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SOUL
SPACE is a poetic photo book about the ways in which God is
manifest as a hidden travel advisor. Challenging the existing
religious communities, Soul Space announces the birth of the
eMigrant - an electronic Deity that will alter our world in an
unprecedented manner.
Soul Space combines philosophy and photography
in an inquiry into religious experience. The book covers the first
part of a trilogy aiming to study and elaborate three different
perspectives on the nature of God. Soul Space addresses the human
perspective, questioning the ways in which God is manifest as a
hidden travel advisor and how this forceful phenomenon can be
captured photographically. With a focus on the quest for how to
live, the ultimate goal is to show that God is a sign of our
evolutionary potential.
Between August 2016 and July 2017 the hidden travel advisor was
persued in the manifestations of religious experience during all
kinds of services and ceremonies present to this very day in
Amsterdam. Each in their own manner worshipping what they think is
most important. What does religious experience mean for the
churchgoers? What do they hope for? Which voices do they hear? Or do
they merely opt for the coffee after service? By focussing on the
profound feelings during service, when the intimacy of the moment
evokes a special atmosphere in which `something might happen’, it
was the objective to capture potential apparitions on camera. After
all the photographs were taken, printed and spread out, religious
experience showed itself in the various colour shades of the
religious communities. Not the direct representations of the
churchgoers during service or ceremony proved to be paramount, but
the colours as they emerged from the overview of the photographic
images. As a consequence, this poetic photo book is not composed of
representational pictures of people caught on camera during service
or ceremony, but of a variety of colours which together with a
poetic reflection on the eMigrant as the newborn electronic Deity
narrate this everyday world as well as a hallucinating new reality
evoked by our magic, mystical mind.
The book block is composed of 72 pages full colour. Four pages for
each of the 16 participating religious communities from Amsterdam:
one page with a colour-composition ascribed to a specific community;
one page with a poetic fragment in the same colour-composition; and
a double page with a photographic record of the emotions and
feelings evoked by that specific community. The poetic text is
inspired by the bible and runs in four movements through all the
religious communities. This reflection is not about the various
communities, but challenges them with the introduction of a new
religion - the arrival of the eMigrant. Due to the undisputed
expertise of lithographer Willem de Heer and the renowned NPN
drukkers from Breda, the book, bound in embossed gold paper,
expresses the exclusiveness of a unique work of art.
The poetic text is inspired by the bible and runs in four movements
through all the religious communities. Each time in a different
colour related to a specific religious community. After all, in the
end all religions are ONE. This reflection is not about the various
communities, but challenges them with the introduction of a new
religion - the arrival of the eMigrant. The eMigrant signifies the
'electronic Migrant' who has penetrated our lives in an encompassing
way and will determine our future for a substantial part. In the
same way as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism have done.
With good and bad influences, progression and decline. It is as much
a paradox as the existing religions and our colour experiences. Many
will convert themselves to this eMigrant; few will avert. But in all
cases, this phenomenon will determine our lives and future for a
large part.
The choice for a special gold paper cover stems from the conviction
that in the end all religions (also the electronic one) are one,
because they are an invincible part of the human beings we are. Gold
is par excellence the expression for this. It is said to be a pure
and noble elementary metal. A desirable earthly mineral which at the
same time evokes the expansion of the universe. In almost all
religious communities, gold is in one way or the other present. For
instance, the gilded surfaces in the medieval churches that served
as messages of illumination. The mineral is physically stable, yet
also radically contingent in relation to atmospheric effects. As
pictorial space, at the same time indeterminate as well as infinite,
the philosopher Wittgenstein calls this noble metal an example of
the fourth dimension of colours. With only an embossed title, the
cover functions as a mirror the moment you pick up the book.
Several factors underscore the timeliness of
project Soul Space. Firstly, a renewed interest of people in what
one could call ‘religious experience’. But also the collapse of
several societal systems with or without increasing thread for
violence is a factor. And there is the urge for a new humanistic
approach. With a focus on the quest for how to live, the ultimate
goal is to show that religious experience is a sign of our
evolutionary potential. That it is an intrinsic human feature to
seek for transcendence - for ‘something’ that makes us the
creative human beings we are. |
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