DEAD END : DOG ART
(Towards Another Understanding of Reality)
Ashley Johnson
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DEAD END : DOG ART |
The Art Anomaly
It has been apparent to me for some time that there is a discrepancy between the value placed on art and its actual visibility within the broader society. It seems that only a small minority of ordinary people show any interest in art and, invariably, they claim a lack of understanding of so-called 'modern art'. This suggests that people could have lost the ability to commune with art, or that art might not be communicating properly with people. It is an anomaly that the art world continues to grow exponentially and art purports to be an important cultural activity despite seeming to have 'lost' the audience for which it supposedly exists. On a more complex level it may be that fine art has never been intended for the broader public or that art institutions are elitist and too directly linked with capital and property. Despite ideological differences, the practice of art is considered to be a fundamentally human activity that distinguishes us from other beasts and has the potential to inform us culturally. We learn to appreciate art, and therefore become cultured, by absorbing the theoretical information which is disseminated after the art manifestation has been dissected.For some artists, like the Dasartists, the cognition of art as we know it, is at a dead end. That is to say, the patterns by which we interpret art are not giving satisfactory answers to the questions that the late twentieth century is posing. Formalist Art theory, as espoused by theoreticians like Heinrich Wölfflin, has established a linear historical progression which validates art forms in relation to preceding art manifestations. A lineage is postulated that leads, somewhat shakily, from Greco-Roman times into the Middle Ages, up to the Renaissance and out through Modernism. Thus we have arrived at Post-Modernism, which could be described as a profusion of confusion. There seems to be a fundamental breakdown in communication, as though art theory had swallowed its own tail like an ouroboros. In the absence of a discernible direction, it has become fashionable to laud directionlessness. Dasart would posit that a different definition of Art would demonstrate that it is simultaneously directional and directionless at all times. At present, art theory is grappling with the implications of Post-Modernism; that there is no discernible linear pattern. The Dasartists believe that art making activities have always been linked with the full expression of the human psyche, and that theoretical constructs attempt to rationalise these expressions, and in the process end by circumscribing them. Art theory develops into a self-referential system which proceeds according to its own rationale and has precious little meaning outside of itself.
It may be argued that as a cultural activity, art should be self-contained. This perception relies upon the delusion that culture can be quantified. It suggests that culture is acquired, which is to suggest, hypothetically, that at some point one was cultureless. By extension, this implies that certain cultures are less developed because they do not exhibit the full range of cultural manifestation. An important question to ask is whether culture is indeed learnt from the environment or is it more innate than we think? Given the way we structure our art institutions, we obviously still see art as a discrete activity, separate from other disciplines. The student is taught skills and receives knowledge, whereupon the student will enter the system and perpetuate these in turn. Dasart sees Education as a myth based on the outmoded premise that knowledge is acquired like a commodity. We would challenge the notion that art can be taught at all. We regard expressions like art to be biologically selected, tangible extensions of the human body. What is passed on by educational institutions is a particular mode of perception; a monopoly of vision. If there is any validity to this point of view, then the Western model of seeing and understanding reality will have to change radically. This is despite the dominant pragmatist view that reality consists of multiple realities as expressed by modern philosophers like Jacques Derrida. It does not matter which interest-driven group or individual is interpreting reality at a given point, as all of these groups use the same, flawed, behavioural 'tool' for perceptual and conceptual interpretation. New forms of science, like Cognitive Science, are gradually whittling away at the foundations of the Western system of perception. This system is based on a context of the individual as related to phenomena and generates separations in order to rationalise meaning. The interrelationships between subject and object become defined and are assumed to be a reflection of reality, irrespective of whether a transitional or an absolutist interpretation is employed, but this approach is limited as a model for understanding reality because the context is always assumed. The assumption of context also conditions Western art understanding so that the processes of definition bring about a system of perception that delimits art's powers of expression.
The Super-organism
Scientific understanding has, likewise, reached a crisis point, because it is impossible to isolate phenomena and test for absolute truths. There is always a measure of subjectivity present. An added complication is the contradiction implied by the particle/wave theory, whereby only one or the other system can be used to describe reality at any one moment. There is a growing awareness that we have been missing something. For instance, the scientist, James Lovelock has a hypothesis called Gaia, that suggests that there is an unknown, self-regulatory mechanism, which promotes the life of the planet. We are not used to considering the planet as a living organism although previous civilisations, like the Greeks, did. Briefly, Lovelock proposed that lifeless planets will have atmospheres which can be determined by physics and chemistry alone and will exhibit an equilibrium; in contrast to this, living organisms would require the atmosphere for raw materials and to deposit waste, thus causing its chemical composition to change continuously. In comparing Mars and the Earth, he found the atmosphere on Mars exhibited high levels of carbon dioxide and was chemically stable while the Earth was in a state of chemical disequilibrium, with a mixture of combustible gases that could not exist on a lifeless planet . But he knew that the Earth's atmospheric system had been stable for periods longer than human history. He realised that climate might be regulated, since levels of heat from the sun have been increasing. He extrapolates from this that a control system exists which comprises the whole planet and all life on it. Thus, he suggests that organisms and their environment are bound together within an evolving system; a super-organism. This hypothesis is in direct conflict with our accepted notions of what is living and what is not living (Lovelock11990:38).Descartes' Error
Cartesian logic which plays such a large part in the human's conception of itself, also gave birth to scientific method. Descartes developed his concept of mathesis universalis through analytical geometry, which suggested that space and spatial relations could be measured (Cassirer2 1944:49). Quantities which could not be quantified exactly, would fit into the system if new symbols were created for them. Descartes never managed to realise this mathematical model of the world, but the principle that the world of natural phenomena could be understood through number and measurement, became basic scientific procedure (Cassirer31944:214). We find a similar preoccupation with mathematics and geometry in art. Perfect proportions were very important in Greek theory, which strove to find equivalents for the virtues of their gods as represented in the human body, and thus initiated the cult of the individual. The Roman theoretician, Vitruvius, formalised some of these geometric ideas and consequently developed systems like the golden section. Geometry played a significant role in Medieval art as it continued to do in Renaissance design through ideas like perspective. The Renaissance also revived the Greco-Roman ideals of proportionality and renewed the significance of the golden mean. Present-day art productions still value the grid and quantify the 'beautiful' or the 'right' in terms of proportionality. These measurements are related to the human frame and thus do feel correct but the tendency to regard them as absolutes retards artistic vision because it is exclusively humanist.We have the unfortunate habit of defining life in terms of our rational experience. Descartes' proof of existence - "I think, therefore I am", began his quest for truth. However, locked within his perception is also the idea that the human is somehow unique and separate from other animals, in the respect that it can think. Descartes saw this ability as God-given. Going further, he described the workings of the human body in mechanical terms. The brain is perceived to be of substantive matter but the mind is considered to be immaterial. Thus the mind activates the brain which causes the body to act like a machine. He considered the nexus of this interaction to be the pineal gland, situated in the center of the skull. He also regarded some ideas as innate to humanity, like the idea of free will. This emanated from God and therefore must be true. Thus, he created the perception that the mind is somewhat independent from the body/brain and in control of it. In Meditations he asks:
What then am I? A thing that thinks. What is a thing that thinks? It is a thing which doubts, understands, conceives, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, which also imagines and feels. (Claxton41994:154) Consciousness is pre-eminent in this perception but Descartes also notes involuntary bodily movements which are not accounted for by conscious thought. This led to the concept of the unconscious which came to be considered a separate compartment of the brain (Claxton51994:157). It could be argued that the science of psychology is rooted in this conception of the mind/brain. Despite the fact that Descartes was not the only thinker originating these perceptions; others like Thomas Aquinas and Plato had also been influential, and the fact that many latter-day philosophers would not agree with his perceptions, they remain the dominant 'common' way of conceptualising the relationship between the mind and body. Even the current myth that sees the mind as a software program is influenced by this separation of mind and brain.What has this got to do with art? Everything! Art is an object making system where even a non-object becomes objectified. The paradigm of the mind stimulating the brain to generate an art object is all pervasive. Art is a system of perception purporting to make conscious that which is unconscious. Even the phraseology of this statement implies an acceptance of Descartes' perceptions. Art also partakes in the mechanical metaphor by dividing its functions into sections like painting, sculpture, ceramics and aesthetics. Indeed, the very way we structure our art institutions mimics the hierarchy of this mind/body perception. Theoretical and stylistic divisions like Conceptualism or Minimalism are yet another way in which this mechanical model dominates our perceptions.
Dividing the human being into constituent compartments has the effect of stripping the organism of its body/brain/mind unity, and choosing conscious awareness as the determining characteristic of the human mind means that interpretation is retarded. Descartes makes an assumption that behind the thought there must be a thinker, and that this must be the self. He assumes hat consciousness is objective in assessing experience so that everything seen is real and true, while what is not seen does not exist. Rationalization has become the dominant mode of human interaction with phenomena but what if this was wrong? Antonio R. Damasio is a neurologist and has written a book entitled Descartes' Error, which seeks to demonstrate how reason and feeling are intimately bound up with the brain and body. The facts I have presented about feelings and reason, along with others I have discussed about the interconnection between brain and body proper, support the most general idea with which I introduced the book: that the comprehensive understanding of the human mind requires an organismic perspective; that not only must the mind move from a nonphysical cogitum to the realm of biological tissue, but it must also be related to a whole organism possessed of integrated body proper and brain and fully interactive with a physical and social environment. (Damasio61995:252) Dasart's understanding of the concept of art parallels Damasio's perception, that the human mind can only be comprehended within the entirety of the human experience. Ultimately, even the idea of art would fall away and 'art making' would be indigenous to all human expression. What is at issue here is how art could develop a more comprehensive sense of itself.
