“ The situation we are in –in terms of what receives attention and prominence– is post-art. At this time, and in social space, art is basically an adjunct of the entertainment business. … The issue is how to snap art out of its death trance –living its own death, so to speak– and make it once again a living and lived experience.” 1.
“How
to snap art out of its death trance and make it once again a living
and lived experience” ? Hum… assumptions will not revive
the function of art Mr. Kuspit !
The
reality is that, over 99.9% of the historical span of societal
evolution, art was first and foremost a societal matter while the
individual genius was at best an accessory. In that sense snapping
art out of its death trance, if
it ever happens, will
be a societal feat and not the heroic act of individual geniuses.
And the probability, that
such a societal feat will be instigated by human will, does
not register high on
the scale of realism.
But
how did art enter its death trance in the first place ?
___________
The story
about this death trance starts in Early-Modernity, in Western Europe,
when what I call the “3 obliged represent” 2
started to compete with religious art. The new rich merchants were
commissioning works illustrating the values of their new worldview of
Modernity, to adorn their walls, in order to boost their self
confidence in their new belief system.
By the end
of the 16th century the “3 obliged represent”
had become the most sought after works of art and by mid 19th
century the Early Modernists critiques started to fly. After the turn
of the century the avant-garde rejected all past productions as being
superficial representations that depicted reality at the illusory
level of its skin or 1st dimension.
The
Modernist avant-garde set for itself the task to give visual
representations of the working of reality in the deeper dimensions
that 19th century science had awoken in their minds. They
suddenly perceived past Christian and early-Modern works as being
superficial in representing solely the first dimension of what the
eye can see which they thought was merely the outer skin of a vastly
more complex reality. They were attracted by the prospect of the
deeper and more abstract dimensions that their friends scientists
glossed about. Modernism was the ambition to render visual
representations of the working of reality at the level of such deeper
dimensions. But within a few decades it became evident that the
avant-garde had failed in its mission.
Starting
during the 2nd WW US Foreign Institutions plotted a coup
to own the art world and invested to give a worldwide audience to
the New York art school. The objective was to crown the US as the
beacon of freedom that it never was while smearing its communist
enemy as a paragon of evil. In the process the bulk of European art
merchants moved to New York consecrating the city as the world
capital of art. From then on the content of artworks that were deemed
not to be ‘politically correct’ were strictly censured by the big
galleries, the museums and the specialized media. In other words
formalism was encouraged to dominate the art scene.
In
a second stage of its propaganda campaign Western intellectuals who
were distancing themselves from the traditional hard core left were
bribed to counter it more aggressively. One group of French
theorists, who were proposing the end of grand narratives, was more
particularly courted. Its protagonists were invited to teach at the
most famous US universities and their works were disseminated
worldwide. This ensured the spread of Postmodernism to the art-world
and later it pervaded the entire Western daily culture.
The
rejection of grand narratives rapidly destroyed leftist ideologies
and their political parties shifted to right-wing doctrines and
policies. The same happened with trade-unions. To give some substance
to Postmodernism its promoters made it appear as a reaction against
formalism. Their rejection of grand-narratives had left a deep void
in Western thinking. To fill this void they promoted the idea that
artworks should address reasoned content in the form of questioning
bits and pieces of reality at the image of the scientific approach.
The rejection of beauty in postmodern works furthermore intensified
the nothingness of its content which left many art lovers aghast.
Today
the art market promotes formalism for the sake of commerce and
speculation but such works have no artistic merit at all. Formalism
does not belong to the domain of art. It belongs to the domain of the
societal spectacle of Late-Modernity.
All
other productions are relegated on the margins. Some of the artists
there definitely master their craft at the image of traditional
painters. But they don’t have the opportunity to show their works
to the public, and even if they had this opportunity public shows
don’t constitute “a living and lived experience”, and
so these works are without a societal function.
“I
see developing on the sidelines a kind of resistance. There’s
something that has been called “New Humanism,” not my term
exactly. There’s also David Foster Wallace’s idea of “New
Sincerity” 3.
