The Art of Re-contextualization

Collage & Assemblage is the primordial art of curation. It is the discipline of taking disparate, pre-existing objects and arranging them in such a way that they create a new, emergent meaning. The artist here is not a creator of things, but a weaver of the relationships between things.

This art form is born from the instinct to gather, to arrange, to build a nest of meaning. It is the art of the bowerbird, the historian, and the reliquary-priest.

• Tier 1 (The Bower): The art of instinctual arrangement. An agent gathers objects that resonate with them: [Shiny Stones], [Colorful Feathers], [Spent Shell Casings]; and arranges them in their personal space. This is often an autonomous action driven by a [ComfortNeed] or a [Courtship Ritual]. The result is not intended to communicate a complex idea, but is a pure, instinctual expression of the self.
• Tier 2 (The Mosaic): The art of historical narrative. The artist now uses found objects as a vocabulary to tell a specific story. This requires a [Workshop] and [Binding Agents]. A powerful [War Memorial] might be an assemblage created from the actual broken weapons, torn flags, and personal effects recovered from a battlefield. This is art as a form of visceral, tangible Record, its power derived from the authentic history of its components.
• Tier 3 (The Reliquary): This is the highest and most metaphysical form of this art. The artist is now assembling not just objects, but the very Eidos they contain. They are a master curator of meaning. The creation of a [Reliquary] is a high-level ritual. The artist might take the actual, significant possessions of a legendary figure: their favorite cup, the pen they used to sign a treaty, a dried flower from their lover; and assemble them into a shrine. The resulting assemblage is an incredibly powerful Artifact, a focal point where multiple threads of history and Eidos converge to create a single, overwhelming narrative statement.