysis research stream (multiple projects): http://rhythmanalysis.weebly.com/
  

Time Lenses: http://rhythmanalysis.weebly.com/time-lenses-apparatus.html

• Improvisational environments http://improvisationalenvironments.weebly.com/
  
• Lighting and rhythm http://lightingrhythm.weebly.com/
  
• Experiential Model of the Atmosphere http://synthesiscenter.net/projects/ema/
  

We no longer have roots, we have aerials. We no longer have origins, we have terminals. –McKenzie Wark