Dear Learners,
In the introduction to Klees notebooks is written, "The image then is one
of a solitary human figure, at the center of a kaleidoscope of sense
impressions so to speak. And today, with change falling like a great wave
upon that figure. And beyond that calamity the void. The void of failure
... Before all this stands the artist." Paul Klee, whose career spanned
two world wars and who personally felt the persecution of Nazism in
pre-war Germany from which he was expelled continues,
"-It is the aim and the will of humanity somehow to control its own
destiny, to know itself and clearly to establish its position in the
confusion of chaos. Finally to 'save itself', if this expression still
means something when confronted with an empty void. Nothingness, which
stretches beyond the horizons of life, impels man ineluctably to find a
solution here and now, within the uncertainty of the particular state of
his society and of the individual within society."
For the creative artist, according to Paul Klee this involved the search
for qualitative values amongst quantitative experience (sense perception).
What is this 'quality' then, and how might anyone obtain some sense of it?
"Quality was for Klee the ultimate product of the individuals unrepeatable
and unique experience. One achieves it by descending into the depths and
by progressively clarifying the secret springs of one's actions, the myths
and recollections lurking in the unconscious which strongly influence
consciousness and action. - The world we leave behind in this descent
(which is also an ascent to superior spiritual forms) is the world of
quantities, the dead world of forms already used, the world of logic, of
positive science, of the masses of politics, the three dimensional world,
in which everything assumes proportional and quantitative relations, the
world of social classes characterised by degrees of power. - The world of
qualities which then opens out the more one descends into the unconscious
depths, is not the world of already dead forms, but the world of nascent
forms, of formation, it is a world of unending organic relations which are
born of real encounters and are measured by the effective strength which
each image develops in its particular condition in space and time. -In
this way freedom is accomplished through the creation of these images.
-The image will continue to live in the world as a representation of the
moment of the individual's authentic existence, of his existence in the
world. It will be the password among individuals, a vital link amongst
members of a community." Perhaps now we all have to play a 'deeper game'
as well as a 'better game' in order to fulfil our needful obligations and
realise our rightful ambitions in and of the world.
"One's art goes about as deep as ones love goes." One doesn't have to be
a recognised painter or poet for this to be true and assume meaning. One
simply has to recognise the possibility of some truth in the notions
offered to us from diverse sources in and of our experience of the world.
And, "- While such possibilities still may lie in a distant future, the
first boomerang effects of science's great triumphs have made themselves
felt in a crisis within the natural sciences themselves. The trouble
concerns the fact that the "truths" of the modern scientific world view,
though they can be demonstrated in mathematical formulas and proved
technologically, will no longer lend themselves to normal expression in
speech and thought. The moment these "truths" are spoken of conceptually
and coherently, the resulting statements will be "not perhaps as
meaningless as a 'triangular circle,' but much more so than a 'winged
lion' " (Erwin Schrodinger). We do not yet know whether this situation is
final. But it could be that we, who are earth-bound creatures and have
begun to act as though we were dwellers of the universe, will forever be
unable to understand, that is, to think and speak about the things which
nevertheless we are able to do. In this case, it would be as though our
brain, which constitutes the physical, material condition of our thoughts,
were unable to follow what we do, so that from now on we would indeed need
artificial machines to do our thinking and speaking. If it should turn out
to be true that knowledge (in the modern sense of 'know-how') and thought
have parted company for good, then we would indeed become the helpless
slaves, not so much of our machines as of our know-how, thoughtless
creatures at the mercy of every gadget which is technically possible- no
matter how murderous it is." Hannah Arendt 1958
So, "The conception implied in the treatment of this experience is that
the work of art, which anyone is free to create, has a unique quality,
that is that of clarifying and concentrating meanings contained in
scattered and weakened ways in the material of other experiences." (John
Dewey)
"The reason why we are never able to foretell with certainty the outcome
of any action is simply that action has no end. The process of a single
deed can quite literally endure throughout time until mankind itself has
come to an end." (Arendt)
Andrew Campbell
Oxford
--Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
"Learning-org" and the format of our message identifiers (LO1234, etc.) are trademarks of Richard Karash.