The Jansenist Engine

The Jansenist Engine*, 39 x 29,7 cm, pencil, coloured pencil on paper, 2017

This reproduction perhaps does not do full justice to the original drawing, which has a rather unusual tonality, based on the blending of so many different brands, types, and colors of the colored pencil variety, all superimposed on an already well-finished pencil drawing with rather profound dynamics in the darkness-lightness range. Thus, the result is very much like a colorized black and white drawing, giving maybe the impression of a very early experiment in colour reproduction. The thematic dedication is referring to a Catholic theologian movement which enjoyed its phase of greatest vivacity from ca. 1660 to 1700 AD. Even though the movement played itself out predominantly in France, it was based on the teachings of a Danish theologian, emphasizing, in typical Nordic fashion, original sin and human depravity. The ?-voiced Commentator “ex”plains: this engine is a very impervious juggernaut, clad in different metallic alloys, being, say, indiscernible to radar, impenetrable by all sorts of electromagnetic radiation, shielded towards the degrading effects of human depravity and all varieties of human frailty. Any kind of believe in a superior being is something like a mental armour, shielding one from the hopelessness of mortality – the machine is a materialization of the urgent desire to overcome death. People often choose suicide to overcome death. They resent their mortal bodies. They would like to have their unique minds stored in metal cylinders — so, in a very roundabout fashion (or in a very allegorical fashion, or maybe in a very freely associative fashion), this drawing could also be called “The Whisperer in Darkness”.

The engine depicted here thus might be the metallic encasing for a human soul, moving through an archetypal, pagan, or, perhaps, Stygian highland (the Gaelic haven to the Teutonic type, disappointed with their own version of  a heathenist anti-western world), along some loch, or firth, or estuary, a landscape which might have formed the background to the most impressive feats of early Catholic Christianization, or Westernization.

*On a different and technically more feasible note, the metal cylinder integrated and made ambulatory in the Jansenist engine could also serve as a container for dead bodies (perhaps forever harbouring their souls, even after death), similar to the completely hermetic wood, metal, and wax coffin prescribed for the burial rites in Hans Henny Jahnn’s Church of Ugrino. As Jahnn, author of the deeply hermetic and religious novella “Das Holzschiff”, was himself buried in such a coffin (to prevent his holy body from rotting) it also becomes clear that the Jansenist link was solely associative, because the Jahnnist motif was still hidden in the background. Both spiritual positions describe that which was not embraced by the Catholic Church. Future © of this nostalgia-colorized drawing by Torsten Slama and the Society of Clovis yet undisclosed

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Euro-Continental Pro America Church “Paul Gerhardt”

Paul Gerhardt Church Gelsenkirchen-Ückendorf with 1903 Cadillac Model A Runabout (A3; 42×29,7cm)

Behold here a fine example of evangelical church design in the vein of tasteful international modernism, a sight, not altogether typical, but not unusual either in a time when there was still a lively interest in all church things, yet the decline of church business was already clearly visible on the horizon of time as men know it (not geological time). Witness the gleam of the main building’s big glass front – a huge abstract dyptich of biblical proportions – which is clearly an early Euro-continental reference to the big coloured front face tradition of modern American churches. This church, built many decades ago, at some not exactly verifiable point in the 1960s, still stands, yet is robbed of its dominant feature; the space around it. Today, it is sadly hidden behind parked cars and fences, and swallowed up by attached public service facilities: an old people’s home, a kindergarten.

Note how the nave is separated from the church tower in this design. A separation of things usually compacted into one edifice might be due to conscious conceptual considerations, or simply a sign of the times. What this separation signifies is the American-Fordian thought and practice pattern of division of labour – the tower; the reaching out facility, both reaching out for the congregation, reaching out for god (also a structure akin to a giant billboard/beacon with built in audio component) – the congregation and worship hall a place of production, production of faith, the plant proper.

A note of significance in consideration of this aspect of division: the church was designed not by a star of modern church building, but a lesser architect by the name of Kurt Hatlauf, who also designed several commercial buildings in and around Gelsenkirchen, and for some time served as the manager of the local football club of national fame, a post which surely earned him substantial recognition and probably was deemed the more salient factor of his career. So obviously a figure whose feet were planted squarely, but separately, one in the world of commerce, the other in a world of spiritual values (achievement/ fame, worship/faith). According to oral history, Kurt Hatlauf liked driving around in big American cars, which helps in reconstructing the motivational background for this attempt at an American style church (unable yet to hide its European origins), the Americanism further underlined here by the inclusion of a giant size Kachina doll sculpture.This rendering © 2021 by Torsten Slama and the IPA Society

The Sirian Experiment

St. Paul’s Church, Schwenningen, with early BMW Motorbike (42×29,7cm, pencil and coloured pencil on paper, 2015)

The image above depicts a worship centre of the heliocentric kind, devoted to adoring the heavens and everything above. An art work was commissioned to make a visual statement about the function of the building. The artist decided to create a holographic projection of unclear direction—a wavelike pattern is discernible, one assumes that there is some kind of dynamic involved, but it is not clear whether the waves are undulating in a downward direction, sent from some heavenly entity, or whether they are going up, towards said entity. Also, the waves are banded in a multicoloured fashion, but clearly not following the known order of wavelengths in the visible electromagnetic spectrum. The colours in which they present themselves (or, are presented) seem to follow an unfathomable (artistic?) taste pattern, which however might hypothetically be based on some scientific principle on the level of quantum mechanics. (Theologians across the world are very enamored with quantum theory, as quanta are known to behave erratically, contrary, obstinate, and wayward, when observed by a merely human observer. They do that on a basis of knowing things before they occur, communicating (?) with each other on a pre-emptive timeline, in short, displaying many characteristics of Godly perfection. Thus, in an ontogenetic system of proof, they are showing exactly that which God must possess, which shows that he, she, it, must exist.)

