The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Nine - The power of an aesthetic work of art is the power to change…
November 24, 2007
In NDK’s latest article on the points of the Code, he describes the importance of ideas to the development of society and how to avoid the destructive effect that can occur when one points out unworkable ideas without providing solutions. - Joel Falconer, Editor-in-Chief
The power of an aesthetic work of art is the power to change a viewpoint on any given topic. When you’re knocking out an unworkable idea in society, remember to put in its place a workable replacement, if you can.
There’s a lot to be said about aesthetics and at some point in the future, some of what I know about the subject will be released in the Free Articulator for the benefit of humanity and those among them who can use that knowledge best.
The first sentence of this principle taken from Point Nine makes a bold observation. It does not discuss how that change is achieved and I am not going to go into that here, as that is not the purpose of this particular series of explanations, intended to clarify the uses to which the points of the Code of a Creative Artist can be put to good effect.
But if you look to your own experience with works of art, stories, poems, paintings, photographs, films, and others, I’m sure you’ll find you can identify moments when those works became important–defining moments–to you and an integral part of who you are from that moment forward. These works informed your life.
At the moment they did that, they changed you and your viewpoints in some profound ways. Hopefully, the changes were and are for the better, which is to say, they improved your character and perception of yourself, encouraged you to adopt firm principles and ideals, or strengthened your commitment to ideals and principles you had already made a part of your character or accepted as a way of living based on those who taught you and earned your trust as they introduced you to the world in which you live.
A lot of art works are, when you distill their essence, stories told in one form or another. They have a beginning, a middle and an end, and in the passage between start and finish they relay some, and sometimes many, aspects of existence to us.
Emotionally, intellectually, spiritually and physically we can be moved from one position or viewpoint to another by a work of music, a scene (or line) in a film, a sculpture that reveals and gives insight. A painting, for example, inspired me to write an epic story, to which I have now devoted more than 10 years of my life to develop and realize, sticking through all manner of mishap, misadventure, radical relocations, electronic disasters of one kind and another and other dramatic and life-changing events.
The power of a shift of viewpoint
as a result of a work of art can be remarkable.
Exactly how powerful is really dependent upon the nature of the person receiving the communications the work offers, but that is an article, or a book, for another time. I’ve simply related this here to demonstrate how a work of art by an exceptionally talented and unfortunately unrecognized fine artist inspired me to dedicate a large chunk of my life to developing an epic story that would help to showcase her talent in an industry that does not recognize female artists and is rather discriminatory in nature. I’ve seen other independent reports that corroborate the Washington Post’s report. Now, lest you think so, I’m not a feminist, I am a proponent of what I call a gender balanced society.
I spent a lot of time researching that industry in order to develop new strategies to break down those barriers. I believe in the concept of meritocracy that even though it exists is rarely practiced. Though some nations purport to be meritocracies, most fall far short of true meritocratic status and run arbitrary systems based on opinion rather than useful measures.
The best men and women are not elected to office if you follow my drift. The best do not win competitions. The truth is that the world is pretty scared of people who demonstrate capacity beyond the pale, and thus one reason for the rise of mediocrity.
The goal of humanity…
Similarly, John Lennon’s song Imagine has worked its magic upon me too, as it has upon so many people around the world. Ultimately, Imagine defines the goal of humanity to be truly liberated, and captures the idea so simply and beautifully that one cannot but be inspired by it, and adjust one’s life accordingly unless one is by birth, or choice more disposed towards the maintenance of a system of civilization that is unfair, inequitable, unjust and obviously wrong.
If we really had a workable system of civilization we would not today be facing all the ills of catastrophic climate change, resource depletion, political dissatisfaction, economic slavery, spiritual drift, excessive material focus, rampant unrestrained consumerism, tremendous failures in communication in an era when technological communication is amazing, human trafficking, human rights violations and the ills brought about through the concentration of power in the oligarchies of the corporatocracy.
People who say and believe that “Money makes the world go around” have swallowed an idea that is false. There was a time when money did not exist. The world (society and civilization) still turned, which is to say people interacted and helped each other survive in various ways. They were driven by an idea of mutual survival through the commitment of community. In other words, cooperation and the benefits gained from establishing societies–people working together–are what make the world go around.
It is a constant source of amazement to me how people swallow ideas without examination, consideration or evaluation.
There is no doubt in my mind, however, that money has certainly become the dominant force in the current society, so much so, that the evidence of our senses and experience of the world would certainly seem to make the idea that “Money makes the world go around” appear to be correct.
But it is only an apparency and needs to be put into its proper perspective to truly understand what the idea “Money makes the world go around” does to human beings. As an artist I much admire for her wit and perspective said in a soon to be published Free Articulator Feature, “Money is surely the wrong material to build wings from” and one of her pictures captures that concept using visual metaphor that is stunning in its execution.
That idea changes every human being’s perspective on how they live with each other.
From the perspective of a wordsmith, the way in which that idea of money is presented, the structure and rhythm of the sentence is a rather remarkable work demonstrating mastery of the craft of wordsmithing. The very structure of the sentence, the content (the words used), and their relationship to each other within the expression of that idea is quite simply beautiful and it does a great job of fulfilling its (misguided) function.
A good example of the principle of function at work. I can admire it and the aesthetic it creates, even as I deplore what the ultimate result of such an idea is as it works within the world. You see it is not money that makes the world go around at all.
It is ideas that make the world go around, and behind ideas are people. So the truth is, it is people who make the world go around, not money.
Money just lies there and does nothing until a person has an idea of how to do something with it. However, if you want to start the process of divorcing people from sane, rational and truthful perspectives the phrase “Money makes the world go around” is exactly the sort of social engineering statement one would make and drive into society in order to change the way people think about life and living, so that they will ultimately change the way they actually deal with each other.
I’m not an enemy of money per se. I simply seek to illustrate the power of an idea, and how pervasive they can become, when given the cachet of high level communication, or art to back them.
Introducing New Ideas; Remembering Great Ones
The introduction of ideas to society is a process we must be alert to and careful of. Ideas are powerful. They cause change. What change, and how beneficial will those changes be, must be carefully considered before those ideas are released. Why? Because that’s the responsible and civilized thing to do.
The Iroquois (truly called Haudenosaunee) have a wonderful civilized expression, it has survived centuries of persecution and attempts to destroy their culture, and that expression reveals much,
“In our every deliberation we must consider the impact of our decisions upon the next seven generations.”
Would that the fossil fuel burning moguls who originally founded an industry, had considered this concept (that had been around for oh, Four Hundred Years or so) at the turn of the last century when they tossed zero emission electric cars for stinky fossil fuel burners.
They didn’t, and as a result we ended up with mankind burning fossil fuels in increasing amounts and going to war under false pretenses and hundreds of thousands of people dead, all manner of sophistry and subterfuge being committed and entire species dying out and mankind itself threatened. Why? Wrong idea adopted. Why? Bottom line profit motives. The cult of greed.
The Seventh Generation Deliberation is an ancient idea, from a civilization that I have come to admire very much, and it informs one of the creative projects I am deeply committed to and will complete once others I’ve begun are done. This concept from the Great Peace of the Haudenosaunee also informs Allforart and the Free Articulator. We are quite deliberate about what we do, and everything we do is considered at length in order to ensure the best possible outcome.
Imagine how the world could be if more people adopted the wise perspective of the Iroquois regarding their decisions.
An acquaintance of mine from another project I am involved in recently told me that I “use the word grok more than anybody I know.” He’s right, and I probably do. I use it a lot because it is a word that symbolizes the sort of understanding that I think is missing from our society and it encapsulates the idea of complete understanding, a sort of “no stone unturned” kind of approach to knowing that as a writer and thinker I find to be a part of what I am constantly engaged in doing.
Buying into Ideas
I do not just buy into ideas because someone says them to me, or I read them in books. I do not accept them because of some perception of altitude that can color, or attempt to supersede my ability to consider and evaluate. I do not accept them because they come in pretty emotional packages (music) that stroke my emotions in ways that divorce my intellect from its ability to process sensory information, my own experience and that of observed others, and which may prevent me from considering and rationalizing what such a package is doing. I’m pretty much immune to propaganda, and most sorts and forms of persuasion.
In a time when we’re told most “people don’t think at all,” I’m told I “think too much”, now there’s an idea of little value, but it’s an interesting tool, or device, of manipulation, which if I would follow it would benefit who precisely? Certainly not me.
I would say to such a person “Oh, you are quantifying my thoughts. When did I hit the limit?” as I peer carefully about looking for plugs, wires and sockets that have been implanted in my mind to enable such a precise quantification of how many thoughts I am thinking a minute.
I would adjust the colander I wear on my head to promote maximum interference (or sometimes reception) and protect my privacy from invasion (chorkle). But such an idea as “thinking too much” is a communication device that is intended to nullify an observation previously communicated that has struck home and nailed some part of the truth of what is occurring with a person who subsequently employs “You think too much.” The phrase is a rejection, rather than an acceptance of what is a precision observation.
