The crowd is his element, as the air is that of birds and water of fishes. His passion and his profession are to become one flesh with the crowd. For the perfect flâneur, for the passionate spectator, it is an immense joy to set up house in the heart of the multitude, amid the ebb and flow of movement, in the midst of the fugitive and the infinite. To be away from home and yet to feel oneself everywhere at home; to see the world, to be at the centre of the world, and yet to remain hidden from the world—impartial natures which the tongue can but clumsily define. The spectator is a prince who everywhere rejoices in his incognito. The lover of life makes the whole world his family, just like the lover of the fair sex who builds up his family from all the beautiful women that he has ever found, or that are or are not—to be found; or the lover of pictures who lives in a magical society of dreams painted on canvas. Thus the lover of universal life enters into the crowd as though it were an immense reservoir of electrical energy. Or we might liken him to a mirror as vast as the crowd itself; or to a kaleidoscope gifted with consciousness, responding to each one of its movements and reproducing the multiplicity of life and the flickering grace of all the elements of life.

— Charles Baudelaire, "The Painter of Modern Life"

In this salon we will consider two 19th century concepts: The bon viveur, a person who lives well and enjoys the good things in life, and the flåneur, a stroller or saunterer, the idle urban explorer who takes pleasure in observing city activities. We will question the nature of these concepts, their relationship to social norms, architecture, their depiction in literature, and their insights into the joys and banalities of modern life. We will hear colorful anecdotes about historical people who lived in this way. Finally, we will consider what qualities might constitute a 21st century flåneur and bon viveur and if we should practice them today.

Suggested readings for this salon will be given in advance. The speaker will be announced at a later date.

Location upon RSVP

RSVP required to justinek@publicspheresalons.com

Image attribution: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gustave_Caillebotte_-_Paris_Street;_Rainy_Day_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Gustave Caillebotte [Public domain]

In this salon we will question cultural phenomena such as the meme that have arisen in the age of social media. Some of the questions we will discuss might include: Do memes have meaning? What do memes say about our digital culture? What does it mean to "go viral"? Is viral culture inherently more judgmental? Do trends come and go much faster in the internet era and if so what are the implications? 

This salon is by invitation only.

Image Attribution:

http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=10913

In this salon we will consider revolutions and movements past and present. We will discuss the possibilities and problems associated with revolutions and consider if revolutions are necessary for progress. We will question the nature of modern day online movements, such as #metoo, and consider their effectiveness in generating tangible results. Among the questions we will ask ourselves is can a hashtag really change the nature of our realities or are internet fashions dangerous in distracting us from a more profound engagement with important questions and a serious reshaping of society? We will consider the moral and ethical dilemmas associated with movements and consider how to achieve the truest manifestations of justice.

Location upon RSVP

RSVP required to justinek@publicspheresalons.com

*Please note: this salon may be filmed or photographed. By partaking in the salon you (and your guests if you bring them) are agreeing to the possibility of being filmed or photographed.

Image Attribution:

Eugène Delacroix [Public domain]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Le_28_Juillet._La_Libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple.jpg

In this salon we will explore the different facets of anger. We will question whether anger is positive and productive or largely negative and destructive and the subtleties between these two extremes. We will consider how anger has become politicized and the social power it may hold.

If the weather is nice this salon will take place in gardens over a picnic.

The location of the picnic will be confirmed upon RSVP.

Please note the change in time. The new time is closer to lunch so we can enjoy a daytime picnic together.

RSVP required to justinek@publicspheresalons.com

*Please note: this salon may be filmed or photographed. By partaking in the salon you (and your guests if you bring them) are agreeing to the possibility of being filmed or photographed.

Image Attribution: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Medusa_by_Carvaggio.jpg

Speaker to be announced. More information coming soon.

