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The Art of Integration: A Proposal

Posted in Blogroll with tags Art, awareness, consciousness, evolution, integration, mythology, technology, theory on May 10, 2009 by Jack

Is there a purpose to art? Is the act of expression strictly one of self-obsession, the purging of one’s own neurotic indulgences? Or, perhaps, is there an underlying piece of information, unknown even to the artist himself, through which the artist is but a conduit?
Art has many functions: from the historic storytelling on the walls of pre-historic caves to the expression of ideals in Greek mythology; from the reverential masterpieces of the Renaissance to the explosions of the sub-conscious in the 20th century. Art, at its core, is a form of communication. But, from an evolutionist’s viewpoint, what purpose has art served to the development of human culture? Creativity exists within all of us. Human’s are not the biggest, strongest nor fastest of the creatures, and yet we have conquered them all. The Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon are but bones in a museum. It is our human creative instinct that has allowed us to conquer and thrive.

But art, art is a focusing of creativity. But to what end? We have passed through all the platforms of historical development: classical, Romantic, modern, post-modern, deconstructionist, and ultimately each artistic reach finds a nihilistic wall waiting for it. Art itself must evolve or it becomes a fossil on a wall, wasting away as the hushed crowds queue past, reading their pamphlets explaining to them that this ancient work is IMPORTANT.

We have put art on a pedestal and in doing so we have detached, as a culture, from the act of creativity. Each piece is destined to be slowly eaten by the tired teeth of time. Perhaps it is still communicating, like a Rumi poem, its life still ripe upon our lips. But for most art, in another 10,000 years, will it still be communicating?

I would like to propose that there is another path. A path that is built upon the supposition that art has a very distinct evolutionary purpose. We have reached the point, technologically, where we can easily begin to integrate all the various forms of art – visual, aural, tactile. Opera was perhaps the first medium, followed by theater and then most recently by film (which, currently, is art’s most powerful incarnation.) But what is the new form and to what purpose will this form serve? Technology has divined that we have but scratched the surface of what is possible. We have yet to really grasp the tools available to us and to harness their potential.

My theory is this: What if the purpose of art is to guide humanity to its next evolutionary step – the ignition of consciousness. But even more than guide, to be an actual tool that is part of the process in the activation of conscious awareness. Oh, you say, we are not ready for this! People will resist, people aren’t ready. This is true. But enough people are ready for us to begin experimenting with the possibility that together we can create a world of authenticity, rather than projections of our egoic illusions.

I will attempt to lay out my blueprint, piece by piece, so as to illuminate the details of what I have proposed. But I realize that each artist and each individual is but a thread in this beautiful tapestry. Therefore, it is my intention to generate attention and ultimately input, so that each piece of the puzzle can be put into place. It is time to create the new mythology, a story that cannot exist without the observer; a story that evolves by the very act of observing. An event that can only exist in the present, and can only communicate when the observer has aligned him or her self in the now, in the act, in the unfolding. The audience will become the art itself, and in that process, will begin to take the next step in human evolution: the integrated conscious being.

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The Painless Apocalypse

Posted in Blogroll with tags Apocalypse, Painless Apocalypse, Poetry, Quantum, quantum + culture on April 25, 2009 by Jack

I have decided to start posting to my blog again. The past few months since my last post have been the most turbulent and exhilirating of my life if I am to observe them without judgement. That is to say, to look at the experience without the limiting power of the “LABEL.”

But at this moment, as I perceive my own internal paradigm shift, like an earthquake upon the architecture of an ancient city, I have decided to move my blog into a much broader direction. This is a forum for my observations, both internal and external, and through this process, I intend to become my own quantum experiment: to see if the act of observation affects the observed.

The Painless Apocalypse

“It looks like the empire
will die today,” she said
as she spread marmalade
across her lightly toasted bread.

“Where shall we go when
the sirens blow and the sky
comes tumbling down?”

“Well,” he said, “the people will
riot once their TV’s fall silent,
but I think we should sit back
and relax.”
He stirred another sugar
through the currents of his coffee,
“You see I believe
we are already dead.”

“Oh!” she replied with mock delight,
“it isn’t so bad to have already died.”

“It’s nothing like I thought: not
the painful shot or the impoverished gasp
as life slips our hands.”

“You’re such a dear,” he smiled
as he smeared more butter upon
the last pumpernickel slice.
“But it has become quite clear,
dead or not, we’re still here.”

“Death is rather pleasant, isn’t it?”
she mused, wiping the last crumb
from the edge of her lips.

He laughed as he reached for
her delicate hand,
“You have it, my darling:

we are but sand upon sand,
we are the dead without dying
we just live without the worry
of suffering our own denial.”

They both stood up and danced
as thieves ransacked their lands
and the world drowned in the
sound of its music.