A Psychological Subset
Psychology came into its own as a science through the study of the ineffable unconscious. Freud considers it as a dark, secret, sexual place filled with bad memories (Bruno7 1972:165). He characterizes the psyche into the Id, Ego and Superego. The Id represents the basic urge to live, and therefore relates to the pleasure principle. The Ego develops from the maturing child interacting with his environment, and is guided by the reality principle. The Superego emerges from parental influence and cultivates a controlling morality in the child. Freud thinks that humans repress memories in the subconscious and it becomes the goal of psychoanalysis to unblock these repressions (Bruno81972:166). In treating neuroses, he came to the conclusion that these are based on repressed sexual desires, to which he gave form via theories like the Oedipus Complex. Jung, on the other hand, has the idea of a collective unconscious that contains the whole of human potentiality (Bruno91972:173). He sees a conflict between rational and irrational thought patterns. He hypothesizes that the unconscious consists of two sections; namely the personal unconscious which contains forgotten but not lost memories, and the collective unconscious which contains archetypes that he defines as universal tendencies that manifest themselves in symbols. He argues that the psyche contains a priori primitive patterns, that is, they exist before experience. The aim of his psychotherapy was to unify the split human psyche. Yet both Freud and Jungs' perceptions are limited, because they do not acknowledge the active presence of the unconscious in creating every moment of experience. Psychology is rooted in the Cartesian dualism which segments human experience and interprets it rationally.It is interesting that Eastern philosophies like Buddhism contradict these ideas and posit the view of oneness of being. Buddhists see the self as a fiction (Parkinson10 1963:110). Could it be that our Western habits of perception are in need of an overhaul? If we have to re-imagine ourselves, where would we start?
The Cultural Instinct
What is it about art that makes it such a compelling experience and why has it survived so persistently in spite of iconoclastic onslaughts? Even people who are not interested in fine art exhibit collecting and making behaviours, hence the proliferation of kitsch. Perhaps we already know the answer and what we're looking for, is the question. It seems self-evident that art appreciation and art making are compulsive behaviours but Dasart would suggest that this is because it is part of our biological constitution. We would go further and suggest that the very same behaviours may be observed in other creatures. One species of Birds of Paradise from New Guinea even make a type of architectural sculpture, which is not a nest, and arrange collected objects within it in a display (Attenborough11 in Paradise). On a superficial level, art is seen as a product of culture, where culture is the development of mind by education and training. Dasart thinks that culture is a genetically based phenomenon and furthermore, that other creatures possess and express the same capacity.Predictable Expression
Any expression, be it visual, auditory or literary, has a certain predictability about it. On a basic level, paintings employ a range of formal devices to project the image; like balance, colour, tone, figure/ground, light and growth. They also carry an emotional charge which is linked to these formal mechanisms and expresses elements like ideology and gender. Nations are said to exhibit their psychological character through their creative expressions. We have notions of matriarchy and patriarchy which condition these expressions and that find greater or lesser acceptance in the 'home' culture (Rattray Taylor121972:30). Delacroix's painting of Liberty leading the People(1830) where Liberty is conceived as feminine, can be contrasted with art produced by the Third Reich where the ideal was masculine, for example Arno Breker's The Guard (1937) (Adam131992). The ideals of Capitalism and Communism are also identifiable, as are various political positions, becoming manifest in degrees of hierarchical form. Dasart would say that these forms are pictured beforehand and projected into the cultural diaspora, rather than being identified after the fact by history. That is to say, the logic or pattern of the manifestation is predetermined and innate. A very graphic illustration of gender differentiation in art could be the paintings of Georgia o' Keefe, for example, Black Iris (1926) contrasted with the art of a male contemporary like Thomas Hart Benton whose painting, Arts Of The West (1932) exudes masculinity (Hunter141973). His cultural vision of society is blissfully unaware of feminine expression in its seething, muscular roilings.A similar situation exists with music, in that musicians use set rhythmic patterns to express this or that type of music. The origins of Western musical form seem to stretch back to Pythagoras' mathematical ideas, but it is also interesting to note that Bushman musical form seems to vary with mood, thus a song never remains the same. This again suggests that Western perception might be trapped within systems of measurement that ignore emotional undercurrents. I am not postulating that Western music lacks emotion, but rather that it exploits set variations, which eventually become predictable. What is the meaning and function of this predictability? Martial music suggests an alarming idea: that humankind could be hypnotized by a snake charmer, its greater self.
Language is also predictable in that it follows rules of grammar and syntax which narrow the options, so that we know what someone might say by the way they begin to speak. There are only a set number of words and phrases which can be used in a given context. Anthropologists have also noted the similarities of phonetics and concepts between disparate cultures, which have had no contact with one another. It may be that these expressions are biologically determined, since the structure of the human vocal system predicts the type of phonetic utterance possible, and young children still have to learn to use this facility. We have the idea that our social behaviour is largely learnt from our environment, but it is feasible that even our speech and the conceptual knowledge we express, are to some extent, instinctive.
The Conceptual Instinct
Konrad Lorenz, in his book On Aggression, regards the development of conceptual thought and verbal speech as leading towards the extinction of the species, and says that the human being has been robbed of instinctual security by knowledge. Lorenz is an animal behaviourist and his perception is that the development of conceptual abilities and speech has allowed humans to speed up their ecological adaptation, but he says: social instincts and, (... ) social inhibitions could not keep pace with the rapid development forced on human society by the growth of traditional culture, particularly material culture (Lorenz151970:205). In contrast to Lorenz' perception, Dasart tends to think of these emanations from the organism, as tangible extensions of the physical entity. It is not that the human being invents a machine, but that the working principle of that machine is already manifest within the workings of his/her own mind/body which interacts with a given environment. It is not accidental that we employ machine metaphors to describe how our minds work, although the nature of a metaphor is, by definition, a lie. The force that we call 'conceptual ability' is instinctual in all organisms, rather than a uniquely human development. Bearing in mind the evolutionary fact that once we shared a common bacterial ancestor, which presumably precluded this mental apparatus, can we imagine that genetic coding was activated over time? Is it possible that the imagination can transform reality? Have we defined the imagination too narrowly so as to exclude a bodily interaction? Is art an extension of this imaginative capacity?The Communicative Act
Communication and cognition is the sub-title of Sperber and Wilsons' book called Relevance, wherein they put forward the proposition that the act of communicating involves a psychological process. They define communication as: a process involving two information-processing devices. One device modifies the physical environment of the other. As a result, the second device constructs representations similar to representations stored in the first device (Sperber & Wilson161986:1). They argue that human cognition relies upon the least amount of processing effort. Thus the person focuses upon the most relevant information. Communication is not necessarily linked to language. Language is a means for processing information and thus is cognitive. Non-coded communication can and does take place.Language is not a necessary medium for communication: non-coded communication exists. Nor is it necessarily a medium for communication: languages exist which are not used for communication. However, language is a necessary attribute of communicating devices. Two devices capable of communicating with each other must also be capable of internally representing the information communicated, and must therefore have an internal language. In the case of ostensive- inferential communication, this internal language must be rich enough to represent the intentions of other organisms, and to allow for complex inferential processes (Sperber & Wilson171986: 174).
They go on to ask what is being communicated and how it is achieved, but Dasart would add a third question, that of why ? To be really wild for a moment, imagine that all human beings are one corpus. Imagine that the dancing and mating display of an exotic bird is equivalent to a dance production. In this situation, the dancers participate in an idea that has already been shared out among the audience. What is actually transpiring in an act of communication? We interpret the bird's display to be related to territorial maintenance and the desire to plant a seed, but are we not curtailing our powers of understanding by employing an exclusively scientific perspective? Are we not short-changing the dance production by considering it from a cultural and aesthetic viewpoint without an evolutionary perspective? Dasart would contend that there is a wealth of undetected meaning, emanating from the bird and the dancers, which is unconscious so to speak. Art is both directional and directionless. On the one hand, it communicates ideas which are inferred by the viewers and on the other, it inhabits a state of being that defies interpretation.