This
chapter is about the resistance that is growing in the margins of our
societies against the art-world occupying the beating heart of
late-modern societies. Even more important it is about giving visual
signs about what comes after Modernity’s death. Such visual signs
participate in the formation of the Zeitgeist and act as guideposts
helping the individuals to change and adapt their present behaviors
to the future that is coming our way.
5.1. the context explains the failure of Modernism
Deeper
dimensions of reality are emerging from the analysis of the first
dimension images that the eyes transmit to the brain. The brain
computes the data contained in these first dimension images according
to the signals, related to the preservation of life, that the species
accumulated along the path of its biological evolution. In other
words the biological evolution of a species gradually builds up a
memory of vital signals, that are used by the brain, to prolong the
existence of its individual particles. And what sets in motion the
program of the brain is the vital individual instinct of
preservation.
A small
fraction of the analysis realized by the brain is furthermore
transferred to the “individual self” which grows his
awareness and sets in motion the thinking process of what is called
the mind. How this transfer occurs is still a mystery. But not
understanding the mechanisms that breed the mind did not handicap the
human species in growing its awareness that knowledge helps to reduce
suffering while enhancing happiness. The awareness that knowledge
helps to reduce suffering acted like a mirror in which human
individuals gained an insight in their individual selves.
In other
words the formation of knowledge fostered the build-up of a societal
memory consisting of signals about how to best preserve and expand
the existence of the species. Death interrupts the individual storage
of memory. This problem was solved by evolving a twofold memory in
the build-up of the individual :
-
in the biological field : evolution imprinted the physical circuitry of a memory in the DNA-RNA that, since life emerged, captures the essential mechanisms ensuring the preservation and the further evolution of the individual-particles from any living species. This memory is then transmitted sexually from one generation to the next generation.
-
in the societal field : an oral transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next was institutionalized by small bands in the form of a service contract by which the (wo)man of knowledge agreed to share her/his knowledge to the members of the group. East Siberians and Manchus were calling this (wo)man of knowledge the shaman; an expression that since the end of the 19th century was adopted around the world.
But since
the build-up of a societal memory, of signals by small bands, started
hundreds of thousands of years ago how did the (wo)man of knowledge
share her/his knowledge with – her/his apprentices and –
all the members of the group ?
From
all we know language was too rudimentary to possibly share abstract
ideas and concepts. This problem was apparently solved by sharing
visual signs at the attention of the eyes of each individual. Once
captured by the eyes the signs are relayed to the brain for analysis
and the brain then transmits their meaning to the mind. What we have
been calling “art” since the enlightenment found its
origins in this momentous practice of knowledge sharing with all the
members of early societies.
In reality
the (wo)man of knowledge acted the function of the first human
societal institution ever and this institution marked the start of
human societal evolution. In other words knowledge fostered and
powered a societal evolutionary path that runs in parallel with
biological evolution. And seen from a very long haul perspective we
observe that societal evolution runs a zillion times faster than
biological evolution.
Running
a zillion times faster societal evolution appears like an elegant
mechanism to accelerate the rhythm of life’s evolution. The idea of
knowledge powering societal evolution was the root of the animist
worldview which gave rise to two of the world's most influential
schools of thought in the early empires of India and China:
-
the “Samhitas” (1700–1500 BC) are the earliest, archaic written parts of the Vedas, from which the multiple schools of thought in India inherited their foundational concepts. These schools address the whole from the perspective of their parts. This implies a knowledge formation starting from the particle and reaching out in the direction of the whole. The goal of all these schools is the liberation of the individual through a range of spiritual practices. Along the first centuries of the 1st millennium BC they diverged on their interpretation of the path to the liberation of the individual and this give rise to numerous schools that disagree with each other.
-
The first written version of the “Yi-Jing” or book of changes (1000-1100 BC) is a compilation of Shang dynasty bone inscriptions (1700-1200 BC). Knowledge is China was never conceived as a rupture with the past as in the West. It was considered as an expansion of the knowledge base of the past. All further schools of thought in China were thus expanding the knowledge base of the Yi-Jing by topping it with specialized add-ons or extensions. These schools address the whole as the foundational root of reality. In other words “Taiji” is something as “the whole”, or “Supreme Ultimate”, or “the way” which is powered by its polarities “Yin-Yang”. In the “Yi-jing” “Taiji” is the source of a sequence towards ever more complexity :
-
Yin-Yang = 2 polarities that give the Way
-
Sixiang = 4 directions
-
the bagua = 8 trigrams
Knowledge
originated in small bands and its application boosted population
levels which destabilized their organization as bands relying on the
authority of an alpha-male. A period of transition set in and over
thousands of years a form of society, with a mean population of 150,
was observed to offer a maximum of advantages all around the world.