Image Attribution: Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres [Public domain]

In November the Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced that he had edited genes in embryos sparking international outcry. In this salon, which will take the format of a debate pro or con gene editing, we will question the ethics of these new developments and what they may mean for the future. Is preventing debilitating genetic diseases a valuable cause even if it means that the rich will be able to choose the genes of their children, making them more intelligent, talented and attractive? Will humanity become even more divided with not only extreme socio-economic but also genetic differences? These are some of the moral issues we will interrogate in this salon debate.

Location upon RSVP

RSVP required to justinek@publicspheresalons.com

*Please note: this salon may be filmed or photographed. By partaking in the salon you (and your guests if you bring them) are agreeing to the possibility of being filmed or photographed.

Image Attribution: Raphael [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

Around the time of Valentine’s day we will debate the nature and morality of monogamy and polyamory. Are people, like lobsters who mate for life, naturally monogamous? Is monogamy better for relationships and society? What benefits might there be to polyamory? How should the family unit be structured in the future? This salon will take the form of a debate.

Location upon RSVP

RSVP required to justinek@publicspheresalons.com

*Please note: this salon may be filmed or photographed. By partaking in the salon you (and your guests if you bring them) are agreeing to the possibility of being filmed or photographed.

Image Attribution: Giovanni Venanzi di Pesaro (1627-1705) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

“Along with the fig and apple, the pomegranate is associated with the underworld and the mysteries of the death, conception and rebirth of vegetation, personified by divine young men or maidens. The pomegranate’s seeds and blood coloured flesh were emblematic of this eternal renewal of the life of the world in which the human initiate might also participate. The pomegranate was sacred to Hades, who seized Persephone, the daughter of the grain goddess Demeter, into the land of the dead. When Demeter in grief withheld the grain from the earth, Zeus agreed to have Persephone returned to her mother. But Hades gave the maiden “a single sweet pomegranate seed” which meant that she must spend a third of the year with him as his spouse and the Queen of the Dead.” - From The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images

From an egg to lightening a pomegranate and an oyster, almost everything we experience in the sensory world has symbolic value. In this salon we will explore a sampling of the endless symbols that make up our lived experience and compare what they mean in different cultural contexts. Everything from an eye to an ostrich could represent something distinct to every culture and it is these differences and similarities in their artistic interpretations that will be considered. We will also question the symbols that govern our own realities and influence our psychological states interrogating what it means to give something a symbolic value.

Location upon RSVP

RSVP required to justinek@publicspheresalons.com

*Please note: this salon may be filmed or photographed. By partaking in the salon you (and your guests if you bring them) are agreeing to the possibility of being filmed or photographed.

In 1777 Mozart wrote a letter, a paragraph of which said the following: 

Wouldn't you like to visit Herr Gold-smith again?—but what for?—what?—nothing!—just to inquire, I guess, about the Spuni Cuni fait, nothing else, nothing else?—well, well, all right. Long live all those who, who—who—who—how does it go on?—I now wish you a good night, shit in your bed with all your might, sleep with peace on your mind, and try to kiss your own behind; I now go off to never-never land and sleep as much as I can stand. Tomorrow we'll speak freak sensubly with each other. Things I must you tell a lot of, believe it you hardly can, but hear tomorrow it already will you, be well in the meantime. Oh my ass burns like fire! what on earth is the meaning of this!—maybe muck wants to come out? yes, yes, muck, I know you, see you, taste you—and—what's this—is it possible? Ye Gods!—Oh ear of mine, are you deceiving me?—No, it's true—what a long and melancholic sound!—today is the write I fifth this letter. Yesterday I talked with the stern Frau Churfustin, and tomorrow, on the 6th, I will give a performance in her chambers, as the Furstin-Chur said to me herself. Now for something real sensuble!  Read the full letter here

How could such a genius, so sensitive to beauty be capable of writing something so crude? Does his vulgarity diminish from his art? Are we offended by his words or does his directness appeal to our modern ears? How has unrefined or vulgar taste influenced culture, fashion, music and the arts historically and how is it influencing our society now? In this salon we will question what makes something vulgar or grotesque. We will interrogate everything from the dangers associated with vulgarity to the potentially liberating dimensions of vulgar displays. In 2017 the Barbican had an exhibition called The Vulgar: Fashion Redefined. Prior to the salon you can view the images in this article for inspiration. 

