Alchemical Blog
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Co-working at Alchemical Spaces
For the past week and a half, I've been exploring the coworking side of the
Alchemical Nursery, right here in the belly of the beastAlchemical Spaces in the Gear Factory, a five-story warehouse on Syracuse's Near West Side.Central New York has a bunch of people in it who work out of home offices or coffee shops or bars or other places with free wifi. So, essentially, you have a bunch of creative people working in isolation, except for people they happen to run into. And those with home offices have to remember to vacuum the living room and clean the bathroom if they want to invite a client to that home office.
Meanwhile, there's an office in the building with a bunch of desks and just the li'l ol' Alchemical Nursery in it. Why not get a bunch of those creative people together to feed off each others' energy, put their heads together for new projects, and share expertise, like they do in a "normal" corporate office? I've loved this idea since I first heard about it, and I know there's a call for it here. Here's my space – I love being around all these old books!
I found out about the coworking opportunity through Giffordslist, a local organization that is a service buy-sell-swap exchange (like Craigslist, only local and easier to navigate). I followed the instructions, had a meeting and a tour, and totally got on the bandwagon.
I do have a day job, but I do lots of things on the side, like blogging, web design, social media consulting, etc., and working out of my home can lend itself to distractions (oh look! a piano! oh look! a guitar! oh look! dishes that could be washed!). So I really appreciate the opportunity to have space to go to.
I signed my coworking lease on Thursday, December 17, and came into the Spaces for the first time to work on Monday, December 21. Since then, I've been uber-productive. I completely overhauled my personal site, and launched two new blogs.
I've also been blogging here on the Alchemical Nursery site, and helped get the Twitter account and Facebook page started – and hopefully you'll help make those awesome.
I've met a couple of our other coworkers, too, including accomplished artist Charlie Sam, who put on a communal pot of chicken soup last night. How awesome is that?
I could go into a bunch of details about how coworking is good for a city, as well as for people, but someone's already put together a highly polished presentation for that. Here it is, via Frank.
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What does the Alchemical Nursery logo mean?
If you're like a lot of people first checking out the Alchemical Nursery website, you take one look at the logo of the serpent swallowing its tail wrapped around a lightning bolt and say, "huh?" And even as you read more about the Nursery, you still don't understand.
The serpent swallowing its own tail is an ancient symbol called the Ouroboros. It is usually drawn in a circle, and is at times a dragon, a snake, or another serpent. It dates back to around 1600 BCEcycles, self-reflection, and regeneration.
While it may seem that swallowing one's tail is the ultimate in self-destruction, some versions show the tail living inside the serpent, as in a loop.
Alchemical Nursery isn't the only one using the
Ouroboros as a representative. There is a poetry and art review called ouroboros review, and a publisher called Ouroboros Press.In the AN logo, the Ouroboros changes shape from the circle, taking on the symbol used for the value of infinity – a value defined as boundless. Some theories have the 8-shaped symbol dating back to alchemical days as an alternate shape for the Ouroboros. Other theories conclude that it is a ribbon – it is called a lemniscate, which derives from the Latin word meaning ribbon.
The infinity symbol was first introduced to mathematics in the mid-17th century CE.
The lightning bolt in myth symbolizes many things. Zeus and other mythological figures use lightning bolts as threats of enforcement. Some say it represents a loss of ignorance. In any representation, a lightning bolt has a sense of immediacy. It strikes quickly, and whatever the bolt strikes is altered in some way.
Taken together, the Alchemical Nursery logo represents many things – renewal, boundlessness, a loss of ignorance, and more – how do these things fit into your life?