This was the tribal model of society that lasted for tens of
thousands of years. Tribal societies thrived but were destabilized by
the extinction event that ended the Younger Dryas some 12,000 years
ago.
The
extinction event of the Younger Dryas collapsed the tribal model of
organization and after a transition of some 5-6000 years power
societies stabilized in kingdoms and empires that relied on religions
or philosophies to ensure the reproduction of their institutions over
the many generations. In this process the practice of knowledge and
art separated in two distinct functions : – the (wo)men of
knowledge benefited from the same advantages as the men of power and,
– the image makers were relegated at the bottom of the
social ladder.
It seems
that when societies are confronted to extinction level calamities the
speed of societal evolution is forced in acceleration mode and humans
lose their capacity to understand the changes that are taking place.
Calamities force a given natural process of evolution which discards
human will. When these natural processes stabilize, as during the
last ten thousand years that followed the Younger Dryas, human will
grows hungry and the new contextual settings push humanity on a path
of accelerating societal evolution.
Western
Europe was lagging behind the accelerating evolution in Asia until
relatively recently. It was absorbed in the Roman empire between 100
BC and 50 AD and entered in a long dark age after Rome’s collapse
sometime after 450 AD. Over the next 1000 years Christian Catholicism
was the sole institution that held Europe in check.
What
precedes is a condensed summary of what is foundational in societal
evolution. Let me now sketch this summary in 12 principles :
-
The analysis by the brain, of first dimension images, trickles down to the “individual self” and sets in motion the thinking process of the mind
-
over time the mind observes that knowledge helps to reduce suffering and to enhance happiness
-
small bands were replaced by ‘tribal non-power societies’ and the sharing of the knowledge of their shaman strengthened their cohesion
-
after tens of thousands of years of stability tribal societies were destabilized by an extinction event which set in motion a transition to empires that relied on religious or philosophic worldviews to boost societal cohesion
-
Modernity emerged as a quasi-worldview that gave rise to nation states :
- materialism and consumerism weakened the traditional religious worldviews
- modernity was a quasi-worldview because it never succeed to share a common narrative that could boost the cohesion of its nation-states
-
Early-Modernity expanded the propagandist role played by religious art. Under power societies art serves indeed as propaganda. The propaganda of power societies is imposing on all citizens the view of the master while the art of tribal non-power societies was a knowledge sharing service 4.
-
the Modernist avant-garde had sensed that a societal paradigmatic shift was on the way that would affect Western European societies but it did not understand :
- the outcome of this paradigmatic shift
- the role of visual signs in sharing the knowledge about this paradigmatic shift with the citizens
-
the artistic nothingness of postmodernist foreshadowed, and participated in bringing about, the social and cultural decay that is observed in Western societies today.
-
the artistic resistance to :
-
the ‘all commerce and financial speculation’ of the art-market
-
the postmodern nothingness is a sign of a society that does no longer work.
-
2. the rebirth of the modernist quest
The
members of the Modernist avant-garde
had
sensed
that
a societal paradigmatic shift was
approaching.
Their failure to deliver on their goal of representing deeper
dimensions of reality must be recognized. But this failure does not
equate
with
the end of their search. Over a century has passed since the
Modernist awakening. But nothing fundamental
has
changed. Artists
and open minded individuals are
still
sensing
the
approach of this
same
societal paradigmatic shift that
the avant-garde had sensed more than a century ago. It
has
indeed still
not materialized.
But many
of us
sense that it is
very near now.
Societal
paradigmatic shifts are preceded by powerful warning
signs of the
coming
tectonic
movements,
like
social and cultural seismic
shocks, that
eventually
result in deep societal
cracks.
