This essay honors Pauline Oliveros by blending analysis, intuition, and multiple voices in a metalogue that mirrors her improvisational and participatory approach. Drawing on Oliveros' performances, recordings, writings, and the authors' own experiences, the text argues that her work achieves and teaches subjective, experiential, and embodied modes of knowing and healing. The format encourages readers to actively participate in producing meaning, paralleling the role of audiences in Oliveros' compositions. The essay emphasizes that meaning emerges through connection and continuity, inviting readers to listen and sound along.
The essay proposes the concept of deus ex poiesis, drawing on the Greek theatrical device of deus ex machina and Heidegger's notion of poiesis as a liberating force from technological enframing, as a model for addressing the challenges of the anthropocene. It discusses two aesthetic approaches: digital artworks engaged in (h)activism through tactical media, and artworks that explore ways of knowing outside rational scientific models, including hybrid perception and expanded states of consciousness. Artists considered include Electronic Disturbance Theater, rTMark, Julian Oliver and Danja Vasiliev, Roy Ascott, Pauline Oliveros, and Kim Jeong-Han.