The most intriguing of all in this Queer Mermaids project is not the question of ‘am I queer?‘, but rather ‘how this process shapes the way I orientate myself in time and space: both alone and when extending myself through Others‘. Phenomenology of becoming.

Recently I got fascinated by a Polish philosopher Anna Teresa Tymieniecka, my new discovery, my homeland phenomenologist.

She writes spot-on about the power of an experiencing individual – which is specially interesting in the context of workshops and exploratory rituals I’ve been creating…

the horizons of experience are movable and infinitely extendable, depending on viewpoint, situation in space and time, and on the powers of the experiencing subject, his/her reception and appreciation. (*1

You might have experienced that too?… imagine you are given a “gift”, possibly an inspiring lecture or a mesmerizing concert or a love gesture from somebody. Sometimes your body and mind are so receptive that the experience becomes profound. Other times you do not notice, you do not feel much, while exactly the same gift is lying in front of you. It’s suddenly less accessible, as if your ‘horizon of experience’ is (temporarily) limited.

Tymieniecka’s Phenomenology of Life revolves around an intriguing notion ontopoiesis.

Viewed as a “mechanism” of consciousness operating within the individual psyche, ontopoiesis underlies the human development, and serves not only as the foundation for development after the deep spiritual experience, but also as the basis for life transitions, transformations of meaning, and reconstruction of the human self affected by trauma. (*2

Significant life- and meaning-transitions are constantly (re)shaping ‘human self’ (one’s ‘overall’ identity). Those triggering moments of transformation – and this is a core addition to my Master Thesis – happen so often when experiencing something for the first time …or in States of Disorientation. Queering moments.

I have met a lot of ‘queer’ people on my recent path, I have however never really identified myself as ‘queer’. But my fascination for the concept started again when reading ‘Queer Phenomenology’ (*3. If queer as a spatial concept is a deviation from a straight line, I thought that I am maybe not queer, but my lifestyle and life path I chose (or was thrown on?) is quite queer. And there is more people living differently. Artistic research started. Here is a little film from our last project ‘Mermaid Oracles are walking the Line’ – together extending the notion of QUEER…

(*1 ‘The New Enlightenment:
Cosmo-Transcendental Positioning of the Living Being in the Universe’ by ANNA-TERESA TYMIENIECKA

(*2

(*3 by Sarah Ahmed