This was written as a response to a call from the Hannah Arendt Foundation for papers on the subject of sabotage, also stressing terms such as "intervention" and "disobedience". Being a bit argumentative by nature, though making efforts to do this in ways that are at least of interest if not constructive, and previously having mulled over the main term, "saboteur" for several decades, writing about this came easily. I was reminded of this by the New Museum's Triennial title recently. Since I have not posted here in a few weeks, I hope my audience will find this timely and of interest.
Widely used terminologies of intervention and rebellion as desirable are symptomatic of a value system implementing fragmentation and chaos rather than unity and clarity. And so because of this, our task becomes to flesh out a new way of being, and renew an undergirding value system where all may participate, without conflict, and begin to use a more direct and constructive terminology. Art at its core and artists by nature are uniquely experienced in ways helpful to these transitions, if the freedom to do so becomes of value enough to be accessible.
Intervention is a term denoting a pseudo affective institutional action that generally, at its best, acts as a strategy for permitting and/or streaming creative process rather than a true description of art processes. Intervention is an old paradigm term relating to power and force rather than creative art processes and, whatever its noble precedences, so is disobedience. Disobedience is better thought of as the integrity of a questioning separate self, which our present culture places little or no value on. The myth of Prometheus is punitive in a way that is no longer useful. We need new myths.
The “poetics of fire” may usefully be applied to alchemy myths in the Taoist traditions, which are internally centered on personal transformations, rather than the exterior material transformations of that discipline in the west. We are all crucibles of transmuting fire expanding divinity through the temporal experiences of life’s infinite core.
The relationship of critique to intervention may more helpfully be termed as a critique of societal structures whose operations are based upon assumptions coming from out worn and no longer useful mythologies. A hierarchal dominator value system will implement punishment before implementing change and label creativity, especially of new thought or value systems, disobedience. Disobedience as a social term is aligned with an outmoded value system in an unfree society.
Art is a term denoting spiritual practice originating in individual experience, taking place in congruence with life’s animating inspiration(s). Art has saved the lives of some of its practitioners, and may also serve as a centerpiece to a new way of living that serves all of us as visionaries and facilitators rather than interventionists and saboteurs.
Definitions that may compel in a contemporary sense feed a widespread hunger for spiritual experiences that also fuel our desire for meaning. This is a personal matter, a journey which it is only possible to take in conditions of the personal freedom that time and space provide, rarely accessible by most of us today.
Providing each other with these considerations may well be a matter of species survival. Must the practice of art always be associated with rebellion? Only in a society that places no value on spiritual well being is this so.
If primacy of the sanctity of living breathing life undergirds our decisions and structures, as would be the case in a new and possible value system, the nature of theory will change, as will our mythologies and terms. What is ubiquitous in our naming of art practice in institutions will change to more positive orientations rooted in joy, healing and empowerment. Long ago an enlightened one came forth propagating love, and a mythology of blood sacrifice was instituted instead. A partial result of this are values based in punishment rather than cultivation.
It is transformation rather than intervention that is the more useful term now. This change is made possible through ethical vision rooted in a new value system that places the integrity of life’s animating spirit as the largest consideration to any action. It is in reverence for, and practice centered in life’s animating pneuma that a truly ethical new paradigm may come into place. It is by integration of and consilience with all of life’s social concerns that relationships of opposites may reach unity, or at least a peaceful balance. Through art, these relationships are primary conduits of change, infinite with possibility.
Critique is only useful when definitions are coherent. In a value system that it is not working in service to us, such as ours now, terminology becomes unhelpful in part because that which is primarily valued is a logistical tool rather than the higher absolute undergirding life, which we have yet to understand fully.
Widely used terminologies of intervention and rebellion as desirable are symptomatic of a value system implementing fragmentation and chaos rather than unity and clarity. And so because of this, our task becomes to flesh out a new way of being, and renew an undergirding value system where all may participate, without conflict, and begin to use a more direct and constructive terminology. Art at its core and artists by nature are uniquely experienced in ways helpful to these transitions, if the freedom to do so becomes of value enough to be accessible.