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Children of Process

Posted in Blogroll on September 3, 2008 by Jack

What is the origin of the creative process? This is an age-old question. What makes this girl pick up a violin and that boy pick up a paint brush? The truth is that only this girl or that boy can answer that question. It is my belief that every person is innately creative. Our species has flourished due to creativity. The human race isn’t the strongest nor the fastest of all the animals. But we succeeded through our ability to imagine and to create.

I’ve often struggled with the creative process. There are many roadblocks on the path that connects the imaginative spark and the tactile product of completion. Through these challenges, though, I have been able to develop a process through which I can confront the blockage and then overcome it. This isn’t always easy. Many times the best answer is to step away, go to another part of the puzzle and then return with a new set of eyes.

Technology has given us new tools by which to create. The digital age is a revolution in production techniques, providing faster and faster methods by which to stream line the connection between thought and reality. Where once a film editor had to carefully cut and paste reels of analogue film, now digital software allows the focus to be more on the actual alignment of scenes rather than the physical process of cutting up tape. But technology is about the external process; the internal process of the creator remains the same. Is there any way to stream line the internal process? There is a way to find out.

I find that when I’m struggling with the placement of a word or the rhythm of a sentence and my mind becomes entangled in syntax by stepping back I can view the problem without the burden of being to attached to the end result. While it is my passion that drives the process, it is my ability to let go of this emotional fuel that ultimately allows me to hit my target. The mind is a powerful tool in the act of creation, but it can blur the ability to make right decisions in achieving the final product. This is why it is easier to have a final opinion on the creative act when it is viewed after the passing of time. The disconnect from that initial creative urge allows for vision.

I had a wonderful teacher who once told me that if I ever got too bogged down that I should take a deep breath, exhale, then try again. It seems easy enough, but to reach this awareness can often be difficult. Too often, the mind runs over a problem again and again until the purpose of the project is lost under the burden of the thought process, instead of the creative process. It’s interesting that in this age of quantum leaps in technology that we are still facing the same age-old questions within our selves. Perhaps it’s time to step back and examine the internal process a little more. Ultimately, it will only give rise to the release of the creative urge that rests within us all.

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The Technology Mirror

Posted in Blogroll, Music with tags Akai, Blogroll, computers, dance music, dreams, drum machines, E-mu, Music, Roland, technology on May 9, 2008 by Jack

Last night as I was falling asleep, I began thinking about the dreams I would have. I recently heard someone describe the dreaming process as the brain defragging itself of all the information, both intellectual and emotional, it had gathered during the day. It’s an interesting analogy – brain defragmentation. But then I thought that perhaps the reason PC’s need to be defragged is because we have subconsciously imparted our own behavior – the subconscious processing of the dream state – onto the computer.

There is a myth that technology is perfect because it can process billions of pieces of information instantly, or it can beat us at a chess game. The problem is, we created computers, and it seems that an imperfect creature cannot create a perfect machine. The machine itself is a reflection of our desires, both conscious and subconscious, and reveals itself in the process of the machine. Also, the more complex the machine the higher the probability there is for errors, anomalies and what we have come to fear most: “bugs.” So it seems that in every thing we create, we impart upon it not only our ingenuity, but also our subconscious irregularities. I think computers are a fine example of that (and if you’re a Mac user, you must admit there have been problems at some point and time.)

So, since our subconscious desires and neuroses are present in many of the technologies we have created, wouldn’t it seem logical that we can explore our psyche through these very machines. Take , for example, the Roland TR-808 drum machine. This drum machine was created to be used in place of a drummer – and was hated by percussionists for that very reason. Also, the sounds it produced were considered inferior not only to live drums but to other contemporary drum machines. But five years after it was discontinued, it was embraced by a handful of club music producers who found that its “deficiencies” were actually perfect for the new sound that was being created – house, techno and electro – and a whole new world of creativity was born.

It begs the question as to whether the creators of the TR-808, in their quest to produce a tool for studio musicians, and their subsequent failure, imparted in the machine a piece of their own subconscious, perhaps a yearning for the future that was later recognized by those with no prejudice about what it was “meant” to be, and instead discovered what this machine’s true nature was. One person’s failure is another’s muse.

What is more interesting is that these machines have quirks that make them highly coveted. Take E-mu’s SP-1200 or the Akai MPC series that each had their own idiosyncratic tendencies that ultimately produced music that was less mathematical in its performance and ironically, more human because of its flaws.

We, as a culture, seek through technology the lofty goal of perfection through control. Every wire, every circuit is produced to achieve the most perfect state available. But the history of these creations is that each machine exhibits certain “flaws” – flaws that are there because we have imparted them without even being conscious of it. Therefore, the search for perfection is a pointless undertaking, since, first, we can never achieve it as we ourselves can never exemplify it, and secondly, because in our bold strives towards perfection, we miss the beauty of what we have created.

