Lately, i’ve been thinking about spiderwebs; their tensile strength, beauty, ephemerality, organization, and irreproducible singularity. To the casual observer, it seems that these complex structures are solely for the purpose of trapping prey, yet their functions are far more advanced. They are not only a means for procuring sustenance. They also serve as an external neural network and a listening device, an extension and enhancement of sensorial capability that allows more intimate understanding of the surroundings. 

What we call “nature” functions as a series of interconnected webs, an (un)conscious system of support & communication - one without declared assignments of purpose, perceptions of value, or systems of debt - there is only what is, and how those things fit together - or don’t. All that has ever been achieved by living beings is the result of mutually influential networks of support & communication that have served to aid in the manifestation of said effect. We, humans, and every other thing on this planet, form the confluences and connections of an infinite web; every junction forms a network that connects to a multitude of networks, that theoretically, could be impermeable, unaffected by minor interruptions. The individualism & imposed separation of humans from one another and the ecologies they are a part of, is against this natural structure, and has led to an ever increasing state of dissonance for all life on this planet.

an excerpt from the essay ‘1,000 thoughts: a web and the meal it makes’ published fALL 2022 IN journal Safar’s VII issue ‘networks’