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Experiencing

Ophelia’s Secret: Agency and Conceptual Cohesion in Art

August 7, 2023

Experiencing

art, experiencing, literature, music, Shakespeare, writing

The title seems very opaque and ambiguous, I’m sure (welcome to my world). “Ophelia’s secret? What secret? Ophelia who?” I hear you ask. “And what on earth do you mean by ‘agency and conceptual cohesion’?”

First things first: With apologies to non-fictional Ophelias (and any secret they might have) out there, there is only one Ophelia: Shakespeare’s Ophelia.

Ophelia is a character in William Shakespeare’s drama Hamlet (1599-1601). She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and potential wife of Prince Hamlet, who, due to Hamlet’s actions, ends up in a state of madness that ultimately leads to her drowning.

Wikipedia

So, what is Ophelia’s secret, and what does it have to do with agency and cohesion in art? To explore thisLike hell! Rather, I first began composing the album and then, along the way, I discovered the lessons., I composed a music album titled Ophelia’s Secret.

Ophelia's Secret album art
Album cover of Ophelia’s Secret, designed with the help of Bing Image Creator
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Dreaming of Japan (and Other Imaginary Lands)

July 10, 2023

Experiencing

dream, experiencing, Japan, nostalgia

Japan is obviously not imaginary; it’s a real country, it exists – if you’re looking for countries that don’t exist, Finland is the one you’re looking for 😛. But my Japan is imaginary. I’m dreaming of a Japan that simply is there only in my imagination, being an entirely subjective, partial, and factually extremely flawed version of the realWe’ll come back to this later; it’s intriguing. Japan.

My Japan is no more (or less?) real than the afternoons of my childhood, smelling Greek coffee, and overall constructing a version of a reality that is, shall we use the term, questionable.

Whenever I’m reading about Japan, seeing photos or videos from there – including its huge cat culture, one must admit – I immediately feel calm. I feel a sense of longing for something that, again, isn’t there. More still, it never has; it’s not like I used to live in Japan and now I miss it.

So what does dreaming of Japan – and other imaginary lands – reveals to us about the way our mind wanders?

dreaming Japan
I tried to find the most stereotypical Japanese image you can think of, and this qualifies. I’m dreaming of a Japan that isn’t real – or, to put it this way, is a drop of reality in an ocean of factual details I deliberately ignore
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Two Weeks Visiting Lemnos (or, Taking a Shot at a Travelogue)

June 19, 2023

Experiencing

experiencing, Greece, writing

If you are reading these lines around the time this post went live, I’m enjoying the Greek summer sun having iced coffee on the beach. I’m visiting Lemnos, a Greek island in the north Aegean Sea, and I had a funny idea: How about if I wrote a travelogue – a form I’ve never written?

I’ll confess it right away: The reason I’ve never written a travelogue (as a blog post, let alone anything longer) is because I’m not interested in them. I don’t care about travelogues as a reader, either. But hey, it’s important to get out of your comfort zone every now and then, so I’ll give it a shot.

What’s in it for you?

Plenty of photos from a genuinely beautiful place, as well as intriguing details you almost certainly don’t know.

visiting Lemnos
The Old Man Cat and the Sea, Lemnos-style. The cats around the port know the exact time fishing trawlers return, and patiently await their arrival
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