Heart of Matter
Calabi Yau Manifold
- Kenji and Jeris welcome you to the Heart of Matter … Seattle’s Heartbeat and Humanity’s Future
The seeds of Heart of Matter were planted at a Seattle Art & Technology Fest, called Synesthetics, which was sponsored by Northwest CyberArtists, The Human Interface Technology Lab (UW HIT Lab), and covered by The Rocket in 1993. Seattle was the center of the universe; the technology community was in full swing to a scorching grunge soundtrack, and all of those energies would converge in a one-off rave in Capitol Hill. In the middle of that mad-crazy maelstrom, I picked up a blue flyer, a one-page manifesto, among dozens of scattered band flyers and zines. A sentence would catch my eye, the gist of which said, “Seattle has the opportunity to lead a 21st-century, humanistic revolution.” The author has long been forgotten, but her words remain buried in my heart. I was listening.
That same year was my first encounter with the Dalai Lama, who taught me that compassion cuts through all superficial divides. Empathy and compassion are endogenous, in-born, and hard-wired into our DNA, and emerge around age two.
Who will you meet on the Heart of Matter? Everybody, because Seattle is truely a global city. You will meet hardcore punk rockers and elegant directors of philanthropic foundations. You will meet rappers, CEOs, and volunteers working in tent cities. You will meet people from every walk of life, every ethnicity, age, and lifestyle orientation. You may not like or agree with their appearence, politics, cultural, or religious views. They will, however, have one thing in common: compassion… and a passionate drive to make a contribution to their respective communities.
Many of the people you will meet will be using social media and communication technologies in novel or unique ways. This is Seattle after all! Jet City! The house that Boeing built!… with the Space Needle transmitting our regional frequency across the universe to distant galaxies and stars. Microsoft, Starbucks, and Amazon globalized the Seattle zeitgeist back here on earth. The result of which is an acquisition of capital, blessing our fair region with, what some have claimed, the largest philanthropic largess in the history of upright walking hominids.
And let us not forget our very foundations on which our massive good fortunes have been built. The earth and her first people. Whether you believe that Chief Seattle’s famous ecology speech is a myth or fabricated invention makes little difference to Seattleites since we resonate with the truth behind it’s message. We value our environment, the animals, the oceans in our Puget Sound region, and the legacy we are leaving our children.
So maybe that cyberpunk chick’s message wasn’t farfetched back in 1993. Just for a moment… Listen.
Welcome to Heart of Matter.
~Jeris JC Miller @dakini_3
