The seven trends that will define China in the 2020s

This is a summary and a commentary on a very interesting article by Andrew Leung titled "The seven trends that will define China in the 2020s " that was published today 2020-01-04 in the South China Morning Post.

We are rapidly sliding into a new era

The 20ths of the 21st century are going to be remembered as a turning point in world History. Vital trends have been accelerating for years and are now reaching a tipping point. The overriding factor at work here is the shift of the center of gravity of the economy-world from the West (with Washington-NewYork at its core) to the East (with Beijing-Shanghai at its core.

Wall 105 is online

Wall 105. 9.6 x 14.4 meters.

The complete gallery, of all 256 digital variations of painting 1-05 from "the grand project"  is online.


Check some of these here under

Wall 104 is online

Oil painting 1-04. Size 60 x 90 cm.

The complete gallery, of all 256 digital variations of painting 1-04 from "the grand project"  is finally online.

Digital transformations wall 104. (02).

Some new transformations of original painting 1-04 from the Grand Project.

Digital transformations wall 104

Some new digital transformations

1. First some links to necessary technical information:

• what is the "Grand Project" ?
• differences between digital transformations and algorithmic painting
• how does organic art measure up in artistic evoluttion
• galleries to Digital Transformations Walls 101, 102, 103

_____________

First 2 paintings from the 104 series

I started the digital transformations of painting 1-04 of the "grand project". This series will total 256 digital paintings and they are forming a continuum as you can see on Digital transformations 1 +  2. When this series is terminated the wall of 256 paintings will have a size of  9.6 x 14.4 meters. The original oil painting as well as the prints of each digital transformation have a size of 60 x 90 cm.

Click on images to blow up to your screen width.

 _________

What is going on ? The book.

 

 

1. Book

 

 

I just published "What is going on ?" in book form (302 pages). Click here for a free download.

This is a first version customization in book form of my series of 14 posts going by the same title.  

After letting the book settle for a while I'll eventually further edit the text.

In the meantime I would be grateful to anyone for any suggestions or critiques. Please use the comment section or the mail-form.

________________

What’s going on here? (14)

7.5. finding meaning in life

Everyone can find meaning in life by concentrating on perfection in the execution of one’s activities or in sharing the love of a family or of a community of friends. But does this appease our existential questions ? Does it help us find solace in our societal arrangement ? Or more generally is this satisfying all the demands of the mind ?

______________

What’s going on here ? (13)

7.4. knowledge formation and societal evolution

Two ideas, stand out in “7.2. About the mind and thinking“, that have fundamental implications for the societal process of knowledge formation :

1. “ the total power of the ‘body’s processing machine’¹ is bound to remain hidden forever from our thinking mind “
   
   
2. “ the difficulty to master the process of conscious reconciliation of the subconscious experience is an intrinsic limitation to the formation of knowledge “

This post addresses the following:

7.4.1. The role of the mind

7.4.2. Limitations to the societal formation of knowledge  

___________

What’s going on here? (12)

7. Finding meaning in life

 

This post addresses the following:

7.1.  on the emergence of societal evolution and art

7.2.   about the mind and thinking

7.3.   about truthfulness: the mind and society

______________ 

What’s going on here ? (11)

6. societal collapse


Over their thousands of years of observation, of nature and of human activities in nature, the ancient tribal wo(men) of knowledge concluded that humans have a nefarious tendency to damage their habitat. To counter this tendency they devised what is called “the precautionary principle” or in the words of Black Elk “the 7th Generation principle”.1 Both of these principles teach that it is imperative to make certain every, personal or societal, decision will not negatively impact the life of future generations. These principles are part of a worldview that was elaborated over the long time span of tens of thousands of years.


With Modernity ‘the reason that is at work within capital’ concerns itself with one thing only and that is to generate profits. Those who venerate the reason get rich and enjoy an abundance of material possessions. All other citizens envy their richness and the abundance of their possessions. This worldview was elaborated over the relatively short time span of 6-8 centuries.
_____________

What’s going on here ? (10)

5. art in the societal maelstrom

 
“ 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 ?

___________

What’s going on here ? (9)

4. determinant side-effects of Modernity

From a very long haul perspective the present re-balancing of world affairs appears as the rebuilding of the governance-world in the wake of a category 5 economic hurricane that swept the whole world of its postmodern pipe-dream fantasies. In contrast in the aftermath of the great convergence of all the side-effects of Modernity there is a very high probability that nothing will be left to rebuild. In the most innocuous of all possible scenarios only a small number of humans will survive who eventually will be forced to start a new cycle of “societal evolution” in order to survive.

What’s going on here ? (8)

3.8. emergence of A new world order 

The day, when international transactions will be paid for with a new world currency, will be recognized in history as the day a new multilateral world order will have succeeded to bury the short uni-polar reign of the American empire. This new multilateral world order will have East-Asia as its core and Beijing will act as its center of gravity.

