Preserving our humanity in the Digital Age
THE INITIATIVE
Founded in 2021, The Life Calling Initiative responds to the increasingly eroding boundaries between humanity and technology in the Digital Age. Its fundamental mission is to both raise awareness and to develop educational strategies to help preserve our humanity in light of the encroaching digital landscape. The Life Calling Initiative explores the nexus of smart-technology and human behavior.
Life Calling Initiative functions as a non-profit organization.
As the tick to the flesh, the digital device to the psyche device. The remedy is a matter of Truth.
As the tick to the flesh, the digital device to the psyche device. The remedy is a matter of Truth.
JOHN MACK, 2021
VISION
MISSION
It is the mission of Life Calling to raise awareness, spark dialogue, convene thought leaders and develop critical education strategies to approach the Digital Age with thoughtfulness, balance and awareness.
One of the most pressing conversations of our time is about the threat that the unchecked use of smart-devices poses to our humanity.
One of the most pressing conversations of our time is about the threat that the unchecked use of smart-devices poses to our humanity.
JOHN MACK, 2021
VALUES
The guiding principles of this endeavor include the support for human autonomy and sovereignty over our digital devices and the algorithms designed to divert our awareness. Life Calling’s values are rooted in humanism, health—especially mental health, the right for privacy, physical connectivity, civil discourse, democracy, freedom from coercion, and self-expression.
JOHN MACK FOUNDER
Artist and author John Mack founded Life Calling as part of his years-long exploration of the increasingly slippery boundary between reality and virtuality.
A frequent speaker at conferences and universities on the subjects of technology, awareness and consciousness, Mack’s examination of these topics recently culminated in A Species Between Worlds: Our Nature, Our Screens, an interactive visual art experience in the heart of New York City concerning humanity’s current migration from the natural world to the virtual world. Running the entire month of September 2022, the exhibition drew a wide array of voices and featured diverse programming including talks and presentations, film screenings, and other educational activities.
Mack recently published Notes to Selfie: Bits of Truth in a Phoney World, a volume of thoughts and aphorisms. Mack’s collection of poetry, A Land Between Worlds: The Shifting Poetry of the Great American Landscape, was released in 2022, coinciding with A Species Between Worlds. Mack is a 2022 honoree of The Explorer’s Club 50: Fifty people changing the world who the world needs to know about.
PROJECTS
A Species Between Worlds
our Nature, our Screens
An interactive photography experience and month-long hub for the gathering of some of the most influential voices at the forefront of the battle to defend human awareness in light of the encroaching digital landscape. Premiered in NYC, 2022. (Future dates/locations coming soon.)
A Land Between Worlds
The Shifting Poetry of the Great American Landscape
Bits of Truth in a Phoney World
Awareness 101
A Crash Course in Human Consciousness
Awareness 101 is an academic course about the nature and modalities of human consciousness and how they are affected by the dominance of either our integration with the world of nature or with our surrendering to digital technology. The course delves into the varying levels of human consciousness as expressed both through the life of the individual and through the history of mankind as a whole.
COMING SOON
LECTURES
Podcast Episode sponsored by Grand Seiko
PRESS
August 2022
(…)”
August 2022
“An immersive exhibition and forum examines the intersection of humanity and technology.
Debuting in September 2022, in New York City
The Work of Artist and Author John Mack, A Species Between Worlds is an Experience Grounded in Technology, Photography and Psychology. (…)”
2021 December
“The Life Calling Initiative was announced today in New York City.. It responds to our increasing reliance on technology in the Digital Age, and the various challenges this reliance presents to humanity. Our new technological tools may be moving us away from the experience of the natural world. The newly established Life Calling Initiative explores this nexus of new technology and human behavior. Its fundamental mission is to both raise awareness and to develop educational
strategies to best avert these dangers. (…)”
STAY IN TOUCH
Life Calling is a project of the Giving Back Fund, Tax ID: 04-3367888, a non-profit
corporation with federal tax-exempt status from the IRS under section 501(c)3.
NEW YORK ©2022 Life Calling. USA. All rights reserved.