Phase Transition

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Form changes while substance stays the same

For me, every element of this image provides opportunity to reflect. The color alone evokes the sensibility of winter, the time of year when, for many of us, the often overcast sky tends to dampen the desire for activity. The lines where snow meets ice and water recalls phase transitions: changes of state, chapters in life where, instead of changing form—as the combination of hydrogen and oxygen do under different temperature conditions—our perceptions and attitudes change under the influence of experience and reflection.

The little ripples in the water evidence both wind and energy, alternatively reflecting light and darkness as life moves forward. In the tree I’m reminded that my personal reality is a reflection of Absolute reality, allowing me to interpret Its reflection freely. I understand that the reflection is not the tree, but does it even come close to representing it faithfully or fully? Of course not, that’s the great mystery.

When we look at images of stars and galaxies, are we seeing the universe as cold and lifeless, a place filled with immense objects that collide with unimaginably gigantic consequences? We’re not seeing then as they are, rather, how they were in the immense past. Might spacetime on this planet be approaching a phase transition for consciousness as it reaches for grander awareness—and community?

The “tree” of our personal reality may at times appear to be barren with only the forces of change and chance moving the branches. But wait! Within them lies the  potential for new growth and radiant color. I observe that on the right side of the reflected tree, life appears to be solid and gritty. On the other side, it’s liquid and flows smoothly. In between, in the center, stillness propagates a reflection. And as this image demonstrates, the greater the stillness the fuller and more true the reflection of reality.

Zooming into the molecular level, I find a social consideration represented along the shoreline where water meets ice. Indeed, at 3:1 magnification on the computer it closely resembles the coastline of Maine, reminiscent of fractal geometry. On one side the molecules stubbornly seek to maintain the status quo as a liquid in motion, whereas those on the other side are rigid, solid and still.

By zooming in even closer I arrive at the place where individual molecules conflict. I imagine their conversation. “I’m liquid and I’m going to stay that way.” “Well fine, but I’m solid and there’s no way I’m going to change!” Well and good. But they are forgetting two important things. They are the same in substance. Irrespective of location and form, they are all water molecules. And they do not exist in a closed system.

A change in the climate, particularly the temperature in this case, would force the change in one direction or the other depending on the presence or absence of heat. Living systems are self-making and self-organizing, but their fate is inexorably determined by changes in the environment. The inevitable choice for all living systems is either resignation or transformation. As George Land put it in his classic book on transformation—“Grow or Die.”

Because atoms and molecules are invisible, we tend to think of them as being still, lifeless and without consciousness. Of course, it depends on how we view life and consciousness, but if characteristics such as individuality, vitality, self-making (autopoiesis) and community-building are part of the formulation, the universe is literally teeming with life and consciousness.

The interface between opposites is the place of transformation.

William Erwin Thompson, Social philosopher, poet

 

A new phase occurs when communication between agents makes cooperation and interdependence more beneficial than conflict.

Eva Jablonka, Israeli evolutionary geneticist

Fear and its Antidote —

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Open minds and unconditional love

My posted contemplations are primarily about appreciation, gratitude and perception. While fear is generally an undesirable sensation, I appreciate it as one of the primary forces that affects human behavior universally.

Fear has survival value for individuals, and socially it’s an evolutionary driver. I also appreciate it’s significance as one of the most poignant topics of our national conversation today. That’s why I chose it. Further, it provides an opportunity for me to reflect on it and put it into perspective. To do this, I referenced an excerpt “On evil,” excerpted from Radical Optimism: Rooting Ourselves in Reality by my friend and mentor Dr. Beatrice Bruteau.

We have developed a cult of the descriptive self, our own personal image industry. It is indeed a matter of images—pictures of reality, but not reality itself. The living person cannot be pinned down in any set of descriptions (for instance, black or white American or African, male or female, married with two kids, Protestant, Republican, businessman, golfer, weighs 180 pounds, has an IQ of 120, drives a Mercedes,  prefers wine over beer…).

These are all conventional categories that we use as a kind of shorthand for organizing our affairs for getting acquainted, identifying people, and carrying on a conversation. But all these descriptions could be otherwise and that person, the real person living inside, would still be there with the same interior sense of ‘I am, I am here, I am now, I am I.’ It is this interior sense of actually existing in this moment as a sheer ‘I am’ that is the real living person. This person is undefined, indescribable, and transcendent of all categories and descriptions.

Because it is not defined, the real person cannot be thought about. Whenever you think about something, you are attending to an image, a definition, a description. Similarly, your feelings are about and toward a descriptive image because the image and the descriptions are as they are, relative to you. 

