Towards Artistic Theory

There are several strands of inquiry that must be incorporated into any cogent theory of the artistic process, role, or influence. The foremost issue in any evaluation of art is an understanding of the chaos of the sublime. This is the essential paradox of art theory: How can the chaotic nature of sublimality be understood rationally? Given this intrinsic problem with any use of psychological philosophy, there are several strains of thought that may help us to assess possible outcomes of artistic creation and consumption.

The artistic process is essentially an intuitive process, so what analytical conceptualization can possibly give rise to a deeper understanding? This may also be the essential disconnect between art and theory. For many artists any kind of rational probing into their process of working prior to, shall we say, canonization as a finished work of art is unthinkable. The concern is the destruction of intuitive abilities that can come with intellectual probing. At this point, I must point out the inherent difficulty of the process of abstraction. Abstractions can seem to have validity as we build them, but the more empirical or introspective elements you try to incorporate, the more unwieldy a theory can get if its base assumptions have only a subjective validity. Intuition on the other hand, has a direct connection to all of the unconscious processes that give rise to both consciousness and more narrowly the rational thoughts from which theories are built. These processes include spatio-temporal perceptions, volitive actions, emotions, unconscious neural activity…all the abilities of the brain and body as constantly reinterpreted in an individual's constantly renewed memory traces of their perception of the moment of conscious experience.

The unconscious processes of the brain have access to all the possibilities of any given human's existence. Any given healthy human brain has the range of human response potential built into it. Excepting physiological problems such as autism or other genetically created issues, it is through both socialization and the internal process of achieving consciousness that an individual can develop the various psychical and physical potentials into actual facets of self, but those potentials will always remain in a constantly constrained and realtered form. It is from the potential neural pathways that fantasies, dreams, visions, and ideas emerge, but these archetypal forms emerge in response to the perceived actualities of the conscious self and its' conception of external experiences.

Putting the problem of who the perceiver is aside for a moment, we see that consciousness determines the unconscious responses and vice versa. The two are inescapably interconnected. Mind, brain, body, and world cannot be disconnected without disastrous results. This is why the process of building and validating an artistic theory is necessary to the modern artist of the western world. Because of a certain disconnection that seems to have occurred on both the global and the individual level, a reintegration of consciousness seems necessary, but we will revisit this idea later.

In our speculations about pre-national human consciousness and in anthropological observations of pre-industrial non-western societies the perception and role of art takes on a more mythological and spiritual form. There has been a significant recombination of the artistic process associated with the industrial and national growth of human society, and the dominant capitalistic economic form. In fact, there generally is a considerable disconnect between religious and secular ideation. Everything is religious, if not always spiritual, and when it comes to artistic expression such as dancing, drumming, singing, chanting there is a spiritual experience for most involved. The rituals, whether through the mental ability to believe or the altered state of consciousness or both, have a high efficacy among certain kinds of mental illness.

This form of art has direct healing ability, but where is the line between art and religion. Is not a minister, pope, or witch hunter performing, and does the efficacy and the strange incidents change the category of the performance to spiritual ritual. The notion of spiritual performance is in no way demeaning; it's just the first hint of the secular\spiritual split that would change the nature of art and religion forever. The definitions went from non-existent, to razor thin, to the modern world where the chasm between the two is miles in the mainstream media.

Gospel still combines song, dance, and spiritual worship, but their may be sociological reasons for that. Gospel is traditionally a part of black churches. These are generally the churches whose parishioners have the least. Consequently, community becomes extremely important, and the fellowship of spiritual worship helps fulfill this need. This is one of the few forms of worship that I actually consider spiritual, as opposed to simply religious. Religious worship is a superficial response to symbols whose significance must be sought out in order to find the spiritual. The spiritual on the other hand is not necessarily in a church or some religious ritual; it can happen anywhere, at anytime given the proper circumstances and yr own inner readiness.

Murals and architecture are the hallmarks of European religion. The renaissance and the gothic period proved to be creative times artistically, and there are many theories why. My favorite is the coo-coo clock. Italy was in complete turmoil during the renaissance, yet they produced timeless works of art. Sweden on the other hand has lived in relative stability, and what have they given us: the coo-coo clock.