As an afterthought, the artist added a floating three-dimensional optical illusion to remind human observers of the futility of observation, of the necessity to stop observing and start worshipping. The progressive parson to whom this church was assigned parks his vintage BMW motorbike in front of the church to remind his parish of the parallel nature of worldliness and spirituality, the necessity to practice parallel thinking.

* * *

“I remember […] reading an agreeable tale about a species of highly intelligent giraffes who travelled by spaceship from their solar system to ours, to ask if our sun was behaving cruelly to us, as theirs had recently taken to doing to them.”
(Doris Lessing)

“Je n’avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là.” 
(Pierre-Simon Laplace)

Illusrative sketch and explanatory note © 2017-2021 by Torsten Slama, Critical Heliocentrics Society

The Parable of the Immortal Uterus

The Parable of the Immortal Uterus, 297 × 420mm, pencil, coloured pencil, acrylics on paper, © 2013 by The Parabolist Society

Please read the following excerpt from a conversation between the humanist, the monk, and the priest with full mental alertness. Read it with an open mind. Heed the pitfalls of untrustworthy translation.

The humanist: ” The fruit is rare. No tears before. I imagine this story then has traditionally been a more trivial and exquisitely romantic accident.”

The monk said: ” Truly. But these poems belong to the family of food, drink and boudoir stories. Moreover most breeze-and-moonlight tales but indulge in secret relations with women about eloping. They just do not have the dark children’s true release one or two. Think this: into the world of its passion color ghosts contrast with previous tradition. “

The humanist: ” Why don’t you and I have to take this great degree and some is not a virtue? ”

The monk said: ” Are you with me and I to the unreal immortal uterus, and witness the fool delivery of this romantic evil ghost? Now has half dust but still not complete works. ”

Priest : ” Not only that will go with you.*Illustrative sketch and translation © 2021 by Torsten Slama

*Zhen Shiyin is understood but unintelligible. “Stupid ” is anything. Then I came up, smiled and asked: ” The second division, please. ” The monk is also busy in reply when asked. Shiyin is to have said: ” Comfortable smell immortal. division on causal real world rare. But if I understand your disciple Yu, turbidity big dumb is preparing a fine disciple by washing its ear. Listening can also be a warning from sinking. ” Alternative Title laughs: ” This is a mystery not be pre-discharged. Then don’t forget two people can come out of the fire pit. ” Shi Yin listened, too inconvenienced to ask for laughs: ” Mystery not be pre-discharged, but suitable for a cloud fool! Somehow or can see? ” The monk said: ” If you ask it but once. ” She took out and give Shiyin. Shiyin took turns having a distinctive look at jade table with clear new writing. A ” magic stone”:  There are several (4) words. Now she wants to look at it when the monk said: “To fairyland is strong from the hands away, and one was a stone arch with four characters but fantasyland.llustrative sketch and translation © 2021 by Torsten Slama

Bungalow for the Magician

Bungalow for the Magician, 42×27,9cm (DIN A3),
pencil and coloured pencil on paper

A temporary country home for the Magician. The Magician specializes in making people vanish. His spells are potent only in that way. In all other ways he is a very unassuming, normal type of person. Working his spells draws on his overall spiritual energy, leaves him exhausted. Lacking any formal education, he has to rely on his spells to sustain him economically. He saves enough money through appearances in hotels and at festivities in small-town multi-purpose centres during the holiday season or through engagements on cruise ships to be able to afford a simple country retreat for his free time. The cellarless and easily relocatable building features a miniature pool and fitness related equipments to allow him to replenish lost energies through careful, peaceful training in solitude, meditating on a wild nomadic tellurian future. Other items related to spirituality (the stylized magician’s hat as protective cover for very delicate saplings), and sexuality (the orgonic sea-shell) are also part of the basic lay-out.

The house is available in similar form for all people interested in country retreats in wooded regions off the coastal areas, where lot prices are affordable and bird sounds and occasional appearances of badgers, ferrets, or racoons delight the well-honed biophile sensitivities of the gentleman tramp.© 2021 by Herma Ecdysone, Kurt Schessmanweil, Torsten Slama

City Church “Böblingen”

City Church “Böblingen”, 297x420mm, pencil, coloured pencil, gold leaf

Concept sketch for a city church. Spiritual energy levels in Central European cities and municipalities are in rapid decline. This development is not limited to European soil, but a worldwide problem. Decline in spiritual energy levels can be easily linked to the decline of criminal energy levels. Smoking bans, optimized street illumination schemes, and safety measures of all kinds make the reliance on spiritual energy to prevent hazardous accidents superfluous.

Certain measures can be taken to raise spiritual energy levels. Worship centres afford an opportunity to practice humility and are therefore the means of choice to raise spiritual energy levels.

This design is especially suited for medium-sized towns located beyond metropolitan regions in Europe. The architecture is unobtrusive, with a light touch of Wilhelmian moodiness. The building has a compact form factor, can easily be prefabricated in great quantities from lightweight plastics (e.g. NALDENE™ by Thermo Fisher Scientific) and anchored where needed. Crystal spawning rocks scattered in the area create an esoteric mood, openness for revelations. Floating above is a cheap, nuclear powered energizer unit in the process of charging a small space crystal.© 2023 by Herma Ecdysone, Torsten Slama, Manfred Gorre, International Publications World Wide