It is my contention that evil comes about because of what is perceived as a basic metaphysical need in the agent, the need to stay alive, to maintain one’s being. Where moral evil is involved, the agent identifies exhaustively with the image self, the descriptive self, and instinctively recognizes the primordial need to stay in being. It is the self-image which the agent endeavors to maintain in being and enhance in being, because the agent believes that this is all the self-being the agent has, and that if the agent does not tend to its sustenance and welfare, it will suffer diminishment, because nobody else is going to sustain it. It is in order to avoid these life-losses that people do what we call evil. 

In the concrete, we find that evil is not usually done just as a response to the possibility of loss. Nearly always the agent of evil is a person who has already actually suffered severe losses on some level of life. (I am not saying that everyone who has suffered loss will engage in evil, but that someone who commits evil will probably be found to be someone who has suffered loss.) Therefore, the agent seeks urgently to protect the self and put down, diminish, dominate, and destroy others. All this is done to keep the self in being, in bigger and better being.

All this comes of not understanding the nature of unconditional, creative love, that it is addressed to the true Self which transcends all the descriptions. Only the self that has realized itself as transcendent of descriptions so it can afford to lose them, is able to love the enemies of those descriptions, or to love one’s enemies in spite of their descriptions. 

 

The image of barbed wire is here represented as a symbol of separation, fear and domination—the components of a paradigm built on male superiority and the perspectives “Survival of the fittest” and “Subdue the Earth.” The paradigm of separation may have gotten us to where we are, but now we’re experiencing the realities—and consequences of interdependence. We live in a world where the thoughts, words and deeds of a single individual are having instant and profound global influence—for better and worse.

The paradigm of love however, represented by the sun in the background of the image, represents the Source emitting unity and unconditional love, illuminating the deeper reality, which is interdependence. Our minds, accustomed to constructing a dualistic reality—up/down, good/evil—tend to see these as being in conflict, each battling for supremacy. But they are two sides of the same coin, part of the unfolding process of human evolution, as trial-and-error demonstrates what works and what doesn’t.

Because love is the antidote to fear, the need is try to see and regard the true Selves or souls of those around us—young or old, known or not known to us—beyond their descriptions and behaviors, especially those who appear to be disenfranchised or suffering from mental illness, abuse or neglect. It can be as simple as a thought, word or deed. It takes very little to pay attention to someone, to provide a genuine sign of caring or support—unconditional love where conditioned love appears to be lacking.

It may be too late for those who have already been marginalized or radicalized, deprived of or blinded to the deeper truth of their being. Hopefully not. But there is hope for the future. Across cultures, parents can prevent destructive indoctrination from happening to their children by making sure they feel safe, loved, nurtured and supported as they seek the realization of their unique and constructive potentials. Importantly, young minds develop resilience and intellectual integrity in a context of free and open inquiry, where they have the opportunity to acquire critical thinking skills and apply them to diverse and opposing points of view.

The challenges of our time are those of identity and definition—understanding who we are as soul-endowed persons and choosing who we want to be as a people. By our individual choices, behaviors and the quality of our interactions we are defining who we are and how we will be perceived.

Are we allowing ourselves to be defined by descriptions, attributes and possessions that require constant feeding and defending? Are we just a higher form of animal life, one that’s absorbed in inordinate consumption and self-indulgence, one that has knee-jerk reactions to social and political change? Or are we members of one, whole and integrating body of intelligent and creative individuals working together to facilitate the realization of everyone’s higher potentials and close the gap between the haves and have nots? Are our hearts and hands open or closed? Many of us want to make a difference in the world. I can think of none better than the exercise of open minds and unconditional love.

 

Entrainment

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Getting on board the thoughts of others

The image of these tractor tires calls to mind the word “entrainment” because they are essential components of vehicles designed to pull and plow. According to several dictionaries, to “entrain” is to pull, drag or draw along. Because the word describes a process, social scientists apply the word “entrainment” to a variety of topics.

Writing in Evolution’s End: Claiming The Potential Of Our intelligence, researcher Joseph Chilton Pearce ascribes it as significant in relation to child development. “Play,” he says, “is the foundation of creative intelligence… the child who is played with will learn to play. The child who is not played with will be unable to play and will be at risk on every level.”

He found that storytelling is a vital component of play. “The child listens to the storyteller with total entrainment; he grows still, his jaw drops, his eyes widen, and he stares fixedly at the speaker. His vision, however, turns within where the action is, for the words of a story stimulate the creation of corresponding internal images.”

