Gatherings and trajectories

Drop-in writing/studio trajectories with contributors

This summer, the apophatic.art community comes together through a series of open virtual sessions — drop-in writing and studio time to sit with what apophatic thinking means in and through your work. Consider living with this question: what is apophasis? We opened on July 8 and 9 with a shared kick-off, joined by over 45 people, followed by weekly smaller co-working virtual sessions. Two options:

• Apophatic Commons — Train Car

  (quiet solo work, alongside others)
  Sundays, 11am–12pm ET · 5–6pm CET · 4–5pm UK
  July 19 & 26 · August 2, 9, 16, 23

• Coffee House

  (community drop-in, more conversation)
  Wednesdays, 12–1pm ET · 6–7pm CET · 5–6pm UK
  July 22 & 29 · August 5, 12, 19, 26

No need to RSVP, no need to stay the whole hour. Come as you are; leave when you need to. Email us to receive the links.

Vision Lab Dream Incubation Studio, Four Wednesdays, July 22 – August 12 · 1:00–3:00 pm ET

In the ancient world, healing was sought not from a physician alone, but at an Asclepeion — a temple where, after purification and prayer, seekers slept in the abaton to await a dream. The dream was never merely private; it was a doorway, enacted through poetry, rite, and unknowing.

Dream Incubation Studio repurposes that sacred architecture as a sustained apophatic practice. Over four weeks, a small cohort of artists, writers, scholars, and contemplatives builds a shared abaton — engaging Attar's Conference of the Birds, Teresa of Ávila's Interior Castle, and other traditions of negative theology, mysticial writing, and apophatic creative practice, not as texts or multimedia to master, but as provocations for making from unknowing. Each participant develops an original project, alone or in collaboration, tracing an arc drawn from classical maps of transformation — Attar's seven valleys, Teresa's seven mansions — toward their own path of ascent, bewilderment, or stripping away.

Work may extend toward a pop-up installation with apophatic.art at Drew University, inclusion in Vision Lab's Harvard Belonging Conference presentation, or consideration for a special issue of the Journal of Contemplative Studies on contemplation and the senses — all optional and contingent on the shape and readiness of each project.

Limited to fifteen participants, to protect the depth each project deserves.

To Apply: Send a short paragraph to kytheheller@visionlabcollective.com — your background, the project or question you'd like to incubate, and optionally, a link to representative work. She will email you a registration link when your application is accepted. Due Monday, July 21.