THIS EDITION - PHOTOGRAPHY - MARINÓ THORLACIUS - TRANSITION OBJECT FOR BURN AFFECTED LISTENING ŌMNI was designed originally for the Isamu Noguchi Museum and FOLIE à PLUSIEURS in 2020. The Listening Object is a quartz sand 3D printed platform, made in Germany, for placing and burning incense sticks. The temporality of incense teaches us of the contradictory nature of presence - To be aware that you are here, while being aware that you are not there… Or somewhere else. During the short period of burning, the listener is aware of the moments between lighting, listening, and extinguishing, while at the same time being transported to the place of memories or creative imagination. Here, and not here. Permanent and permeable. Like the drifting and dissipating smoke. Incense is a ritualized, short moment in time, for transition, for grounding, or for cognitive travel. Like a meditation, creating the space to be present is a counterintuitive activity. Be present and let go. Despite this contradiction, the activity heightens the awareness of presence in which ever direction you find yourself facing. ŌMNI quartz sand platform is a monument for burn affected listening, a memory device, a presence touchstone… and sometimes a memorial to a heightened and unseeable future. Read less