March

A propósito das narrativas exageradas e erróneas da grandiosidade do ser humano, António Damásio, em Sentir e Saber (2020), escreve: 

"É grandiosa no que diz respeito aos seres humanos; menospreza injustificadamente os seres não-humanos; e não reconhece a interdependência e a capacidade de cooperação das criaturas vivas, desde as que existem ao nível macroscópico até aos seres humanos. Em última análise, não reconhece a presença de dispositivos e mecanismos poderosos, presentes na natureza desde o início da vida." 

Photo of tapestry detail «undigitise» by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). March 2025.

Equinox

A new cycle begins. “(…) it’s about as full circle as it gets. (…) One day at a time, and suddenly you realize life is brighter, life is lighter. You made it through the storm” (Dunbar, 2024), except, other entities bully your neighbors, make them suffer, threaten them, persecute them, injure them, kill them and destroy everything. And in the end, they hope to live happily and securely ever after? Is this the implosion of humanity, cause surely it is not a vision for a better world...

Lucy Claire Dunbar (2024). The Book of Gifts. Fotografia de Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC), março de 2025.

PS - Banda sonora pode ser a que li no que Flora Graham escreveu no Nature Briefing de 11 de fevereiro de 2025, sobre o músico Cosmo Sheldrake (com Nature) que ajudou investigadores a registar «the wonderful, wet and complex” sounds of the fungi and other organisms in the soil, in the words of evolutionary biologist and co-author Toby Kiers»: soil.

Gaze

in english: "a steady and intentional look at something or someone, often for a long time, typically indicating interest, admiration, or contemplation. It can also imply a psychological relationship of power between the observer and the observed". by DuckDuckGo 

in portuguese "a light, thin and transparent cotton or silk fabric, very porous, sterile (or sterilizable), of varying elasticity, thickness, shape, reticulation and size, depending on the use for which it is intended. It is usually used in dressings and surgical interventions, and may be impregnated with medications such as antiseptics." by Wikipedia

Photo of tapestry (80 x 80, belonging to «404 Humanity not found» serie) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). January 19, 2025.

January

“(…) my story bleeds through from my cover into the real world, a message from a parallel universe revealed through graphic design and visual creativity. My cover is the shadow on Plato’s cave wall, a hint of the truth and imagination hidden within. When you look at me, I am designed to make you want to open the lid and let my stories escape through your gaze, diving through your eyes into your mind, where they can live and breed anew. I’m only a book. Hold me.” Robert Klanten, Mathias Hubnel and Andrew Losowsky (2013). Fully Booked. Photo of tapestry on the making (belonging to «404 Humanity not found» serie), by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). January, 2025.

January

“The courage not to be vanquished by anxiety, not to hurt others out of frustration, not to grow to furious with the world for the perceived injuries it heedlessly inflicts, not to go crazy and somehow to manage to persevere in a more or less adequate way through the difficulties (…), this is true courage, this is a heroism in a class all of its own.” Alain de Botton (2017). The Course of Love. Fotografia de Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC), janeiro de 2025.

Humanity 404

 

"We who are not there, witnessing from afar, in what ways are we mutilating ourselves when we dissociate to cope?" Isabella Hammad (2024). Recognising the Stranger. Photo of tapestry on the making by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). January, 2025.

January

 

"Vertigo is from the bottom up. Vertigo has always been defined as a disturbance felt in front of an abyss or at a high point in relation to the space between us and the ground. Reversing the direction of this axis by designating the vertigo that can be felt when looking upwards is equivalent to shifting the focus of this disturbance from the drop, the earth, and the materiality to the rise, the sky, and spirituality."

Placa colocada junto das fotografias da exposição do artista Fernando Lemos, no Espaço Engawa, do Centro de Arte Moderna da Gulbenkian. Fotografia de Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC), 30 de dezembro de 2024.

unplug the infinite

We need to "reinvent movement, the vector of our actions. We need to not forge ahead into the infinite, but learn to step back, to unplug, in the face of the finite. That's another way of liberating yourself. A form of feeling your way, and, curiously, of becoming capable again of reacting." Latour (2023). After Lockdown: metamorphosis. 

Photo of tapestry (80 x 74 cm) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) October, 2024.

