Rachel Holmes

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Research project: Lucky Rituals: mythopoesis and philosophical animism

Abstract

Drawing from Dale Pendell's work on chance in The Language of Birds, and his mythopoetic methodology concerned with the divination of signs and the signifying practices of non-human creatures in the Pharmako Trilogy, I generate a lucky theory of semiosis produced by sentient ecologies, and apprehended through ritual as a subversive practice of dualistic pluralism. This practice enacts Georges Bataille's conception of sovereign communication, trickery, and living myth in The Sorcerer's Apprentice. I frame this in the context of Val Plumwood's philosophical animism in The Eye of the Crocodile and Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy.

Research degree: PhD
Title of project: Lucky Rituals: mythopoesis and philosophical animism
Other research supervisor: Dr Daniela Perazzo

Biography

I am a published writer and doctoral candidate, with research interests in the ritual practice of philosophical animism. My MRes dissertation at Central Saint Martins presented a Lacanian reading of the function of Paradox in Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy. At undergraduate level I studied the analytic method and philosophy of evolution.

Areas of research interest

Philosophy of Luck
Mythopoesis
Philosophical Animism
History of Religion
Semiosis
Dale Pendell
Georges Bataille
Friedrich Nietzsche
Val Plumwood
Dualistic Pluralism

Qualifications

MRes: Art, Theoy & Philosophy (Distinction). Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
BSc: Philosophy, Logic & Scientific Method (Honours). London School of Economics

Funding or awards received

TECHNE studentship for doctoral study
Nordic Culture Point (2019)
Nordic Culture Fund (2018-2019)

Publications

Holmes, Rachel (2021) The Crow: Nameless Ones of the Dream Zone. In: Connole, Edia and Shipley, Gary, (eds.) Acéphale and Autobiographical Philosophy in the 21st Century: Responses to the "Nietzsche event". London, UK : Schism Press. pp. 125 - 150. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8524109163

Holmes, Rachel Adeline (2021) The Butterfly Dream. Glasgow, UK : Death of Workers Whilst Building Skyscrapers Press.