Nature As Book: Emblems, Divination, and Geomancy

Drawing on the importance of poetry and the practice of symbolic interpretation for an evolving politics in Omarzad’s practice, this podcast is hosted by philosopher and writer Federico Campagna, who is joined by contributors Dr Lucy Mercer, lecturer of creative writing at Goldsmith University and author of the recent poetry book Emblem (Prototype, 2022), and Arianna Dalla Costa, from the Warburg Institute, researcher on the ancient arts of divination and geomancy. Two areas of tension are explored: poetry and politics; magic and science. Emblems, as thresholds between image and text, are discussed with Dr Mercer: their origin and definition, symbology and function, as well as their convergences and divergences with memes and instagram motivational posts. Dalla Costa discusses divination and geomancy, looking into their etymologies and particularities within the context of the intellectual encounter between different monotheistic religions in the Medieval Mediterranean, challenging contemporary understandings of the age of the Crusades as a time of intolerance. Credits: Contributors Lucy Mercer and Arianna Dalla Costa Conducted by Federico Campagna

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TBA21 on st_age is TBA21’s research and commissioning digital space. Based on long-term relationships of trust, it reaches out to bring a multiplicity of voices and contexts into conversation, supporting artist’s needs throughout both research and practice. TBA21 on st_age focuses on environmental and social contemporary artistic practices, and presents video, animation, sound, and text works, as well as projects specifically designed to be experienced online. These are accompanied by a series of contextual materials, which make both the work and the research behind it accessible to a broader audience. These materials include artist-curator conversations, editorial podcasts, research clusters, and calls to actions, as well as the backst_age series, which connects the different projects through conversations, video glossaries, and curated views. All featured works remain the property of the artists and authors.