the metaphysics of self immolation
an essay in book form
in memory of aaron bushnell
As part of my residency at Creative Time’s CTHQ during NY Design Week in 2025 I hosted a collective reading and launch of The Metaphysics of Self-Immolation In Memory of Aaron Bushnell by FT—a book I designed and published under my monicer, Façadomy, with some friends I’ll mention below.an essay in book form
in memory of aaron bushnell
When I read FT’s essay I felt a sesnse of urgency to publish it in book form. I reached out to Be Oakley at Genderfail, who offered to produce it. I had already gotten the green-light from Creative Time curators Diya Vij and Anna Hasasyani to take up residence at CTHQ, so the whole thing came together in about one month.
The book comes inside of a fluorescent orange parchment envelope with risograph printing in red. The front cover features an illustration of a figure, dissentigrating, with lines eminating outward. The back cover features a quotation from the text, accompanied a particularly an illustration of a wormhole. The front presents an introduction I wrote, which you can find at the bottom of this page.
The cover was risograph printed in metallic gold on faded black paper. On the back, there’s a quote by Gilles Deleuze on the nature of colonial occupation, in reference to Palestine, and the history of the US alike.
The design is animate, encouraging the eye to move around the page as certain words are emphasized with scale, and certain phrases are emphasized with placement.
The interior pages, printed on a translucent parchment paper, feature a metallic gold rendering of a frame by frame abstraction of the video Bushnell uploaded. The purpose is not to show Bushnell’s demise but a way to slow down time as the author grapples with the weight and worth of such an act.
The markings behave more like a spectre than an image. The are understood through context, rather than by looking directly at them. If the reader flips through the book quickly enough they may notice a flash appear and then move out of the frame.
It’s May, 05 2024. I’m in a kratom bar in lower Manhattan. It’s 1:36am. We’ve been watching a genocide on our iPhones for seven months now. We’re inundated with statistics, facts and figures that aim to quantify the horrors being inflicted by the Israeli occupational forces in Palestine. As the body count rises to unfathomable new heights every week, I’m reminded of something I read in Carlo Rovelli’s book The Order of Time:
“When words fail us, we use math to describe the inexpressible. the things that terrify us most. The vastness of space, the shape of time, the weight and worth of a human soul.”
In April of 2024 the energy and the numbers at the rallies had started to fade. I had started to fade. In an atmosphere of histrionic despotism it’s easy to fixate on rapid-fire updates. It’s rare, though, to be afforded the ability to slow down time and reflect during a groundswell moment of civil unrest while it’s happening. Rarer still, that a philosopher can offer up a timely response—to remind us that the weight and worth of life eclipses the value of any currency, any war, or any politics. When I read this text I was reminded that In times like these, when the narrative seems to lose its edge, the philosopher’s tools can be a great source of renewal. My publishing practice, however infrequent, comes from a desire to provide narratives found in short supply. It wouldn’t be possible without comrades like Genderfail, who’s support in the production of this book enabled us to respond cooperatively and with urgency. During that time the student encampments have enlivened the resistance and raised the stakes. It is my hope that the words in this book can be a source of renewal for anyone running the risk of losing momentum in their role, however small, in the liberation of the Palestinian people. To remind us that Aaron Bushnell’s sacrifice continues to be an act of generosity, that on some level, can work as an allegory for the value of every life lost to this cause.
Riley Hooker Editor, Façadomy