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.
