Carlisle: "A cosmogram is a particular thing, such as an object or a myth or a dance, that offers an image of the cosmos as a whole. At the same time, it embodies and articulates its specific milieu: the materials it was made from, the crafts and technologies used to produce it, the ways it is (or was) engaged with or put to use"
The "concept of a cosomgram" (Carlisle attribues it to John Tresch) can be used "to pick out certain art[i]facts [...] which have the special feature of invoking a cosmic totality" ("a Hindu temple, a world atlas, a Chinese garden, or an icon of a pregnant Mary")
"Or the concept can be applied to any object as a hermeneutic lens, provoking us to interpret it cosmogrammatically--it could be a shopping trolley, or a photo of avocado toast on Instagram, or a pair of trainers. What worlds do these objects and images disclose?" (65)
"If we ask how a particular human life expresses a milieu with cosmological dimensions, we are preparing to read it cosmogrammatically"