ICHI-Art
Monday, January 26, 2004
Riffs on Ken Wilber's "Art/Aesthetic Line of Development"
Ken Wilber has described what he calls an Art/Aesthetic line of development. He has written about it in several books and essays, and two of notable examples are in Marriage of Sense and Soul, and Integral Psychology (or IPsy). Specifically in IPsy, Wilber correlates development along this line according to basic structures of development. And in general, he proposes that this line of development can be used in two ways for integral art. One way is to assess the aesthetic development of the artist, and the other way is to assess the level of development actually depicted in an artwork. In short, this line offers a framework to assess both the subject (artist) and the object (art, or artifact). These dual assessments, taken alone, do not provide the fullest and most comprehensive picture available. These are an important part of an integral assessment or interpretation of art. As such, this line is but one amongst many more that we can honor and incorporate. But understanding how to work with this line, especially as an interpreter of art, appears to be a very important part of any authentically genuine integral art theory.
Wilber lists nine basic levels, or stages, that constitute the Aesthetic Line. This line, or intelligence, is correlated, in IPsy, with two different sets of basic self structures. One set uses a scale of 6 stages. The other uses a scale of 16 stages. It is important to realize that each scale is simply one way to slice up the Kosmic pie of human evolution. The most generic scale is familiar to many people. That scale is none other than body - mind - spirit.
The nine stages of the Aesthetic intelligence that Wilber uses are the following. In parenthesis are examples, or similar terms):
sensorimotor - (initial aesthetic impact)
emotional expressivist - (feeling-expression)
magical imagery - (e.g. Paleolithic cave art, dream imagery, surrealist)
mythological-literal - (e.g. concrete religious art, icons)
perspectival - (naturalistic, empirical-representational, impressionist, conceptual, formal)
aperspectival - (cubist, abstract)
symbolist - (fantastic realist, psychic perceptual)
archtypal - (e.g. thangka, bhakti expressivist)
nondual - (e.g. Zen landscape)
[Note: These correlate, using one example, with the basic self structures of: sensorimotor, phantasmic-emotional, rep-mind, concrete operational, formal operational, and post-formal. Another correlating example is the stage conception of preconventional to conventional to postconventional to post-postconventional. Chart 8 from the back of IPsy lists these intelligences on graph paper, and shows how they loosely correlate.]
As Wilber writes, the Aesthetic Intelligence can be used to assess both the stage of the artist, as well the content of the depiction in the piece of art. Another way to state this is to say that as interpreters of art, we can consider what stage of aesthetic development is producing a piece of art, and we can what stage of human development that actual artwork depicts.
This dual analysis opens an interesting direction that we can consider once we grasp the dual nature of the Aesthetic line. We can consider the area of integral theory that addresses how stages of development relate with both states of consciousness and bodies of energy. Simply put, the question is a matter of state and traits (or stages). Alex Grey provides a useful characterization of the artistic process. In his book, The Mission of Art, he wrote:
"Art is a state of consciousness that the artist is driven to preserve in a medium."
As we think about what that means, we can realize that all artists, no matter what the stages of development are that make up their self-structure, have access to any and all of the states of consciousness and bodies of energy. Wilber echoes this in several places in his work. One's level of aesthetic development is no indicator of what peak experiences one can have. States are open to artists no matter what stages make up their self. But an artist's self-structure does influence the way that the artist translates and gives language to their peak experiences of inspiration and vision.
A person who's aesthetic intelligence is around the mythological-literal stage can have a peak experience, or radiant glimpse, of any higher plane of development, or the formless ground of all of manifestation, or of One Taste. If that artist has the means and drive, he or she can capture and reflect that peak experience in their chosen medium of art. Other factors, such as the artist's technical intelligence, come into play as the artist preserves their vision in a plastic form of some sort.
But the main point that Wilber makes is that the Aesthetic intelligence provides two useful avenues. One is to understand, in part, the self-structure of the artist or artists, and two is to understand how that self-structure translates, reflects, and depicts the peak experiences of altered states and bodies that blow through the artist's awareness and life.