Location upon RSVP

RSVP required to justinek@publicspheresalons.com

*Please note: this salon may be filmed or photographed. By partaking in the salon you (and your guests if you bring them) are agreeing to the possibility of being filmed or photographed.

Image Attribution: Caravaggio [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.” -Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka

Does personality and the soul remain constant, or are they perpetually in flux? When have you experienced a change within yourself, an epiphany or awakening, that fundamentally transformed who you were as a person? What brought about this change and how did it inform your perception of the world?  Is every day a small birth in which new possibilities of being are actualized? Do you believe in an infinite potentiality intrinsic to every person or are we defined by a limited number of traits and characteristics? 

In this salon we will consider metamorphosis and rebirth, especially as it relates to the nature of being. 

Location upon RSVP

RSVP required to justinek@publicspheresalons.com

*Please note: this salon may be filmed or photographed. By partaking in the salon you (and your guests if you bring them) are agreeing to the possibility of being filmed or photographed.

Image Attribution: [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.” -Bertrand Russell
 

What makes someone eccentric? Are people born eccentric or is it cultivated in their social environment? What is its relationship to intellectualism and the arts? Are true eccentrics aware of their own eccentricity? Does a society loose something important when it stifles idiosyncrasies or are they a threat to stability and social order? What can we learn from those who think and act radically differently from the majority? Do they reveal some greater truths about the world? In this salon we will consider the nature of eccentricity and examine the lives of those who have lived a vicariously eccentric existence, challenging our perspective on a fixed reality and seeing beyond what is to what could be. 

Joining us as speaker is Patric Dickinson, respected genealogist, Clarenceux King of Arms at the College of Arms and Secretary of the Order of the Garter.

Location upon RSVP

RSVP required to justinek@publicspheresalons.com

*Please note: this salon may be filmed or photographed. By partaking in the salon you (and your guests if you bring them) are agreeing to the possibility of being filmed or photographed.

Hieronymus Bosch [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” 
― Mark Twain

In this salon we will explore philosophical and psychological questions concerning the nature of death. Among them we will consider if we ever truly die, or if we merely enter a different state of existence, how our mortality impacts the way we live our lives, what it means to die a good death, especially in relation to Socratic philosophy, as well as the benefits or problems associated with positive and negative perceptions of death. We will also explore certain philosophical arguments such as Plato's Cyclical Argument (summarized below.) 

To begin the salon we will stage a mock funeral like they do in South Korea , writing our own eulogies and attending our own funerals as an experiment to unveil our underlying perceptions about life and death. 

Location upon RSVP

RSVP required to justinek@publicspheresalons.com

Plato's Cyclical Argument

"Socrates mentions an ancient theory holding that just as the souls of the dead in the underworld come from those living in this world, the living souls come back from those of the dead (70c-d).  He uses this theory as the inspiration for his first argument, which may be reconstructed as follows:

1. All things come to be from their opposite states: for example, something that comes to be “larger” must necessarily have been “smaller” before (70e-71a).

2. Between every pair of opposite states there are two opposite processes: for example, between the pair “smaller” and “larger” there are the processes “increase” and “decrease” (71b).

3. If the two opposite processes did not balance each other out, everything would eventually be in the same state: for example, if increase did not balance out decrease, everything would keep becoming smaller and smaller (72b).

4.  Since “being alive” and “being dead” are opposite states, and “dying” and “coming-to-life” are the two opposite processes between these states, coming-to-life must balance out dying (71c-e).

5. Therefore, everything that dies must come back to life again (72a)."

Excerpt from Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Image Attribution: Andrea Mantegna [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

On Eccentricity