A Mutually Subliminal Environment
The core idea behind Sperber and Wilsons' book is that the code-model perception of communication, which has persisted in Western culture since Aristotle and finds new life in semiology, is inadequate. This model states that communication is achieved by encoding and decoding messages. Their point is that comprehension involves more than the decoding of a linguistic signal. They say: A context is a psychological construct, a sub-set of the hearers' assumptions about the world. It is these assumptions, of course, rather than the actual state of the world, that affect the interpretation of an utterance (Sperber & Wilson181986:15). Humans share a mutual cognitive environment from which knowledge is drawn: A cognitive environment is merely a set of assumptions which the individual is capable of mentally representing and accepting as true. ( ) When you communicate, your intention is to alter the cognitive environment of your addressees; but of course you expect their actual thought processes to be affected as a result. ( ) Human cognition is relevance orientated and ( ) someone who knows an individual's cognitive environment can infer which assumptions he (might) entertain (Sperber & Wilson191986:46). Perhaps this is how dictators like Hitler, have managed to sway so many people, or is it more than this? Essentially, Dasart would agree with Sperber and Wilsons' perception of how communication takes place, but would qualify the concept of a mutually cognitive environment to include the full expression of the organism. Humanity shares a mutually subliminal environment and, by virtue of common descent, probably shares aspects of this with other organisms too. In our immediate class are such diverse creatures as snails, elephants and fish, where class is determined by the same genetic pattern of evolution.What Pattern Connects
Cybernetics studies the relationships between human and animal nervous systems and mechanical systems with a view to understanding both. The essence of this is " what pattern connects". Gregory Bateson, in his book, Mind and Nature, a necessary unity, explores the idea that organisms are connected through patterns like bilateral symmetry and serial homology. He postulates that anatomy exhibits a sort of growth sequence so that, for instance, The anatomy of the crab is repetitive and rhythmical. It is, like music, repetitive with modulation. Indeed, the direction from head to tail corresponds to a sequence in time: In embryology, the head is older than the tail. A flow of information is possible, from front to rear (Bateson201985:18). Humans also exhibit these patterns. He goes on to propose that the " pattern which connects is a metapattern". He draws this conclusion as follows:
- The parts of any member of Creatura are to be compared with other parts of the same individual to give first-order connections.
- Crabs are to be compared with lobsters or men with horses to find similar relations between parts (i.e. , to give second-order connections).
- The comparison between crabs and lobsters is to be compared with the comparison between man and horse to provide third-order connections (Bateson211985:20).
Art is intimately bound up in concepts like symmetry and serial homology, so that it imitates life as it were. A painting will exhibit a passage of interconnecting samenesses or serial homologies and the eye is guided through the experience, as if in a growth sequence. The use of symmetry and asymmetry affect our sense of dynamism and balance. Why are all these patterns discernible and what do they mean? It is perhaps significant that education ignores these aspects. Biology lessons emphasize the separations between species, not the similarities. Thus society at large is implicated in the deception that the view we have of the world is all-encompassing. The problem is that we have interpreted life according to an assumed context, and certain interest groups find it expedient to maintain the deception. An obvious example here would be the incommensurate influence of religious ideas on the development of a conception of mind. The idea of a unique individual, separate from other species also suits ideologies like Capitalism, which, paradoxically, end up treating the individual as a mass consumer. The great myth of human progress is a hypno-suggestion. There is a conservatism within us all that resists change and promotes the status quo. If the dual perception that we have misinterpreted reality and that humanity has an underlying resistance to change are correct, then where do we go from here? Do we simply ignore the divisions in society, or do we abolish definitions like man/woman in favour of a sliding scale unrelated to physical attributes? Do we have a choice? That is, are we being regulated by the biological and perhaps cosmological force which generated us in the first place? Are we an immutable part of the super-organism or can we effect change within ourselves and our environment? What is Life, what is Death?
The Aesthetic Encounter
In a manner of speaking, Aesthetics is about life in death. Value is placed on an aspect of life that is extracted from the broad flux of experience, that is, it is separated and therefore dead. We stare and stare at our own immobility as though we can only appreciate life once it is in stasis. Even modern inventions like performance art or process art cannot escape their aesthetic predictability. They may take place over time and in unusual locations, but become relegated to formal experience in their documentation, and incarcerated within art theory or museums. Suspending disbelief and mixing metaphors, we can see museums as great testicles of seed which, when aroused, inseminate and germinate to become flowers on the wall, only to fade the following day. Art strives to become life, but only attains the semblance of life in death.One of the many trends in art is to introduce it into life, and a project like creating a grocery store in a poor neighbourhood and helping the locals to run it, becomes a way of asserting meaningfulness. This project then receives validation as art when it is documented and presented within an art-world context. Back to square one. But there must be some point to the cycle, and perhaps it is the illusion of progress that is important. The grocery store may be relevant to the neighbourhood as economic empowerment, but certainly not as art.
Skills of rendition are more likely to be admired as art. And yet, these skills would not be very much valued by institutions promoting cutting-edge art. Separation again. Only an elite art cognoscenti understand what is going on in Art (with a capital A). Socio-political revolutions have come and gone, yet Art remains entrenched. Indeed, with each new assault, the Art World seems to grow stronger and ever more insular.
The driving force behind art, is however, still the desire to communicate. It is instructive to consider the role of art in so-called more primitive societies like the Bushmen or Aboriginal peoples of Australia. Here the art seems linked with shamanistic activities and serves as a ritual stand-in to connect the spirit world with the conventional world (Cowan221994:17).
By contrast, Western aesthetic perceptions of art are strongly influenced by Cartesian dualism, British phenomenalism and German idealism (Tilghman231987:20). It seems as though the varieties of aesthetic position share a subjective/objective bias so that interpretation is always within that context. One of the first recorded manifestations of aesthetic theory is received from Plato and suggests that art represents nature. His perception was that an ideal form exists in nature that is given actual form by an artisan and this form is then imitated by the artist. Aristotle enlarged upon these ideas with his theory of mimesis. Human life and experience was the reality imitated by art and the form of the art derived from the combination of the inner harmonies and rhythms of the soul with the mimetic impulse. The idea of the aesthetic experience really only emerged in the eighteenth century. Alexander Baumgarten defined it as the science of perception and was concerned with the search for a theoretical knowledge of art that was logical. Kant enlarged the debate by making art autonomous from certain forms of scientific logic, generating the idea of the logic of the imagination. Form or art is experienced for its own sake. Rousseau reacted against the mimetic classical and neoclassical traditions by asserting that art was instead emotional. This evolved into Characteristic art theory which linked emotional expressionism with expressive form. Santayana's aesthetic of hedonism suggested that beauty is pleasure personified and therefore present also in nature because we take pleasure in it. Croce takes the position that art is imaginary and reaches fruition in the formation of the artist's intuition, rather than its physical manifestation and is therefore superior to nature. Worringer sees aesthetic enjoyment as objectified self-enjoyment. He cites the human need for self-alienation. His writings on Abstraction and Empathy describe the urge to abstraction as being a move away from the arbitrariness of life. The urge to empathy he ascribes to self-affirmation or the will to activity. We objectify ourselves, motivated by the inner urge to experience. John Dewey discards the essentialist position of dualism in favour of the pragmatist idea that art should be understood through experience, where reality is conceived as changing constantly and is only verified by experience. Walter Benjamin adds a socialist perspective and stresses that the work of art is inseparable from tradition and informed by politics. There are also numerous theories linked to psychology which suggest that art makes the unconscious known or that it is a game. The implications of Duchamp's readymades, that art or beauty exists because the artist has decreed it thus is yet another position. Post-Modernism, through superficiality, attempts to be anaesthetic in response to prior aesthetic perceptions. Although there are many other aesthetic viewpoints which could be discussed, the point remains that all of the above take up a subjective or objective position, by virtue of considering the individual as a given, which promotes a Cartesian perspective and compromises them in terms of the idea that art is a biological manifestation and extension of the body, which is part of a larger body. Maurice Denis' idea that a painting is firstly an arrangement of colours and shapes before it is anything else epitomizes the misconception that Dasart believes exists, in that the genesis of the expression, which is subliminal, predates and conditions the objectified arrangement.
A pastiche of the Western ideal of art defines it as essentially useless, wherein lies its value. Aesthetic experience is a qualitative experience. The art work expresses values and establishes a bond between viewer and artist which is consummated in the act of contemplation. Imagination dominates intellect. The object viewed is invested with a certain emotional configuration by the artist, and the viewer brings his/her own subjectivity to the encounter. In the conjunction of subject and object, the aesthetic expectation is completed.
There is, in fact, a vast matrix of information which exudes from any creative manifestation. A great deal of it becomes rationalised in terms of cause and effect, but an even larger amount of meaning seeps through in an unidentified form. Rationalised meaning is that which has been objectified, but if potential meaning is lost because the viewers' skills of interpretation are impaired, then how does one enlarge the viewers' experience? Dasart posits that only an entirely new way of seeing and interpreting will suffice. The different worlds of human experience will have to coordinate to create this unified perception. Thus, science, art and spirituality would be conjoined within a mutual context, wherein they will lose their distinctiveness and gain a commonality. In terms of art, the viewers would take cognisance of the art manifestation within the context of a mutually subliminal environment. The artist's task is to alter that environment in some way and also to affirm aspects of human experience that are timeless. Art is both directional and directionless.