Indeed, the words of a story are linear, like a train. They pull us along a fixed path of images, a sequence that lead us to the author’s destination—the point, lesson or truth of the story. “This imagining,” Pearce continues, “is the foundation of future symbolic and metaphoric thought, both concrete and formal operational thinking, higher mathematics, science, philosophy, everything we consider higher mentation or education.”

Entrainment occurs in nature as well. In an unpublished article by James Anderson entitled The Physics of Meditation, he describes the principle of rhythm entrainment, “The ability of two or more oscillators to get synchronized. For example, you’re walking with a friend, and you find yourself in step with that person… Pendulum clocks in the same room will eventually swing together. Soldiers marching across a footbridge are commanded to ‘break step’ so their steps will not act as a driving force for the natural resonant frequency of the bridge. Fireflies which begin blinking at random will tend to synchronize after a while. Nature simply finds it more economical for periodic events (of nearly the same frequency) to get in step with each other.”

In his groundbreaking book, Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman cites entrainment as a social mechanism relating to “emotional contagion”—how we are influenced by others. “When it comes to personal encounters, the person who has the more forceful expressivity—or the most power—is typically the one who’s emotions entrain the other. Dominant partners talk more, while the subordinate partner watches the other’s face more—a setup for the transmission of affect. By the same token, the forcefulness of a good speaker—a politician or an evangelist, say—works to entrain the emotions of the audience. That is what we mean  by, ‘He had them in the palm of his hand.’”

Television programs, commercials, movies, electronic games and social media platforms are equally powerful vehicles of entrainment. In a linear fashion, they lead our attention and thoughts along tracks toward specific destinations. Whenever we surrender our attention to language or images produced by someone else, we hitch our thoughts to their values, consciousness and agendas. Adults are supposed to be wise enough to realize this, so they can stand as witness to what is being offered and apply their critical thinking skills. Children, however, haven’t yet developed the capacity to understand manipulation or discriminate between what’s real and what’s not. Play and storytelling are examples of the higher vibrational applications of entrainment. The lower vibration is its power to radicalize and brain wash.

In Radical Optimism: Rooting Ourselves in Reality, Christian philosopher and contemplative Beatrice Bruteau wrote of entrainment as “The phenomenon of two rhythmic beings gradually altering their phases until they are locked together in the same rhythm. Insects that chirp or blink will do it; even two human beings talking to each other will do it.” She said whatever we continuously think about or meditate on, we become. In her words, “What we think of, we tend to become.” Filling our minds and especially our imaginations with the life-rhythms of a person, ideal, event, place or idea, we latch on to them. And they carry us along, dominating our choice of reading materials, electronic media offerings, music, sports, personal relationships and affiliations. Dr. Bruteau writes, “Everything that ever enters the consciousness has some effect on it and takes up some kind of residence there.”

Whether by mind or heart, there’s a tendency for us all to connect and follow along with others. The above photograph and others like it, remind me to be aware of the trains of thought that I’ve coupled my mind to. Whether the exposure or influence is to an idea, organization, company or product, a writer, political candidate, artist or television program, I want it to be a conscious choice based on a destination that’s constructive, harmless and desirable. I want to travel along the tracks that will take me to where I want to go, not where somebody else thinks I should be going. So basically, managing entrainment is about continuously and exclusively making choices that are authentic to who we are as unique persons. And it’s a defense against false news, trash talk, conspiracy theories, advertising and social/political manipulation.

NOTE: I highly recommend the books above that have active links. I consider Joseph Chilton Pearce’s book to be essential reading for parents interested in child-through-teen development. Especially important, he talks about the significance of media entrainment, how prolonged exposure to an electronic screen retards the mylination of neurons—resulting in decreased ability to concentrate and imagine. Daniel Goleman’s book is a primary resource for understanding the nature and significance of social and emotional learning.

Beatrice Bruteau‘s book paints a picture of what a mature and mindful Christian life looks like from an integral and evolutionary perspective. Click here for a brief sampling of her perspectives on spiritual evolution. Beatrice encompassed the fields of mathematics, physics, whole systems theory, psychology and East-West spirituality in an attempt to bridge the gap between science and spirituality. In God’s Ecstasy: The Creation of a Self-Creating World, she does this masterfully. She and her husband Jim Somerville were long-time dear friends to me and my family. She passed this life on November 16, 2014. I dedicate this posting to them.

Emotional entrainment is the heart of influence. 

Daniel Goleman

 

Order

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The essence of living systems is self-organization

In nature and in the world of man-made objects, geometric order evidences the interrelatedness of all things. Using the above image as a model, humanity may be said to consist of a single string within the spacetime continuum. Rather than forming a straight line—the way we experience time—the process of human evolution has been an ever-unfolding and ordering spiral.

