Questioning Jacques Rancière’s assertions, art could start turning the spectator into a conscious agent in transforming the world (Rancière,2009). I have arranged my thoughts, findings, and reflections and made them visible by creating these vessels of knowledge. They have taken the physical form of zines, objects, and a panel in an installation containing links to my website. I have created an expanded version of what I like to call a Memento Vivere. This is a snapshot of what I found while investigating how we acquire and understand knowledge through seeing and making. I remember that I am alive by creating, and the artwork proves I am here. This is a productive, cognitive, and physical process where I bodily entangle myself in my ideas and affirm my attraction to the everyday, engaging with phenomenology and the beliefs of causal connections. This structure enables me to find harmony within my existence. This is the praxis that I now take into the classroom, boiler room (art club) and my studio kitchen. I have allowed my curiosity to lead me. These vessels are my talismans. They are artefacts which spark my thought process and give me anchors to allow me to track my ‘thought quest’. This knowledge may be dipped into and released at will following the idea that art makes data alive.

Sarah Chalkie Cloonan. Vessels of Correspondence. September 2022.