Theoretical Foundations

  1. Theoretical Foundations & Research Context
  2. 📚 Key Influences & Parallel Research
    1. 1. On the Foundational Psychology of Disgust
    2. 2. On Shame, Vulnerability, and the Courage to Be Seen
    3. 3. On the Historical Scientific Validation of Decay
    4. 4. On the Anthropology of Disgust and Decay
    5. 5. On the Physics of Entropy and Syntropy
    6. 6. On Syntropy in Living Systems
    7. 7. On Cultural Blindness and “Propriety”


Theoretical Foundations & Research Context

Introduction: Thinking at the Margins

My research is built on a fundamental premise: the most profound cultural shifts often begin at the margins of accepted thought. The dominant paradigms that have shaped our modern worldview—a strict division between mind and body, culture and nature—have led us to our current state of ecological and psychological alienation. To diagnose and heal this “Primal Rupture,” we cannot rely solely on the tools that helped create it.

Therefore, my theoretical framework is consciously constructed through a critical dialogue with scientific and philosophical ideas that exist just beyond the mainstream. I am drawn to theories of entropy, negentropy, and syntropy because they offer a physical and biological language for the cycles of death and rebirth that our culture has learned to fear and deny. While some of these sources may be contested within their home disciplines, their power lies in their metaphorical and diagnostic potency. They provide the necessary vocabulary to articulate a reality that our dominant cultural narratives have rendered invisible: that decay is not an end, but a sacred transformation.

This is not a rejection of rigor, but a pursuit of a different kind of rigor—one that values systemic insight and the ability to connect disparate fields over strict adherence to disciplinary silos. The following works are not presented as unquestionable dogma, but as vital provocations that have provided the essential scaffolding for my own cosmology of “Re-membering Eden.”

📚 Key Influences & Parallel Research

1. On the Foundational Psychology of Disgust

Rozin, P., Haidt, J., & McCauley, C. (2009). Disgust: The Body and Soul Emotion in the 21st Century. In The Handbook of Emotions (3rd ed.). American Psychological Association.

  • Their Core Thesis: Establishes disgust as a core emotion that evolved from a food-related response (oral rejection) into a complex system guarding the “soul” or socio-moral order. It directly links disgust to the rejection of our animal nature (the “animal-reminder” domain) and serves as a psychological defense against mortality awareness.
  • My Synthesis & Departure: This work provides the primary psychological framework for my concept of Decarnis—the embodied shame of our animal nature. Rozin and colleagues give me the precise vocabulary for the “recoil” I describe in the “Primal Rupture.” My artistic practice intentionally targets these specific “animal-reminder” domains (decay, bodily functions) not to provoke shock, but to systematically desensitize and re-sacralize them, transforming disgust into what Brené Brown would call “wholehearted” acceptance.

2. On Shame, Vulnerability, and the Courage to Be Seen

Brown, B. (2010). The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are. Hazelden Publishing.

  • Their Core Thesis: Argues that shame—the fear of disconnection and being unworthy of love—fuels a culture of perfectionism and inauthenticity. The antidote is vulnerability: the courage to show up and be seen, imperfections and all, which leads to “wholehearted” living.
  • My Synthesis & Departure: Brown’s work provides the psychosocial mechanism for the “cover-up” that followed the Primal Rupture. We hid not just from God, but from each other and ourselves, out of shame. My work, particularly a piece like Jonah in the Fish, visualizes this internal struggle—the hiding from a difficult truth one is called to speak. Brown’s research validates that the path to “Re-membering” requires the very vulnerability that my art both demands and models.

3. On the Historical Scientific Validation of Decay

Darwin, C. (1881). The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits. John Murray.

