Introduction
The intention and purpose that sits at the roots of this activity is to know and experience that time is entropic, and that the longer and deeper we get into time, entropy increases.
While entropy may create chaos, this exercise allows us to put our attention on the multiple systems that create time. By zooming out of the most common understanding of time and zooming in to smaller systems of time, we can attempt to work with the deep complexity of entropy. This particular exercise helps give agency to our senses and to our intuition and bodies. It helps us gain understanding over entropy.
Lemon Clock by Asma Khan
It also allows us an alternative clock - of different types of time, or being in different time zones within our bodies. It gives agency to the self over the human construct of time. We don’t have a good construct of time - we are always running out of it. To play with time through this activity is an invitation through portals to explore our imaginations and come across new realisations in new ways.
Keys of imagination can help us explore…
What happens to time when it goes through water?
What happens to time when it goes through beauty?
How the witnessing of something changes the nature of time.
Time has short arcs and long arcs - if you stay with something, you get to know the long arcs of time
The materials you need
A sheet of paper.
Art materials - all kinds of art materials can be used - paints, pencils etc.
It could be a collage, so if that’s your preference then you’ll need scissors, glue etc too.
Tool: Creative exercise
Duration: ~30 mins - 2 hours
Contributor: Asma Ahsan Khan is a Pakistani, multidisciplinary artist settled in Montreal, Canada. Khan's practice explores complex natural systems, aiming to find spiritual symbology and a feminine sensibility in phenomena like gravity, time-space, black holes, coral ecosystems, mycelium, and neural structures. Motivated by the mysteries of the natural world, Khan combines rigorous research with intuitive drawing to reveal connections between micro and macro systems.
On This Page
Introduction
Creating the conditions for this activity
The Activity (six steps)
Time Going Through Beauty by Asma Khan
Creating the conditions for this activity
The sensory is really important for this activity, so when you create the space for it, these are some of the things you might want to consider…
What kind of lighting will take you into a different realm? We’d recommend avoiding electric light and creating your clock under daylight or candlelight…
What kind of music might you want to play, with its ability to create a different atmosphere…
What else might be in the air to smell? We’d recommend oils or sage smoke.
We’d also recommend some discomfort. It can help to defocus you from what you know and are familiar with. This might look like standing on one leg, burning so much sage that the smoke can make your eyes water, or dancing as you draw so you have less control over the lines.
If discomfort is not welcome then we’d recommend going into a meditative state through deep breathing.
Lastly, if you want to do this outdoors, and in nature, that is also an option.
The Activity
Step 1
The very first part of this activity is to write down a question that you have been holding and that has overwhelmed you for a long period of time.
Step 2
As the title of the activity suggests, some of what we’re exploring are the organs of the body. Spend one minute meditating on the image below, meditating on the shape of the organs within your body.
The next part of the activity is to connect with your intuition and flow of drawing.
Initially we want to invite you to practise drawing the organs, but blindfolded, so that you let your hand know what the shape of a kidney is, what the shape of intuition is, and so forth.
Taking a sheet of paper and with a blindfold on, guided by your intuition and what feels instinctive, draw each of the organs as a shape. This is about discovering your own shape for each of them, not interpreting what a kidney or an ear or a nose looks like as we might usually see them.
Human Internal Organs - including brain, heart, artery, blood, lungs, large intestine, stomanch, bladder, liver, spleen, gall bladder, kidneys, male and female reproductive system, skin. ID 106666760 © Macrovector | Dreamstime.com
Step 3
With the blindfold removed, the next part of the activity is to draw a large circle - as large as you can draw around your page. The circle needs to hold 12-15 shapes in it.
This large circle that you are drawing represents the entirety of your body, soul and spirit.
During the next part of the activity you will put 12-15 different shapes (organs) into the circle - each of them representing different emotions.
Step 4
As you go to draw each shape, a key part of the activity is to ask these prompts -
What is the shape of your organ of envy? (or intuition, or love - you will see an order to do these in below)
Where does the shape belong in the circle/ body? Where would you place it? Be guided as to where to place it in the circle.
What colour and texture is the shape?
What kind of line will you use for the mark-making? Will you draw a strong line? A dotted line? A hesitant line? - Use the emotion to determine what kind of line you use.
What is the size of each shape in relation to the others? For example, is love larger than envy? So you are always thinking of each emotion, and its shape, in relation to the other emotions in your body.
What is the position of each shape in relation to the others? For examples, Is intuition close to fear?
After you have drawn each organ shape, write the name of the emotion underneath it.
And remember - draw very intuitively - using an intuitive drawing hand that is not led by our intellectual selves. This requires letting the hand go and thinking as little as possible - you feel, you draw, you feel, you draw. It’s a very feeling activity.
So using the prompts above, you can now draw each organ shape -
The organ of envy
The organ of our intuition.
The organ of impatience and frustration
Locate the sensory input of smell - what is your organ of smell?
Focus on our future - imagine the last home of your life. The last moment when we die - where in your body is death located? What is the organ of death?
The act of witnessing - the sense of Sight - locate in your body your sense of sight, its importance to you. What is the organ of sight?
Your organs of Resignation and Sadness - where are they located in your body? What is the shape of sadness in your body?
The organ for a sense of softness and touch
The organ of love
Locate the sensory input of taste - what is your organ of taste?
The organ for our sense of sound
The organ of fear
Step 5
Once all the organ shapes are drawn, it’s time to add numbers to your Organ Clock. Draw 12 at the top of the circle and 6 at the bottom and then 3 and then 9 - so the basic numbers of a clock. Once they are in place, fill out the rest of the numbers 1-12 around the outside circumference of the circle.
Step 6
It’s time to go back to the question that you wrote down at the very beginning of the activity.
Hold the question that has had you overwhelmed for a long time and draw a minute hand/arrow toward the emotion that most has you overwhelmed, or feels most resonant to this question.
Then intuitively, close your eyes even and with this second arrow, draw it with the non dominant hand, so it has less knowing and more intuition. which emotion on the organ clock can best help you navigate that particular feeling or emotion from the question you were holding? Point your hour arrow toward the sense that helps you navigate this emotion…and this will be your guide.
Another way to consider it is that one organ is sick in the body and the other organ is there to take care of it.
What are you feeling? Noticing? Appreciating? What has newly arisen for you? Or come into view for you?
Another detail to pay attention to is what is the time on your Organ Clock? What time do the hands on the clock read? And what new insights does this give you..?
For example… When I am 2.30pm I can hone into my sense of intuition…
Can we allow our organs to play with another sense of time? Can we create empathy for our eyes or our liver.. Can we use the agency of our organ of intuition to guide us? At what time in the day can we provide nourishment and empathy to our organ of resignation? Which sense guides our dreams of the past and which sense drives the dreams of the future? What is the best time in the day to give love to our organ of death?
Is there a hidden hour, a 13th hour that might emerge from our Organ Clock… Does the hour point to a new mysterious organ within us? If so, what does this organ do for you?
