Ellen Harrold

People are creatures of refraction. We absorb, reform, and reflect ideas constantly. This process reveals more about existence in all its forms (corporeal and otherwise). Yet, the more we learn, the more we try to establish rules and formulae for the mechanisms through which existence can shape itself, which in and of itself is an interesting praxis for a mechanism-based understanding of the world. The issue is when these systems become accepted as fact and pile up on one another, we risk establishing a practice of understanding that resists adaptation and change as one flaw threatens to bring the system down. So we cut and segment and resist change. Every fact stands on a tower of assumptions, adrift from the connective tissue that would allow us to understand it. It isn’t possible to have an understanding of everything. The human brain has its limits. This is why collaboration and community are such vital aspects of research. Not just the collaboration of people with the same interests and bases of knowledge but even the casual discussion of ideas and projects amongst friends and family. People who shed light on ideas with their differences and curiosity about things they don’t understand yet.