An Illustration of Validation
To illustrate the consequences of monolithic rational thinking, which is the way the system works at present, consider the hypothetical situation where an artist presents art which is aesthetically appreciated by a viewer. This aesthetic encounter is further formalised into art theory where, in effect, it spawns another encounter and another, until the original object becomes merely a reference point. This intellectualisation has the effect of creating a hierarchy of appreciation, so that eventually, the experience becomes the property of an elite group. If the object has been 'successful', it will be retired to a museum, where it will enter a period of revered obsolescence.The strange part of this anomaly is that in the process of assimilation, the artists' original intentions become confused or lost within the plethora of theory generated by critics and intellectuals. A good example here would be the Abstract Expressionists, where art theorists managed to tie Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko, Newman and Still together, but largely ignored the differences in their works. De Kooning is certainly not an abstract artist although some of his work could be construed as gestural abstraction. Indeed, by historical account, he poured scorn on attempts to define artists into such groupings (Sandler241978:3). Rothko's works also seem to fly in the face of prevailing theories of "American-type" painting as espoused by Clement Greenberg (Greenberg251961:208). They exude an ethereal romanticism which seems more concerned with the oceanic level of the subconscious than the flatness of the picture plane (Rosenblum261961:38). Newman's Judaeo/Christian concerns are also not addressed by the dominant theories. Still was perhaps lucky even to have made it into the grouping, coming as he did, from out of town (Duncan271996:45). It is interesting to read an open letter which he wrote to Kenneth Sawyer in 1963, decrying some of the claims to fame made by various art world personae of the period (Still281963:32). It seems as though the reality of the period is not fully registered by art historical accounts.
Critics like Harold Rosenberg and Greenberg, developed theories like 'action painting' (Rosenberg291969:226) and the idea of a unique "American-Type" painting (Greenberg301961:226), hinging on issues like flatness and value contrasts, to explain the artistic phenomena they were encountering. But, in the process, they extoled only those elements that suited their particular visions. They were obsessed with defining a national, American identity which delimited historical, European influence. Their theories gained currency because they were a consumerable item. That is to say, they were in book or magazine form and were thus able to reach the art schools, which were proliferating all over the Western world. In effect, students received a package that represented Abstract Expressionism, complete with glossy reproductions and the theories of several American critics. Even the CIA took part in this dissemination as part of their strategy in the Cold War (Cockcroft311974:39). Increasing efficiency of communication meant that this concept of Abstract Expressionism became 'quantifiable' very quickly and therefore allowed it to be unduly influential, to the extent that it has spawned new art movements and dominated subsequent discourse among artists, critics and art historians. This confirmed the Western civilization's idea of the historical continuity of culture and conveniently placed America, the heart of capital, at the helm of future developments. Art has become mired in its limitations. The notion of progress in art is part of a growth metaphor common to our society's view of itself, but is it really true in practice? Dasart believes it is largely a fallacy. The fate of many second generation movements bears this out. When has the second generation's contribution ever been considered superior to the first's? Irving Sandler's book, The New York School, emphasizes this when it sets out to rectify the neglect of the second generation Abstract Expressionists, like Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler and Larry Rivers, who were spurned as derivative (Sandler321978:ix). The type of validation which the art world dispenses is very strongly linked to prejudice and power. Charles Harrison specifically singles out first and second rank artists in his essay, Abstract Expressionism, based, it seems, on Sandler's construction of his book, Abstract expressionism: The Triumph Of American Painting, which relegates Kline to a position of a later gesturalist (Richardson & Stangos331974:168). He becomes a follower in the logic of the growth metaphor. This would be despite the existential excellence he might display in his art. The validation is connected instead to notions of hierarchy. Kline would have to activate and promote a new metaphor vigorously, in order to seize the day.
A modern phenomenon linked to this, is the curated art exhibition where a curator selects examples of work from around the world to espouse a certain point of view, such as Jean Hubert Martin's Whole Earth Show (Buchloh341989:150). This venerated ethnicity and craft, raising them by means of theory to the level of fine art. In due course, other museums follow suit and become purveyors of the reigning meaning. A hierarchical system has been activated. This obviously leads to a process of exclusion under the guise of relevance. Art which does not conform to the metaphor is suppressed, unless it is strong enough to partake in or generate a new metaphor. Instead of reflecting the art of a society, as it claims, the museum becomes proactive in creating the art-world society's impressions. The art or the idea of it is commodified and franchised out in a system of distribution. The dynamics of supply and demand dictate that an art ecosystem be formed. The valuation of art is dependent on keeping the size of that ecosystem at a sustainable level. In other words, the elitism of the art world serves as a functional boundary. The Capitalist metaphor is deeply significant, because it points to a basic facet of human nature. Human aggression and greed are biological attributes. Indeed, acquisition and displacement are fundamental aspects of all organismic relationships. Democracy is a smokescreen for prejudice.
Gang Power
Meaning is an interesting word, because it refers to the point of the communication. Sperber and Wilson, in their book, Relevance, have generated a useful metaphor when they suggested that communicants rely on a mutual cognitive environment, from which they infer the meaning of their encounter (Sperber & Wilson351986:38). This does not mean they carry the same knowledge in their respective heads, but that appropriate reciprocal tendencies are activated. In the same manner, humans establish groupings of similar persuasions, which function like cliques. These are, by definition, exclusionary and act as power structures for validation. They have isolated a particular metaphoric perception, which becomes a defining characteristic in a bid to colonize and subjugate other meanings. It is important to realise that these bonds of shared perceptions do not have to be rational or true, but merely accepted as a set of assumptions by the members of the group. This mode of perception is indicated among members by means of proliferating codes and jargon. Thus, the molecules of the organism begin acting in sympathy with one another. Not being part of the group means being identified as the other. An ecosystem emerges which consists of the eaters and the eaten, but it is also a system with checks and balances. A group of meanings might gain power and become dominant, but only within a certain context. Meanings stand in relation to one another and new metaphoric perceptions will be generated to redress the balance.Gender issues have been current for some time now, and this means that these perceptions have gained a certain currency of power. Other meanings have, therefore, become less dominant or even obsolete. The myth of male power is what binds and motivates feminism. A manner of perception has been entered into that defines experience in certain metaphoric terms. Meanings are always unbalanced in some respect, and this asymmetry is used to generate attitudes. Any quest for power involves suppression. In the area of sex and love, the feminist perception is that woman is considered, by the other, to be a sex object. This basic idea has spawned a variety of ideas that question heterosexuality, the nuclear family, rigid role conceptions, rape and violence towards women, pornography, sexist imagery in advertising etc. Of great concern to feminists is that women themselves have internalised these patriarchal obsessions and, therefore, need to purge themselves, emptying their subconscious by making conscious. The long-term aim is to establish a matriarchal system of power, which could displace the outmoded patriarchal system. This is long overdue, and history indicates that these two do alternate, given appropriate circumstances.
But there is another metaphoric conception of man and woman which is expressed by Camille Paglia in her book Sexual Personae. She asserts that it is essential in understanding the relations between men and women, to consider nature in its awesome, daemonic aspect. Ever since pagan times, woman has been linked with the earth and bound to the cycles of nature. She contains within herself the mystery of this bondage. Men, on the other hand, have an ambiguous relationship with women. Men and women exist in a state of war. The sexes are eternally at war. There is an element of attack, of search-and-destroy in male sex, in which there will always be a potential for rape. There is an element of entrapment in female sex, a subliminal manipulation leading to physical and emotional infantilization of the male (Paglia361990:26).
In this perception, systems of social order, such as religion, attempt to contain the overwhelming chthonian, formless, force of nature. However, it is impossible to contain nature and, therefore, the wildness and cruelty of man's nature, that permits violence, always breaks through. Psychologically, man was born from the womb-tomb of woman in a state of violence and terror and is compelled by the sex urge to re-enter the scene, only to have his head chopped off again. He leaves as less than when he came. The symbology and concepts of male potency and superiority, are methods of sublimating the fear of woman. Aggression is born of fear. Paglia says: When social controls weaken, man's innate cruelty bursts forth. The rapist is created not by bad social influences but by a failure of social conditioning. Feminists, seeking to drive power relations out of sex, have set themselves against nature. Sex is power. Identity is power. In western culture, there are no non-exploitative relationships. Everyone has killed in order to live. Nature's universal law of creation from destruction operates in mind as in matter (Paglia371990:2). Pornography is perceived to be ...pure pagan imagism. Just as a poem is ritually limited verbal expression, so is pornography ritually limited visual expression of the daemonism of sex and nature. Every shot, every angle in pornography, no matter how silly, twisted or pasty, is yet another attempt to get the whole picture of the enormity of chthonian nature. Is pornography art? Yes. Art is contemplation and conceptualization, the ritual exhibitionism of primal mysteries. Art makes order of nature's cyclonic brutality (Paglia381990:34).
Paglia's conception sees Western culture as being the result of male form-making. This originates because the male has to strive to identify himself as separate from his mother. Male power is biologically determined, with nature rewarding energy and aggression, because human society is hierarchical. She claims that this has resulted in male domination of art,science and politics. That is: The male projection of erection and ejaculation is the paradigm for all cultural projection and conceptualization - from art and philosophy to fantasy, hallucination, and obsession. Women have conceptualized less in history not because men have kept them from doing so but because women do not need to conceptualize in order to exist (Paglia391990:20). Man objectifies in order to stop the flux of nature. Objectification is conceptualization, the highest human faculty. Turning people into sex objects is one of the specialities of our species. It will never disappear, since it is intertwined with the art-impulse and may be identical to it. A sex-object is ritual form imposed on nature. It is a totem of our perverse imagination (Paglia401990:30).
