In developmental psychology, transitional objects are objects to which young children develop intense and persistent attachments in unstable situations — a tendency which some psychologists link to the processes of individuation, ego development, the birth of memory, the capacity for empathy and object-relations, the capacity for symbolization, and other formative capacities. Transitional Object, a debut work by Adrian Silbernagel, can be described as a poetic inquiry into the conditions of personal identity or selfhood, in which the poems themselves become the objects to which the developing speaker clings as the various components of their identity — their gender, sexuality, religious beliefs, familial relations, and formative relationships — are called into question.
Humans
- Adrian Silbernagel (author)
- Elæ Moss (artist)
ISBN
978-1-946031-51-8LCCN
2019939288Page count
94Keywords
Poetry, Prose, Psychology, Psych, Mind, Identity, Growth, Self, Gender, Sexuality, Spirituality, Religion, Family, Relationships, LGBT, LGBTQ, LGBTQ+, LGBTQIA, LGBTQIA+Publication date
2019Language(s)
EnglishPublication media type
Print DocumentPublication series
Kin(d)* Texts & ProjectsTransitional Object
About the Contributor(s)
Adrian Silbernagel is a queer + trans poet, writer, and advocate. He grew up in a small town near Fargo, North Dakota, and considers Fargo home. He spent a couple of years in Lubbock, Texas, where he earned a Master's degree in philosophy before moving to Kentucky. Currently he lives in Louisville, where he manages a coffee shop, works on poems, and occasionally travels to other parts of Kentucky to give talks on various aspects of his experience as a trans man. Adrian also runs a web series through the Operating System called Field Notes, where creative practitioners from all disciplines and backgrounds are invited to shine a light behind the curtain on their creative process. Adrian's work been published in The Columbia Review, The Atlas Review, TYPO, PANK, Painted Bride Quarterly, Cosmonauts Avenue, Fruita Pulp, and elsewhere. Find more of Adrian's work online at adriansilbernagel.com. Follow Adrian @adriansilbernagel on IG.
Elæ Moss is a multimodal artist-researcher, curator, designer, and educator. Seeking Speculative Solidarities, they employ analog and digital media to investigate human, institutional and ecological systems and to iterate open source strategies for ecological and social change. Recent projects have shown at La Mama Galleria, EFA Project Space, STWST/Ars Electronica, Usdan Gallery, Judson Church, the Segal Center, SOHO20, Dixon Place, and the Exponential Festival, among others. Select publications include Big Echo, Tagvverk, Vestiges, Matters of Feminist Practice, The Transgender Narratives Anthology, Choice Words: Writers on Abortion, The Brooklyn Poets Anthology, and Resist Much, Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance. Books include Ground, Blood Altas, Overview Effect, Sweet and Low: Indefinite Singular, Bodies of Work, and The Precarity Bodyhacking Work-Book and Guide. Moss is a Professor at Pratt Institute, and the developer / founder of the Operating System + Liminal Lab. More at: https://onlywhatican.net and https://theoperatingsystem.org.
