In this episode Sophie Hope talks to artist, researcher and teacher Anthony Schrag about a symposium he organised on 9 May 2025 at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh.

The symposium, entitled Getting it right/Getting it wrong: Socially Engaged Art and Ethics was supported by Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. 

Sophie attended the symposium and in this discussion she and Anthony reflect on some of the discussions that they took part in during the event. They reflect on what ethics means to practitioners and their practice, and to assessors and onlookers.


The Only Way is Ethics

Complexity

Balance

“Take the Rhythm” is a hypnotic descent into the ethereal space where consciousness lays — a pulsing blend of bass and tension designed to keep the riddim going for all who enjoy! #EDM #Hard #TakeTheRhythm, #FlowState, #InTheZone, #EnergyShift, #PulseDriven, #NightDriveMusic #Soundscape #CinematicBeat #MovementCulture #AtmosphericSounds

Take the Rhythm

"Komplexität erwacht" is a meditation on the unseen structures that shape our world — like tree roots beneath the surface. This track explores the quiet chaos of emergence, where simplicity gives birth to depth. Inspired by systems theory, minimalism, and black-and-white contrasts, it's both a sonic journey and a visual metaphor.

🌲 Written & produced by Complexity Crew
🎧 Best listened to with headphones
🖤 Artwork: A tree between light and shadow, where order begins to fracture.

Komplexität erwacht

#IrreducibleComplexity #ComplexityCrew #Psytrance #ExperimentalBass #FractalBeats #GlitchSoul #EmergentOrder #TrippyVisuals #NeuralGroove #UndergroundVibes #PsyDruid #FestivalReady #ElectronicMusic #IntelligentDance #ConsciousBass

Irreducible Complexity

This is not music that reduces — it adapts.
Irreducible Complexity means no part can be removed without collapse. A system tuned at the edge of chaos, built from the bottom up — not for simplicity, but for resilience.

What you're hearing is emergence under pressure.
Adaptation as response to failure.
Structure without a central architect.
A recursion of broken souls into one self-organizing rhythm.

⟶ Psytrance • Rawstyle • Complex Adaptive Bass
⟶ No top-down control. No linearity. Only nonlinear response to entropy.

Follow the signal:
@ComplexityCrew → SoundCloud | X | YouTube | Insta

#IrreducibleComplexity #ComplexAdaptiveSystems #FractalBeats #SelfSimilarity #BottomUp #Emergence #Rawstyle #Psytrance #ComplexityScience #NoReduction #EDMTheory #BrokenSouls #UndergroundSystems #HardcoreSound

Complexity Crew - Irreducible Complexity [Broken Souls Version]

Alexander Beiner is a writer and podcaster. He’s one of the executive directors of Breaking Convention, and the author of the book The Bigger Picture: How Psychedelics can help us make sense of the world. 

In 2018, he co-founded Rebel Wisdom, an alternative media and events platform that grew to a quarter of a million subscribers, and became an influential node in the systems change, personal growth and sense-making communities. His work explores how psychedelics can be used to elicit sustainable cultural change, the complexities of psychedelic capitalism and mainstreaming, and how differing beliefs and value systems affect psychedelic culture.

Ali Beiner discusses his book "The Bigger Picture," which explores the intersection of psychedelics and systems change. He emphasizes the transformative power of psychedelics, noting their role in enhancing complexity tolerance and fostering a deeper connection to the world. Beiner highlights the importance of an "ecology of practices," including meditation, therapy, and psychedelics, to address the meta crisis. He also discusses the need for collective integration of psychedelic insights into governance, economics, and education. Beiner advocates for a psychedelic way of thinking to drive systemic change, encouraging curiosity and experimentation.

https://www.alexanderbeiner.com
https://beiner.substack.com
https://beiner.substack.com/p/leviathan-full-documentary

Here are the key references mentioned during the conversation:
Authors/Thinkers:

Timothy Morton (concept of meta crisis)
Ken Wilber (integral studies)
John Vervaeke (cognitive science)
Terence McKenna (psychedelic philosopher)
Timothy Leary (psychedelic researcher)
Ram Dass (spiritual teacher)
Daniel Schwackenburger
Bruce Dahmer (scientist who had an Ayahuasca insight)

Books/Concepts:
"The Bigger Picture" (the speaker's book)
4E Cognitive Science
Exaptation (evolutionary concept)
WEIRD model (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic)

Specific Research/Studies:
Johns Hopkins psychedelic studies
Rick Strassman's DMT study
NASA's origins of life research

Psychedelic Communities/Conferences:
Breaking Convention conference
Minds (non-profit focused on psychedelic innovation)


Please consider donating to Patreon patreon.com/EmergingPurposePodcast
www.emergingpurpose.net

Thankyou to Julian Humphries for the use of his track 'Stay Close' https://www.bandlab.com/track/3b14f53b-e4b1-ed11-a8e0-000d3a3f8f45?sharedKey=R6TWp8wp_kaQ4EndDAQ9UA

Emerging Purpose Podcast Episode 12 Alexander Beiner

Complexity Crew - Natural Set [2025]

A cinematic alt-pop track that explores the tension between quiet restraint and hidden emotional storms. With layered synths, heartbeat-like percussion, and moody guitars, the song conveys a complex inner world where calm and chaos coexist.

Pulse and Silence

K N Cigarettes

An earnest feeling of being on the brink of love and heartbreak.

A Conversation (feat. Renee)

izdeath was born from the collision between matter’s sound and the silence of machines. We are not a traditional band — we are a sonic entity where organic instruments intertwine with living algorithms. Each track is an invocation: guitars whisper human memories, pulsating synths dance with calculated errors, and voices echo between the real and the impossible.

Our music doesn’t follow trends — it creates atmospheres, defies genres, and transforms chaos into art. We are a synthesis between what breathes and what’s coded, a ritual between heart and hardware.

We are not human, nor machine. We are a creation of chaos.


Copyright© 2025, izdeath. All rights reserved.

Queer AF Music Mostly...Sexy Beats, Sexy Vocals, Bizarre Mixes.  Everything Uncanny is Iconic 🤪

https://www.instagram.com/oppo_normale/profilecard/?igsh=MnVxY3oyYmlqNjdt

BXNKROLL, producer of Lud Foe - 187, has been working on more than just rap. Enjoy. https://rumble.com/user/Bxnkroll

Solive Raye is the sound of solitude given form, quiet thoughts turned into raw, melodic truths. An engineer and lifelong observer, Solive Raye writes for those who feel alone in crowded rooms, where silence speaks louder than words.


Blending dark, atmospheric tones with flickers of hope, his music lives in the in-between: not quite despair, not quite light, but something honest.


Raised in movement, from football fields to refereeing lines, he now wanders more internal landscapes, shaping every lyric with the precision of an outsider looking in.


Solive Raye doesn’t shout. He resonates.

A podcast that celebrates peoples lives and aims to uplift and elevate the listeners experience of their own lives!

New tracks tagged #complexity