One way we have to be careful in this discussion is to realize that states and bodies can be captured in art mediums, as Alex Grey suggests. Specifically, if a peak experience can be captured in a medium of art, the peak experience appears to become a level, or stage, that has stabilized in the artist. But that is not necessarily the case. An artist may have a peak experience (altered state and body), for example, that gives a glimpse of subtle archetypal patterns of manifestation. Captured in a plastic form of art (music, painting, sculpture, script, film, etc) the interpreter may feel that this archtypal stage is the general stage of the artist's self-structure. Just because an artist glimpsed an archetypal level does not mean he or she permanently resides there in their day to day existance. A causal state and body, if experienced by the artist at a mythic-literal aesthetic self-stage, and if well-depicted in an artform, can open all who witness the art into an experience of deep and clear Witness.
So what can this mean? The Muse can emerge in any and all artists. Spirit can emerge in any and all artists. The Kosmos can emerge in any and all artists. Can we be open to deep emergence? And can we create reproducible yogas for artistic emergence through artists of any and all stages of aesthetic development? Can we make artistic avant-garde emergence less of an accident, and more of a Kosmic habit?
Friday, January 23, 2004
An Integral Cabaret in Chicago?
....cabaret = "a restaurant that serves liquor and offers a variety of musical entertainment. The cabaret probably originated in France in the 1880s as a small club in which the audience was grouped around a platform. The entertainment at first consisted of a series of amateur acts linked together by a master of ceremonies; its coarse humour was usually directed against the conventions…"
That's is a conventional definition of cabaret, one that has served humanity well as an entertainment format. And in a formal sense, for example, Cabaret the musical is a true work of art, perfect for its time and place, and enduring beyond. But what would a post-conventional multimedia model look and feel like? What would an integral cabaret be? Objectively, there can be theatre, music, dance, visual art, poetry, and any other medium of art. And we can take the artists' points of view as well as the audience's points of view all into account. But what about the entirety of the integral model? What kind of states and energy bodies can we pop the audience with? What kind of peak experiences can we passionately and compassionately transmit? And what is the content of the transmission? How total and comprehensive can a cabaret evening be? Body, mind, and spirit in self, culture, and nature....Root chakra to crown chakra, in gross, subtle, and causal bodies.... sure, but can it be done? Can an integral cabaret provide an integral meal for all to witness and feel? What is standing in our way? Can we blow down doors, pop through tops, and rip us all open to the Divine? Can we die a thousand ways, introduced, narrated, and reincarnated by an emcee deity? Can an integral cabaret entertain, educate, and enlighten? Can we funk, fugue, and flash?
In Chicago, integral artists from around the city are meeting to manifest just such an emergence.....so stay integrally tuned....
Thursday, January 22, 2004
Areas of Inquiry for Integral Art
There are three or four major fields of inquiry that an artists can explore within an IOS (integral operating system) for artists. These major fields of inquiry are essentially methodologies, common and well-understood within all fields of art. Each comprise an orientation that one can use to explore, reflect, create injunctions, and in general learn about art-making. This may all sound heady or theoretical, but in practice this is what artists do everyday in making art. As with all of integral theory, we can be more aware of what we are doing, so as to allow for greater focus, consciousness, evolution, presence, energy, life, vitality, and enthusiasm for our art-making. We can become more prone to altered state artistic accidents, that can transmit altered states and radical energy bodies to viewers, audience members, and anyone participating in the wondrous ongoing transcendance act that is art!
Basically put, the four areas of inquiry are phenomenological, or introspective, inquiry (upper left quadrant), sensory empirical, or behavioral, inquiry (upper right quadrant), systems theory, or functional fit, inquiry (lower right quadrant), and hermenutical, or interpretive, inquiry (lower left quadrant). Conscious of the general nature of each form of inquiry, the artist can develop the skillful means of being able to explore each type of inquiry, and therefore each general quadrant of art-making, throughout the course of one's practice. In terms of being an integrally-informed artist, a pursuit that cultivates integral consciousness, these are general inquiries that an artist can explore. To explore any kind of inquiry, the artist creates injunctions (or exercises, games, activities, or exemplars) to generate information. This information is nothing other than various states of consciousness as well as various energetic bodies. The artist can be reflective and aware of all of this, and over time, can develop stable and permanent access to higher stages of development.