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Clubbed with Love

Posted in Blogroll, Music with tags Add new tag, Blogroll, club, electronic, gay, house, Music, rave, san francisco, techno on April 17, 2008 by Jack

Do you remember your first clubbing experience? For me, it was at this club called the Odyssey, it was in a strip mall in a white trash section of Dayton, Ohio. I had just moved from rural North Carolina and didn’t assimilate very well into the affluent redneck culture that I had been dropped into. But some new friends took me to this club, and even then I was beyond excitement at the prospect of dancing, of escaping for a few hours from the dull grey scenery that seemed to pull Dayton down into a deep depression.

Ah, but this wasn’t a big city club – it was a late-80′s, top 40 hot springs. I remember drinking beers in the parking lot before hand, looking out for cops. We’d walk in to a mix of acid-washed jeans and Vanilla Ice look-alikes, the smell of Aqua Net lingering in the air. But we’d dance our asses off, especially to Soul II Soul’s “Keep on Moving.” I loved that song. Unfortunately, I never learned all the moves to the electric slide that everyone would start doing as soon as that song came on.

I soon moved on to a club in Dayton called 1470′s that was a gay club six nights out of the week, except Thursday’s, which was their industrial night – Front 242, Ministry, Pigface, Meat Beat Manifesto, along with New Wave, like Soft Cell, were mixed alongside early European sample-heavy techno (anyone remember “The Running Man” remix). This club was my church for a while – I could be myself, I could be expressive, enhanced by the excitement of witnessing a new form of music evolve.

Then a friend suggested we go see this guy Plastikman in Louisville. I was game even though I really didn’t know who he was. How was I to know I was to have my mind blown? The black plastic lining the entire room, the minimal lasers, and the music – Richie’s live PA was unbelievable, the way he manipulated and worked the crowd, and the way they responded, they were freaking out. Up until I heard the Plus 8 music, I always had the impression that the music was just silly and fun – until I heard F.U.S.E.’s “Substance Abuse.” It was then I realized this was more than about the music, it was a way of life, an escape from the stagnant attitudes and droll stripmalls that defined the Midwest back then. The music was talking about technology, capitalism and consumption and how these ideals are ultimately what will be our downfall as a society.

I have no idea while music affects me so much, but here I had found a music based around energy and sounds that brought together every cross-section of youth to these early parties. The music is serious and it is making a statement about the world we live in: The music is soulfully designed from cold, inorganic machines, yet these circuits were designed by humans and therefore will always reflect our own idiosyncrasies and nuances that make us unique as a race. The soul in the machine – another medium for humans to express themselves. I was hooked from then on to the sound and the scene, searching every club and party to experience that vibe again. The beauty of it is that it is constantly revealing itself time and again with the right combination of DJ, environment, and the expressiveness of everyone who is there – a truly synchronistic event.

But now I live in the Castro in San Francisco – one of the gayest neighborhoods in the world, and I love living here and I feel lucky there is still a vibrant scene here. Unfortunately, the gay clubs have changed since the early days where they were basically the only outlet for new music. Now they generally only play really awful repetitive NRG music. Back in the day, the only place to hear techno or house was either at a gay club or a rave, and now, both of these have fallen victim to genrefication – the belief that they have to play what the crowd wants rather than being confident enough that their crowd wants the new sound, or even, a mix of the old and new put together in intelligent ways.

But I have to give a shout out to the gay clubs of the 80′s and early 90′s, they helped to spread the new gospel to gay and straight, black and white, they were inviting and ultimately they helped to shape the musical and club landscape that is an outlet for the ever-evolving sounds and rhythms that still bring so many different people together.

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The Mix Tape

Posted in Blogroll, Music with tags Blogroll, cd's, indie rock, mix, mix tape, Music, records on March 20, 2008 by Jack

Having grown up in the 80′s, every album I bought was a cassette tape. So, I think as soon as I got into music, I started putting together mix tapes. It started with recording my favorite songs off the radio. Then, when I started listening to good music, I couldn’t help but put together tapes with my favorite songs – recorded from one tape deck to the other – carefully arranged to maximize the impact of each song.

When I got to college, I was exposed to an incredibly diverse amount of music – mainly because I couldn’t help but seek it out. I was always on the hunt for that one song, that one gem, that would satisfy all my emotional needs. Fortunately, one of my best friends in college, Mo, had a boyfriend who was in an indie-rock band. I think I had my first man-crush on him simply because he had the best taste in music – well, I think Morrissey was first but that’s beside the point.

