web02.fireside.fm Thu, 30 Apr 2026 23:37:20 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Weird Studies - Episodes Tagged with “Individuation” https://www.weirdstudies.com/tags/individuation Wed, 05 Dec 2018 10:45:00 -0500 Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel host a series of conversations on art and philosophy, dwelling on ideas that are hard to think and art that opens up rifts in what we are pleased to call "reality." en-us episodic Art and philosophy at the limits of the thinkable Phil Ford and J. F. Martel Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel host a series of conversations on art and philosophy, dwelling on ideas that are hard to think and art that opens up rifts in what we are pleased to call "reality." yes weird, art, philosophy Phil Ford and J. F. Martel admin@weirdstudies.com Episode 35: Whirl Without End: On M.C. Richards' 'Centering' https://www.weirdstudies.com/35 86ded3f3-714b-4251-8cbd-1f6ea2b99165 Wed, 05 Dec 2018 10:45:00 -0500 Phil Ford and J. F. Martel 35 Whirl Without End: On M.C. Richards' 'Centering' full Phil Ford and J. F. Martel Phil and JF discuss the first chapter of "Centering," M.C. Richard's penetrating essay on the artistic process. 1:01:11 yes The first step in any pottery project is to center the clay on the potter's wheel. In her landmark essay Centering: In Pottery, Poetry and the Person (1964), the American poet M. C. Richards turns this simple action into a metaphor for all creative acts, including the act of living your life. The result is a penetrating and poetic reflection on the artistic process that values change, unknowing, and radical becoming, making Richards' text a guide to creativity that leaves other examples of that evergreen genre in the dust. Phil and JF get their hands dirty trying to understand what centering is, and what it entails for a life of creation and becoming. The discussion brings in a number of other thinkers and artists including Friedrich Nietzsche, Norman O. Brown, Carl Jung, Antonin Artaud, and Flannery O'Connor. Header image: NASA REFERENCES M. C. Richards, Centering: In Pottery, Poetry, and the Person (https://www.amazon.com/Centering-Pottery-Poetry-Caroline-Richards/dp/0819562009) J. S. Bach, [The Well-Tempered Clavier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheWell-TemperedClavier) American pianist David Tudor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Tudor) C. G. Jung, [Memories, Dreams, Reflections](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memories,Dreams,Reflections) Weird Studies, Episode 33: "The Fine Art of Changing the Subject" (https://www.weirdstudies.com/33) Gilles Deleuze, [Nietzsche and Philosophy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NietzscheandPhilosophy) Antonin Artaud, The Theater and its Double (https://www.amazon.com/Theater-Its-Double-Antonin-Artaud/dp/0802150306) (translated by M. C. Richards) Rudolf Steiner, [Alchemy: The Evolution of the Mysteries](https://books.google.ca/books/about/Alchemy.html?id=mgXMBzISqc4C&rediresc=y)_ Norman O. Brown (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_O._Brown), author of Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytic Meaning of History G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/130/pg130-images.html) Flannery O'Connor, "Novelist and Believer (https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=9114)" mc richards, centering, artistic process, creativity The first step in any pottery project is to center the clay on the potter's wheel. In her landmark essay Centering: In Pottery, Poetry and the Person (1964), the American poet M. C. Richards turns this simple action into a metaphor for all creative acts, including the act of living your life. The result is a penetrating and poetic reflection on the artistic process that values change, unknowing, and radical becoming, making Richards' text a guide to creativity that leaves other examples of that evergreen genre in the dust. Phil and JF get their hands dirty trying to understand what centering is, and what it entails for a life of creation and becoming. The discussion brings in a number of other thinkers and artists including Friedrich Nietzsche, Norman O. Brown, Carl Jung, Antonin Artaud, and Flannery O'Connor.

Header image: NASA

REFERENCES

M. C. Richards, Centering: In Pottery, Poetry, and the Person
J. S. Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier
American pianist David Tudor
C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Weird Studies, Episode 33: "The Fine Art of Changing the Subject"
Gilles Deleuze, Nietzsche and Philosophy
Antonin Artaud, The Theater and its Double (translated by M. C. Richards)
Rudolf Steiner, Alchemy: The Evolution of the Mysteries
Norman O. Brown, author of Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytic Meaning of History
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Flannery O'Connor, "Novelist and Believer"

]]> The first step in any pottery project is to center the clay on the potter's wheel. In her landmark essay Centering: In Pottery, Poetry and the Person (1964), the American poet M. C. Richards turns this simple action into a metaphor for all creative acts, including the act of living your life. The result is a penetrating and poetic reflection on the artistic process that values change, unknowing, and radical becoming, making Richards' text a guide to creativity that leaves other examples of that evergreen genre in the dust. Phil and JF get their hands dirty trying to understand what centering is, and what it entails for a life of creation and becoming. The discussion brings in a number of other thinkers and artists including Friedrich Nietzsche, Norman O. Brown, Carl Jung, Antonin Artaud, and Flannery O'Connor.

Header image: NASA

REFERENCES

M. C. Richards, Centering: In Pottery, Poetry, and the Person
J. S. Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier
American pianist David Tudor
C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Weird Studies, Episode 33: "The Fine Art of Changing the Subject"
Gilles Deleuze, Nietzsche and Philosophy
Antonin Artaud, The Theater and its Double (translated by M. C. Richards)
Rudolf Steiner, Alchemy: The Evolution of the Mysteries
Norman O. Brown, author of Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytic Meaning of History
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Flannery O'Connor, "Novelist and Believer"

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