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February 2009 
Is there ONLY One kind of beauty?
Yvette
Embarking upon and then committing to the work required of me to play my part in making Cultural Fusion a reality has been no small thing....the personal challenges one faces in finding personal courage and divine passion is an experience that is beyond words. Perhaps that is why i have returned to art. I do not recall where i first heard the quote, but i know that it calls to me when i am most tempted to pull back becuse i fear being judged or rejected.
There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.
Nelson Mandela
I love it when people share their thoughts about what i've written, especially when they are honest and help me understand the reader(s)...it's at those time that i feel i have succeeded because i have opend a dialogue, sparked thought in another person and they have done the same for me.
Michael wrote:Much of interest here and in your pod, Yvette. And, if I may, more beauty and clarity, more beauty and clarity. The direction you are going is good, but it still feels fuzzy and confusing. It can take years to achieve deep beauty and deep clarity; breathe deeply, listen to the still small voice within, be patient with yourself and the world, and stay in touch as you surprise and dazzle your market more and more elegantly.
This brings up an important point that goes back to a comment i wrote about questioning our assumptions. If everyone already believes s/he has the right answer how can we build on radical inclusion?
Must i slow down and wait for others to catch up OR is it ok if i continue with what i feel called to do and allow those who GET IT now to join in, while some others meander around at their own pace or ignore it all together?
On the notion of Beauty....
Let's look at how i've defined passion and touched on it's relationship to beauty. As an art series/movement Cultural Fusion is seeking to explore how we build a culture of peace, that is the game driving the action.
Comfusion:Proverbs: Passion is the desire to find out about an aspect of yourself that you can fall in Love with.The Cultural_Fusion approach to Passion unites aspects of Passionism
as an Ingredient.
As such it allows Love aka Passion to be infused into each Project , ArtWork, etc.
"They are painters, musicians, filmakers, writers, sculptors, and dancers with a common drive: passion. A passion for the process of creativity, not the result. Passionist art comes from the heart....seeking to bring art back to what it was originally about: the fruit of passion and beauty."
Understanding that beauty is in the eye of the beholder this approach to Passion is based on Radical_Inclusion and uniting the heart and mind to work together.
It is possible that there are different ideas about clarity and beauty?
And if so, how do we start to accept that these differences can/do co-exist, so how we can now do so without the need for one to be right or dominant?
For example i am working on the idea that has grown from a question Ron asked, "what if pain is no longer a mind thing?" This led me to test the idea...what if freedom is pain?
i wrote:
Take slavery for example, although it is not legal anywhere it exist everywhere.
In seeking to understand peace in the context of the events that inspired “what is peace?” as an art series, what i see is this….
Part of the denial of freedom, has been the denial of pain caused by that oppression. So to be a slave was/is to have one's pain denied. Freedom is the ability to acknowledge and express this pain so that it can be given the attention it calls for and healed so that the previous victim can move on to become what her/his soul most longs to be.
i am also coming to see and understand the pain that abuse creates within the abuser and those that benefit from abuse because if the statement we are all one humanity means anything, how can it be otherwise?
What if PAIN can become an ingredient in a work of art? This question is heavily influencing the art i'm currently working on. My experience in South Carolina recently was an awaking to something i'm very interested in exploring more in terms of how to move from awareness of collective pain, into the healing of it.
For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
Nelson Mandela
Can it be understood in the larger framework of Rupert Sheldrake's work?
Can it be transformed as part of our collective/personal evolution?
Recently i have become very curious about these ideas in the framework of evolutionary biology and this has shaped the approaches and models developing in this art series/movement called Cultural Fusion. I'm especially interested in this in relation to new technology such as quantum computing and the connection i see between that and Pras' work with the Social Computer (SoCo).
This goes to the core of what "art as philosophy" means....it is art in a much broader context than what most are conditioned to see/understand as beauty.
Check out the Global Mind Shift video at the previous link and let me know what you think of all this.
Access: Public
There are infinitely many manifestations of beauty. None of us know which manifestations will appeal to, or satisfy the deepest urgings of, other human beings. I once encountered someone who was an aficionado of vacuum tube static coming out of old amplifiers, and he wrote about how the different types of vacuum tubes produced different qualities of static much as a wine aficionado would write about fine wines. Apparently he was part of a music community that was very into the aesthetics of vacuum tube static. At the same time, he wrote and performed folk music that I loved, though his static recordings sounded like noise to me.
I believe we all have an inner longing for the true, the good, and the beautiful, and yet those longings are infinite and unknown, and life when we are happy and well consists of endless explorings towards those longings with no end in sight. A longing towards “the true,” or “the beautiful” doesn't mean that there is one definite truth (though we may well attempt to work towards one) nor does it mean that there is one definite beauty (though we may find ourselves drawn to a consistent set of principles in those things that we find beautiful). Instead, I see the terms “true,” “good,” and “beautiful” as a way to talk about the commonality of human experience. I may not be able to perceive the beauty of static, but based on my own experiences of beauty I can acknowledge and feel some shadow of what this aficionado feels. I recognize a fellow human being experiencing a familiar type of experience, even as I acknowledge that I don't share that particular experience.