Change was coming to Europe, the reformation set off a whole scandal about the value of artistic representations. There was a brief period under the ruler Justinian, during the Roman Empire when the use of religious art in spiritual worship was considered idolatry and against the law. That particular rule died quickly, assumedly because of all those in the idolatry trade lobbied hard to get that bill repealed. In the Old Testament when Moses came down from the mountain, one of the commandments was though shall not make graven images of me. I can again assume from Moses' experience with God that no image could possible suffice, which is one of the problems.

Taking art as spiritual and still apart of the spiritual world, what is it's value. Art was and is a way to symbolize an unknowable being or force or jellyfish. You can't truly symbolize the unknowable. You end up with the artistic imaginatory knowable. This knowable can become the unknowable that lies within. The realization and actualized release of spiritual energy is a difficult process. Many times multi-sensual and trancelike artist facets of spiritual ritual are necessary to find that release.

These religious rituals in some form occur in every human society, giving credence to the notion that they are intrical to human existence. These rituals provide many functions within a society. They help with mental illness, social imbalance, relieve the grieving of loved ones, mark the passing of the seasons, and provide opportunities for celebration. For thousands of years religion was a part of people's lives, and they expressed that religious fervor through paintings, burials, and more and more elaborate artwork. The key was the connection between art and religion. Without the use of truly abstract concepts, artistic representation was the most convincing way to maintain control over that which one had no control.

As the homo sapien sapien brain was developing the possibilities to abstract a conception of God and create myths that would go on to become one of the enthncentrically most important religions in the West. Judiasm passed down mythological stories, as did most cultures, until the curse of nationhood blessed the Jews briefly. This period was a time of the consolidation of the power of the priests, and the canonization of the Talmud, the official Old Testament. This shift from oral to written tradition must have changed the mindset of the adherents. A story leaves more room for the imagination than the written word, and so an artistic medium began to change the face of religion. No longer was the metaphor implied by the form. Now the metaphor became the literal, and the power that spirituality has is diffused, since the unknowable cannot be literal.
Regardless, there came a man who spoke only in advice and proverbs, possibly with powers of healing, raising the dead, and resurrection. This man came at a time when the church had become corrupt. The Romans controlled Israel, but they mostly left the Isreali's alone. By this time, five hundred or so years, the church had grown wealthy from tithing and the money-changing that pilgrims were forced to do in order to pay homage to the church. Jesus upset the whole deal. Not only did he stand up to the money-changers and the Pharisees, he gave the people a new symbol. His life was his art, he gave it in order to create a symbol that would inspire the Christ-like aspect in all of us, and create a human-god connection.

Christianity spread like wildfire. The disciples of Christ were so inspired they chronicled his life, and spread the word. The symbol of Jesus was so powerful thousands of martyrs were willing to be crucified for their lord. As the religion grew, Constantine the ailing emperor of the Roman Republic officially converted to Christianity. It became the state religion, and gained the status and power that go along with officialdom. The various Popes were constantly patronizing some religious work of art or other, but the legitimization of the Christian religion turned it into a circus. While the individual members might still be able to draw on the spiritual, the exploits of the Popes leaves no mind of the corruption at the head of the Catholic Church. Eventually, this corruption angered many and the reformation began with Luther's defiant 99 thesis nailed to the door of the church.

While Luther's intentions may have been honorable, his actions further separated the artistic and the secular. With the protestant split, the beginning of the enlightenment, the incredible corruption of Catholicism and Anglicanism, and immigration to the American coast there was little chance for the multi-sensual, trancelike states of prehistoric societies since these sorts of rituals were associated with African-Americans, besides Protestantism had moved away from more communal rituals to those lead by a priest or a minister. These rituals, while still including music, no longer drew on the awesome power of synchrony, a deeper awareness, or even that spiritual connection best described as an intense emotional experience that permeates the body as opposed to focusing on the stomach, as emotional experiences tend to. It is this emotion that modern religion seems to aim for: fear and righteousness and not self-awareness.