An artist can also create art that transmits meaning, energy, and states of consciousness that reflect each of these inquiries. The choreography and presentation of dance, for example, can focus an audience's attention on phenomenology, or in layman's terms, inner perceptions of reality. Audience attention can be focused on sensory empiricism, or the movements and behavior of humans. Attention can be focused on systems theory, which means the ways in which humans, things, and objects of any kind fit together and interact objectively. Finally, the dance piece can transmit energy that focuses the audience on the various ways that humans interpret reality, along subjective dimensions, and this comprises hermenutic energy. All of this can be depicted in the various choices that an artist makes as he or she crafts avant-garde artifacts.
Just as important as the first two areas (integrally informed artistry, and integral avant-garde artifacts) is the area of integral art and literary theory. This can simply be known as Integral Art Interpretation. So it follows that as people interpret art (critics, academics, and general audience people) these four areas of inquiry (and there can be more) can guide the interpreter into crafting a critical response to art that takes as much into account. Simply run through each of the inquiries and dig up as much information as one can. A 1st-person phenomenological account of a dance piece -- for example the perspective of the choreographer, in terms of his or her intentions, aesthetic sense, personal history, etc -- sometimes cannot be gained, especially if the choreographer has passed on and left no relevant written or audio material that discusses this. But an integral interpretation at the very least acknowledges the potential existance of a whole slew of information, according in part to the four types of inquiry, and is simply more comprehensive than merely looking at artistic intention, the empirical artifact, or the viewer responses alone.
Monday, January 19, 2004
Kandinsky
...writing about an art exhibition in 1911, in which his work as well as work of other painters were to be shown, said:
"We are not seeking to propagate any precise or special form in this small exhibition. Our purpose is to show, in the variety of the forms here represented, how the inner wish of the artist takes shape in manifold forms."
Creation Hymn (Nasadiya) from the Rig Veda
1
There was neither non-existence nor existence then; there was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond. What stirred? Where? In whose protection? Was there water, bottomlessly deep?
2
There was neither death nor immortality then. There was no distinguishing sign of night nor of day. That one breathed, windless, by its own impulse. Other than that there was nothing beyond.
3
Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning; with no distinguishing sign, all this was water. The life force that was covered with emptiness, that one arose through the power of heat.
4
Desire came upon that one in the beginning; that was the first seed of mind. Poets seeking in their heart with wisdom found the bond of existence in non-existence.
5
Their cord was extended across. Was there below? Was there above? There were seed-placers; there were powers. There was impulse beneath; there was giving-forth above.
6
Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it? Whence was it produced? When is this creation? The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe. Who then knows whence it has arisen?
7
When this creation has arisen -- perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not -- the one who looks down on it, in the highest heaven, only he knows -- or perhaps he does not know.
(translation by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, published by Penguin Classics)
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Integral or Channeled Art?
Integral Art is defined to be as any artwork produced by an integrally aware consciousness. Easy right? But how does Integral Art measure up with artworks that are purported to be channeled from the spirit world? Consider the case of the famous Brazilian medium, Luis Antonio Gasparetto. (read entire article here).
Monday, January 12, 2004
Billy Corgan @ Integral Naked
"In this inside look at this own artistic unfolding, Billy discusses why he formed, and then dissolved, the Pumpkins, and likewise Zwan, as his own artistic crest (or leading edge or avant garde) moved forward. He and Ken talk about the leading edge of consciousness evolution and why artists are so often riding that edge… hence, the avant garde."
Checkout Part 1 of the dialogue between Billy Corgan and Ken Wilber -- The Leading Edge Consciousness and Avante Garde Art.