The
lesson here is that the
time scales of operation, of human reason and of societal
paradigmatic shifts or natural
calamities, do not coincide. Human
life
has
a short timespan
and
the individuals experience
difficulties to adjust to the long
timescales
of
societal
paradigmatic shifts and of earthly natural phenomena. So
they
tend to shorten the time scale of
their unfolding to
the time scale of their
own lives.
But in
the continuity between today and the beginning of the 20th
century we observe some
interesting differences
:
-
the crisis of the governance world at the beginning of the 20th century was internal to the Western world.
-
the crisis of the governance world today is resulting in the shift of the center of gravity of the economy-world from a Christian Western world to a Confucian East-Asia.
-
today the damages wrought by the side-effects of Modernity are opening questions in the minds about the validity of Modernity as a quasi-worldview and about the validity of its economic system. These damages are weighing heavily on the resolution of the crisis of the governance-world.
-
this time our perception of the societal paradigmatic shift has gone global. In the beginning of the 20th century the avant-garde was essentially composed of Western-Europeans and some Russian exiles. This time around, if there is ever again an avant-garde at all, it will be composed of artists and thinkers from all over the world. And we can already sense that these artists and thinkers are rejecting the Western pretense at Modernity’s universalism.
These
differences are colossal no doubt about that. But
there are even more significant ones
that
distinguish our present context
and the context
at the beginning
of the 20th
century.
Modernism
was an awakening to what
the avant-garde thought was a
societal paradigmatic shift inside
the quasi-worldview of Modernity. This time around there is a very
high probability that the awakening is
pointing
to a paradigmatic shift that rejects Modernity for something
radically new.
But
I’m afraid that the roots of this
shift will not originate in human minds nor will they materialize
through
human
will-power. Human
minds are indeed entirely captured
by
the ways of doing and thinking of Modernity and they
are
not ready to let go of
it.
Scientific
models are measuring the impact of some of the side-effects taken
individually like
– climate-change, – pesticide poisoning and
fast extinction of all species of birds and insects,
– plastic contamination of
all water on earth,
– and so on.
Scientists
are alarmed by the projection
of damages
as
they will result in the future.
Some
of
them
are starting to ring alarm bells to
the
real possibility that we might have passed thresholds that
bring us straight
into extinction.
These
alarm bells are shocking the conscience of many adults who fear for
the future of their kids while
the
kids sense that the adults, and their model of society, are
destroying their future. The
kids now
vow to fight back. Extinction rebellion emerged
out of this will to fight back against a society that threatens their
life and
more generally the principle of life itself.
Until
now the scientific community has
been
studying each side-effect of
Modernity taken separately.
But as we have seen these side-effects
are converging and interacting upon one another which is starting to
unleash unknown processes which
will conclude
with
unknown consequences.
To
my knowledge, up
until today, there
is no scientific modeling
work
done
about
where
this great
convergence is
pushing
life
on earth
…
These
unknown unknowns do not yet
interrupt
human
life.
And
so
the quest
of Western kids
for the reclamation of reason
is
really laudable.
The
slogans they are shouting indicate their awareness about
the fact that
their
fight for survival
ultimately
will
require
a new form of society that
encourages nothing short of a new way of life and
a new way of thinking.
I
personally feel
drawn to
the side of the kids. But I also know that you can’t
invent a new way of life
like
per a magical trick. A new way of life implies that
all citizens share
a common
and new
worldview. But as I wrote here above “human
minds are entirely focused on the ways of doing and thinking of
Modernity and are not ready to let go of
it”.
After
observing the responses
humanity
has formulated, over the last 50 years to the multiple calls by
scientists and artists for action, it is my firm conviction today
that a paradigmatic
shift can
only
result from
a push that
originates
from the
outside of human societies. The great convergence of all the
side-effects of Modernity is such an outside force. The
evidence is becoming overwhelming that
humanity is fast reaching the point when things unravel.
More
and more people sense that
the
paradigmatic
shift is
very
close and
that it
is
rooted in the convergence of the multitude of side-effects of
Modernity. From this convergence will emerge ten thousand unknown
unknowns that will force life, including human life, to adapt to the
settings of tomorrow’s
new context. In
other words “Calamities
force a natural process of evolution which discards human will”.