For the most part, we have not yet realized or accepted that order, novelty, expansion and complexity are ultimately unifying forces. But even conflicts over diversity can be seen as drivers, urging us to realize and accommodate to the reality that we are one, interrelated and interdependent species.

In the above image, if one string represents a lifetime, we can see how it overlaps and aligns with many others. With a little consideration, we can see the process of ordering at work. And we can see that an individual life is one long and finite string, one that’s shaped by an enfolded and fundamental order—the core, which is characterized by infinite potential, patterning and exquisite beauty. Notice how the mind’s eye sees a star in one place and then another. As in certain geometries considered “sacred,” the pattern in this ball of string is dynamic. It seems to move.

Contemplating Order In Personal And Social Contexts

Socially we find examples of this dynamic in the messy domains of business and politics, where over time conflicting perspectives, goals and methods eventually produce more ordered systems and solutions.

A crowning example of this is the founding of the United States of America. Because the founders—and we today—differ in perception, values, goals and desires there was and will always be conflict, argumentation and debate. In the messy process of sorting things out, an order emerges that overcomes psychic entropy—negative thoughts, ideas and ideologies that, if held long enough by a system’s members, leads to dis-integration and eventually the system’s demise. Order then, along with information, is negentropic. It overcomes entropy, at least temporarily.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi writes, “Psychic negentropy refers to an ordered state of energy or knowledge, a state in which work can be carried out with the least waste and effort. A negentropic system, whether physical, informational, or mental, is one in which the parts function together in synergy, with minimal friction or disorder.”

In his book, Being Adolescent: Conflict and Growth in the Teenage Years, co-authored with Reed Larson, Mihali identifies the specific traits that carry the highest negentropic potential. These include positive feelings toward self and others, happiness, friendliness, joy, meaning, a sense of energy, competence and intrinsic motivation to be involved with people moving toward constructive goals. Projected to adults, I can easily see how these would be the forces, among others, that are urging us toward alignment and synergistic engagement. In this way, on each turn of the evolutionary spiral, the invisible hand of Nature winds the string around its core, one that imposes a design that is in process, one we are not yet privileged to see.

Writing about traumatic events experienced by adults—such as occur in family life as well as in business and politics—Csikszentmihalyi goes further to say in Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, that the ability to draw order from disorder is what transforms negative experiences into meaningful challenges.

Paul Cézanne famously said it was the artist’s task to become “concentric” with nature, to align with it. I see that happening in the ball of string image. I also see how the center—the core of an object, idea or soul of a person—determines the pattern that will emerge as time goes on. For instance, if the string were wound around a cube or a triangle a very different pattern would result. The same with an idea or ideology. The core of a belief system or worldview shapes thinking, which generates patterns of behavior. It’s the reason for the biblical injunction “By their fruit, you shall recognize them.” (Matthew 7:16). Others know us by what we do, not what we say.

In the above photograph, the winding of a string around a spherical core results in a star pattern with concentric circles. Standing back, it resembles an eye. Computer scientist, Christopher Langton, and others in the field of “artificial life” observe that the essence of living systems is in self–organization, not the involved molecules. It couldn’t be otherwise, because at the atomic level it’s the organization of atoms that determines and discriminates one element from another.

At the heart of the most random or chaotic event lies order, pattern, and causality, if only we can learn to see it in large enough context.

Corinne McLaughlin, Educator

Author, The Practical Visionary: A new world guide to spiritual growth and social change.

 

It is the natural tendency of life to organize — to seek greater levels of complexity and diversity.

Margaret Wheatley, Management consultant

Author, Leadership and the New Science: Discovering order in a chaotic world

 

When driven into far-from-equilibrium conditions, systems do not just break down, they generate new structures that pull higher forms of order out of the surrounding chaos. It is as if nature reaches into herself and draws forth structures that reflect the inherent potential of the system for higher orders of self-organization.

Duane Elgin, Media activist

Author, Choosing Earth: Humanity’s journey of initiation

 

Stop!

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Pay attention to the ordinary

Whenever I bring up this image it reminds me to pay attention to the commonplace items and situations that tend not to be seen or are easily passed over. It may be the act of seeing beyond looking, more than anything else, that enriches the present moment.

Brief acts of perceiving are the visual equivalent of contemplation. One of the benefits of contemplative photography is that it allows us to stop and spend an unusual amount of time pondering, perhaps just soaking in the beauty of the subject’s form and texture, how it’s situated and lit.

