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Friday, September 14, 2012
Concluding Post
"True Vision is never wholly personal and by it's nature, needs to be shared." -- Hopi Elders. I don't expect to be adding further to this blog and am content to leave it as it is. From beginning to end I express my entire vision, for the most part, and it can be read from beginning to end. For those wading in, I've tried to breakdown this larger vision into more digestible entries often linked by a common subject (usually indicated by the entry title). Blogspot changed their format and invalidated the links overnight -- so it goes. Should there be any continuation, it may be under the heading, "The Perfect Wave Project."
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
The Perfect Wave Project: The More Tangible and the Less Tangible
Currently I'm promoting an integrated arts project that addresses as its subject matter, California and the ideal. I believe it can be a boon to the local arts while broadening the funding and support base at a time when the local arts are feeling the squeeze due to the loss of redevelopment funds from the state. I don't expect its for everyone; art can be different things to different people and that's all well and good.
Because we're treading into the murky ground of feelings and the mysteries of creative inspiration, we're contending with aspects of varying degrees beyond our ability to influence.
The More Tangible: The more tangible aspects of the project involve the use of the arts to explore the subject of California and the ideal. We can acknowledge our attraction to the ideal and accept art's role in its promotion as it can be inextricably tied to the aestetically pleasing, the suggestion of the attainment of love and happiness, one's self image, and the reflection of wealth and status. The ideal is a significant driving force behind our consumer culture.
While acknowledging our attraction to the ideal, the arts, nevertheless, can also challenge, or question, this ideal, lend itself to greater appreciation, acceptance, and the discovery of the poetic in the real. I believe art to be an important medium to explore these issues because it functions in the realm of feelings. As a recent -- and I believe successful -- example of this duality, the Annenberg Space for Photography acheived this as it concerned itself with the beauty ideal in last years exhibit, entitled "Beauty Culture."
Such an arts project I believe can attract visitors, as not coicidentally we're also promoting Huntington Beach as the city where the California ideal can be most tangible, that can help the local economy (and who might even purchase some art work as a souvenoir). Also not coincidentally, the project helps ensure that visitors and residents of all shapes, sizes, and colors -- not just those who more tangibly reflect the ideal -- will feel welcome and at home.
A central assertion of the project is that our attraction to the ideal can be a problem if it impairs our appreciation of the real and thus becomes an impediment to acheiving perfection. Because this assertion has a biblical basis that can be cited (we're also addressing some of the problems with a moral ideal), I believe there's an opportunity to appeal to groups who wouldn't usually patron the arts. For all the above reasons, I believe we can broaden the support base for the local arts.
The Less Tangible: The less tangible aspects of the project is concerned with blazing a trail beyond the modern era, a proposed movement in the arts and activism. Such aspects are less tangible and will probably involve an ongoing discussion. We can nevertheless move forward with the project as it strives, innocuously, to promote community spirit in concert with the human spirit.
Here I suggest that human history is in a flux between the individual and the collective and individual freedom, ultimately, may only be sustained through love of the collective, or collective spirit. Yet this is a feeling that has to be inspired and sustained on a certain level and thus it calls for a poetic approach that can make more vital use of the arts.
Under the auspices of Walt Whitman, a kind of poetry based spiritual movement can be created that, hypothetically, can address what may be a burgeoning spiritual crisis in our democratic society. Here I define spiritual crisis, simply, as the inability of its members to overcome entrenched narrow interests to act on behalf of the greater collective.
Part of the project's intagibility, I conceed, is its grandiosity in relation to my limited credibility and resources. But that's why the project conceiveably might work: it forced me to create the project in such a way that it's reliant on the weaving of mutually beneficial relationships and allowing both individuals and groups to creatively make it their own.
The project strives to inspire bottom up change while attempting to stay clear of the top down change associated with the political fray. I would imagine the alluded activism to best lend itself to spiritual/religious activism and also environmental activism. Whether the project inspires political activism outside of the project is one such aspect beyond its control.
As the project concerns itself with the revitalization of the moral culture of the United States, it recognizes religion as a significant influence of that culture. Consequently, religious symbols can be used, as they have been used throughout human history in art, to create the desired poetic effect. But the project itself does not conciously promote any one religion, accepting the pluralistic adage, "one truth, many paths."
Because we're treading into the murky ground of feelings and the mysteries of creative inspiration, we're contending with aspects of varying degrees beyond our ability to influence.
The More Tangible: The more tangible aspects of the project involve the use of the arts to explore the subject of California and the ideal. We can acknowledge our attraction to the ideal and accept art's role in its promotion as it can be inextricably tied to the aestetically pleasing, the suggestion of the attainment of love and happiness, one's self image, and the reflection of wealth and status. The ideal is a significant driving force behind our consumer culture.
