What if art is not about creating something new — but about learning how to see what has always been there? What if attention is not passive observation, but an active, disciplined act of perception? And what if what we overlook — the marginal, the infrastructural, the seemingly insignificant — is precisely where meaning quietly accumulates? In this expansive and contemplative conversation, I sit down with Steven Seidenberg — an interdisciplinary artist whose work moves across visual and semantic languages to explore how attention, perception, and meaning are constructed.

00:00:00 – 00:10:45 : Steven explains that his creative life is not built around a single medium, but multiple “echoing” practices. Rather than separating disciplines, he sees them as reflections of the same underlying sensibility.

00:10:45 – 00:15:55 : Steven’s work consistently turns toward spaces that are overlooked, infrastructural, peripheral, and politically or economically neglected. But he makes an important distinction: not all empty spaces are abandoned — many are simply disregarded. This reframes the lens from aesthetic curiosity to structural awareness, and from visual emptiness to historical and political residue.At the same time, these spaces must hold compositional potential.

00:15:55 – 00:27:10: One of the most defining principles of Steven’s work is his commitment to series-based practice. He does not take isolated photographs. Because repetition allows transformation: the ordinary becomes uncanny, the overlooked becomes visible, and the insignificant becomes emotionally charged.

00:27:10 – 00:34:20: Steven sees audience reception as structurally limited rather than contingent: not everyone will understand or respond to the work, and this is not a failure but part of how art exists. He resists adjusting work to market expectations or simplifying it for accessibility, prioritising internal integrity. Yet he does not reject audience altogether — art always exists in relation to reception, but instead of serving a predefined public, it gradually shapes its own audience over time.

00:34:20 – 00:39:13 : Steven reflects on his project photographing plastic flowers in cemeteries. These objects exist in tension: artificial material placed in sacred space; objects meant to endure, yet slowly degrading; symbols of care, yet subject to neglect. What draws him is not the object itself, but the contradiction it holds — permanence versus decay, artificial versus organic, memory versus erosion.

00:39:13 – 00:46:18 : His writing sits at the intersection of philosophy, literature, and critique of the Western intellectual tradition. Rather than treating it as fixed authority, he uses writing to stretch and test its limits — sometimes through conceptual intensity, sometimes through irony or parody, where humour and philosophical depth coexist. His work also holds multiple registers at once — intellectual, emotional, aesthetic, and rhythmic.

00:46:18 – 00:51:40 : Steven sees artistic voice as something formed through engagement rather than isolated invention. It develops through sustained exposure to other works, including imitation and even failed imitation.

00:51:40 – 01:07:17 : Steven frames contemporary life as a condition of fragmented attention, which produces constant presence without true perception. Moments of unknowing are not absence, but conditions for clarity and relational depth, both in art and in life. He closes with a grounding principle from Gramsci:
Pessimism of the intellect, Optimism of the will

Steven’s website: https://www.stevenseidenberg.com/

Instagram: steven.seidenberg

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What if chronic symptoms are not the body turning against you, but the body trying to communicate with you? What if true healing is not about suppression or control, but about returning to an authentic way of living — one where we are willing to fully feel our feelings? And what if, through that process, we begin to reclaim agency over our own health?

In this deeply illuminating and expansive conversation, I sit down with Dr. Kelly McCann — MD, MPH, TM — a physician practicing Functional, Integrative & Environmental Medicine — to demystify chronic and complex illness and immune dysregulation, and explore the hidden architecture of multi-system imbalance.

Dr. McCann approaches these conditions through an integrative, functional, and environmental lens, weaving together clinical medicine, systems thinking, and environmental health. At the core of her work is a commitment to root-cause understanding —not merely treating symptoms, but tracing the deeper patterns that shape health and disease. Central to her philosophy is a reframing of the body: not as a broken machine to be fixed, but as a highly intelligent communication system shaped by internal biology, the external environment, and emotional experience.

00:00:00 – 00:09:46 Intro & Dr. Kelly’s Path into Functional Medicine

00:09:46 – 00:13:32 The Architecture of Chronic Illness: When the Body Begins to Signal: Chronic illness is understood not as isolated diagnoses, but as multi-system dysregulation across immune, nervous, and endocrine systems, driven by cumulative load. Dr.Kelly uses the metaphor of a “sink”: when inputs (toxins, infections, stress, mould exposure) exceed the body’s capacity to clear them, overflow occurs — and symptoms emerge.

00:14:38 – 00:30:08 The Architecture of Dysregulation: Immune Intelligence, Nervous System Load & Cumulative Breakdown: Mast cells act as sentinels, but in mast cell activation syndrome they misperceive non-threatening inputs, driving chronic inflammation. The immune and nervous systems remain in constant dialogue. Prolonged fight-or-flight keeps the body in a sustained danger state, reinforcing hypersensitivity. Clinically — MCAS, POTS, and autonomic instability — reflect gradual system-wide dysregulation. The task is mapping drivers over time: exposures, infections, gut imbalance, and nervous system load. As she notes, “the body’s intent is always to keep us alive.”

00:30:52 – 00:36:44 Body as Signal System: Meaning Beyond Symptoms : Chronic illness is not only biological overload, but also a breakdown in how we relate to the body’s signals. Rather than seeing symptoms as failure, Dr. Kelly reframes them as communication from the body under strain.The shift: from “my body is against me” to “my body is speaking to me.”

00:36:44 – 00:45:10 Emotional Suppression & Immune Expression: Chronic illness often reflects long-term emotional suppression and disconnection from authentic feeling. The immune system mirrors self-relationship, not just defence.

00:45:10 – 01:05:44 Inflammation, Emotional Processing & Return to Wholeness: Inflammation is adaptive short-term but harmful when chronic, often driven by unresolved emotional and physiological patterns. Healing requires emotional completion, not suppression. Through the “Unforgetting Project,” individuals are supported to feel, be witnessed, and reconnect with authenticity. The body is an intelligent system guiding return to safety, integration, and authenticity.

Website: https://drkellymccann.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drkellymccann/

Linktree: linktr.ee/drkellymccann

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