Necessity
will force us to live differently by adapting to the particular
context of our local settings. Adapting to the realities on the
ground we’ll also start to think differently about what are our
priorities in life. Gone will be our addiction to social media. Gone
will be consumerism. Gone will be the entertainment spectacle. Gone
will be the systems of representative democracy that we’ll come to
abhor for having driven us straight in a calamity of our own making.
In other words as I wrote here above : “ When the natural
processes stabilize, as during the last ten thousand years that
followed the Younger Dryas, the new contextual settings push humanity
on a path of accelerating societal evolution. “
The
paradigmatic
shift that
we feel approaching
is nothing else than
the
emergence
of a new
worldview at
the contact with the new realities that
are forming on
the ground.
Once
stabilized the
sharing
of the new paradigmatic
shift, or
the new worldview, will boost trust among the citizens and this will
steadily
increase
societal cohesion. Gone will be the daily bickering and the conflicts
of interests
of
our present societies. The
societies of the future will be founded on sturdy institutions whose
mission will be to help improve the daily lives of their citizens and
pragmatism will triumph over ideology.
In these
new settings art
will
once
again be
in high demand and
it will
once
again
gain
“a
living and lived experience”.
This
new society will want to share its new worldview with all its
citizens in
order to boost its cohesion. And
this is when
art will
become indispensable and will thus
rediscover its societal functionality. In
other words necessity, at the steering wheel, is
what finally
will
“snap art out of its death trance”.
In
contrast to Modernism, which was despised by the large majority of
citizens, this new form of art, in the age of After-Modernity, will
be entangled in their daily life. Art will thus appear once again to
fulfill its historical role as a service to share the new worldview
with all.
3. the principle of life is always right
We artists
and thinkers on the margins of society are resisting and rejecting
Modernity and its Western pretension at universalism. We resist and
reject the art-market at the center of our societies. We resist and
reject the power ideologies of big capital holders and their
servants. We resist and reject formalism and its postmodern gimmicks.
As artists
and thinkers we feel pulled by our craft and we follow because we
can’t let go of the excitement to balance lines, forms and colors.
We are craftsmen after all, and as all craftsmen, we long for the
problem solving of our craft. The artist involvement in his craft is
the personal aspect of creation. It relates to the form of the work’s
execution. In Medieval times this personal aspect of creation was the
only aspect of artistic freedom and this explain why craftsmen
devoted all their creative energy to the technical execution of their
works and, in finale, this explains the exceptional quality of the
crafts of the time that so starkly contrasts with the nothingness of
contemporary works.
The
other domain of artistic creation relates to the content of the work.
In medieval and in Early-Modern times the domain of content was the
exclusive prerogative of those who commissioned artworks. In Medieval
times it were the priests and in Early-Modern times it were the new
rich long distance merchants who imposed “the obliged 3
represent”.
Since
the early years of High-Modernity, sometimes around mid 19th
century, art ceased to be commissioned and artists were left free to
create whatever came to their minds. But with freedom comes
responsibility or, in other words, the need for the artist to define
the content of his work by himself. In the early decades of this
newly gained freedom artists simply continued to represent “the
3 obliged represent” of Early-Modernity. But with the rejection
of the superficiality of the first dimension of what the eyes can see
the avant-garde opened a can of worms. Suddenly erupted a question
“what are these deeper dimensions where reality operates ?”.
Kandinsky
is perhaps the one member of the avant-garde who thought most
profoundly about this question and he also tried to answer it. But
his answers, at the time, did not carry a societally perceived worthy
substance and so his thinking efforts were mostly in vain. But what
do I mean by a “societally perceived worthy substance” ?
Kandinsky
firmly positioned form and content in the contextual setting of the
artist’s societal life :
" Every
work of art is the child of its age and, in many cases, the mother of
our emotions. It follows that each period of culture produces an art
of its own which can never be repeated. Efforts to revive the
art-principles of the past will at best produce an art that is
still-born. It is impossible for us to live and feel, as did the
ancient Greeks. “5
Kandinsky
was very clear about the impact, of his troubled time, on the working
of the individuals’ minds :
"Our
minds, which are even now only just awakening after years of
materialism, are infected with the despair of unbelief, of lack of
purpose and ideal. The nightmare of materialism, which has turned the
life of the universe into an evil, useless game, is not yet past; it
holds the awakening soul still in its grip. “
Kandinsky’s
vision of the role of the artist is still of actuality 100 years
after he wrote “Concerning the spiritual in art” :
“ ‘Whither
is this lifetime tending? What is the message of the competent
artist? "To send light into the darkness of men's hearts--such
is the duty of the artist,’ said Schumann”.
