🎣✨The Nexialist #0164

pombagira | hooked on coffee | the state of the culture, 2024 | dopamine culture | inner rewilding | lesgooooo | eternal sunshine

Mar 14, 2024

Welcome to yet another fresh batch of brainsparks, the nexialist

hey, you! i hope this message finds you well! i’m writing this while sitting at the airport in são paulo, and boarding is about to start. i did miscalculate the timing, so this turned out to be a quicky, nonetheless filled with brainsparks. see you on the other side. enjoy 🫀✨

—Rodrigo Turra

Buy Me a Coffee? ☕️

👄pombagira

rafaelpavarotti_

A post shared by @rafaelpavarotti_

more than a year ago, the internet stopped to see beyoncé’s photos for british vogue (tn#76). the iconic photographs were taken by the brazilian photographer rafael pavaroti. now, he is introducing to the world incredible images filled with afro-indigenous references that make brazilian culture so rich. i’m so proud and in love.

This photo is in honor of Pombagira, a deity that represents healing, power, love, emancipation, towards many countries of the African diaspora, she’s the one believed to take care of the matters of the heart and the souls of those who need help. It’s a take on an icon made to be revered. It’s the picture of a common ground in history, both societal and pagan. From Ishtar to Hecate, from Eva to Josephine Baker, this photo is ultimately a postcard of the universe where a woman’s body, emotions, power and desires are not judged, diminished and ridiculed. It’s a take on the turbans worn by the women of Candomble. The white paint is called Efum/uáji, and they are part of a ritual both Brazilian and African of cleansing, protection and awakening of their users. The fruit bowl is an offering. The hammock is a place of rest in many cultures, where this goddess also resides
Anok for British Vogue March 2024

brainsparks: amazonize beyoncé (tn#76)

☕️hooked on coffee

from hyper goats to the so-called 5th wave of coffee, a lot has happened. i love my good cup of coffee in the morning, so it was quite informative to learn about how this came to be.

Meanwhile, European empires began profiting off coffee-growing, establishing enslaved or exploited workforces in Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. As cultivation boomed in Latin America, fueled by slavery, growers displaced Indigenous populations and burned forests to establish ever-expanding plantations. By 1906, Brazil was exporting over 80% of the world’s coffee. That same year, the Milan World’s Fair showcased the first commercial espresso machine. And alongside the development of industrial roasting equipment came various coffee brands.

brainsparks: hooked on opium (tn#145)

🎣the state of the culture, 2024

art > entertainment > distraction > addiction

this post by

Ted Gioia

came out while i was away, and since i read it last week it has rented a triplex in my mind. when you look around, this is exactly what is happening. ted goes beyond the art vs entertainment “dichotomy”, to show the current business model of silicon valley, swallowing culture and art.

The fastest growing sector of the culture economy is distraction. Or call it scrolling or swiping or wasting time or whatever you want. But it’s not art or entertainment, just ceaseless activity.
The key is that each stimulus only lasts a few seconds, and must be repeated.
It’s a huge business, and will soon be larger than arts and entertainment combined. Everything is getting turned into TikTok—an aptly named platform for a business based on stimuli that must be repeated after only a few ticks of the clock.

brainsparks: hyperindustry of the artificial imaginary (tn#118), digital feudalism (tn#136), plantations, computers, industrial control (tn#125), netocracy vs. consumtariat (tn#18), smartphones and rosaries (tn#44), self-fulfilling cyberpunk (tn#40)

⚛️dopamine culture

ted also calls big tech “dopamine cartel” and this has stayed with me ever since.

Here’s where the science gets really ugly. The more addicts rely on these stimuli, the less pleasure they receive. At a certain point, this cycle creates anhedonia—the complete absence of enjoyment in an experience supposedly pursued for pleasure.
That seems like a paradox.
How can pursuing pleasure lead to less pleasure? But that’s how our brains are wired (perhaps as a protective mechanism). At a certain point, addicts still pursue the stimulus, but more to avoid the pain of dopamine deprivation.

after his post went viral, ted brought a propositive post “13 observations on ritual,” which is also filled with insights, helping us snap out of it —i hope. each item has more to read about it on his post, so make sure you go read. the first one i’ll repeat as a mantra.

The smartphone cannot be a ritualistic object.
Genuine ritual is always embedded in a time and place, and cannot be uploaded or downloaded.
Memes are rituals drained of transcendence.
The largest companies today are obsessed with generating content in a completely de-ritualized context.
Internet businesses feel this void, and try to fill it with pseudo-rituals.
In an overly digitized world, people embrace with intensity the few remaining ritualistic activities available to them.
Ritual is a source of stability, especially in our moments of greatest vulnerability
If you created a community but eliminated all rituals of politeness and sociability, it would look like Twitter.
Economic interests fear genuine ritual, because it is not about consumption.
When deprived of rituals, people are driven to create their own.
Artistic performances originated as rituals
Even science originates as ritual.
When technology truly empowers life and promotes human flourishing, the results are ritualistic.

brainsparks: ritual x routine (tn#76), crypto as ritual and religion (tn#58)

🏔️inner rewilding

around the same week i was offline,

Thomas Klaffke

published this and the synchronicity is real. in 12 steps to inner rewilding, he points out “How to break out of the industrialized and commodified mind (and world).” it is quite radical (back to the roots) and that’s exactly why i loved it.

Basically, I believe it’s not only nature (or non-human ecosystems) that is losing its diversity and wildness at alarming rates; it’s humans, too! Our inner diversity is depleting and increasingly being replaced by an inner technosphere and an inner commodification.
To counteract this, we must actively do some inner rewilding! And perhaps, by rewilding ourselves, we’re much better prepared to rewild the Earth.

brainsparks: inner development goals (tn#67)

🦈lesgooooo

one of our favorite dutch pop divas releases this recently and i’m love with the cover. thank you, juan, for the reminder. naar de haaien en weer terug, means, to the sharks and back again. apparently to the sharks means “ruined.”

🌞eternal sunshine

i have to say i’m quite enjoying ariana’s new album, eternal sunshine, and the reference it’s making to the movie. i have to say my eyes teard up.

see you next week, eternal sunshines 🌞✨

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