As a Western 20th century capitalist, I cannot disagreee more strongly.
> invariably resort to entertainment, or games or training lessons. But
> what if the caves were teaching centers or places where humans learned to
> think abstractly through symbols? Do we need to muddy this concept by
> alluding to a religious ritual? I believe there is a much simpler
> explanation. Let's say you are the artist responsible for the paintings.
> You convince an acquaintance or a group of people to go down into the cave.
> They are afraid but they follow you.
>
> When the group arrives they are astounded. They see life all around them
> represented by symbols. They are transfixed in some manner and when they
> return to the surface they look at everything around them with a different
> awareness.They think of themselves differently. This perhaps is a more
> appropriate model for immersion than entertainment. It does hold some
> classic psychological thresholds. One is removed from daily life. One goes
> through a passage of some sort to arrive at the immersive environment. The
> experience changes ones awareness upon return. Within our commodity driven
> global world this sort of experience is rare indeed. Can you imagine trying
Phht. Maybe to you it's rare. For everyone else it's just a library
or a movie-theatre away. Or D&D game away.
> to convince Disney to fund an immersive project that will change peoples
> awareness of life and elevate their consciousness in a profound manner? Not
> likely. Yet the desire for this type of evolution of awareness is deep
> within humanity. Indeed progressive and changing awareness is one of the
> constants in human life. What we tend to categorize as a religious
> experience is a shift in consciousness. That shift in consciousness is also
> the domain of the artist. The artist seeks out that awareness and tries to
> communicate or create the same shift in others. Repeated ritual behavior,
> especially religious practices, tend to be a commemoration of a shift in
> awareness. The ritual somehow tries to evoke the experience without
> understanding the cause of the shift. This is usually a hollow exercise
Spoken like one who knows nothing whatsoever about religion. Religion
is the cause of the experience.
> that is couched in the words of mystery, initiation etc.. If my supposition
> about the effects of immersion in a cave painting environment is correct,
> no religious or ritual behavior was involved. However I am assuming the
Of course! There are no absolutes, no fumbling towards the divine!
> meaning of religious practice to be the sense one gets now in the 20th
> century. Perhaps in the primal past of humanity a gathering to advance the
> awareness of a tribe would be a ritual or religious practice. We have no
Worship of the ego..? Cool. I can see it now. "Caveman Joe, let's all
get together and advance our species' awareness." "Ok, let's go!"
> way of knowing. Let's think about this primal immersive event. The main
> elements are contained space and symbols representing life activities. This
> is an abstract space. It exists and has meaning because it is different
> from normal life. It is a space at once physical in the grandiosity of the
> cave and immaterial in the glyphs. However the intention is to alter the
Divorced from purpose, that's a meaningless statement, and a hollow
one as well. OK, say the artist does want to change people's
perspectives -- to change them to be more like what? Towards some
vision or better way that she or he envisions. There is an end to the
artist's goal of changing the perspective.
> Several other complex factors may have been in operation in this primal
> past. Knowing the natural tendencies of humans to groupings of families,
> tribes, nations and so forth one must assume a social order of some sort.
> Within this order there is indeed repeated, ritual behavior in the form of
> dance, various solar commemorations, courtship, marriage and so forth. In
> our modern religious practices these are fundamental. I cannot imagine a
Modern as say oh for the last 2000 years...
> young couple crawling down into a cave to be married in an immersive glyph
> environment. It seems inappropriate, even in a primal past. No, I believe
If they were spelunkers, why not?
> the descent into immersion was an event unto itself. What was the
> awareness one returned with? We have no way of knowing. My sense is that
> humanity discovered an abstract universe of thought different from normal
> life. The presentation of the animal glyphs, the hunters and so forth in
> the immersive environment was not the main event. It is a mistake to
> fetishize the art object/ event while eschewing the experience which powers
> it. this is the dilemma we face at the end of the 20th century. Our society
> in America and indeed the world cries out for transformative situations.
> This is the power intrinsic to the art experience. What we get instead is
> the display of commodities, the latest fashions in art to purchase and
> large scale entertainment events. The artists is given one choice become a
> commodity or perish. Understand this, a tranformative event is not
> entertainment.
Hmm. That's pretty much bs in the world of music. I know tons of
bands that make profound, moving stuff. Does it sell? Yes. Is a
cookie-cutter mentality "commodity" as you derisively refer to? No.
It's ART. The world's a big place, and there are plenty of artists and art
going on out there.
> My recent experiences with two way video teleconferencing and performance
> via the internet lead me to believe that a dynamic new model for
> transformative immersive environments is taking shape. Within a simple Cu
> See Me interface the event is porous. People log on to a conference and
> their faces show up on the screen. They are integrated into the event. This
> is immersion. They are part of the performance and not just a passive
> audience. Further they direct how the situation develops through chat. The
> location for a Cu See Me event is in cyberspace and exists more in the
> social connections occurring during the event. The location is in the minds
> of the participants. There is a transformation because of the connection.
> There is a sense of abstract space that is different from normal space.
> What happens in these performative events is similar to what in my opinion
> occurred in the caverns 30,000 years ago. Normal life is represented in an
> immersive space through glyphs. In this instance the normal life
>
> represented by the glyphs are various art performances, music, dance and
> social interactions. The transformation occurs with the awareness of a
> break with the entertainment/ commodity format. The consciousness is one of
> connection to other people . This is not the repetitive ritual nor is it
> the packaged reproducible commodity. There are some ground rules however.
> First the event/ environment must be encapsulated. It must have a time
> limit and a general agreed upon theme. Second; it must not be scripted or
So much for programmatic symphonies huh? GET A CLUE. It limits art if
you say it cannot be scripted, or that it can't entertain. Art and
entertainment are not mutually exclusive.
> follow an entertainment format. Third and most importantly, it must be
> organized through personal contact. Remember my story about the artist
> leading the group down into the cavern. In this instance the artist must
> lead the group into the immersive environment. The group must distinguish
> between normal life and immersion. Normal life is shaped by day to day
> interactions, such as monetary activities, earning a living, shopping,
> raising a family, accessing entertainment and so forth. Immersion seeks to
> transform consciousness. Immersion is not teaching. It is not religion. It
Sure sounds like you're propounding it as such, though, hmm?
> is very close to art in the primal sense. The end result of an immersive
> event is to totally transform the awareness of the participants. When they
> return to normal life they see the potential of a new society. This society
No. They have their consciousness shifted closer to (or perhaps
further away from) the goal of the artist. The end of the artist (his
or her goal) is what is communicated through the art. Sure, they
could see the potential of a new society. They could also see the
brilliance of egg-whirling, or toaster mechanics or a thousand other
themes.
The underground lives!!!
---Mike