What is Eargo?
“Eargo” is a sound first, that begins with a vowel that is closed, constrained, nasal, and dissonant – the sound of the letter “E.” Its second letter, “A,” is mouth-made, and is open, sonorous, and resonant.
“Eargo” is an invented word that combines the words “ear” and “go” into one word. It also sounds like “ergo” and contains the word “argo.”
“Ergo” is Latin for “therefore,” a word that French philosopher Rene Decartes made famous, in the 1600s, when he penned the phrase, “I think, therefore I am” - Cogito, ergo sum.
“Argo” is the ship that carried Jason and the Argonauts to a place beyond the known world called Colchis to retrieve a family treasure, the Golden Fleece.
These were the associations at play when I came up with the name “Eargo.”
And so…
Eargo is about:
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moving from dissonance to resonance
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invention
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living life as a listening
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a journey to a place not yet known to us, where we retrieve what is rightfully ours
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a place of transition, a “what’s next” place, where we imagine our future selves
All these associations are contained and compressed into this one word, like an oak inside an acorn.
We are oaks inside acorns. Potentials waiting to be born.
To examine and pursue each of the above associations in the world requires some form of “endeavoring” on our part, a dedication to the pursuit of what is mysterious yet meaningful.
And so there it is, an attunement and an alignment to the meaning of Eargo Endeavors.
Who Am I?
My relationship to creativity began quite by accident late one night at the age of twelve when I couldn’t sleep. In the darkness, to keep myself company and entertained, I began to sing, something I had never done before. The words just came, the song’s story just came, along with its melody. In less than an hour I had written an entire tune. I fell asleep pleased with my spontaneous creation. In the morning I awoke assured the lyrics and the melody would be there to greet me. They were not. During the wee hours they vanished. From this little episode I learned I could not take this mysterious voice that had come to me unbidden in the night for granted – and so, from then on, I have recorded and preserved my ideas and creative manifestations, kept them close and safe.
Later, during college, while pursuing a B.A. in English Literature, I found my way into the world of photography while chronicling a year of study in Scotland.
Later still, after I had taken photography as far as I could, I stumbled into film, a medium where my love of photographic composition, writing and music could co-exist and move together. The end result was an M.F.A in film production.
Since 1988, in one form or another, I have mentored and coached hundreds of people of all ages and backgrounds, in filmmaking, multimedia design, and poetry; I have done so through SF State’s Cinema Department, the College of Extended Learning’s Multimedia Studies Program, and poetry workshops and community events of my own creation.