The Imperceptible Beat of Images

The Imperceptible Beat of Images is the result of a collaboration with my good friend Carlos Maiques (https://www.tebeosfera.com/autores/maiques_carlos.html). The 58 drawings that illustrate the book are his, while the text culminates a long creative process that I began in 2014. It all started as an allegorical map of the psyche, which I imagined as a gigantic tree; the cortical world of thoughts was evoked by the canopy of branches, while the unconscious world where intuitions are forged was conjured by the huge underground roots. I explored this pair of opposites through a multitude of drawings and poems, and finally I gathered them into a poetic tale. When Carlos read the first draft, it inspired him to make several hundred drawings, which fuelled my writing process.

This book is about the discovery —from the point of view of consciousness— of the deepest part of the psyche, which is linked to instincts and the intrinsic order of nature. As happens in dreams, the “factors of the unconscious” (the autonomous psyche) tend to personify themselves as people, animal or even object, and challenge the “I” with their own voice. These spontaneous personifications can serve as a bridge to establish an enriching rapport with the unconscious. The Imperceptible Beat of Images connects with the alchemical imaginary, where the ultimate goal is the union between the solar dimension of our consciousness with the lunatic aspect of the unconscious.

Vandendorpe, May 2023