It will be interesting to see if Paglia's ideas gain credence or are suppressed by the dominant mode of feminism. What is clear though, is that they are mutually exclusive and require a choice in perception. Understanding a certain code leads to empowerment, and networking with others of similar persuasion causes a powerbase to develop. To change a perception requires far more than a convincing argument. It requires mutual support, energy and aggression, coupled with amorality. While the control of people's perceptions would seem to be the very antithesis of what we take the function of art to be, it is a fundamental aspect of human nature which lies buried beneath any intellectual encounter.
The Cannibal Communicator
Perhaps the question to ask is: How animal is human behaviour and what motivates it? Can it be that communication is a form of warfare, with the victor seeking to consume the other? It is interesting to note how similar our sexual and eating behaviours are. Perhaps the exploits of the recent American sex-murderer/ cannibal, Jeffrey Dahmer, are a lot closer to true human nature than we realise, it's just that his social restraints have slipped. The expression of penetration, ingestion, digestion and finally excretion, is one of total dominance. Female pigs often have to be separated from their litters for fear that they will eat them. We express horror and outrage at atrocities committed but contain within ourselves these same potentialities. The human being is mad and has created its own reality, which is a Kafka-esque nightmare.The animal behaviourist, Konrad Lorenz, sees human behaviour as analogous to rats (Lorenz411970:204). These are sociable and peaceful in groups, but will attack rats from other groups voraciously. His theory is that the biological level of inhibitions against harming one's own species, is highest in those animals most biologically capable of inflicting damage (Lorenz421970:206). The human being is relatively harmless and thus has a low level of inhibition, but through conceptual thought has developed tools and weapons. It is clear to Lorenz, that these were originally used against fellow humans and further, that humans also roasted each other from the days when fire was first preserved. This was probably not from necessity, but from taste, since the paleontological evidence shows that only the largest bones, like the femurs were cracked open for the marrow. Obviously, social and cultural restraints evolved as the communities became better organised, but what is not so obvious is that, as Lorenz puts it : ...responsible morality derives the energy which it needs to control human behaviour from the same primal powers which it was created to keep in rein. Man as a purely rational being, divested of his animal heritage of instincts, would certainly not be an angel- (Lorenz 43 1970:213). Thus, reason is not seen as that which raises the human above beasts, but rather as a tool that is motivated by instinctual behaviour. Aspects of human experience like love, aesthetic appreciation, curiosity and creativity stem from these instincts. These deepest strata of the human personality are, in their dynamics, not essentially different from the instincts of animals, but on their basis human culture has erected all the enormous superstructure of social norms and rites whose function is so closely analogous to that of phylogenetic ritualization. Both phylogenetically and culturally evolved norms of behaviour represent motives and are felt to be values by any normal human being. Both are woven into an immensely complicated system of universal interaction to analyse which is all the more difficult as most of it's processes take place in the sub-conscious and are by no means directly accessible to self-observation. Yet it is imperative for us to understand the dynamics of this system, because insight into the nature of values offers the only hope for our ever creating the new values and ideals which our present situation needs so badly (Lorenz 44 1970:214).
Dasart does not necessarily agree totally with Lorenz' perceptions, but he is extremely lucid in conceptualising the human as an instinctual animal and realising that cultural accretions are in fact biologically based expressions. Art is an instinctual manifestation, but it comes loaded with subliminal aggression, which incorporates aspects like cannibalism. Goya's Saturn Devouring His Children( 1819-23) springs to mind. Another example of this aggression could be Francis Bacon's work or even the Cubist strategies of image formation. The image is fractured or distorted and expresses a sense of violence besides a theoretical, relativist interpretation of experience. Some of our notions of the creative process, such as the idea of formation through the binary opposites of destruction and construction also seem to express an inherent violence.
Aggressive Colonization
The problem is that aggression is a mechanism for survival, and Lorenz believes that modern humans lack the opportunity to discharge this aggression (Lorenz451970:209). Hence, we sublimate our violent energies through the kind of movies we watch, get vociferous in group discussions or play sport. In fact, we have colonized every aspect of our banal existence, including art, with this aggression. Lorenz has another concept to explain group behaviour, which he calls militant enthusiasm Lorenz461970:231). This he identifies as communal aggression. Values are ignored or overturned and atrocities are committed in a spirit of righteousness. All that is needed to spark off this reaction, is a perceived threat to the social unit and enough like-minded individuals, motivated by an inspiring leader. Shades of Apartheid. Lorenz also believes that natural selection determines the evolution of cultures (Lorenz471970:224). Thus, a dominant culture subdues another culture, which it encounters. The subordinate culture then devalues itself and takes on the dominant culture's values, although it is subversive towards these. An example here would be the unique blend of Catholicism and Voodoo which South America exhibits, or closer to home, the unique form of Christianity which the Zionist Church practises. Colonialism and by extension, Capitalism, have these effects, thus creating variety within homogeneity. What is being described here is the aggressive and subliminal force which motivates individual, group and even cultural behaviour, which is also indigenous to human expression.Cocooned In Solitude
So, what is required to force a perception to change? How can we be subversive towards the dominant cultural modes of thought? We construct systems around perceptions, which we subsequently defend by validating them in terms of truth and reality. Some decades ago, the philosophy of Existentialism became visible in our culture. At first, the expression was limited to specialists, but gradually it has been popularised so that it is common to hear someone say 'I live for the moment', or to agonize about being alienated from nature. Authors like Albert Camus, (The Outsider), and Franz Kafka, (The Trial), have created personae in their novels, who are cocooned in solitude and do things just to experience being or have things done to them in a mindless fashion (Kafka481953). Modern society identifies well with these ideas, because we do inhabit a lonely, overcrowded world and things are done to us senselessly by the larger society. Consider how we treat our aged, for example. Capitalism consumes people. Philosophically speaking, John Macquarrie, in his book Existentialism, identifies three basic characteristics of existence. Firstly, that man does not transcend his given situation in terms of 'laws of nature' operating from outside, but in terms of images of himself which he seeks consciously to realise. (...). The second basic characteristic of existence is the uniqueness of the individual existent (Macquarrie491985:69). The third is 'self-relatedness', by which is meant the authenticity of being oneself as remote from other objects and existing as this identifying force within the overall flux. The fundamental tenet here is that of separation. The individual is separate from outside experience and interprets the environment according to images which are self-actualized. Reality is verified by the individual's experience and the truth is a part of that individual's self-identity.To have reached this conclusion, philosophers have had to make certain assumptions about humanity and the world, like the nature of reality, time, the self and consciousness. This has reinforced a perception of how our minds work and society has structured itself accordingly. In other words, we have imagined ourselves according to a certain pattern. However, with the passage of time and understanding, we are reaching towards another interpretation of reality which is necessitated by unbearable environmental factors. The Native American view, as expressed by Chief Seattle in 1854, that we are all bound in a common destiny, is perhaps a fore-runner of the type of thinking we need to develop. The dead of the white people forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red people. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and human beings - all belong to the same family (Seattle501996:6). The self-centred view which supports the idea that life is without meaning, will become a victim of its own nihilism. The biological meaning of life cannot be rationalised and yet it exists just the same. It is slowly being demonstrated how like other organisms we are. Nature is reabsorbing us. Even plants, if viewed outside of the human time frame, are astonishingly like animals, as David Attenborough's film The Private Life Of Plants shows. In this film, the life cycles of plants are accelerated technologically to convey this perception. Eerie whale noises, if speeded up, sound like beautiful bird songs. Indeed, even the core of our planet is constantly in flux, so as to suggest the animate, but changing form very gradually, thus imperceptible to us. Something is desperately wrong with our powers of definition and conception of ourselves. We have validated our own, metaphorical time/space construct, which we base on the concept of " I ". The individual is considered to be this identifying force, which on the basis of experience, verifies reality. It does not matter whether the conception regards nature as external as in the essentialist position or internal and experiential as in pragmatism or existentialism, the problem lies with the idea that consciousness can perceive anything at all.