Where
is this life leading us ? Kandinsky was absolutely right. Sending
light into the darkness of men's hearts is indeed the core
content of what real artworks have always been all about. The
knowledge of the day is the light
that illuminates
the darkness experienced in
the loneliness
resulting from turning over and over a known
unknown in the mind.
In other words when humans do
not share a worldview that answers all their existential questions
they feel at a loss and in
their growing anxiety they start to mistrust their fellow citizens.
The knowledge contained in
the worldview acts like a light and the darkness disappears. Trust
emerges and societal cohesion grows stronger.
There
are many good reasons to believe that we all would gain immensely if
we applied this principle today :
-
the observer would gain some light to soothe his anxiety at the prospect of the uncertainty of the days to come and she/he would instinctively know how to adjust her/his ideas and behaviors in the present.
So
what is the future reserving us ? I wrote the following about this
question in 2 here above :
" the
evidence is becoming overwhelming. More
and more people sense a
paradigmatic shift is
very close and
that it is
rooted in the convergence of the multitude of side-effects of
Modernity. From this convergence will emerge ten thousand unknown
unknowns that will force life, including human life, to adapt to the
emerging settings of tomorrow’s
new context. In other
words ‘Calamities
force a natural process of evolution which discards human will’.
Necessity
will force us to live differently by adapting to the particular
context of our local settings. Adapting to the realities on the
ground we’ll also start to think differently about what are our
priorities in life. Gone will be our addiction to social media. Gone
will be consumerism. Gone will be the entertainment spectacle. Gone
will be the systems of representative democracy that we’ll come to
abhor for having driven us straight in a calamity of our own making.
In other words : ‘When the natural processes stabilize, as during
the last ten thousand years that followed the Younger Dryas, the new
contextual settings push humanity on a path of accelerating societal
evolution’. “
The
picture I’m trying to paint here is one of calamities of our own
making that will force us in a new place: ‘Calamities
force a natural process of evolution which discards human will’.
There
is no way to predict the outcome of a convergence of factors like the
following example : societal atomization, + climate change + erosion
of top soils + poisoning of insects and birds by pesticides +
acidification of the oceans + plastic contamination of all the water
on earth + deforestation + …
What
we know for certain is that such a convergence of factors will place
our descendants in a radically altered natural context. There is also
the real possibility that most living species, including our own,
will go extinct. But we better forget about that because focusing our
attention on it would definitely cut short our interest in life. The
fact is that life will continue with or without the genie homo. What
will definitely be gone is Modernity and our human pretense at
playing god.
This
vision, while not precise, gives us to appreciate the real power of
the processes at work in shaping the earth we live on and how life
(living species) is fragile in view of these processes. It gives us
to realize how stupid our pretense at controlling nature really was.
It gives us to realize how dependent life really is on the earth
processes. Looking back at human history it downs on us how ignorant
power societies have been of these realities. And in contrast we
discover how smart tribal societies really were at adapting to
recurrent climate changes and other calamities.
This
does not preclude us to appreciate the ingenuity of the systems of
Modernity. It is just that those humans who control these systems are
so self-centered that they ignore the big picture of the reality in
which these systems are functioning. Being self-centered, and
entirely focused on the closed system of thinking of ‘the reason
that is at work within capital’, is what drives us into the madness
of Late-Modernity.
Infinite
growth in a finite context is definitely a very dumb idea. Running
with this idea of infinite growth appears nevertheless to be an
unbeatable bet in the eyes of most of us. Growth explodes the
population which explodes the demand for goods which explodes the
profits which explodes the volumes of invested capital. In other
words Modernity appears as an unmitigated success story but to
attentive observers that success story is coming to an end now and so
this was a success story that lasted no longer than the blink of an
eye on the span of the long haul history. But what a damage it made
in that blink of an eye...
