Next Update: 26/04/20
Reminiscing on past chapters. The death of a friend. The feeling of hearing my birth name falls somewhere between the two.
A recent conversation with my friend Myunghyun reminded me of the power that lies in a name. Though I’ve never felt strongly about my given name, I’ve begun to feel a creeping sense of loss.
In embracing myself as January, however, I’ve found a new rock upon which to steady myself. A temporary net of support.
It’s only year one, and we’ll see this cycle repeat itself again and again. A repeating pattern of change — one of many within the project.
Understood in this way, umwelt is “the core sense of Uexküll’s concept – subjective space in identical time” (Kull 2023a: 178). For the sake of clarity, to avoid blurring the concepts, Kull (2023a: 177–178) proposes the term ‘umweb’ for the second type of umwelt, suggesting that Distributed umwelt is the web of meaning-relations over the course of time (diachronically), both intra- and inter-organismically. For this, the term ‘umweb’ is proposed. Umweb is the whole set of sign relations that organisms have through-out their life.Furthermore, Kull describes ‘umwelt’ and ‘umweb’ in terms of opposition: the former is personal and closed, while the latter is interpersonal and open. However – and this is important from the perspective of our discussion, umwelt is the subjective world of the organism (as Uexküll intended) at a given moment, whereas umweb is diachronic, encompassing a longer time perspective, and sometimes also relationships between different umwelten. Umwelt is subject to subjective time, whereas umweb – if we can simplify matters in such a way – is objective, or perhaps ‘shared’ would be a better word here.”
Katarzyna Machtyl, 2024
Don't worry, I have it set so that I cannot see your response.
This active perspective on meaning is central to The Long Year from a wide variety of angles and at various levels of conceptualization. To name a specific factor as it relates to TLY, our current conventions of naming could be considered to be an anasemiotic structure of today’s social culture. The communicative structures of language allow for the categorization, or grouping, of sounds into names, which gives them meaning to be used as names in everyday practice. TLY’s practice of assuming a new name functions as an attempted act at catasemiosis in which the central questions of the project are exerted upon the world through a set of social actions.
The anasemiotic process poses a unique challenge in that it contributes to an inherent loss of information through the practice of grouping objects together. To solely focus on a grouping of similarities leads to an erasure of individual distinctions. The categorization of an animal as a mammal, for example, focuses on the shared traits of possessing warm blood and fur, giving birth to live young, and producing milk to feed their young. If, for example, I am told about the discovery of a new mammal, I know to expect that it possesses the aforementioned mammalian traits. What this label does not communicate, however, is whether I should expect to see the long neck of a giraffe, the hard tail of a beaver, or some entirely new distinctive trait upon viewing this newly discovered creature. If a cheetah is simply described as ‘a mammal,’ all of its distinguishing information — its spots, running speed, diet, coloration, etc. — is lost.
As a whole, contemporary naming conventions are far too complex, culturally dependent, and dynamic to break down and define in this single post. There are, however, a few specific aspects of naming practices that fall under TLY’s consideration. Whereas most given names are carefully, intentionally chosen by the members of one’s family, the individual relationship between a name and its subject can, at times, feel somewhat arbitrary (given that a person rarely has a say in the decision behind their own name). The simultaneous presence of arbitrariness and intention is similarly present in The Long Year. The 12 names that will be assumed over its course have been intentionally selected, though my own personal connection to these names is severed due to their predetermined connotations as part of an anasemiotic cultural system relating to the measurement of time (similar to how given names often relate to meaning systems such as cultural tradition or religious belief).
Catasemiosis then comes into play through the continued assertion of these changing names in my day-to-day life, both in external, social interactions and in internally affirming these changes to myself. The resulting expression of this assertion could be seen as one angle of The Long Year’s mission. What exactly might this entail? To be honest, I don’t know yet. Each new introduction, name correction, and online account creation, however, brings a bit more clarity to the nature of this process.
I’d say that The Long Year is being treated as an experiment. I’m curious to see how these changes will affect my ego, sense of identity and social interactions. This section of the website will be updated with the turn of each 节气, or roughly every two weeks, beginning with the dawn of the new Lunar new year in 2026 (year of the Fire Horse).
Additionally, since July 24th, 2025, I have been participating in a challenge put on by the lovely team at Wenjüe Lu: #365DaysofWenjüeLu. At this point, I’ve spent a little over five months wearing only their clothes. This small change in my life has shown to transform my habits and ways of thinking. I’m curious to see what stands out during the months that these two projects overlap.
I’d like to express a preliminary sense of gratitude to all of you who are joining me in this experiment. If our paths cross in any way over the course of the next twelve years, make no mistake — you are a part of this too.
January, 2026