entheogen
featured projects
©2024 entheogen designabout
en·the·o·gen
(en-ˈthē-ə-jən)verb (from ancient Greek)
1. becoming the divine within
philosophy
we explore the material expressions of ideal forms, interrogating the interplay between material phenomena and embodied human perception. intentional design riffing off of this interplay yields complex, seductive, and entangling aesthetic experiences. art trains our visual perception: it teaches us how to see; dually, art is a mirror, helping us to see our selves. we hope that our creations shift experiencers’ senses of self in ways that expand consciousness, increase openness, and create inflection points for radical reimagining of future possible selves - this self-opening is entheogen, becoming the divine within.
our creations defy easy categorization, existing in some liminal place between transcendence and immanence. baffling experiences such as these lead viewers to postpone or suspend their socialized predilection towards categorizing experience. yet even after a moment of hesitation, mysterious objects are experienced ‘as-mysterious,’ a category all of its own. however brief, this indefinite moment opens the possibility for imagination, a form of attentiveness that asks of experience, ‘what if?,’ rather than, ‘what is?’
in this moment between perception and understanding, a fracture occurs - between the present reality of categorizable experience and future realities, each future itself a spiderweb crack of plural branching futures. though one’s experience becomes more definite through prolonged inspection, it is this prolonged inspection itself - a deeper, more intentional way of attending to one’s experience - that the work encourages. this way of seeing the world - closer to active ‘reading’ than to passive ‘watching’ - is powerful: as abundant distraction drains our attentiveness to the world, we come to care less about any one moment, any given person, place, or thing. this apathy hastens the erosion of democracy, the widening of inequalities, and environmental destruction.
cairns, or wayfinding stones, are stacks of flat rocks showing the way forwards on rugged or not-often-traversed trails. hikers will often stack cairns as clues for less experienced hikers, pointing the way towards shortcuts and away from pitfalls on the way up the side of a mountain. stacking cairns is an act of generosity that is at the essence of humanity: the desire to make things easier for those who come after you, so they do not repeat your own mistakes. entheogen’s artworks are cairns along this pathway of becoming the divine within; a trail of breadcrumbs leading up the often treacherous craggy peaks and towards the divine.
education as public service
most important learning happens outside the classroom, while the most important lessons in the classroom often have nothing to do with coursework, but rather with building empathy, fostering trust, and creating safe spaces to have difficult conversations. answering questions is easy - the challenge is asking the right questions to begin with. the work, as a tool for opening-up, rather than as a repository of meaning, does not offer any answers - for any answer is only a partial truth in our ever-changing reality - rather, the work asks of us a never-ending series of questions that lead only in directions, not towards destinations. though art critique has traditionally taken up the task of uncovering meaning ‘hidden within’ the work of art, we find this approach reductive and self-serving: often, critique tells us more about the perspective of the one critiquing than anything ‘inherent’ about or within the work itself. entheogen’s work is deliberately devoid of meaning, insisting that we arc back inwards upon ourselves, collapsing outwards in this search for meaning not in the gallery space but “out there,” in the context of our own lives.
if knowledge is power (foucault), education is liberation (hooks)
justice and mercy
viktor frankl’s account of the holocaust reveals that though finding meaning is fundamental to self-actualization and essential in surviving hardship, the meaning of life cannot be found through internal contemplation – rather, only through external action: in fulfilling the responsibilities entailed by our relationships with others. life makes demands of us; to fulfill these demands with just actions is to uncover the meaning of life. the meaning of life cannot be generalized – life makes different demands of each of us: meaning takes the form of specific and difficult situations uniquely presented to every individual – the path one takes, and the meaning found therein, cannot be compared with any others’.
our lives are intersecting stories: yet these stories are not about you or me: they are about us - that greater self that is the amalgamation of all our selves. for though we like to think of ourselves as ‘individuals,’ we are in reality particularized manifestations of broader social trends – each of us always a singularity, a multiplicity, an inevitability, a trajectory: a small fragment of the oceanic whole.
are each of us, for the duration of our brief existences, the universe experiencing itself for the first time all over again, coming to know and love and express itself in ways it never has before?
sustainability
we leverage additive manufacturing processes, ethically sourced biomaterials, and salvaged materials to minimize waste and decrease our carbon footprint. for 3d printing projects we use polymaker’s polylite pla, which is derived from agricultural byproducts and is biodegradable in industrial composing facilities. we reforesting the land on which our studio is located, having planted over 20 native trees (serviceberry, dogwood, red oak, and red maple) this spring. we believe that healthy societies are key to healthy ecologies: participation in local, circular economies is one of the best ways to break dependence on extractive and exploitative systems. we work closely with local artists, craftspeople, and galleries to build place-based community.
we design intentionally, seeking to minimize waste: we design our 3D prints with no or minimal overhangs to reduce the use of support material, and when laser cutting we minimize off-cuts by efficiently nesting our parts and recycling the scrap material. we design to maximize the dis-assembly and recyclability of the materials that we work with - nearly all of our sculptural creations use cold-joinery (nuts and bolts) that can be undone so the sculpture can be reduced into its constituent materials and recycled at the end of the use-life of the sculpture. on our sculptural works, we do not use adhesives or coatings that further limit material recyclability.
land acknowledgement
we acknowledge that we live and work on the Tutelo / Monacan People’s homeland, and we recognize their continued relationships with their lands and waterways.
engagement
we welcome prospective collaborators, community engagement projects, and opportunities to participate in cultural and educational events.
please contact us at entheogendesign@gmail.com if you are interested in working with us.
place
blacksburg after the rain - winter 2022
blacksburg sunrise - spring 2023
who is entheogen?
braden perryman, age 3 months
braden is a second year master of fine arts student at virginia tech, where he applies parametric modeling and digital fabrication tools to phenomenological inquiry, and investigates the role of artists as responsible members of material-ecological assemblages. braden works across many materials, processes, dimensions, and mediums, preferring to work interdisciplinarity rather than within the confines of one way of seeing or thinking about the world. many of his projects are collaborative in nature, and he recognizes that his art practice could not exist without his friendships with fellow artists and family members.
braden is not an individual, per se, but rather a constantly changing gathering place of every idea, experience, and friendship he’s ever had, all of which he is very grateful for having as integral parts of his ever-evolving life story.
in fact, looking back on his life, he wouldn’t change a single thing, except perhaps for starting this paragraph in third person and now feeling compelled to see it through that way.
that, and the fact that he hit his fashion peak at 3 months old and has been in steady decline since.
CV
teaching philosophy
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