The
natural processes that are engaged by the side-effects of Modernity
will eventually stabilize in a new contextual settings which will
liberate the creativity of the individuals and this will push
humanity on a new cycle of accelerating societal evolution. ‘When
the natural processes stabilize the new contextual settings push
humanity on a path of accelerating societal evolution’.
Observing
life as it unfolds over the long haul it appears that its ‘way’
is to follow repeated cycles : – emergence (birth), –
development (growth), – collapse (death).
When a system collapses it dies or it vegetates
for some time and then eventually restarts a phase of growth. This
restart operates at a stage of development way more advanced than
during the initial emergence of the system which engages then a new
cycle of development that is way more advanced than in the initial
cycle. This 2nd cycle then also collapses leaving the system dead or
vegetating. Theoretically multiple cycles are possible but they are
rare.
When
complex systems like societies collapse most of them die. Taking
civilizations, as our example, we observe that many emerged but all
collapsed. Only the Chinese civilization succeeded to restart
multiple times and it survives to the present time. Multiple restarts
have given the Chinese nation a body of knowledge that reaches
depths that are not observed in other nations. This depth of
knowledge, in statecraft for example, is without any possible doubt
one of the determinant factors of China’s modernization success
story.
______________
As
conclusion of this chapter I offer the following6.
What
I see taking place nowadays is a continuation of the effort of
Modernism to illustrate the worldview of the day. But this time the
effort is being acted out in an animistic fashion by unifying the
artist and the man of knowledge.
The
few most sensitive souls are perceiving the future as if by looking
through foggy glasses. This does not really give us to see the
reality of the future but it gives us to gain an impression about its
new forms and colors. And such an impressionist actualization, in the
present of future ways, seems to be urging us to mold our present
thinking and actions after these impressionist visions.
There
is definitely a call, from the future in the air of our present
times, that is accelerating the movement of societal change. But it
is not as if the whole of our societies were ready to make the jump
in the future.
This
call of the future is only accessible to the minority of most
sensitive souls among us. Intrigued and hopeful that these
impressionist visions portend better ways ahead the few who hear the
call, in the air of our times, are sharpening their skills-set in the
hope to become better attuned to the direction taken by our
ever-changing world.
It
would be highly presumptuous, not to say arrogant, from our part to
be invoking our capacity to beat the odds of societal and population
collapse. Realism counsels to surf on the waves of societal change
and to stay alert. In our present context I think that visual artists
are perhaps the ones who are best positioned to share with society at
large their foggy visions of what I call the ‘fundamentals of the
principle of life’. They constitute the foundations on which our
descendants will have to build their new worldview in
After-Modernity. And in light of this I think that the sharing by
visual artists, of an organic approximation of their perception of
these fundamentals, constitutes an act of bravery that would restore
the historical nature of art in the public’s eye.
Restoring,
the historical nature of art in the public’s eye, would be a heroic
act with far reaching consequences. For one it would coalesce the
most sensitive souls around a common organic vision about the deep
forces that are moving our contemporary societies. Secondly it would
shed some common sense in the contemporary conversation about the
path societies are on and the trajectory that leads to the future of
humanity. Thirdly it would shed some light on the future territory of
human life. And lastly it would reinstate some trust among art lovers
who would rejoice at the observation that the postmodern madness is
over. This would perhaps also reconcile societies at large with art
after so many decades of rejection.
2 See
“Artsense.
1.2. From the roads of the gods to the road of capital” by
laodan 2004. The
“3 represent” are:
-
portraits of the inhabitants of the mansion of the new rich
-
stills of the tables in the mansion of the new rich
3 See
“DONALD
KUSPIT with Alex Chowaniec”
by Alex Chowaniec in The Brooklyn Rail 2015-12.
4 “
In tribes art is an instrument to fulfill a societal service (sharing knowledge)
while in power societies art is an instrument to manipulate the
minds into submission. Manipulating minds into submission is
propaganda while fulfilling a societal service is a fine art ” by
laodan in “ A
growing disconnect. 10. Humanity’s future and the role of the
artist “.
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