The Five Rings: Void
ABOAGORA Void was the culmination of the five-year thematic plan “The Five Rings” (2019–2023).
Void is the beginning and the end, but where do our voids linger today? Will our external and internal voids engorge us before we learn to make peace with them? ABOAGORA 2023 explored these questions and more in the final event of the thematic plan The Five Rings.
Void
Void can be understood as nothingness – the total lack of perceivable elements. Void is complete otherness, incomprehensible and almost unreachable; it can be perceived by its effects rather than by experiencing it first-hand. This exhaustive otherness has engaged the human mind throughout history. Humans have tried to reach even a brief moment of inner nothingness through meditation, yoga, alcohol, drugs, or sex, but our fascination with the void has also inspired new technologies and taken us far into outer space.
After the previous three-year thematic cycle The Threads of Fate, in 2019 Aboagora launched a new five-year thematic plan for 2019–2023 under the title The Five Rings.
The title refers to the book The Book of Five Rings, written in 1645, by Miyamoto Musashi (宮本 武蔵, c. 1584–June 13, 1645). He was a Japanese swordsman, philosopher, writer and rōnin – a samurai without a master. Musashi became renowned through stories of his masterful double-bladed swordsmanship and undefeated record in his 61 duels. Many consider him the greatest swordsman that ever lived. Near the end of his life, Musashi retreated to live as a hermit in a cave, to meditate and write a manual of kenjutsu, Japanese swordmanship, and martial arts. This practical book extends towards a philosophy of life, aiming at simplicity and no-nonsense. Throughout the years, it has also been read by people rethinking ways to lead or do business. The Book of Five Rings (五輪書, Go Rin no Sho) is divided into five books, each examining a different element of battle, just as there are different physical elements in life in Eastern religions. The five Aboagora symposia in 2019-2023 delved into these elements: earth, water, fire, wind and void.
Agora lectures from Aboagora 2023 are available on ABOAGORA’s YouTube channel:
Karen Barad
Professor of Feminist Studies, Philosophy, and History of Consciousness, University of California at Santa Cruz
On Touching The Stranger Within – The Alterity That Therefore I Am
Hans Ruin
Professor of philosophy, Södertörn University, Stockholm
The Way of the Unexpected – The Poetics of Being and Non-Being in Early Greek Philosophy
Dolly Jørgensen
Professor of History, University of Stavanger (UiS), Norway
Extinction Voids: Visualizing the Relational Holes Created by Species Loss