You notice all the time, but maybe you haven't thought about how unique and special is that instance of noticing. But looking or listening does not result in noticing automatically. Noticing means that you take note of the substance of a moment and it becomes etched in Time. When you share what you have noticed you transform Time into a certain permanence that lasts beyond the moment and can be "noticed" by others.
By entering into the collaborative process of IMPACT (Interactive Multimedia Performing Arts Collaborative Technology) as a class, you have committed to the act of noticing in the context of your of your experience in this workshop. In addition to your experiences in the various configurations and workshops, you will be noticing yourself in your creative process, and you will be noticing what you have noticed by creating a Blog like this and recording a journal of your experiences.
To help us explore the cognitive process of our creative encounter, I am presenting you with three texts that have formed a context for IMPACT and how it has developed over the past ten years.
One such text is Consilience. You will find Consilience mentioned in the IMPACT handbook that you received on Monday. Consilience means "the jumping together of everything." This is an old English word that Edward Wilson brought back into our vocabulary in his wonderful book published in 1998. The subtitle is "The Unity of Knowledge" which describes how the distinctions between difference disciplines are disappearing as we learn how information overlaps fields of study. We are in the era of multi-knowledge, where nothing is remote from our experience and where all knowledge is readily accessible. Wilson provides a brilliant analysis of the enlightenment and why it failed. He also presents a convoking case that challenges the prevailing attitude that only Science produces new knowledge. Wilson uses his background in biology to present a stunning analysis of a Hopi Indian painting. In the final chapters, he describes the emergence of art as an important and significant way of knowing the world. He sums up his presentation by asserting that in the future, as a culture we will recognize that Art will be recognized as producing new knowledge, a knowledge that cannot be detected by science, but which in some ways, provides a deeper reality of our experience.
Our second text is Cassandra by Christa Wolf. Christa Wolf is a professor at an Eastern European university. Cassandra is the creative research model she developed and pursued to comply with the academic rigor of significant research to advance her standing in the academic community. This book is actually two books: The first book is a poetic novel of the stream of consciousness of Cassandra, who one might argue was the first modern woman, trapped perhaps in an ancient world that could not appreciate the intelligence and insight of any woman. As Cassandra begins to predict the fall of Troy through her extraordinary powers of visiting the world, she was imprisoned and labelled insane. This poetic novel is a stream of consciousness of the thoughts of Cassandra as she languishes in prison. She information provided here reveals the depth of Wolf's research as she describes the Fall of the Ancient world, and sees the beginning of a new world as her secret husband Aeneas takes their twin children and escapes from Troy to create the modern world of western civilization that began with the founding of Rome. The second half of this volume describes the research model that she developed.
Our third text is The Rhythmic Event: Art, Media, and the Sonic. This is an innovative examination of many of the practices that we have discovered independently through our IMPACT workshops over the past years. Much of the languages capture the sense of immediacy and embodiment that have become the conduits of development of IMPACT participants, which we have come to refer to as IMPACTORS. This is a profoundly important text. The Rhythmic Event serves as a philosophical foundation for our current practice but is also replete with many examples of new work that exemplify new work, and experimental modes that provides a fresh account of art through the this time of transformation as media and the internet develop new horizons of awareness. This book is part of a series described by the publisher as "The Technologies of Lived Abstraction." With such a theme there is a need for an IMPACT book to describe the practice of the embodiment of technology and art through our lived experiences. It seems no coincidence that IMPACTORS in IMPACT 2010 were exploring the edges of these ideas in their final presentation of THE RHYTHM OF CHAOS.
Don't be intimated by the scope of these three texts. I would compare our experience in these three weeks to an experience I had as an undergraduate where I took a summer course in The Complete Works of Shakespeare... and yes, we were expected to read the complete works of Shakespeare in three weeks. But the reality was that this course continues to reverberate in my life half a century later as I still assimilate the material of such an inspiring encounter.
We will experience these IMPACT texts in the domain of our mutual experience. I will be learning from you. I know there is no way you can read through these texts completely. But they provide a context, a foundation for an adventure we are undertaking where the technology we are working on is the technology of ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment