Is the universe queerer than we can suppose?

Lecture by Tejal Shah within the frame of the Lecture Series of IBK summer term 2021, organized by the studio for Contextual Painting. In Englisch.

In this interactive workshop we will explore the fine line between what we conventionally consider as illusions (such as a mirage) and that which we consider as ‘reality’. How real is reality? How real are our feelings and emotions?

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84432257904?pwd=bkdaM1poMCtoeUVFNTA3dy9HOGl5QT09
Meeting-ID: 844 3225 7904
Kenncode: XpqAB4

In his 1927 essay, Possible Worlds, the scientist JBS Haldane wrote “Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.”

If all existence is illusion-like as expounded by various eastern philosophical systems - something that we can infer through reasoning and have an embodied experience of - what impact can this potentially have on our emotional world, our behaviour, our actions and ethics?

The non-dual wisdom of interdependence and the practices available to develop a sense of unconditional friendliness towards all beings (and things) couldn’t be more relevant than now when we are undergoing tectonic shifts in life as we know it. At the heart of these changes, what is at stake are our relationships and our affect. How can we relate & how would we relate if the boundaries between self and other dissolve? How does this impact our work as artists as we touch ‘others’ through every sensory and mental means available to us?