Intervention is a term denoting a pseudo affective institutional action that generally, at its best, acts as a strategy for permitting and/or streaming creative process rather than a true description of art processes. Intervention is an old paradigm term relating to power and force rather than creative art processes and, whatever its noble precedences, so is disobedience. Disobedience is better thought of as the integrity of a questioning separate self, which our present culture places little or no value on. The myth of Prometheus is punitive in a way that is no longer useful. We need new myths.
The “poetics of fire” may usefully be applied to alchemy myths in the Taoist traditions, which are internally centered on personal transformations, rather than the exterior material transformations of that discipline in the west. We are all crucibles of transmuting fire expanding divinity through the temporal experiences of life’s infinite core.
The relationship of critique to intervention may more helpfully be termed as a critique of societal structures whose operations are based upon assumptions coming from out worn and no longer useful mythologies. A hierarchal dominator value system will implement punishment before implementing change and label creativity, especially of new thought or value systems, disobedience. Disobedience as a social term is aligned with an outmoded value system in an unfree society.
Art is a term denoting spiritual practice originating in individual experience, taking place in congruence with life’s animating inspiration(s). Art has saved the lives of some of its practitioners, and may also serve as a centerpiece to a new way of living that serves all of us as visionaries and facilitators rather than interventionists and saboteurs.
Definitions that may compel in a contemporary sense feed a widespread hunger for spiritual experiences that also fuel our desire for meaning. This is a personal matter, a journey which it is only possible to take in conditions of the personal freedom that time and space provide, rarely accessible by most of us today.
Providing each other with these considerations may well be a matter of species survival. Must the practice of art always be associated with rebellion? Only in a society that places no value on spiritual well being is this so.
If primacy of the sanctity of living breathing life undergirds our decisions and structures, as would be the case in a new and possible value system, the nature of theory will change, as will our mythologies and terms. What is ubiquitous in our naming of art practice in institutions will change to more positive orientations rooted in joy, healing and empowerment. Long ago an enlightened one came forth propagating love, and a mythology of blood sacrifice was instituted instead. A partial result of this are values based in punishment rather than cultivation.
It is transformation rather than intervention that is the more useful term now. This change is made possible through ethical vision rooted in a new value system that places the integrity of life’s animating spirit as the largest consideration to any action. It is in reverence for, and practice centered in life’s animating pneuma that a truly ethical new paradigm may come into place. It is by integration of and consilience with all of life’s social concerns that relationships of opposites may reach unity, or at least a peaceful balance. Through art, these relationships are primary conduits of change, infinite with possibility.
Critique is only useful when definitions are coherent. In a value system that it is not working in service to us, such as ours now, terminology becomes unhelpful in part because that which is primarily valued is a logistical tool rather than the higher absolute undergirding life, which we have yet to understand fully.
Theory may undergird practice, though many times it may be very long before a theory that serves as this
armature is fully revealed to the artist. It is in the nature of art practice to provide these revelations, with
time. In all other logistical and more materially oriented areas of life, theory may, if it is to be useful,
function to create sustainable and satisfying outcomes, such as provision of the spaces and times required
to engage in creative explorations and practices, without which, life loses its meaning and pleasure.
Pleasure is of more importance than the punitive in a sane world. The conscious use of theoretical practice
is a vital element missing in logistical structures of our culture other than the accumulation of profit. We
worship false idols.
Creative research at its best is the search for that knowledge, corresponding with infinity, which makes possible the propagation of widespread joy, which is beyond the realms of intervention, punishment and false idols. The new world is confirmed in art practices and explored in related fields, such as alchemy, prayer, meditation and other metaphysical studies.
In the best of all possible worlds, in the world we long for, critique, theory and art practice are all servants of that which is greater than self, the undefined, eternally mysterious, supreme divinity, source of all life and being, recognizable through a unity of opposites yet to be attained by us.
Virginia Bryant
May 2013
Naples Florida
Creative research at its best is the search for that knowledge, corresponding with infinity, which makes possible the propagation of widespread joy, which is beyond the realms of intervention, punishment and false idols. The new world is confirmed in art practices and explored in related fields, such as alchemy, prayer, meditation and other metaphysical studies.
In the best of all possible worlds, in the world we long for, critique, theory and art practice are all servants of that which is greater than self, the undefined, eternally mysterious, supreme divinity, source of all life and being, recognizable through a unity of opposites yet to be attained by us.
Virginia Bryant
May 2013
Naples Florida