Anyway, he would always make mix tapes of the latest songs for her, and then I would make copies for myself, and then rearrange them. Hearing a tape with everything from Jesus & Mary Chain, Red House Painters, the Beautiful South, The Sea and Cake and Kitchens of Distinction. I would listen to these over and over again, to the point where if I ever heard that song somewhere out, I would be surprised when I didn’t hear the song from the mix tapes I listened to being played next.

Well, once I had accumulated my own wealth of knowledge of properly obscure songs I would put them together in methodical arrangements to impress some girl or other. Of course, by this time, I was a card-carrying indie rock snob – Q: Why don’t indie rockers have girlfriends? Because they’re always lying about their 12-inches. Of course, I don’t think those tapes ever helped out my game.

But then I found techno and DJ’ing, and suddenly there was music that was made to be mixed. Nico, the founder of No U-Turn records, a seminal drum’n'bass label, apparently said that his music was purposely without context and that it was up to the DJ to create the atmosphere for his tracks to take on meaning. Of course, if you hear his music, you can’t deny that they have a very definite tone and meaning.

But, in essence, it is true that the dance record takes on a different meaning every time you play it. There are records that can only be played on very specific occasions, and the DJ’s skill is in knowing when that moment is. The record before and the record you mix out of define and, done properly, enhance the nature of the music on that track.

But cassette tapes disappeared back in the 90′s as cd’s took over. I still have a box with a few of them from my college days, but most of them were played until the boom box I kept in the back seat of my car ate them. I used to buy vinyl to DJ with but I’m strictly on cd’s now. But for some reason, the term “mix tape,” still exists in the lexicon. I’ve been told that up-and-coming hip-hop groups still hand out cd’s, but call them “mix tapes.” So even as the technology changes, some of the anachronistic language will stay with us long after people have forgotten what a cassette tape is.

So, I’m still making mix tapes. Sometimes just a play list on i-Tunes, but preferably a dance mix. But it will always be a mix tape to me. The arrangement allows me to create an imaginary world that can take the listener somewhere beyond where they are at. When it’s done just right, the mix can transport you along that road trip, or ease you out of the day’s stress you’re still holding on to. I’ve been married for almost five years now, so I don’t have to impress her with my music knowledge (she was never impressed, and that’s probably why I liked her so much), but I still can’t wait to play her that new track that plays endlessly in my head, carrying me through the day.

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Soul, man

Posted in Blogroll with tags Blogroll, electronic, machines, Music, soul, techno, technology on February 26, 2008 by Jack

So I just got done watching Mary J. Blige perform on the VH1 series, “Storytellers,” and I was blown away. It wasn’t just that she could sing (trust me, she can), but it was the amount of emotion, the soul, that she was transmitting on that stage. What made the performance even more enthralling was that she talked with the audience about each song before she sang them. She became really emotional at times and I could hear where all that pathos comes from – she hasn’t had an easy life and she has been able to translate that, even more so, transmute that through her singing.

I’ve always had a thing for soul music – that raw emotion that comes from hardship, experience. One of my favorite albums is Curtis Mayfield’s “Superfly.” What I love about this record is not only is the music fantastic – orchestrated funk – but that he’s telling a story about a socially relevant topic: drugs in the ghetto. But the album has so much soul because you can feel Mayfield’s own anguish throughout, as well as his hope for things to get better.

Music is so fascinating because on one level it’s just a series of frequencies put into a particular order, which doesn’t seem really all that interesting, but then you hear it and it triggers something in the brain – emotions, thoughts, passions, anger, heartbreak. We’re wired for sound and soul music targets that in a way many other forms of artistic expression just can’t. It goes straight for the heart.

But what exactly is soul music, especially when you think about electronic music? It’s music made by machines. Growing up in the Midwest, if it didn’t have a guitar in it most people don’t think it’s music. I’d always be debating about how an instrument doesn’t have to be “played” to be considered music. In fact, when I first heard proper techno, I was caught by how much soul was being conveyed in this music that strove to be as inorganic, compositionally, as possible. It was music that seemed to be searching for the soul in the machine.

I’ve always been attracted to the fact that despite the evolution of technology, we still grasp at the humanity within cold wires and hardened steel. Techno, in some ways, epitomizes that by saying, “we’ll take these machines you’re trying to inject us with and make something beautiful with them.” The machine has simply become a new medium for human expression.

Music isn’t about the format, the instruments, or even to some degree, the ability – it’s about the soul. When a song can touch or move someone, when it can create an empathic bond between two people, it becomes something more than just sounds and sequences, it transcends its parts. Soul music is about the expression of the human experience and it doesn’t matter how you do it, it just needs to be done.

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Archive for the Blogroll Category

Jack O’Shaughnessy aka Jackson Deep

Selected Writings

DJ Mix: Duality

Selected Poetry

DJ Mix: Father’s Happy Hour presents “pre-club music for post-party people”

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