Nearly on a daily basis now I hear someone describe people being crazy. What I think they mean is people seem increasingly disconnected from their environments.
The sense I’m getting is that we all experience someone vacating the room as soon as they are engaged in their mobile device. What if this is not only their attention going to a focused zone in union with their device, but what if that attentive energy was feeding etheric forces. If it is possible for meditators to effect invisible fields of perception, it is not only words that effect reality, but also thoughts. I realize this may contradict the previous post (if you read it). So if you haven’t, just know science is a method of study and takes a long time to draw affirmative conclusions…that even those conclusions remain open to new information. New information may or may not actually change reality though. New imformation simply changes how we believe we know what reality is.
Image, is the root word for imagination. And when it comes to the realm of imagery, the world feels saturated in them. We already see so much in our physical realities, and now there are the virtual realities that have imaginary objects floating on the reality itself as a backdrop. In that images can be post constructed, collage being the most noted, there are artists and photographers working with the collage being made of reality itself. The difference in register, intonation, exists in the knowing of what something is…and if it is possible to recovery the memory of what the difference was like. Can you remember what life was like before you had the internet on your pocket device? Can you remember how you felt about your future, within your body?
The change in the relatedness human beings already are experienced with each other and time feels increasingly filmsy, meaning…like film. The misuse of words, such as generative AI adds to our conflationary status.
Generative used to mean creating a new entity with a lineage that would outlive you. In terms of how memorable images made with generative AI tools is…remains to be seen.
Considering the difficulties the field of photography faced being accepted as an artform, the rise of oft-called bad painting, how on this earth did a machine made image sampled from key words come to be considered ‘art’? *The meaning of art in reference to the history of the word at the end of this post.
The contemporary art field had a large role to play in this, as well described in The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe. The CIA is another of the well documented forces manipulating public minds. In reality, countries playing in the field of art know the types of symbolism, iconography, stories told are not always in a culture-war, despite the use of the word “canon” popularised by graduate schools…we are raising up values, and putting down others. Simply because taking in an entire gamut of experience might knock anyone off their feet.
So what about today, do you think is going to be raised as significant in 20 years? Or are we all dandily galloping toward oblivion? Your imagination really is YOURS. So what are you going to do with it? Do you think the excitement of what everyone else is doing is more significant than your personal agency with your attention and energy? Do questions make you feel like you are on trial? Have you noticed we are living in a sort of Kafka novel? And if we are claiming to be intelligent, I would like to see visual literacy part of the literacy education accompanying math and physics.
Not only is the imagination being messed with, so is the memory. In our pursuit of pleasure and turning away from pain, are we de-thorning roses to flow through the stream of consciousness and forever altering ourselves in favor of the ideal of perfect union. And what I mean about turning away from pain, is that in the sense of need for forward movement…progress, what are we costing the actual future generations? These are questions Greta Thunberg became famous for, in a sort of extreme context. The questions I am asking in this letter are situated on what does the future look like with both technology AND the retention of our humanity? Questions are to be leaned into, as avoidance suggests by symbolism here, the drip of an avoidant candle will burn faster and accumulate a puddle of wax, whereas the upright candle may burn slower and the wax accumulation will be, quite simply, different, and all from a simple choice.
I ask you, because as long as we are all engaged and living in this world, we all have some small parts to play that adds up to a lot. I hope you enjoy the resources below as an entryway to the rabbit hole of meditation and consciousness studies.
EEG Derived Neuronal Dynamics during Meditation: Progress and Challenges
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4684838/
Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0407401101
Electromagnetic emission from humans during focused intent
ART art (n.)
early 13c., "skill as a result of learning or practice," from Old French art (10c.), from Latin artem (nominative ars) "work of art; practical skill; a business, craft," from PIE *ar(ə)-ti- (source also of Sanskrit rtih "manner, mode;" Greek artizein "to prepare"), suffixed form of root *ar- "to fit together." Etymologically akin to Latin arma "weapons" (see arm (n.2)).
In Middle English usually with a sense of "skill in scholarship and learning" (c. 1300), especially in the seven sciences, or liberal arts. This sense remains in Bachelor of Arts, etc. The meaning "human workmanship" (as opposed to nature) is from late 14c. The meaning "system of rules and traditions for performing certain actions" is from late 15c. The sense of "skill in cunning and trickery" is attested by late 16c. (the sense in artful, artless). The meaning "skill in creative arts" is recorded by 1610s; especially of painting, sculpture, etc., from 1660s.
In science you must not talk before you know. In art you must not talk before you do. In literature you must not talk before you think. [Ruskin, "The Eagle's Nest," 1872]
Supreme art is a traditional statement of certain heroic and religious truths, passed on from age to age, modified by individual genius, but never abandoned. The revolt of individualism came because the tradition had become degraded, or rather because a spurious copy had been accepted in its stead. [William Butler Yeats, journal, 1909]
Expression art for art's sake (1824) translates French l'art pour l'art. First record of art critic is from 1847. Arts and crafts "decorative design and handcraft" is from the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, founded in London in 1888.