  • Their Core Thesis: Meticulously documents the earthworm’s role as a vital “ecosystem architect,” transforming decay into fertile soil. Darwin reframes decomposition not as grotesque but as a silent, powerful, and essential engine of ecological regeneration.
  • My Synthesis & Departure: Darwin’s monograph is a central character in my research narrative. It serves as the perfect example of scientific knowledge failing to achieve cultural penetration due to pre-existing taboos. My practice asks: “If Darwin’s rational, empirical proof was not enough to shift our cultural disgust with decay, what can?” My answer is embodied, symbolic art. The Worms Altar project is a direct artistic successor to Darwin’s work, creating a ritual space to experience the truth he documented.

4. On the Anthropology of Disgust and Decay

Speth, J. D., & Eugène, M. (2022). Putrid Meat in the Tropics: It Wasn’t Just for Inuit.
PaleoAnthropology, 2022(2).
🔗 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364794172_Putrid_Meat_in_the_Tropics_It_Wasn%27t_Just_for_Inuit

  • Their Core Thesis: Challenges the Western assumption that disgust toward decomposition is a universal biological response. Provides evidence that tropical populations also consumed aged meat, arguing that disgust is largely culturally conditioned. It links this conditioned disgust to psychological defenses against mortality awareness, as outlined in Terror Management Theory.
  • My Synthesis & Departure: This paper provides the empirical backbone for my concept of the “Labyrinth of Taboos.” It proves that our revulsion to decay is not an innate truth but a cultural construct. My artistic practice, particularly in works like Venus Incarnis, functions as a direct intervention into this conditioning. By creating a safe, ritualized space to engage with decomposition, my work seeks to weaken the link between decay and mortality terror, instead reframing it as a site of “Syntropic” regeneration and “Material Divinity.”

5. On the Physics of Entropy and Syntropy

Isa, H. H., & Dumas, C. (2020). Entropy and Negentropy Principles in the I-Theory.
Journal of High Energy Physics, Gravitation and Cosmology, 6, 165-183.
🔗 https://doi.org/10.4236/jhepgc.2020.62020

  • Their Core Thesis: Proposes entropy (disorder, repulsion) and negentropy (order, attraction) as fundamental, complementary forces that govern quantum interactions and shape reality.
  • My Synthesis & Departure: This paper provides a physical metaphor for the dual forces I identify in the psycho-cultural realm. My work translates this physics into a cultural diagnosis: the “Primal Rupture” is our cultural obsession with the entropic force (decay as loss) and our blindness to the syntropic force (decay as regeneration). My concept of “Material Divinity” is the sacred presence within this syntropic process.

6. On Syntropy in Living Systems

Di Corpo, U., & Vannini, A. (2014). Syntropy and Sustainability: A Summary.
PaleoAnthropology, 2022(2).
🔗 https://upsol.academia.edu/UlisseDiCorpo

  • Their Core Thesis: Defines syntropy as a counter-force to entropy, representing life, order, and complexity. It argues living systems must minimize entropy and maximize syntropy, a process involving both material and “invisible” needs like meaning and connection.
  • My Synthesis & Departure: This work provides a crucial biological foundation for my artistic interventions. My projects (Venus Incarnis, Worms Altar) are designed as “syntropic probes”—tangible systems that demonstrate the maximization of syntropy. The “invisible needs” they describe align with my concepts of “Refined Knowing” and the “Oceanic Feeling,” which are necessary for healing our cultural disconnection.

7. On Cultural Blindness and “Propriety”

Ball, J. (2023). “The Role of the ‘Reproduction’ 乃 Character in Chinese Writing: 282 Characters and 59 Definitions.”
Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 13, 663-691.
🔗 https://doi.org/10.4236/ojml.2023.135040

  • Their Core Thesis: Argues that academia exhibits a “systematic blindness” to the reproductive symbolism in the 乃 phonetic component, enforced by cultural “propriety.”
  • My Synthesis & Departure: Ball’s methodology is a direct model for my own. She exposes how a culture can refuse to see what is visually present. I apply this same lens to the “Taboo of Decomposition.” We are conditioned not to see the sacredness in decay. My work, like Ball’s, makes the invisible visible by systematically naming and illustrating what “propriety” tells us to ignore.