Searching for Stillness 

Spaces of Unknowing unfolds as a cultural storytelling initiative about a search for stillness. The project, part of a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award, examines the transformative impact of digital networks on traditional communities, tracing the subtle yet profound ways these technological infrastructures reshape the fabric of social exchange. As ancestral modes of connection encounter the pervasive reach of digital interconnectivity, native communities find themselves navigating an increasingly precarious terrain—where cultural integrity and economic vulnerability are in delicate balance, often tipping toward destabilization under the pressures of global modernity.

At its core, Spaces of Unknowing invites a collective inquiry, convening creative scholars, cultural practitioners, and community members to engage in a dialogue that transcends the merely academic. It seeks to illuminate the paradoxes inherent in digital networks: their ability to simultaneously erode and extend communal bonds, amplifying and silencing local narratives. By juxtaposing the resilience of traditional practices with the encroachment of contemporary digital economies, the project seeks to render visible the subtle, unseen forces shaping these transitions.

Inspired by the reflective ethos of works like Claude Lévi-Strauss’ Tristes Tropiques, this endeavor interrogates the liminal spaces where old worlds and new collide, resisting simplistic binaries in favor of nuanced understandings. Through storytelling and critical reflection, Spaces of Unknowing aspires to preserve the ephemeral, yet vital, moments of cultural exchange, offering a repository of insights into the lived experiences of communities standing at the threshold of profound change. In these encounters, the project finds not only stories of loss but also pathways for resilience and renewal, reimagining what it means to exist within an interconnected world.

Project Inspiration and the Triste Tropiques Journey

Spaces of Unknowing evokes echoes of Claude Lévi-Strauss’ Tristes Tropiques, both in its anthropological approach and poetic reflection on cultural displacement. Like Lévi-Strauss’ journey through the landscapes of Brazil, where he observed the dissolution of indigenous traditions in the face of colonial and economic intrusion, Spaces of Unknowing probes the digital transformations that disrupt the lifeways of traditional communities. The digital networks that thread through the project parallel Lévi-Strauss’ observations of external forces eroding native practices. However, where Lévi-Strauss mourned a disappearing world, Spaces of Unknowing seeks to harness the intersection of creative scholarship and native voices, uncovering new forms of resistance and adaptation in a rapidly globalizing age. The project becomes a modern reflection on Lévi-Strauss’ melancholy inquiry into the fragility of cultures, offering hope through the potential for renewed agency and preservation in the face of digital encroachment.

Quiet, Stillness, and Silence

These phenomena are often used interchangeably to describe a state of low or absent sound, movement or activity. However, there are important distinctions between the three concepts. Quiet refers to the absence of loud or disruptive sounds but does not necessarily imply an absence of movement or activity. Silence, on the other hand, refers to the complete absence of sound, including ambient or background noise. Silence can be experienced externally, such as in a quiet room, or internally, as a state of mental or emotional quietness. Stillness refers to a state of physical or mental calmness where movement and activity are minimized or absent. Stillness can be experienced internally, such as in meditation, or externally, as in the absence of wind or movement in the environment. While these concepts are related, understanding the nuances between them can help individuals better identify and achieve the states they seek. The project is ultimately a digital experience that maps the difference between stillness, quiet, and silence. 

Storytelling Registers 

Within small traditional societies are complex sonic landscapes, which are the audible environments shaped by cultural, social, political, and economic factors. In the context of post-colonialism, these landscapes can reveal elaborate power dynamics and ongoing processes of resistance and adaptation to new lifestyles. Exploring cultural storytelling can reveal how colonial powers sought to control and shape local cultures by suppressing specific practices while promoting others. Studying contemporary sonic landscapes in traditional contexts can reveal how local communities are adapting and subverting dominant cultural forms in their ways. This project offers a rich and complex understanding of the ongoing processes of cultural exchange, power, and resistance in a globalized world.