Where might we find joy? Joy lies in immaterial superfluity. I find it in the long hours spent reading a book, when reading a book you create, for yourself, from marks upon a page, an entire, vivid interior world. Or you might find it in communing with a painting, sculpture, or installation until you feel you’re part of it, or it is part of you. Or in lying in a summer field looking up at the dusk sky unfolding from palest pink to indigo, the awakening of the stars. There’s no clear point to any of these things: they don’t make money or burn calories or help you network or make you famous. They make you human. No robot will ever replicate the twinge behind your sternum or the filling of the throat when you hear particular phrases of the favorite song, or sound of cello playing Bach, or a favorite theme of Tchaikovsky.  The moments that matter most often occur in our minds or imaginations. They may remain unarticulated, never breaking the surface of our lives, and yet they prove communicable nonetheless. That’s what only love can do, it’s why art matters.

My name is Katerina Kashtan and I am here to share the knowledge of immaterial joy with you. KSHtN was founded to research on the influence of art to a personality and to take this knowledge to the next level: mental health, soft skills development, emotional intelligence – these are all fundamental points for building the human centric world around us. Enjoy!