Transdimensional Archiving
the path is art and healing, queer ceremony and neo-mysticism, spirituality and divine devising. learning from teachers so I can hold space safely and without appropriating
The observatory - Transdimensional archiving - Liverpool
An Immersive experience of autoethnographic documentation and practice
I feel strongly about holding onto The Observatory as a TRANS WORLD —> I conjured it/connected with it, as it is an actual quantum universe that now exists because I OBSERVED IT==> as a Trans world, and I really need to protect it as a space by and for queer and trans people
>Maya viewfinder, McKenna’s quantum Meso-Greco universe but with Irish paganism and queer/trans theory and ecology added in.
>OOH - Trans* ecology as a new evolution of paganism/shamanism - talk to Dr Kashian about this
THEATRE NOT AS A VOCATION BUT CEREMONIAL PRACTICE - DIVINE DEVISING
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CEREMONY - this is the anchor of life and practice. it is how Indigenous cultures live, the cornerstone of art and healing, and the type of life I’m calling in. We call it escapism in the West - but this is LITERALLY WHAT LIFE IS FOR in other cultures.
don’t make it a job or duplicate the work — like Richard said — don’t make the rubble bounce, kid.
My autoethnographic praxis and spiritual/mystical practice is anchored on my daily ceremony, which involves sitting at the altar I’ve built, calling on the guides, meditating through various methods, channeling the other realms, and documenting what I receive.
How are other people doing this? How have other cultures done this?
Research is backup
Kim Robertson - plant medicine - TA
Engage everyone in a conversation about auto ethnographic documentation - in the paradigm of my research and language > then document this and use it in my language
Doing the same thing over and over is part of the practice - what opens up in that process? > Brady drawing the same thing as part of exploration
>it's a trance state
Notes from call with Ali on the way to the queer cacao Equinox circle of sychronicity
Presentation -
Take people through a practice of connecting to the other realm - workshop
Present specific parts of the auto ethnographic work for the exhibition - journals, drawings, transcription, etc
[3/18/25, 6:07:44 PM] Ali Transart: https://landing.vda.lt/journal/announcement/view/1
[3/18/25, 6:17:33 PM] Ali Transart: TRANSDIMENSIONAL ARCHIVING | The Observatory: An immersive experience of autoethnograhic research + documentation
[3/18/25, 6:28:26 PM] Ali Transart: bradycsmith@gmail.com
[3/18/25, 6:29:11 PM] Ali Transart: +1 (720) 387-5278
[3/18/25, 6:31:11 PM] Ali Transart: “interior investigation” (observatory)
[3/18/25, 6:37:27 PM] Ali Transart: Summation! My suggestions…to keep or discard.
Part I - Presentation: 45 minutes. A workshop of ONE of your Transdimensional Archiving practices.
A) Present/contextualize “Transdimensional Archiving” (10 mins)
Lead workshop (15 mins)
C) Post-workshop discussion/Q&A (10 mins)
**Leaves you an extra 10 mins buffer time for any/all portions!
Part II - Exhibition: An open call for autoethnographic research & documentation in the form of visual/material, textual, sonic artifacts
This could be pages of a journal, or portions of a journal torn out or blown up; scribblings, doodles, illustrations, photographs; sonic/field recordings, voice mails/messages; video documentation.
[3/18/25, 6:45:55 PM] Ali Transart: What does it mean to / How do we document and/or present autoethographic research?
[3/18/25, 6:46:50 PM] Ali Transart: This could be called “The Observatory” OR another word that reflects “observatory,” “interior investigation,” “sur-veillance” > I need to preserve The Observatory as my own name/world. No QT appropriation pleez
**Feel free to use the language/structures I have outlined here for your submission forms!
[3/18/25, 6:49:33 PM] Ali Transart: **Also, if you don’t want to put forward or manage the call for autoethnographic work, I am happy to do so, and to provide attribution to you that this concept evolved out of our dialogues - without using your terminology.
[3/18/25, 6:51:00 PM] Ali Transart: I think “an autoethnographic portion of our residency exhibition” will be something we will receive in submissions anyways - so it’s just about whether or not you want to take ownership of curation in terms of your research interests/questions.
Workshop submission:
Title: Can I get a witness? Transdimensional archiving as ceremonial practice
Description: My autoethnographic praxis and spiritual/mystical practice is anchored on my daily ceremony, which involves sitting at the altar I’ve built, calling on the guides, meditating through various methods, channeling the other realms, and documenting what I receive. This workshop will lead participants through one of my transdimensional archiving practices and document as much of the process as possible. I will lead participants in a meditation grounded in shamanic and pagan practices: orienting ourselves in time and space (calling in the directions, invoking our current position on the Wheel of the Year, in the Maya calendar, and in the Western astrological framework). From this receptive state we will engage in a journaling practice about what it means to be seen, approaching it as a channeling/mediumship/automatic writing session where we are receiving information from the other realms and parts of self (inner children, alter egos, ancestors, archetypes, animals, nature, mythological and cultural figures, the collective unconscious, etc). We will have a group discussion about what we received and our experiences of being seen and unseen, both positive and challenging. If anyone or anything needs to be witnessed in what was received, we will hold that as a group, offering support and reflection.
Goals: To test the transpersonality of my autoethnographic methods; to explore and document others’ practice and experience for the archive my research is creating. Part of my research involves tracking and archiving syncretism and I am very interested in the phenomenological experience of others who follow these practices. It will inform research questions: whether elements can be isolated from the larger ceremony and still provide the desired connections; if the same morphic fields can be opened and accessed across contexts, mediums, and vessels.
Format: is 90 mins possible?
Present/contextualize “Transdimensional Archiving” (10-15 mins)
Opening ceremony (5-10 mins)
Journaling/writing (10-15 mins)
Group discussion, witnessing and contextualizing (15-20 mins)
Next steps, close ceremony (5 mins)
Post-workshop discussion/Q&A (10 mins)
The group exhibition: Surveillance, exposure - under the microscope? The Observatory is Trans, Trans is about the telescope, going out to the stars and the astral > art and research is grounding it, it’s about the microscope, the subjective that becomes objective, looking closer to see the real story (which is in itself a key concept/component of my research > new tech developments that let us see what ancient people were doing with substances and ritual). All of it is correspondence, understanding the universal through the personal
