The Matter Digest is a living archive. It will be present at O+ to collect thoughts and ideas from the community, to be stored in The Matter Digest archive. Input into the archive will be chewed upon, digested, and then re-presented to the community by TMD founders, Havarah & Ernest. TMD will set up a tented space that people can enter and spend some time; outfitted with tables, chairs, fabric and pillows, the space will be inviting and comfortable.

They want  to start a conversation with people in the community about what matters to them. They want to hear from everyone and anyone. They want to hear about anything – from the dust bunnies in their living room to their financial concerns. This space will act as a point of intersection for the community. More specifically, we will be asking visitors to our booth to share recipes. Recipes of life – how do you wake up in the morning? Is there a recipe for perfectly clean socks? For a good conversation? A recipe for being a better neighbor? Recipes will be collected in our booth on the spot, either via written submission by the visitor or by transcription of their orated recipe. We will also offer visitors an addressed and stamped envelope so that they can send us their recipes at a later date. In the months following O+, these recipes will be compiled into a book, Recipes from Personhood, Vol. 2. The first volume of Recipes from Personhood was self-published in November of 2018 by The Matter Digest and is a collective volume of thoughts and practices. It includes recipes for consciousness (mind), sustenance (food), the mortal vessel (body), and more. The Matter Digest seeks to point out that OUR STORIES MAKE US STRONGER and that everyone has something to offer. Our booth at the O+ Festival will address the theme of ‘X’ in that ‘X’ is the marking of a point where we can all meet. It is the intersection of each and every one of us. The point at which our experiences unite us. X can also be a placeholder in the archive. Each person has a story to tell, a thought or recipe to share. The ‘X’ is that blank line in a sentence or paragraph to be filled in by anyone!

The Matter Digest is a living archive of thought, happenings, and experiences. Founded in the summer of 2018 by Ernest Goodmaw and Havarah Zawoluk, The Matter Digest exists in both no form and any form at all. It hopes to collect the “matter” of any person and preserve and present that matter to be chewed upon by any other person. The matter can then be digested, and thus brought into a collective consciousness. The Matter Digest is evolving daily. As it grows, it takes new forms, spills out into new realms of expression like water pushes through sand. To date, The Matter Digest has self-published three books: ‘Recipes from Personhood’, ‘Whatsa Home?’ and ‘STUFF’.

As an artist and facilitator, Ernest Goodmaw works to explore the connections and outcomes between the audience and the intention. They are fueled by questions, and ask them through documented and ephemeral performance, illustration, conversation, and experiments. How does it feel to be in the presence of something that asks a favor of you? How can we use what we have to interact with one another?

Havarah Zawoluk is a Kingston resident who has a passion for illustration and cartography. They have illustrated professionally for table top board games and various event promo materials. They have also organized many community events in the Hudson Valley, the most recent of which is a current on-going series of free workshops at Three Phase Center in Stone Ridge titled “ART/LIFE Automotive”.

www.thematterdigest.com