The idea that there is some standard of thinking that sets the bar of how much we should think or not is simply ludicrous.
It insults the intelligence of people to whom it is directed. Nowhere is this standard published, nobody is wearing little meters that tell us we’re approaching our thought allocation for the day. The very idea should be anathema to anybody who loves freedom. The person who says “You think too much” is really saying this: You are observing, and listening and understanding me too closely for my own comfort and I feel uncomfortable that my deceptions do not work on you, and worse, that you are aware of them and not terrified about the prospect of mentioning them to me.
That’s what they’re really saying. Well, faugh on the sort of manipulation they employ. It’s dishonest and I don’t want any part of that in my world. The world in which I wish to live would simply accept the observation, consider its truth and value and finding some or an entire truth in it through a process of honest self-examination would just adjust itself accordingly to a more honest form of behavior.
That’s why I make such observations and go to the trouble of communicating them in the first place–it’s not necessarily the sort of activity I want to be engaged in. Of course, that is not what people who say such things think you want to do.
They think you want to gain an advantage over them, when that is actually the furthest thing from one’s mind, or at least from mine. I want them to advantage themselves in their interactions with me, simply by communicating truth to me, and not some machinated piece of badly cooked tripe intended to divorce me from my intellect and ability to live in the world in an honest fashion.
But the person who will employ such a device to advantage themselves and disadvantage another is not going to realize this until they have experience of taking such observations on board and evaluating them honestly without any punishment other than that which they deliver to themselves in the privacy of their own mind.
It may appear that we have strayed rather far from the subject of this particular article. We have not, I am simply giving examples to illustrate the point and power of ideas, while demonstrating how easily they crumble when examined carefully and subjected to critical analysis.
Grok grok
Grok is such a great concept because it encourages the aware individual into a heightened state of awareness of things, and if we were all more aware then we would certainly not have a world faced with imminent extinction and the pervasive social ills that are presented to us every day in this the 21st Century.
The concept of grok enlightens because it asks one to examine multiple perspectives and consider them all.
That does not mean consider one other viewpoint, but rather consider all viewpoints.
For storytellers, who require the ability to be any character if they are to create a convincing story that entrances the reader, it is an extremely useful intellectual tool to put to use.
The entire Code of a Creative Artist was put together through the application of grok. The concept grok demands observation and consideration of that which is observed, and subsequent conclusions about it. It can be a time-consuming process at first, but the richness of observation it opens up to us through the process of grokking, is well worth the effort and the ability to grok increases as we practice.
No, I am not, least ye think so, endeavoring to start a cult of grok. It is simply that I admire grok as a concept that has the potential to civilize humanity way beyond where mankind finds itself on the civilization scale at this time. Any move to embrace or establish a cult of grok or a church of grok I would find abominable.
Point Nine of this code also states that one: should seek to replace unworkable ideas with workable ideas if at all possible.
Why?
Because entire structures of huge complexity, huge edifices of thinking and systems of society and civilization are resting on top of those ideas and when you pluck them out, the degree of destruction can be enormous. If at all possible be cognizant of this and make an effort to replace the unworkable in such a way to allow for smooth transition, and a minimum of destruction.
Sometimes, the urgency of a situation does not allow the luxury of time. That is a nasty predicament to be in. But destruction is in the final analysis part of the more powerful act of creation or construction.
The Consequence of Bad Ideas
Bad ideas that run their course unchecked will topple civilizations eventually, that’s what we see happening today. Destruction is sometimes the most constructive thing to do.
One must not hesitate to destroy that which truly needs destruction because it is itself destroying what is good, decent, worthwhile and beautiful. So knocking out the props is not a good idea. This particular point of the code is linked to the idea of the Valuable Final Effect (VFE) as the result of communication from a creative production, or work of art. The VFE is the resultant effects of a communication upon others who receive it.
What effect(s) do you intend to have with a particular communication? Creative Artists are masters at creating the exact intended effect. Their craft and all they know is defined by this skill. The effects they create enhance society and their talents are to one degree and another always serving humanity, even when humanity does not always appreciate nor value this, and that is frankly far too often and gives us some sort of yardstick by which to measure the progress of any society towards an advanced and highly developed civilized state. Note: I did not say “technological state.”
There is a perhaps a good deal more to say about this particular point, but I think I’ve pretty much covered the basics and then some that make this particular code-point, one of great import to the idea of being a Creative Artist. As always your questions, comments and so on are welcome.
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