MINISOPHY is a digital publication offering mini texts, illustrations, exercises.

MINISOPHY is the art of thinking about general issues in miniature style. MINISOPHY is shared a few times a week on Instagram and Facebook.

MINISOPHY introduces a new topic in six parts every two weeks: philosophical text, lyrical thought of Ashes (a mini-self of Katrin Olina), quotes from wisdom figures, everyday voices, exercises in thinking, as well as a special column with soundscapes, and other art media.

MINISOPHY wants to entice readers to become minisophical.

MINISOPHY is created by Katrin Olina, designer-thinker and Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir, philosopher. 

Help! We are Drowning in the Digital Sea.

PHILOSOPHY

At best we feel ambivalent about social media, fraught as it is with paradoxes. We express and market ourselves through social media, but are exploited by the corporations that sell and buy the data we provide. We inform ourselves, but are directed by algorithms that select our information. We feel free to choose what we read, but are pressured to vote with likes or emojis. Our longing for free choice of information and self-expression through social media has drowned in the digital sea. Do we have the power to change social media?

ASHES:

When we post on social media, we touch the Spider’s web. The ‘likes’ we get are sweet water droplets that quench our thirst for acceptance and recognition. And this sweetness makes us want more.

WISDOM: 

To dwell in time is a form of happiness. It consists in “not going along with time…but to tear oneself away from it in a certain way. To tear oneself away means freedom as such.” Michael Theunissen, author of Negative Theology of Time.

EXCERSISE:

If this urge to be distracted by social media bothers you, if you feel like you are not in control of the restlessness that drives you into social media, begin with an awareness break: Allow yourself a moment to dissolve into nothingness.  

VOICES: 

“I think that social media as it is now, where people present individual profiles and give away information about themselves without thought, is not the future. It has nothing to do with the fact that the internet is amazing and has immense potential. But I think that our use of social media must change. When people become better aware of the capitalist exploitation of social media they will stop marketing themselves there like a commodity.”
María Elísabet, 25, Iceland.

What can we learn from plants?

PHILOSOPHY:

Trees are superior to people, from a certain perspective, as their form of life is in tune with the environment. Contemplating plant life helps humans to have a more comprehensive and capacious morality. Plants help us better understand other kinds of life beyond our own. We can imitate them by cultivating a more careful use of resources, and fostering a more harmonious relationship with the environment. Trees can make us better human beings by transforming our destructive relations with nature, and open up new meditative horizons. 

ASHES: 

If we were plants with legs, we would be running around in a tsunami like effort, assisting each other to save the planet.

WISDOM:

“That’s the trouble with people, their root problem. Life runs alongside them, unseen. … A chorus of living wood sings to the woman: If your mind were only a slightly greener thing, we’d drown you in meaning.

The pine she leans against says: Listen. There’s something you need to hear.”Richard Powers, from The Overstory.

EXERCISE:

Pick a tree or a plant that is near you and minisophize with it. What wisdom is held in the tree or in this plant? Can you perceive an inner light within the plant, its energy?

VOICES:

“I recognize myself in Icelandic tussock grass. The severe sharp blades remind me of my classmates in the Moscow internat (a half orphanage- half boarding school) where conditions for its young inhabitants were more than harsh. I [also] recognize myself in a branch of olive tree. What I need most in the olive tree is its branch, not the whole tree. There is more freedom in a branch, more autonomy, more reflective potential.”  Lydia, 71, US-Russian philosopher. 

Can we still be utopian?

PHILOSOPHY:

Humans have had tragic experiences with utopias. We have seen political utopias end in totalitarian horror. Even so, we are drawn to utopian ideas. We can’t do without them, in fact, because they represent everything we hope and long for most passionately. They express the desire to perfect our imperfect condition. But we must be wary of outdated dreamlands and super-futuristic, transhumanist utopias. They smell of distopias. Visions of past greatness and future perfection are not the points of departure that will ensure the good lives we yearn for. Instead, what would happen if we look to our imperfections? 

ASHES:

We thought that stuff made of stuff could be disposed of, that it could magically vanish, but trash mountains and islands have become a part of our geography. Out of necessity and humility we will learn the art of transformation. We will become thinkers, inventors, artists, designers, and poets. We do this work of becoming. We learn to live newly in a new world, for a new world.

WISDOM:

“For things will never be perfect, until human beings are perfect - which I don't expect them to be for quite a number of years!”
Thomas More, author of Utopia.

EXERCISE:

Look at the mess in your life!! Much of our energy goes into trying to tidy up that awful mess, into trying to hide our imperfections. What is a perfect life? Try to be ‘perfect’ for a day. In your thoughts, in your behavior, in your politics and ideals, in your relationships with everything and everyone. See if this utopia works. The next day – be messy. What do you prefer?

VOICES:

“I’m in my fifties and I’ve given up on love relationships. It is futile to expect my partners to change. Now I will be on my own. Not trying to change anybody. That´s a change. Right?”

Why the cake craze is not as crazy as it seems.

PHLOSOPHY:

Sugar is unhealthy and addictive. So why is there a boom in lavish baking? TV baking shows celebrate sumptuously rich cakes and pastries. Baking glorious cakes allows people to display creativity and craftsmanship. Yet the craving for sugar is suppressed with the discipline of creating artworks. The labor itself and the anticipation of the baking process delay more over the gratification. This mixture of discipline and indulgence, desire and self-control make the individually created cake a true luxury. If we would treat more consumer things as luxurious, we might enjoy them more, and perhaps waste less.

ASHES :

I offer someone a bite of my divine, sweet, heaven of a cake. I sense a fantasy stirring in me. It’s sensual, fun, colourful, over the top, and crazy. I am abundance!

WISDOM:

The Suffrage Cook Book from 1915 had recipes like “Hymen Cake,” “Mother´s Election Cake,” “Suffrage Angel Cake” and “Parliament Gingerbread.”

EXERCISE :

Bake a cake and bring it to friends, work, or school. How does the cake change the atmosphere and the conversation? 

VOICES:

“It gives me peace of mind to create and bake cakes. Yoga, long walks or meditation do the same for other people. Spending hours on end (without noticing the passing of time) forming real, little flowers out of butter frosting, combining colors and making all the little pieces that will add to a beautiful whole when put together.”Anna Jia, 24, Icelandic-Chinese, learning patisserie making.