Another Reality
Undeniably, human knowledge of the world has increased and technology continues to expand our horizons. Explorations into space are uncovering new phenomena. Science fiction writer/ futurologist, Arthur C. Clarke, is predicting a new, renewable, vacuum energy source, and New Agers are developing alternative concepts of schooling and healing. Patterns of thinking are being changed and aided in this by scientific work. There is a sense of buoyancy about that does not sit well with our ongoing global crises. Why has it taken so long (more than twenty years) to address the ozone hole problem, or global warming? How is it that Capitalism can still run rampant and unchecked over those less powerful? When is a universal environmental consciousness going to emerge?When is art going to inhabit another reality? At present, it pretends to communicate but in reality it is just another item to be consumed. This was never so in antiquity from which our civilisation has emerged. In both Egypt and Greece, art had a strongly developed social purpose, which was linked to ritual and story-telling. It is true that the cult of the individual, which is so pervasive in our culture, originated with the Greeks, but their concept was to try and comprehend nature through the body whereas we have confined this vision to material experience. Even the Renaissance was a more aspirational period, ascribing a religious function for art, albeit that this is a delimitation of art by dogma. But to return to a primitive understanding of art, it is interesting to note that reality was considered to be transmutable and that the spirit world was a part of everyday experience. Art, in this society, became visionary. It is important to realise that the term 'primitive' should not be equated with 'underdeveloped'. In fact, these societies understand instinctively that reality is created from within and without us, where the individual is not considered separate from the tribe and the tribe is enveloped in the environment. The quantum physicist, David Bohm, has an interesting perception of this reality. To quote from a biography by Ton Maas on Bohm, His most famous book is Wholeness and the Implicate Order, published in 1980, in which he expresses his dissatisfaction with current interpretations of quantum theory and suggests that a hidden order is at work beneath the seeming chaos and lack of continuity of the individual particles of matter. This hidden dimension is Bohm's 'implicate order', the source of all the visible explicate matter of our space-time universe. The implicate order has infinite depth. The world we live in is multi-dimensional. The most obvious and superficial level is the three-dimensional world of objects, space and time, which he calls the 'explicate order'. Unfortunately, he says, this is the level at which most of physics operates today, presenting its findings in equations whose meaning is unclear. A clearer understanding becomes possible only by moving to a deeper level, the implicate order. The implicate order is the enfolded order, which unfolds into reality as we perceive it and in which things are separate (Wijers & Pijnappel511990:27). Bohm uses the metaphor of the hologram in motion, holomovement, to explain this sense of order in chaos. The holomovement is the coherent and indivisible totality that comprises reality. A property of the hologram is that each part contains enough information to reconstruct the whole. Steven E. Kaufman, in his book, The Dynamic Structure of Space, links the work of neurophysiologist, Karl Pribram on the nature of memory to David Bohm's theory of holomovement. Pribram postulated on the experimental basis of removing different areas of the brain, that somehow memory was spread throughout the brain and enough memory was retained to regenerate the whole. Thus, as Kaufman expresses it: (...) from these two men has sprung the conception that we may live in a universe which has characteristics analogous to a hologram, a universe where each part contains the reality of the whole, because no part is really separable from the whole.
The relational matrix model of space-time itself has an intrinsic holographic quality in that each relational part contains the pattern and existence of the whole. This occurs or exists because each part exists in relation to all the other parts, and thus each part contains the existence of all the other parts. Each reality cell of the relational matrix contains the pattern of the whole because each reality cell, no matter what the level of relational reality, contains within itself a part of the existence of all the other reality cells because they all exist in relation to one another (Kaufman521995). Bohm is not only well known as a quantum physicist but also explores the nature of consciousness. Maas explains Bohm's idea of thought, which is very similar to Dasart's perceptions as expressed in this essay.
According to David Bohm, the main problem with our own culture is that it is highly incoherent. Culture is shared meaning in which everyone participates; it is inherently participatory. By contrast, our present culture is not coherent at all, mainly because of its tendency to compartmentalise. He says that we tend to see things (objects, but also peoples and economies) as separate and not interdependent and that this compartmentalisation is constantly promoted by what he calls 'thought'. ' Now thought doesn't know this. Thought is thinking it isn't doing anything. I think this is really where the difficulty is. We have got to see that thought is part of this reality and that we are not merely thinking about it but that we are thinking it' (Wijers & ijnappel531990:27). It is Dasart's view that the key to changing our perceptions lies within our imagination. But, the imagination is seen as a biologically based phenomenon, out of which consciousness emerges, in opposition to the view that the imagination is a subset of reason. The produce of the imagination is the metaphor, which manifests as consciousness. The metaphor will be the tool that alters our reality. We have to dream ourselves all over again. However, even our imaginations might have to be purged of preconceived notions.
The Metaphor of the Self
Over the years we have developed a concept of the self and the world around us. This does alter as phenomena, like computers, suggest new metaphors as to how we might function, but we make the mistake of assuming that the metaphor is observable truth. Consider the notion that the human comprises a body and soul. This obviously stems from religious influences like Thomas Aquinas and also the philosophers, Plato and Descartes, but conventional evolutionary theory would cast doubt upon this idea. Because we have developed other metaphors to explain the origin of man, we have less and less need to refer to the religious explanation, but for a time, the two metaphors co-exist. In a similar way, we have named the parts of the body and we have developed a somewhat mechanistic metaphor to explain the workings thereof. This notion of the body seems self-evident and perceptions become grounded in these assumptions. At present, we visualise the brain as working somewhat like a computer. In the Middle Ages it was thought that the knees were important, hence the concept of kneeling in prayer. But modern physiology is being thwarted by the non-divisibility of organs, and it seems that the body and mind are interlinked in mysterious ways. Our theories have been built upon the idea of divisibility or separation, and find it hard to cope with the need for a new metaphor.Consider the idea of the self. We speak of individualism and uniqueness, and we create cults of personality. But, this is ideological rather than phraseological expression, that is, it serves a political purpose rather than just being a way of conceptualising the personality. Language is a battleground, and groups establish patterns of power by virtue of shared expression. Historically, the ' self ' has received differing emphases, like during the Communist era where it was sacrificed for the greater good of the Party. Actually, the organism remained hierarchical, merely devaluing the individual components. The origin of tragedy, from which, we are taught, our creative endeavours stem, is steeped in rituals of scapegoat sacrifice, where the self is immolated for the larger corpus. The underlying idea is the conflict between chaos and order as represented by Dionysos and Apollo. Christian mythology appeals in a similar fashion, with Christ dying on the cross for humankind. Likewise, the modern concept of the self will have to be sacrificed if we are to contend with our environmental problems.
The Threat
James Lovelock was the first scientist to measure the emission of chloroflourocarbons (CFC's) into the atmosphere, and he has a perspective of the global crisis which is a little different from the conventional focus. He points out that ozone depletion may not be as crucial as the destruction of the rain forests. These latter function as giant air conditioners, which help to cool the planet. At the rate of its destruction, he estimates that we have about two decades before the environmental balance, as hypothesized by his Gaia theory, is upset. This will result in great climatic change and will lead to natural catastrophes like floods and droughts from which man is unlikely to emerge. The planet, however, will adapt to the new conditions Lovelock 54 1989:9).A Metaphor of Co-existence
Humankind needs to develop a new concept of itself that will enable it to think more holistically and respond more adequately to the challenges. The fundamental aggression and greed that powers Capitalism, has to be contained. Any new conception, however, has to take cognisance of these basic drives, which are shared by all organisms. We have to design a system that permits the human its basic expressions, but links these to the greater expressions of the whole super-organism. It is understood that at a micro-biological type level, all 'minds' are linked through common ancestry. Micro-biologists can demonstrate that the genetic programs which give rise to different forms, such as wings and arms, have an underlying similarity. Communication becomes unconscious and immediate, so that a state of 'knowingness' is entered into. Perhaps this commonality can be extended beyond the planet to the stars, where the whole system was born. In evolutionary terms, the patterns of similarity extend throughout nature, and it becomes humankind's task to develop a metaphor of co-existence which denies separation.Up to this point, our metaphors have been static and refer to the object or particle rather than to the 'energy' that motivates change. Bohm uses the analogy of the ocean wave. It seems independent but is dependent on the ocean for its form. Similarly, water molocules transgress the wave's boundaries continuously without affecting the form. The wave is an abstraction from the moving whole. Armed with the notion that there is a commonality shared by all things, which manifests itself in patterns, we will be able to break with this static apprehension of ourselves. The human has never been separate from nature and the patterns of nature are repeated in the individual. The concept of the unique individual, is merely an ideological metaphor that concentrates on minute individual differences, while ignoring the similarities between species and phenomena. And yet, these outmoded metaphors are pervasive and still condition our perception of reality. In order to unbundle them, it is first necessary to see through and beyond them. Dasart is not suggesting that the object is obsolete, but rather the perception thereof. Empty was never truly empty, but merely a metaphor to allow space and object to be visualised within a certain mindset. Art has become boring and impotent, because it still partakes in this metaphor. Ideally, future aesthetic interactions between artist and viewer will be in the context of a shared and renewed perception of reality. These new meanings or metaphors will have to be 'hammered out' repeatedly, like rote learning, to make an impression against the prevailing perceptions because dominance and power are inherent within the reigning mode of seeing. Thus a period is envisaged when both attitudes are extant, but war needs to be declared so that territory is gained.