The present  post addresses the following:

4.1. community versus empire

4.2. Western prospects
4.3. Western Modernity is out, what comes next ?

____________

'One World Rent' against the 'rot dollar'

Vivienne Westwood Spring/Summer 2020 Lookbook

The "only way to save the world" is to ban land ownership, says Vivienne Westwood

What’s going on here ? (7)

3.7. about the center of gravity of the economy-world

The last post in this series was What’s going on here ? (6) and it addressed the following:

3. determinant factors driving the ‘governance-world’

3.1. Societal atomization
3.2. Creeping totalitarianism
3.3. Western illusions
3.4. The West has no clue about China's strategy
3.5. The West is setting itself up for a rude awakening
3.6. The empire loses its clients

The present post is a continuation and addresses the following 2 realities:

• how the center of gravity of the economy-world shifted multiple times along its history,
•  how it is presently shifting from the West (Washington) to East Asia (Beijing).

__________

Organic Art Manifesto

I just published the first version of my "Organic Art Manifesto". Its present form is a customization in book form of my last 7 blog posts titled "Organic art  =  the patterns of life" . Later I'll further edit the text. In the meantime I would be grateful to anyone for any suggestions or critiques. Please use the comment section or the mail-form.

Click on image to read or download the PDF (free)

Organic art = the patterns of life (7)

6.   organic art as answer in the context of Late-Modernity

The concepts ‘beauty’ and ‘ugliness’ are abstract derivations by the mind of a physical awareness that originates in the brain. An awareness of something the brain inherited from biological evolution.

Our brain stores information and uses some of it to take its decisions concerning our integrity and survival. Along their societal evolutionary path humans became aware, in their minds, of a very little portion of this information. It made us aware of ourselves and of our near environment. This set in motion a process of knowledge formation that initiated the rise of societal evolution.

Art emerged as a tool of societal evolution to share knowledge with all and ensure societal reproduction. But by Late-Modernity art, in Western societies, had reached a stage of nothingness. In their search for sense some artists discovered that the fundamentals of the principle of life wash away the arbitrariness of ideologies... and organic art slowly emerged out of the nightmare of Late-Modernity.

Organic art = the patterns of life (6)

5.  After-Modernity and the prospects of an artistic awakening

Over the last 50 years a great convergence has slowly been taking place, between – the crisis of the governance-world – and the multitude side-effects of Modernity, that is evolving into a drastically new living environment.

This convergence will result in a radical drop of the world population and life will be forced to re-organize locally in small groups surviving under the reign of necessity. Their most vital priority will be the reproduction of their societies over the long haul and to ensure this the minds will be glued by new foundational narratives grounded in myths fixing the memory of what caused the fall of Modernity.

Modern knowledge will rapidly be forgotten and visual signs will thus become the vehicle of choice to share knowledge with all. That’s how the historical nature of art returns with a vengeance … 

Organic art = the patterns of life (5)

4.  Western Late-Modernity sows the seeds of After-Modernity

Long ago it downed on me that there is no way to untangle the arts from societal evolution and its economic, political or geo-political aspects. All are intertwined and their interconnections are what creates the reality of what happens in our present societies.

Understanding our present implies that we get a handle on the evolution of these interconnections from the past, to the present, to the future.

Only when we understand our present can we feel the ways of our species in the future and then we adapt our being accordingly in the present …

---

Organic art = the patterns of life (4)

3.  In the 20th century the 3rd world was forced to adopt Modernity in order to survive

For the last 40 years I had the great chance of being a close witness of the Chinese story and I observed that to ensure the survival of their nation the Chinese, in a first move, largely copied Western Modernity.

With the benefit of hindsight it becomes evident that a second move down the road will enable them to walk their own national way into the future. There is no better guide than the artworld to understand how the country is generating its own way by forcing the integration of Modernity inside Chinese Traditional Culture.

And so under the sheer weight of population numbers China is quietly shedding Modernity’s old Western skin...

Organic art = the patterns of life (3)

2.   how did Modernity emerge in Europe

Why is understanding the emergence of Modernity so important ? Well, in order to survive in the 20th century, all countries on earth were forced to convert to the quasi-worldview of Modernity and to the reason that is at work within capital. What ensued was a radical departure from the past that thoroughly impacted the ways of thinking and the behaviors of the individuals in all third-world nations. And this resulted in a blow-back of monumental proportion on their worldviews, culture, art, and societal governance.

I observed first hand how – the art world in Beijing during the eighties was mesmerized to ape Western productions, rock and punk music, the modernist avant-garde painting, – and how this resulted in three decades of sheer insanity. Things have certainly evolved since then but the blow-back resulting from aping the first world has still not been completely digested...

Having said that the fact of the matter is that the blow-back on the 3rd world is nothing compared to the chaos that was unleashed on the first world.

Today we come to suspect that Modernity and capitalism have cursed humanity. And nothing could liberate us more thoroughly from this curse than by gaining a clear comprehension of why and how Modernity emerged in Western Europe in the first place and how things then evolved toward Late-Modernity.

Organic art = the patterns of life (2)

1. The nature and function of art over the last tens of thousands of years


In my last article I wrote “ Life is a rare gift in the universe but our power societies, and more particularly the quasi-worldview of Modernity, lost touch with this evidence. Now that we start to grasp the fact that this gift could be taken away we come to appreciate that it is the most precious thing we ever had. ”

Since the principle of life is the most important thing we ever had would it not be logical to derive all our ideas and actions about how to live from this principle ?

The first question that arises is then ‘what is life? ‘.

Organic Art = the patterns of life (1)

I terminated the digital variations of painting 1-03 of the "grand project".

Here follow some samples and some initial commentaries.


Check the entire collection of all 256 digital paintings here.

---