26
September
2006
|
07:44 AM
America/Los_Angeles

diggrz: Symbosis Gathering

[diggrz: an SVW tag for arts, culture, trends, and events in and around Silicon Valley- new from SVW] -

 By Maria Mouk for Silicon Valley Watcher

Look up symbiosis in the dictionary and you're unlikely to find photos of this past weekend's Symbosis Gathering at Angels Camp in the Sierra Nevadas. Yet "A close, prolonged association between two or more different organisms of different species" is quite an accurate description of the experience this past weekend.

Second year in the making, and growing to twice its original size,
Symbiosis brought together a variety of creative and curious minds.

symbiomainstage06.jpg

From the tree tops and city skylines and from all over the west coast corridor, heads of all sub-cultures gathered to hear over 90 acts. Musical artists representing live bands, breaks, hiphop, psy, and experimental genres, with world names such as Shpongle, Germany's X-Dream , Spoonbill of Australia, Tipper, EdIT, Skream, and Zilla, played continuos music for over three days.

Personally impressive, was my discovery of Abstract Rude, stemming from the LA hiphop underground, with lyrical flow so conscious and smooth, that I was inspired enough to hike uphill to camp just to jot down some of my own.

Looking out into the night; cascading lights- radiant art pieces, altars mimicking dragons from afar, and tapestries waving in the trees with projections of dream states-- it reminded me of a civilization untapped by pop media, yet impressive enough to be a full blown LA stage production.

Besides the music, live painting, guest speakers(like Erik Davis), raw food, and starry nights, there were also workshops, films, and the possibility to exchange ideas with rappers, vegans, or enlightened newbies.

symbioelf06.jpg

As summer fades to fall, recall- that the ability to maximize cooperation with other species is what most directly contributes to an organism's ablility to endure in nature. We take example and converge.


Tag: diggrz

[diggrz refers to the nomadic lifestyle offered by mobile digital technologies and gadgets - creating a "nomadig" culture. The diggrz name is also a tip-of-the-hat to some of the ideas of the Diggers, a democratic group that arose in 1649, out of the English revolution .

The Diggers were a radical group that cultivated and protected common lands, and sought to create egalitarian, self-sustaining communities. The Diggers would have found  kindred spirits in today's software engineer culture,  and the focus on creating  commonly owned technologies through egalitarian open source community projects. - Tom Foremski]

Tag: diggrz