Censorship
The enemy will not be waiting passively for the communication of new ideas. Efficient functioning requires a certain amount of focusing. This inevitably leads to the censorship of ideas which do not correspond with the dominant ideology. The era of Colonialism exemplifies this suppression, and although there were dissenting voices within the age, these were never allowed to gain any prominence. It is of note that in times of war or expansion, cultural manifestations are conformist. It becomes necessary to project a patriarchal spirit which overrides individual predilections. Thus myth-making activity becomes centrally controlled, and the ideas which come to inhabit the era's mind gain meaning, because the humans who come to espouse them, see them as 'good' and 'right' and 'true'. Unfortunately, these ideas stay in currency for a long time, and as people age, they become more intractable. They also often come to political power in middle to old age, which thus presents the opportunity to exercise their prejudices. Generations come to accept perceptions as absolute truths, thus granting the moral right to establish systems like apartheid. The problem now becomes how to decolonise our minds and re-create ourselves anew, or how to recolonize our minds and de-create ourselves.Manufacturing Perception
To believe in the power of art, is to affirm an aspect of humankind that just won't go away. But it is the power within the being, that creates art, and it is only a metaphorical definition to call it art. It an be demonstrated that our very perception of the world is created within us, and similarly, other animals must have the same facility for expression. Gregory Bateson, in his book Mind and Nature, explores the meaning of some perceptual experiments he undergoes with a Dr. Ames. He deduces that the processes of perception are inaccessible to us. The machinery of perception created the image in accordance with the rules of parallax, rules that were for the first time clearly verbalized by painters in the Renaissance; and this whole process, the creating of the image with it's built-in conclusions from the clues of parallax, happened quite outside my consciousness. The rules of the universe that we think we know are deep buried in our processes of perception (Bateson 55 1985:43). Thus it follows that an emanation like art, is a biological expression of the body/mind complex which we metaphorize as the unconscious given form. We tend to see that form as art, because it is part of our matrix of seeing. In a like manner, other animals will also possess the energy to project a matrix of seeing to satisfy their ends. To claim human superiority, because of manifestations like reason and art, is extremely arrogant. It is to ignore the strong forces which surge through all life in subliminal form and for which we have no language. The shape which our culture takes, is informed by the same energies that compel small fish to swim in a formation which suggests a larger fish.The Language Virus
A myth that art and language are interlinked but separate expressions is common to our culture. It is taken for granted that picturing is closer to the unconscious processes than language, although this again employs a mechanistic metaphor of progression that ignores other possible diagrammatic models. The writer, William Burroughs, holds that The study of hieroglyphic languages shows us that a word is an image...the written word is an image (Joselit56 1996:94). Burroughs collaborates with other artists to create unique syntheses of image, text and music. He views these as viruses within society; I advance the theory that in the electronic revolution a virus is a very small unit of word and image (Joselit 57 1996:98).
Joselit notes:
Genetic science has since borne out Burroughs's trope: viruses are information. But his use of the term is more complex than a simple application of information theory to medicine. For him, the virus is both a form of imposing control - the viral intruder takes over the biological systems of its host - as well as, ultimately, an agent of chaotic loss of control: the success of the virus may lead to its own failure if the imperative to reproduce causes the death of the organism it invades (Joselit 58 1996:98). Steven Pinker's book called The Language Instinct, explores the idea that language is innate to us. Thinking of language as an instinct inverts the popular wisdom, especially as it has been passed down in the canon of the humanities and social sciences. Language is no more a cultural invention than is upright posture. It is not a manifestation of a general capacity to use symbols: (Pinker 59 1994:18) These ideas point to the need for a renewal in our conception of art and language. The problem though is to see that there are systems enfolded in systems and our descriptive processes rely on logic and control. The sentence has a predictable, linear form which simplifies and avoids chaos. The full meaning will always escape us until we can activate a broad enough understanding that will create the necessary mutual subliminal environment.Another great myth which uses art and language to its own ends, is education. Pinker quotes Oscar Wilde: Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught Pinker601994:19). This flippant response contains some truth if it is conceded that knowledge has an instinctual foundation. We have the belief that all knowledge leads from previous knowledge, and resides in repositories called books, tucked away in libraries. It is not easy to see that we contain within ourselves the patterns of this knowledge. A modern perception of the learning process is derived from an essay by Eric Bredo, entitled "Cognitivism, Situated Cognition, And Deweyian Pragmatism", wherein he quotes Lave and Wenger on learning: Learning is a process that takes place in a participation framework, not in an individual mind. This means, among other things, that it is mediated by the differences in perspective among the co-participants. It is the community, or at least those participating in the learning context, who "learn" under this definition. Learning is, as it were, distributed among co-participants, not a one-person act (Lave and Wenger, 1991, p. 15-16) (Bredo611996:7). Schools and universities are notoriously reticent, reactionary places, and this is because they actually fulfil an indoctrinating function. Under the guise of teaching and learning, a system of perception is entered into that suggests that some object, call it knowledge, changes hands. In fact, what is passed on is the system of perception, which contains within it a hierarchical system of appreciation. An analogy could be drawn with the hierarchy in a primate community, where deference in all things must be paid to the dominant patriarch or matriarch. Our cultural perceptions of art and language, in their present form, act to imprison our minds while creating the illusion of growth or progress. We continually use set forms of these that we vary, but which always take on predictable form. We are constantly confronting an image of ourselves, like Narcissus of Greek legend, which is static and unchanging. To press the primate analogy further, a young and virile, new perception has to displace the old and jaded, dominant perception.
Illusionary Movements
But on the level of illusion, things do change. We have a metaphor of time which, we say, extends back billions of light years. Environmental circumstances force us to reevaluate ourselves constantly. Thus, this concept of time is brought into conjunction with the timeless sameness of human nature. It is on this level of phantasy imaginings, that art and language function. Here, the reformulation of meaning can seem different and we can taste freedom. The surrounding human minds act like molecules in sympathy with one another, and transmit these reformulations of hope. Thus art and language deal with the illusion of cultural progress. A simple clue from one person to another, may be enough to activate a new pattern of thought. This is much like the phenomenon called anorthoscopic perception, which refers to the ability to imagine the whole shape although only a portion is shown. It means that art will constantly reinvent itself, and that revolutions are doomed to become just more of the same. In an ironic way, art still functions as a ritual stand-in for accessing the spirit world, but it is up to us as to how tangible we wish to make that world. On this level, art and language are engaged in a war of meanings. There is no end to the conflict, only shifts in power. Art and language, to be meaningful, must gain access to the citadel of validation, where they must activate a perception which already exists within the matrix of possibilities.Despite the illusion of progress, we are compelled to reformulate, like cows producing milk, yet another metaphor of reality. At present we have rationalised a position of "multiple realities" based on different subjective interpretations of experience. However, we must sink deeper and out of ourselves so that we can form a new metaphor. The boundaries by which we rationalised our existence, have to be dismantled. A tree is no longer a tree, but a complex presence within a larger system. Similarly, the art object is seen as imbued with unknown qualities, which link it to the greater world. We change our perceptions by a shift in conceptual experience. It is of no value to consider the art object as a piece of property within a museum, which is somebody else's property. The art work has to function as a transmitter. Hence, the value of an exhibition which juxtaposes the nineteenth century Colonial mindset with Dasart, working at the end of the twentieth century.
A Practical Example
The Dasart Colonial Mutations installation was conceived as the conjunction of ideas emanating from the Industrial Revolution, made manifest in Victorian art, with contemporary art created from industrial waste. The Dasartists would insert their industrial vision into the reigning meaning of the Colonial context. The perception is that the Dasartists contain within them the ideas of the colonial past, but are mutating into the present. Their aim is to colonize the future, working with the premise that colonization is inherent within nature, just as waves ripple outward.The Industrial Revolution was a period of immense change for the world, and many of these changes affected the structures of societies at home and abroad. The steam engine was invented, which meant greater emphasis on coal mining and swifter mobility. Communication networks expanded rapidly. Within a few years, a previously agrarian society was transformed into the factory system which is still with us. The resulting squalor, unemployment and urban crowding, placed demands on Britain to increase prosperity and colonize other lands. These were often rich in raw materials and could be plundered at little cost. Cotton mills were also established during this period and became linked with slavery and the cotton fields in America. A new theory of economics was engendered, based on individual self-interest. Economic power and maritime supremacy meant that Britain was able to expand her influence without check. Explorers and missionaries had already created the pathways into Africa and other territories.
The resulting strains on the social fabric gave rise to the Philanthropic movement, which was to have a profound effect on the rights of man. Children were defined as such , removed from adult employment and sent to school. Many of our 'modern' schooling concepts derive from this source. The mechanistic model still prevails. We persist in the notion that education leads to employment despite evidence to the contrary. Slavery was also abolished during this period, although some would say that it still continues, but in a subtler form. The franchise was extended to all males over eighteen years and government became consensual. Much of what we claim as our cultural heritage, was formed during this period.
Dasart's choice to exhibit within a museum collection was also important, because museums are repositories of cultural value. Even their architectural features express this identity. Here, the nexus of new and old established a context. In order to communicate more effectively in this context, the Dasartists had to submerge their individuality. The authorships and titles of individual objects were withheld, as these objects were constructed to merge in one metaphoric expression, which nevertheless, precipitated a multitude of meanings. The Dasartists worked individually and collectively on the various aspects, but did retain some overall guiding principles, such as colouration. The viewer's task is to feel the emanation as a whole, rather than analyze the artwork in terms of form and content. The experience should be one of openness rather than the closure of a preconceived aesthetic system. Value is given to the emotional encounter and taken away from conscious, rational experience. Meanings are allowed to accrue rather than being pared down to 'essentials'.
