BOOST & Scenemaking
This note is just a last nudge to sign up to BOOST Your Practice.
If you’ve been thinking about it but have not gotten to it yet. Now is the time to take the leap!
We have a great crew coming together.
Our deadline is this Wednesday August 28.
I read the beginning of this piece by Peter Limberg, one of my favorite people on substack, and I think it’s perfect for us. It is a deeper way to look at what we are doing with BOOST. And all the other special ways in which we choose to come together. Forgive the fancy language!
Sensemaking—understanding the world to navigate within it—was a common phrase in the niche online scenes I was associated with. I appreciate the phrase because, to make sense of the world, you must rely on all your senses to discern, not merely your mind or the minds of others.
As some foresaw, sensemakers will replace influencers as trust in legacy media rapidly wanes, ambient anxiety builds amid social media’s relentless memetic noise, and online life’s parasocial weirdness becomes increasingly apparent. There’s a growing desire to understand and interpret the world in new ways, alongside new people. From the sensemakers I followed, the message was clear: step away from the screen and create a scene.
There’s only so much sensemaking you can do online before realizing it leads to scenemaking. Sensemaking can only take us so far in understanding the world; eventually, we must transition to scenemaking to begin shaping it. We shape it through culture. Having accurate models of reality and refined political ideologies is great, but culture ultimately yields to good art.
Often seen as communities focused around a specific art form, scenes play a crucial role in shaping broader culture—think of the Beats or the Punks.
Alternatively, scenes can be understood through what Brian Eno calls “scenius,” a concept that Kevin Kelly describes as communal genius.
“Individuals immersed in a productive scenius will blossom and produce their best work. When buoyed by scenius, you act like genius. Your like-minded peers, and the entire environment inspire you.”
- Kevin Kelly, “Scenius, or Communal Genius”
We can think of BOOST Your Practice as foundational to our organic, emergent, and decentralized process of scenemaking. We are nurturing a culture. A culture that means to serve as an antidote to dominant culture. An antidote to a culture of extraction, generalized anxiety, a crisis of meaning and a crisis of connection.
We are aiming for a culture that places our full selves in service of the creative life force of the universe. That brings us together in play and mutual care.
The practices of BOOST are like our operating system, they are the foundational, essential, to unlock and unleash the power of our creative life force with the magic of our togetherness.
See you September 6!