Wonderful, Michael! Thank you so much for this :-)
you wrote:
I believe we all have an inner longing for the true, the good, and the beautiful, and yet those longings are infinite and unknown, and life when we are happy and well consists of endless explorings towards those longings with no end in sight. A longing towards “the true,” or “the beautiful” doesn't mean that there is one definite truth (though we may well attempt to work towards one) nor does it mean that there is one definite beauty (though we may find ourselves drawn to a consistent set of principles in those things that we find beautiful). Instead, I see the terms “true,” “good,” and “beautiful” as a way to talk about the commonality of human experience.
This triggered an example for me…so here's the story to show why i wrote this:
“This brings up an important point that goes back to a comment i wrote about questioning our assumptions. If everyone already believes s/he has the right answer how can we build on radical inclusion?”
Let's say you have one group of people who live below the ground and so when referencing a tree, it is defined by its roots. Then there's another group who knows a tree as the trunk and are sure nothing could exemplify more tree beauty. The people who lived in the canopy however define the tree by its branches and leaves. Because they live literally among them they are sure that they should know what a tree is.
Now there are also people who have a different vantage point and they see the tree in the context of their environment. As well as those who live in deserts where they know not of trees personally, but they have seen pictures, documentaries and read books about them. They are certified experts on trees and are without doubt that they know the truth about trees and have studied decades of art exploring the beauty of the tree.
Which group of people knows the truth? Who understands the beauty of tree?
This is the value i see in questioning our assumptions….even on ideas that seem as basic as truth, beauty and goodness. In what context are your assumptions anchored? This is a question i think we all benefit from asking ourselves….and i thank you for this opportunity to continue on this path of discovery in “what-is-peace?”
what i am coming to understand is that reality is complex….and uncomfortable bits can be reframed and redefined to become part of a beautiful landscape….it's a bit like a person you love having a scar from a life threatening injury. After your loved one has recovered perhaps you are better able to cherish every moment, having another chance. The “scar” is a reminder that the injury healed and as such can be seen as “beauty mark” through some eyes.
All the best!
Dear Yvette,
I spent fifteen years leading Socratic discussions in K-12 schools, mostly with young people but also with teachers. We discussed a very wide range of works, including art, music, philosophy, religion, mathematics, science, literature, etc.
After working together to discuss complex ideas over the course of several weeks or months, often students would spontaneously remark how we were each in our own universe, or our own bubble, and real communication beyond simple day to day conversation practical work was far more rarely successful than we ordinarily realized. Over time I realized that even groups of teachers who had worked together for ten or twenty years would, in the course of conversations about ideas, discover that their best friends had dramatically different beliefs about fundamental issues. I would jokingly suggest that all of us have beliefs that our best friends probably regard as crazy, stupid, and/or immoral. Rather than feel threatened by such differences, we can all come to accept that we do have different beliefs, but that as long as we don't hurt each other or initiate violence, we can work together peacefully and productively.
The physicist David Bohm came to believe that our society had become so incoherent that we were in need of sociotherapy, deep dialogue through which we could gradually sort out our different realities and how they relate - or not. His format was to get 30-40 people together for a long weekend of long days of unstructured dialogue in which individuals would work together to understand each other.
One of the results of these perspectives is that I rarely assume that someone else is evil for believing something different from me. Most of the time I take it for granted that others will have very different beliefs, and then I often experience gratitude when an act of understanding takes place. Patience and generosity in dialogue are appropriate, rather than aggression and impatience.
Peace,
Michael
Thank you, Michael. And i completely agree with you, especially on this:
Most of the time I take it for granted that others will have very different beliefs, and then I often experience gratitude when an act of understanding takes place. Patience and generosity in dialogue are appropriate, rather than aggression and impatience.
If that is how my reply came across that was not my intention. And this kind of exchange is exactly the reason that this project seems to emphasize online conversations, as you pointed out previously. It seems it makes possible dialogues of a quality that i don't encounter often enough in my offline conversations.
Perhaps what could be seen as agression and impatience, is simply felt as intensity and exhileration by one on the other end?
For example, if i were having this conversation with someone at a dinner party the dialogue would likely end when touching on a point of discomfort out of some concern for being polite and not causing a scene or getting into an argument. But online these conversation can progress until both people come to a better understanding of each other. Maybe that is just my experience, but as such it has made me very curious about what happens online that is different from offline conversations many times, though not always.
i find that having opened up the question of “what is freedom?” i am learning to see it from a perspect that is so new as to make the word a discovery. (the reason for sharing the tree story) Previously if someone had asked me what freedom was i was sure i knew what the word meant….now i am discovering what it is to be free.
i am curious about how humanity will learn to be and work with each other while accepting that there are differences in ways of expressing qualities like generosity, patience, and collaboration? i am not so much as saying anyone else has to question any of these things, as to say that these are the questions i have and will you join me in exploring them?
In my way of thinking opening the questions to others is one way i have come to understand the qualities i just mentioned and for me it all began with questioning the place in which my assumptions were/are anchored….and most recently that has brought my attention to delving into my understanding of freedom.
i very much appreciate the opporunity to have this dialogue, Michael. i am grateful for this chance to learn from/about you.
Peacefully,
Yvette
“If that is how my reply came across that was not my intention.”
Not in the least, I was simply reflecting on other contexts. Your tone is beautiful and constructive.
One of the challenges of on-line dialogue, and one of the reasons why I vastly prefer dialogue in person.