Seán Krow (n.)

I consider myself first and foremost to be a human being, and secondly a global citizen. My very existence is the result of the vast migrations and complex interactions between people from disparate regions of the world and cultural frameworks. From this vantage point, I identify most strongly with the continual transformations which my ancestors and their communities experienced as they navigated shifting geographic, sociocultural, and political landscapes.

In terms of my personal migratory route, I was born in the Sonoran Desert (south Tucson), but have lived in Cascadia (around Seattle) for most of my life. Now I'm living at the southern tip of Wrangellia and the northern tip of the Crescent terrane of Siletzia (in Metchosin).

Over the course of this geotemporal journey, I've become increasingly drawn to exploring the mutability, diversity, and complexity of human experiences, as well as the nature of our relationships with our selves, each other, & the spaces which we inhabit (both off- and online). These interests inform my personal & social navigation, as well as my approach to self-expression.

Through discovering countless ways of interpreting and being in the world, I've come to embrace creative exploration and metamorphosis as vessels for greater wellbeing, intellectual nourishment, and personal contentment. As such, I also resist narrowing my mode of expression to any one medium or subject.

To learn a bit more about me & various elements of this site, view the source code of this page (typically, Option+⌘+U, ⌘+U, or Ctrl+U).

In 02018, I took an Indigenous Studio Art course at Camosun College with Hjalmer Wenstob alongside Traditional Printmaking with Brenda Petays and Anthropology of Death with Nicole Kilburn which, in combination, sparked an exploration of selfhood, heritage, and mortality through playful, reverent artmaking. Having struggled with depression and anxiety for most of my life, contemplating these topics and reinterpreting my personal mythology through writing & art has been extremely therapeutic.

I believe that creativity in general is an extremely powerful means of not only gaining a deeper understanding of our personal experiences, but also of transcending sociocultural and political divides by summoning shared aspects of our collective humanity. Through artistic expression, I seek to explore life as an enchanted process which we all share.

In addition to my introspective, human-centered creative endeavours, I also strive to connect more deeply to the natural world which surrounds and nurtures me - through stewardship, learning, writing, and art. As a result, my partner and I have been developing an ecologically-oriented creative partnership called Hummingcrow & Co. which empowers us to learn together while raising awareness about the environmental, cultural, and historical importance of the Garry Oak / kwetlal ecosystem which we inhabit - as well as to reflect upon the joy and wellbeing we've attained through engaging with our local habitat.

You can follow along with our discoveries and musings here, and explore our shared research here.

In 02018, I started cultivating a community-broadening project which is oriented around making it easier for people to identify opportunities to strike up conversations with strangers & to create more approachable social spaces. The seed of this project was predicated on the idea that we should make openness to conversation quietly explicit through the use of a simple symbol which can be easily drawn/copied, displayed/worn, & removed.

I've been an outsider for most of my life, and despite the challenges that I've experienced as a result, I've learned to embrace the ways in which this role has empowered me to discern & build social bridges in order to foster honest, deep conversations with people from myriad backgrounds and viewpoints. So many of our current sociopolitical issues are rooted in stereotyping, prejudice, and biases which I've found can be directly challenged through exposure to 'others' who aren't 'like us'.

Unfortunately, most of our social activities are now tied to online platforms which are incentivized to fuel division, insulation, and dependency rather than expansion, transcendence, and resilience. This observation has sprouted into digital explorations of alternative tools & spaces for community-broadening, which you can learn about here.

I've been enchanted by both nature and technology for as long as I can remember, and have come to believe that approaching natural and digital ecotones with a sense of wonder & curiosity fosters personal growth and collective expansion. I also strongly believe that we need to develop technologies which are less ecologically extractive, more human-friendly, and, frankly, more fun to use.

This has led me to become involved in the solarpunk community - a growing network of people who are imagining and building toward a positive future which seeks a symbiotic balance between technological empowerment, ecological sustainability, and collective resilience through collaborative learning, exploration, and experimentation.

To learn more about the solarpunk ethos, I highly recommend this modular essay by Zach Mandeville as well as this manifesto which does a great job summarizing the evolving nature of the movement.

Furthermore, as my life has become ever more deeply intertwined with digitality, I've increasingly approached this realm as a ritual space for self-exploration through evocation and reflection. Over the past several years, I've been experimenting with ways of approaching my distributed personhood in a more fluid, meaningful way online both for my own contemplative purposes, as well as in preparation for my inevitable digital death & afterlife.

You can visit the main entrance for these manifestations here.

During a five-year period of my life, five members of my family died and I began experiencing an undiagnosed chronic illness. This confluence led me to completely reconfigure and uproot my life, and to contemplate death and heritage in a deeper way than ever before. I also began to read about the myriad ways in which people approach mortality, and to initiate conversations about death with as many people as possible.

Through these experiences, I came to realize how disconnected so many of us have become from preparing for, understanding, and coping with death. This eventually culminated in taking an Anthropology of Death course with Nicole Kilburn which greatly expanded my awareness about how incredibly multifaceted death is, and exposed me to many ways in which people around the world have approached mortality throughout history. Nicole's class was ultimately one of the most spiritually wholesome, intellectually stimulating, and impactful learning experiences that I've ever had.

Now, in addition to working through my own death anxiety and grief, I'm developing a set of resources for helping people approach mortality and navigate loss more bravely and mindfully. In the process, I'm becoming more death literate myself, relieving loved ones' death anxiety, and learning to plan for my own death in an empowered way.