There exists a certain cognitive epigenetics in the methods through which a culture materially reproduces itself. In microcosm: an art of subtle emptiness and reflexive psychological disassembly (such as that of the Ch’an painting idiom which the painting above by Mi Qiaoming invokes) represents a particular psychological and spiritual or cultural moment. This material culture then proceeds to inflect back through its own transmission medium – artists, writers, philosophers and a wider community. Simply put: we reproduce ourselves through our material culture and our material culture reproduces itself through us. There is no center, there is no periphery and the unity of this representational and cognitive system can only manifest as the mischievous presence of its own absence.