While acknowledging our attraction to the ideal, the arts, nevertheless, can also challenge, or question, this ideal, lend itself to greater appreciation, acceptance, and the discovery of the poetic in the real. I believe art to be an important medium to explore these issues because it functions in the realm of feelings. As a recent -- and I believe successful -- example of this duality, the Annenberg Space for Photography acheived this as it concerned itself with the beauty ideal in last years exhibit, entitled "Beauty Culture."
Such an arts project I believe can attract visitors, as not coicidentally we're also promoting Huntington Beach as the city where the California ideal can be most tangible, that can help the local economy (and who might even purchase some art work as a souvenoir). Also not coincidentally, the project helps ensure that visitors and residents of all shapes, sizes, and colors -- not just those who more tangibly reflect the ideal -- will feel welcome and at home.
A central assertion of the project is that our attraction to the ideal can be a problem if it impairs our appreciation of the real and thus becomes an impediment to acheiving perfection. Because this assertion has a biblical basis that can be cited (we're also addressing some of the problems with a moral ideal), I believe there's an opportunity to appeal to groups who wouldn't usually patron the arts. For all the above reasons, I believe we can broaden the support base for the local arts.
The Less Tangible: The less tangible aspects of the project is concerned with blazing a trail beyond the modern era, a proposed movement in the arts and activism. Such aspects are less tangible and will probably involve an ongoing discussion. We can nevertheless move forward with the project as it strives, innocuously, to promote community spirit in concert with the human spirit.
Here I suggest that human history is in a flux between the individual and the collective and individual freedom, ultimately, may only be sustained through love of the collective, or collective spirit. Yet this is a feeling that has to be inspired and sustained on a certain level and thus it calls for a poetic approach that can make more vital use of the arts.
Under the auspices of Walt Whitman, a kind of poetry based spiritual movement can be created that, hypothetically, can address what may be a burgeoning spiritual crisis in our democratic society. Here I define spiritual crisis, simply, as the inability of its members to overcome entrenched narrow interests to act on behalf of the greater collective.
Part of the project's intagibility, I conceed, is its grandiosity in relation to my limited credibility and resources. But that's why the project conceiveably might work: it forced me to create the project in such a way that it's reliant on the weaving of mutually beneficial relationships and allowing both individuals and groups to creatively make it their own.
The project strives to inspire bottom up change while attempting to stay clear of the top down change associated with the political fray. I would imagine the alluded activism to best lend itself to spiritual/religious activism and also environmental activism. Whether the project inspires political activism outside of the project is one such aspect beyond its control.
As the project concerns itself with the revitalization of the moral culture of the United States, it recognizes religion as a significant influence of that culture. Consequently, religious symbols can be used, as they have been used throughout human history in art, to create the desired poetic effect. But the project itself does not conciously promote any one religion, accepting the pluralistic adage, "one truth, many paths."
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Review of Knights of the Brush: The Hudson River School and the Moral Landscape
Here's a link to a book review I wrote for what I believe to be an important book currently offered at a scandalously low price.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Review of Only a God can save us
Here's a link to a book review I wrote on the subject of Martin Heidegger's philosophy.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
State of the Project into the New Year 2012
As this blog enters into its third year, readers -- if there are any -- may note a significant drop-off of entries in 2011. This is is due to the most practical fact that I got a job that leaves me little time to write. But also, as the project moves more from vision and into action, this site will serve more as background as to where I'm coming from, so to speak, should there be any readers that care to wade into it.
Furthermore, I'm moving away from the word "promised land" because of its religious connotations when my main concern is the spiritual state of democracy regardless of religion. I'm currently promoting the "Perfect Wave Project" as a project capable of promoting community spirit with the suggestion of being the wave of the future capable of promoting a greater democratic spirit in general. In time, I would expect such a project would eventually have its own site.
For those reader who do wish to wade into the blog background, the titles of the entries can provide a guide, some of which I've noticeably grouped together as they addressed a common subject.
Furthermore, I'm moving away from the word "promised land" because of its religious connotations when my main concern is the spiritual state of democracy regardless of religion. I'm currently promoting the "Perfect Wave Project" as a project capable of promoting community spirit with the suggestion of being the wave of the future capable of promoting a greater democratic spirit in general. In time, I would expect such a project would eventually have its own site.
For those reader who do wish to wade into the blog background, the titles of the entries can provide a guide, some of which I've noticeably grouped together as they addressed a common subject.