Deism was the religion of the enlightenment. Sure there's a god, but he doesn't meddle in our affairs, so we won't in his. There was certainly little spirituality as a result of this phenomenon. The protestant split meant a need to build new churches, and sometimes move to more accepting lands. This led to what Max Weber called the protestant work ethic. The ethic was efficient, hard-working, and economical. The move to America made church building even more cost-efficient.

The value of religious art was quickly being reduced to the arena of corrupt churches and platitudes to the symbols that truly spiritual art can help to attain. The introduction of Aristotle's metaphysics from the Muslim world, and the chain reaction of biblical contradictions made it difficult to accept the bible as the literal word of God. The enlightenment was producing philosophical work that both directly challenged the church, as in Darwin, or began a process of secularization that has not been anywhere near reconciled between religion and science. The problem was art was caught in the middle. Art slowly became amusement, and the spiritual power inherent in our ability to see beyond the amusement is fading. Entertainment is the dominant form of art now, and at its best it's educational. Art just doesn't have the fire it used to.

I shouldn't say this because for many people, artistic representations of Jesus, the Cross, and the words of the Holy Bible are sacred objects. This presents a slight problem. Many Americans (lets focus on the US for the moment) find these art objects unfulfilling, and are incapable, given the circumstances, to bring back the sacredness of yr affiliated church. For these Americans, the art of Christianity is idolic, in the Jungian sense. This means that this art for whatever reason cannot bring about the spiritual experience and cannot embody the spirit and teachings of Christ.

I know there are many sensitive, possibly fervent believers in the lord and Savior. While these symbols of a god and redeemer are by no means unforgettable, the problem does occur that if these artistic symbols have existed for so many years, there is the possibility of our becoming desensitized to their spiritual connotations. The problem of desensitization is huge. Look how easily younger Americans are becoming desensitized to drugs, sex, and violence. These are three things that appear on just about every society's moral code, yet they are increasingly acceptable in American society. This indicates an erosion of morals, which would seem to indicate that the religious institutions aren't able to instill these morals. While there are more issues to contend with in a modern world, there needs to some sort of spiritual experience, accentuated with artistic works, and possibly including some form of music, chanting, dancing, and\or incense.

This may sound like a through back to the sixties, but there is one crucial ingredient missing from the spirituality I'm proposing; drug use will not be advocated, encouraged, or allowed. William Burroughs once said that drugs were a short-cut, and as the fallout began it became clear that while they may have been short-cuts to some sort of experience resembling the religious, they were also generally a short-cut to the cemetery. While many South American religions use various hallucinogens, unless you have grown up in a tradition that both respects and knows how to handle the use of such substances, your use will be strictly recreational, which in some sense demeans the religions that have held these substances sacred for thousands of years.

While I think various types of drug use can elicit some form of strange and unusual experience, I would hardly call it a spiritual experience. The problem is kids are not getting the proper spirituality through the dominant institutions of protestant religions in this country that they turn to the short-cut. It is essential that myth and ritual become accessible to the younger generations, so they can experience the true joy of a spiritual experience.

Unfortunately, this may mean the traditional symbolic art of the mainstream religions must be reformed. There are those who say that millions of people experience the glory of God all the time, and I wouldn't deny any of those claims. In fact, I have no way to refute someone else's inner state, but the actions of these religious people, from the Pat Robertson's to the adherents of Christianity that preach the gospel hand chosen to weed out the undesirable aspects. Clearly, Robertson's statements were out of line calling the hurricane that hit Louisiana a retribution from god, but what of the culture war that's waging in the Southern and Mid-Western regions. Jesus was the first to accept anyone; lepers, ex-prostitutes, all the sick, and especially the meek and the poor. It seems to me that while not following the teachings of Jesus, these idolic souls are reaping the raptured emotion of righteousness. This is an emotion, somewhat easily confused with spirituality and an emotional high that probably only lapses behind the spirit itself. If God made a devil, she didn't do it so you could take a multiple choice test and on to heaven you go. No, a devil is by definition sneaky. I remember a passage from the Screwtape Letters, a novel by C.S. Lewis, and there was a section where a junior devil writes to a senior devil because he's afraid now that his charge is going to church. Screwtape, the senior devil, advises Wormwood, the junior devil, that churchgoing can be very beneficial to the devil. The soul being corrupted may find pride in his new found religion, or he may lapse in his daily spirituality, since he's going to church now. Screwtape also suggests that church in and of itself does not save one's soul. That must be done by the soul itself, and that soul must follow the moral teachings of religion and experience the spiritual in any way they can, being careful to differentiate spirituality and emotionality. That is not an easy task.