The dog is considered by some African cultures to be a spiritual intermediary between man and the ancestral world. This perception probably originates from ancient Egypt, where Anubis, the jackal, was the link with Orion, the god of the afterlife (Hancock621995:264). Dasart takes its name from a dog that ran away from its master, thus symbolizing a freedom from constraint that we identified with. We also see the role of art as the communication of a greater awareness. We call this kind of art: Dogart. The message is that our mode of perception has to catch up with the rate of change within the environment. An increasing amount of scientific research is focussing on the nature/nurture controversy, and indicating that biological selection has far greater influence than hitherto credited (Gazzaniga631992:2). Rationality has been reduced in importance. It is now considered to be a 'tool' of the unconscious mind. However, our perception of reality is still conditioned by rationality. The Dasartists feel that it is imperative for humans to update their perception of reality, so that we can take on a broader responsibility for the planet. This change should become innate in the human. We cannot rely on environmental education or systems of control because these do not communicate with the subliminal core of humankind and other organisms.
The virus has been credited with altering the course of evolution. It has the capacity to infiltrate the host's DNA and alter sequences to suit itself. This, in turn, causes a mutation in the organism, which may or may not be beneficial to it (Tudge641995:72). Dasart appropriates this metaphor, and sees its task, in the Dasart Colonial Mutations installation, as initiating a change in the dominant perception of identity. While it is accepted that this is a miniscule contribution in the broader scheme of things, it nevertheless indicates a way of making socially interactive art that can function within a compromised context. Dasart would seek to colonize Art with Dogart, which is conceived as art that bears a message, the recovery of our animal essence.
END NOTES
1. Gaia hypothesis states "Life, or the biosphere, regulates or maintains the climate and the atmospheric composition at an optimum for itself." Lovelock later refined this definition as follows: " The notion of the biosphere as an adaptive control system that can maintain the Earth in Homeostasis, we are calling the Gaia Hypothesis."
LOVELOCK, J. "Genesis of Gaia". Resurgence no 142, 1990, p 38-42
2. CASSIRER, E. An Essay On Man, p 49
3. CASSIRER, E. An Essay On Man, p 214
4. CLAXTON, G. Noises From The Darkroom, p 154, quoting HALDANE , S and ROSS, GTR (eds), The Philosophical Works of Descartes, Cambridge University Press, 1967
5. CLAXTON, G. Noises From The Darkroom, p 157
6. DAMASIO, A. R. Descartes' Error, p 252
7. BRUNO, FJ. The Story of Psychology, p 165
8. BRUNO, FJ. The Story of Psychology, p 166
9. BRUNO, FJ. The Story of Psychology, p 173
10."[Buddism] was based upon the fact of human suffering. Cause of the suffering is desire, the motive force for entry into successive lives, and for being thus chained to the revolving wheel of life. Desire has its origin in the illusion that the tangible world is real, which it is not. The remedy is to overcome desire, avoid rebirth, and so achieve Nirvana or absorption into the All." PARKINSON, C. Northcote, East and West, p 110
11. See the film by DAVID ATTENBOROUGH,entitled Attenborough In Paradise
12. " Patrism combines two ideas: hierarchy and discipline. The individual fits into an organizational structure, in which orders come from above, and rules exist to cover almost every kind of situation. ...in contrast, matrism sees the individual as free from all external compulsions and hence obviously equal to all other individuals, in the sense of having no authority over them, nor recognizing any." RATTRAY TAYLOR, G. Rethink, p 30
13. ADAM, P. Art Of The Third Reich, Harry N Abrams, New York, 1992, pl 10
14. HUNTER, S. American Art of the Twentieth Century, pl 178 and pl 223
15. LORENZ, K. On Aggression, p 205
16. SPERBER, D. and WILSON, D. Relevance, p 1
17. SPERBER, D. and WILSON, D. Relevance, p 174
18. SPERBER, D. and WILSON, D. Relevance, p 15
19. SPERBER, D. and WILSON, D. Relevance, p 46
20. BATESON,G. Mind and Nature, p 18
21. BATESON,G. Mind and Nature, p 20
22. Note that the Aborigines deem this conventional world to be part of the original 'Dreaming' COWAN, J.G. The Aborigine Tradition , p 17
23. TILGHMAN, B.R. But Is It Art?, p 20
24. SANDLER, I. The New York School, p 3
25. Greenberg asserts a nationalistic vision of American painting that tends to obscure the European influence on the Abstract Expressionists. GREENBERG, C. Art And Culture , p 208
26. ROSENBLUM, R. "The Abstract Sublime ", Art News, Feb 61, p 38-41
27. A recent exhibition of Abstract Expressionism which emanated from San Francisco, demonstrates original vision by relatively unknown Abstract Expressionists, and suggests that according pride of place to New York practitioners is geographical prejudice. DUNCAN, M. "Bay Area Bravura ", Art In America, Sept '96, p 45-47
28. STILL, C. "An Open Letter To An Art Critic" , Art Forum, Dec '63, p 32
29. " The Action painter does not, like the Surrealist, begin with an image, nor does he proceed by the association and combination of images. From his first gesture on the canvas, be it a sweep of yellow or the figure 4, he establishes a tension upon the surface-that is to say, outside himself- and he counts upon this abstract force to animate his next move. What he seeks is not a sign representing a hidden self, the unconscious, but an event out of which a self is formed, as it is formed out of other kinds of action when those actions are free and sufficiently protracted. It is in this sense that Action painting could be said to break down the barrier between art and life- not by merging art into the environment, as in Pop and Happenings, but through engaging in art as a real (that is, total) activity." ROSENBERG, H. "The Concept Of Action In Painting", Artworks and Packages, 1969, p 226
30. " A new kind of flatness, one that breathes and pulsates, is the product of the darkened, value- muffling warmth of color in the paintings of Newman, Rothko and Still. Broken by relatively few incidents of drawing or design, their surfaces exhale color with an enveloping effect that is enhanced by size itself. One reacts to an environment as much as to a picture hung on a wall." GREENBERG, C. " American-Type" Painting , Art and Culture, 1961, p 226
31. COCKCROFT, E. "Abstract Expressionism-Weapon of the Cold War", Artforum '74, p 39
32. SANDLER, I. The New York School , p ix
33. HARRISON, C. "Abstract Expressionism" , Concepts of Modern Art, p 168
34. BUCHLOH, B.H.D. "The Whole Earth Show: An Interview with Jean-Hubert Martin", Art in America, May '89, p 150 See also HEARTNEY, E. "The Whole Earth Show Part II", Art in America, July '89, p 91
35.SPERBER, D. AND WILSON, D. Relevance, p 38
36. PAGLIA, C. Sexual Personae, p 26
37. PAGLIA, C. Sexual Personae, p 2
38. PAGLIA, C. Sexual Personae, p 34
39. PAGLIA, C. Sexual Personae, p 20
40. PAGLIA, C. Sexual Personae, p 30
41. LORENZ, K. On Aggression, p 204
42. LORENZ, K. On Aggression, p 206
43. LORENZ, K. On Aggression, p 213
44. LORENZ, K. On Aggression, p 214
45. LORENZ, K. On Aggression, p 209
46. LORENZ, K. On Aggression, p 231
47. LORENZ, K. On Aggression, p 224
48. The hero in The Outsider, has a " glaring fault in the eyes of society- he seems to lack the basic emotions and reactions (including hypocrisy) that are required of him. He observes the facts of life, death, and sex from the outside." See CAMUS, A. The Outsider, and KAFKA, F. The Trial relates " the perplexing experiences of a man arrested on a charge which is never specified, but within the pattern of the complicated narrative Kafka is trying to elucidate some of the fundamental dilemmas of human life."
49. MACQUARRIE, J. Existentialism, p 69-76
50. CHIEF SEATTLE, "Common Destiny", Resurgence, no 178, p 6-7
51. WIJERS, L. & PIJNAPPEL, J. (eds) Art meets Science and Spirituality, p 27
52. KAUFMAN, S.E. The Dynamic Structure of Space, part 1, ch 10, second page (Internet)
53. WIJERS, L. & PIJNAPPEL, J. (eds) Art meets Science and Spirituality, p 27
54. LOVELOCK, J. "Planetary Medicine", Resurgence no 132 , 1989, p 9-10
55. BATESON, G. Mind and Nature, p 43
56. JOSELIT, D. " Burroughs's Virology", Art in America, Nov 1996, p 94
57. JOSELIT, D. " Burroughs's Virology", Art in America, Nov 1996, p 98
58. JOSELIT, D. " Burroughs's Virology", Art in America, Nov 1996, p 98
59. PINKER, S. The Language Instinct, p 18
60. PINKER, S. The Language Instinct, p 19
61. BREDO, E."Cognitivism, Situated Cognition, And Deweyian Pragmatism", p 7 (Internet)
62. HANCOCK, G. Fingerprints of the Gods, p 264 - 265
63. GAZZANIGA, M. S. Nature's Mind, p 2
64. TUDGE, C. The Engineer in the Garden, p 72-73
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