The Brown Book comprises a growing collection of original drawings and poetry made in response to my ongoing research into “the vertical metaphor.” Pulling from history, philosophy, mythology, ecology, architecture, the life sciences, cybernetic theory, post-cognitive science, and embodiment studies, this project seeks to investigate a deeply anthropocentric spatial imaginary that privileges what is above as “superior” and demeans what is below as “inferior.” Driven by my ecological concerns and the pressing need to learn to care for our biosphere, the book stages a descent from human-centered a perspective that imagines itself at the pinnacle of creation, down into the speculative realms of non-human-animal consciousness, plant sociality, and mineral agency. Each composition addresses a particular myth, figure, idea, event, or phenomenon while weaving dialogic threads between discourse, text, and image.

Available at patreon.com/thebrownbook