The real thing

"there’s a particular kind of disappointment when you begin to admire a bouquet or a blossom at a distance and find out closer up that it’s fake. The disappointment arises in part from having been deceived, but also from encountering an object that is static, that will never die because it never lived, that didn’t form itself out of the earth, and that as a texture coarser, dryer, less inviting to the touch than a mortal flower.” (Solnit, 2020, Orwell’s roses). That's what I think about chatGPT, artificial things, and fakes. When everything is automated, human interaction is precious. More than ever, the natural, the handmade, the imperfect, becomes the real luxury. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). November, 2024.

November

"To remain aloof from the group while honouring one's organic ties to it; to exist between loneliness and alignment, remaining always a bit of a stranger; to resist the resolution of the narrative, the closing of the circle; to keep looking, to not feel too at home." Isabella Hammad (2024). Recognising the Stranger. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). November, 2024.

November

"It's the spectator who judges and who decides, to the point where every relationship between forest, sun, lake, animal and sky goes via him and is establish for his sole good. It scarcely matters, moreover, whether what’s been stuck in front of him is an old master, an industrial development project, a battle plan, a view of the sky, a theatre scene or the map of a realm some prince hopes to control.” Bruno Latour (2023). After Lockdown: metamorphosis.

Photo of mini tapestry (15 x 9 cm) with dry flowers, plant leafs and fibers. by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) October 8, 2024.

October

“I experienced awe and wonder at this world we live in. How incredible existence is. The probability of our being here, of having survived as a species in this tiny spec of a planet. I was gripped with a desire to keep going – to experience more of this thing we call existence. It dawned on me how precious life is (Bradley, 2023). But “how do we make Earth a credible base if the land has already been appropriated and reterritorialized by those who are carving it among themselves into so many juxtaposed nations with no common ideal other than the war of each against all?” (Latour, 2023).

Nick Bradley (2023), Four Seasons in Japan. Bruno Latour (2023), After Lockdown: metamorphosis. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). October, 2024.

October

"She paused, and ran some sentences through her head, almost hearing herself (...). But she only let the words echo through her head, bouncing around inside her body, some softly vibrating on the tip of her tongue. They remained unsaid." Nick Bradley (2023). Four Seasons in Japan.  Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). October, 2024.

September

"Because it is always tempting to over emphasize autonomy and independence, these helpless creatures are here to remind us that no one is, in the end, 'self-made'; we are all heavily in someone's debt. We realize that life depends - quite literally - on the capacity for love. (...) All this she will later forget and they will be unable or unwilling to convey to her." Alain de Botton (2017). The Course of Love. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). September 6, 2024.

July

"how can humans serve as sources of healing and regeneration for every living system they affect?" Regenerative Development and Design, a research study by Leen Gorissen, Karla Bonaldi, Piet Haerens and Lénia Rato. 

A simple question that can help us align our paths to solve the growing crises we are facing. Instead of prescribing a one-way route, the approach invites human actions fostering healing and regeneration as guiding rules/principles. Although holistic, it allows space for individual reflection of actions a person wants to follow (our own paths), but at the same time integrating the living systems we are part of, like communities, countries, climate, nature, organizations or religions. 

Going back to the uniqueness of the study, “not about sustaining what is or restoring what was” but “about creating thriving living systems—social-ecological systems such as places, organizations, communities, and ecosystems—that have the capacity to evolve toward increasing states of health, vitality and abundance over time”. The approach “calls for a new role for humans: to become agents of new vitality and evolutionary capability and to live in conscious alignment with living systems principles of wholeness, nestedness, relationship, and reciprocity, harmonizing human development with the way life works.” 

Engaged in thinking about “what does it take to actively create the wisdom, willpower, and capability to become co-creators of a brighter future, rather than being victims of the mistakes of our past”, while staying within the planetary boundary limits. 

While widening my horizons, I am healing and regenerating by acting on reducing consumption and litter, creating and taking care of a forest in a balcony city apartment (incorporating organic waste as compost and infrastructure), weaving plants into sensorial tapestries, reading and cultivating myself about other beautiful paths, investing in beings that cooperate and flourish together, and actively divesting in things/beings aligned with destruction, greed and revenge.

Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). Lisbon, May 3, 2024.

June

"There is a connection between the brain and the hand that supports an embodied cognition, a knowing. Handicrafts in particular, which require dexterity and patience and a respect for the material, help make connections for us." Susan Magsamen & Ivy Ross (2023). Your Brain on Art: how the arts transform us.

Photo of mini tapestry (10 x 15 cm) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) June 30, 2024.