The true differentiation lies in the neural patterns that produce emotionality or spirituality. Emotions are basic to all animals, although human emotions take on a complexity in the limbic systems interaction with especially the neo-cortex. Emotions have been categorized based on the causal events, not necessarily on the experience itself. Emotional experience, while causing quite different responses, can have the same feeling. This is the interplay of rationality and emotion. It can cause the effect, and if strong enough shut down the limbic system entirely. In fact, many of our mental systems get overrided internally and intersystemically, although the notion of delineated systems of the mind is probably oversimplified. Still, various areas of the brain serve various functions that much is clear, and some of the basics of human functionality have been mapped, but the complexity of several billion interconnected neurons is a bit of a challenge for more precise knowledge. Theoretically, sentiency (the ability to know you are a discrete being) comes from the neo-cortex, but truly that's just the ability to explain your being in language, however inaccurate or imprecise. Consciousness is a much wider field than this. There is physical consciousness, emotional, volitional (a sub-set of physical), mental or rational or verbal consciousness. I believe there is spiritual consciousness as well, and that it entails the underlying unconscious processes of the various forms of consciousness to resonate. In that I mean the neural circuitry needs to be transmitting the same information from system to system. This also requires that any internal dissonance is recognized and considered. The feeling of full resonance may be an illusion of emotionality, to help maintain an internalized dissonance that can easily be the product of a society. I do not believe that truly full resonance cannot lead to anything but a spiritual experience which will create a moral foundation, and also the very foundation of any type of a social contract.

What would resonance look like at the neural level, and probably more important the cellular and molecular level, but we start with the simplest task and alter our solutions as we move farther into the layers of abstraction. At the neural level, resonance exists as constantly shifting patterns of neurons in certain key neural systems feeding into other neuronal groups that are transmitting the same essential data in different forms or binary codes (w\the cellular and molecular we move beyond binary into a multi-faceted face of human consciousness) to between each other. The patterns should be constantly shifting due to high levels of awareness or neural activity, but the ultimate feed to consciousness has to be unanimous in its response to a situation, no matter how mundane. When that resonance occurs, yr spirit is with you. Not just yr mind or yr body, but yr spirit, the archetypal realization of fully actualized potential. Buddhists call it right mind or no mind, since the conscious event evokes a more laconic style, since speech is such a concentrated mental event. The use of the full mind requires that anything spoken or written must be the result of unanamious neural activity. Otherwise, while the words may be true they will be unpersuasive and clearly superficial to anyone who dedicates themselves to the pursuit of mystical union with the divine, another way to explain a scientific phenomenon with religious terminology.

Mysticism has an advantage over what might be considered religious institutions, although the monastic tradition seems to be excepted in that it's heavily mystic, in that they provide each individual with a path to resonance that has been successful in the past. It also places great individual responsibility on the adherent in order to gain spiritual resonance through there own practices, and not through some institution of absolution or uninspiration that cannot connect to your spiritual needs, which lie in the traditions past. With dancing, singing, music, and maybe even trances and visions. I've had dreams that laid out clearly what I needed to do to resolve a situation. If you go into an experience with the proper attitude, the unassuming,
nonjudgmental attitude, and the attitude that this experience will cleanse me and bring rebirth, a ritual of great importance for sinners, but the attitude must truly be one of preparedness, which is unlikely to exist in a dissonant individual who has shut down aspects of his mind in order to rationalize his sins, or if he does not consider them sins, there is a larger question. What is immoral and is that sense innate. I believe it is, although with variations, and it consists of action which is pure of spirit. It is yr right-minded attitude, not the situation that should dictate yr behavior, otherwise you are a reactionary.