By: Ximena Alarcón, Gwyneth Zeleny Anderson, Gretchen Jude, K. A. Laity. Norman Lowrey, Morten Svenstrup, & Fereshteh Toosi; Eds. Gwyneth Zeleny Anderson and Brett Bloom
Auburn, IN: Breakdown Break Down Press 2018
Pages: 32
Format: PDF

This publication explores human connections to the world. It offers you ways to explore your capacities for empathizing with other-than-human species and landscapes. The booklet presents sonic meditations and forest bathing exercises to help you be immersed in the ecological entanglements that surround you. 

What Is Immersive Ecological Entanglement?

tangle (n.)
1610s, "a tangled condition, a snarl of threads," from tangle (v.).

tangle (v.)
mid-14c., nasalized variant of tagilen "to involve in a difficult situation, entangle," from a Scandinavian source (compare dialectal Swedish taggla "to disorder," Old Norse þongull "seaweed"), from Proto-Germanic thangul (source also of Frisian tung, Dutch tang, German Tang "seaweed"); thus the original sense of the root evidently was "seaweed" as something that entangles (itself, or oars, or fishes, or nets). In reference to material things, from c. 1500.

entangle (v.t )
to twist into a tangle, or so as not to be easily separated: to involve in complications: to perplex: to ensnare

The word “entanglement” carries an ancient meaning conveying a sense of getting completely ensnared in seaweed and the chaos that this creates for humans and other creatures.

This is a good metaphor for how people are wrapped up in the world with more-than-humans and animated processes.

How can you give your attention to your entanglement?

What does it mean to consider and commune with the trillions of microbes in your gut flora blurring any lines or ideas that you are a coherent whole independent from other creatures?

How do you begin to contemplate your deep grandmothers—thousands of generations of people who shaped you through their life decisions, migration, food choices, adaptation to their habitats, and other aspects of their lives?

The water that flows near your house in rural or urban watersheds has traveled the entire planet for billions of years; what memories does it hold?

How do you immerse yourself in these questions and revelations that they may offer?

You are connected to these things, but have not participated in a dominant culture that communes with them and helps you explore your entanglement with them.