I sometimes recommended a little exercise to my students when they’re in waiting situations—an airport terminal, doctor’s office, business meeting or just at home with the electronics turned off—to pick a subject, put an imaginary frame around it and forget any words or functions associated with it. As a blind person seeing clearly for the first time, enjoy the subject’s attributes. Notice how it’s lit, and how the light accentuates certain features while diminishing others in deep shadows.

It’s a practice that not only cultivates aesthetic perception, it accomplishes the Buddhist practice of mindfulness—accomplished by being aware in the moment, of the moment; being present with what is, no matter what it is or where we are. And if we care to go there, paying attention to singular being—like a towel, thumbtack, pencil or computer mouse—can evoke appreciation for all being.

I thought of titling this post “Perception,” but the point that I most need to remember is to STOP NOW! PAY ATTENTION! Just sit or stand still with no distractions and appreciate what’s in front of me, what I normally take for granted. Even the computer display, the keyboard, the picture on the wall or the tissue box. As I look at these without naming, the question arises, What did it take for this to exist? Right here, right now. How many people were involved in bringing this into being—and then bringing it to me?

It’s part of the Great Mystery—that we and everything else exist and are present as witnesses to cosmic and human evolution. One of the teachings in Zen is “unitive perception,” the experience of being able to see the present and eternal simultaneously, the sacred and the profane in the same object.

By stopping and paying attention to the little things, that can happen. And afterward, through the act of deep awareness there comes a feeling of exhilaration from having tapped into essence, the Reality beyond the personally constructed one.

A person has not only perceptions but a will to perceive, not only a capacity to observe the world but a capacity to alter his or her observation of it—which, in the end, is the capacity to alter the world itself. Those people who recognize that imagination is reality’s master we call “sages,” and those who act upon it, we call “artists.” 

Tom Robbins, Novelist

Simplicity vs Complexity

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In imagery and in life

My dad, a toolmaker for Ford Motor Company, used to say he could make anything out of metal. He also said, “The difficult I can do tomorrow; the simple takes a little longer.” It’s the same with photography—or any kind of art or design endeavor. Although there is an underlying order in nature, she appears to be complex on the surface. So attempts toward simplicity, whether in creative expression or lifestyle requires concerted effort.

In my Visual Communication classes we discussed the continuum of complex imagery at one end of the spectrum and simplicity on the other. It’s not just the number of visual elements within a frame that makes an image complex. It’s also the fact that the expanded relationship—element to element—provides a high level of potential for viewers to “read out” and “read into” the image.

The upside of complex imagery is that it carries a great deal of information. That’s the downside as well. With so much potential to read or interpret, there’s a tendency to treat complex images superficially, to give them a glance—long enough for recognition and  move on. This is how we consume magazines, movies and the electronic media.

It doesn’t have to be that way, but as a culture we in the western world tend to be information hungry and rapid consumers, like we have to get it all in as quickly as possible. Since childhood, we’ve been taught that more information is better. That’s certainly true when it comes to the maintenance of both mechanical and living systems. But there’s more power to be realized in an image that simple, focused, so there are few if any distractions from the subject. Because simplicity is rare visually, it excels at triggering emotion. 

As noted, the creation of simple images requires more attention and effort. Make a frame with your fingers and look around your room. Try to find any subject matter that has very few elements within that frame. There isn’t much. Outside, it becomes even more difficult. Exceptions include certain Japanese temples and Zen monasteries where simplicity of lifestyle and environmental design is a lived discipline. The message and practice in these places is “consume less and appreciate more.”

Simplicity is largely absent from our everyday environments—and lives—because it requires the reduction or elimination of elements. We have lots of stuff and few places to put it. And consuming more—media and smartphones especially—leaves little time for appreciating, really attending to what we have. In composing visual elements within a frame, neither complexity nor simplicity is right or wrong, good or bad. Each derives from different perceptions of the world, life and the cosmos, and each delivers a different experience. For instance, compare the simple image above, with the complex one below.

A simple design requires a process of elimination. As the number of elements are reduced, the emotional impact that an image has will increase. In the image of the single push-pin there are only three elements—the black background, the plastic holder and the metal pin. In contrast, the complex image contains the identical subject matter, but the number of elements is significantly higher and relationships are involved, making the brain work harder to make sense of the increased information. After a quick glance, we move on—so not to be overloaded. With a simple image we engage longer, study it, because simplicity is unusual and appealing. There’s less demand to ascertain what’s going on. And there’s harmony, a quality of satisfaction and interest that comes from tapping more into the essence of a subject.

Thus, the principle for image makers: If the communication objective is to convey information, complex imagery or design is the advisable approach. When it’s to convey an experience or emotion, it’s better to go with simplicity—sometimes. Like verbal communication, visual communication can be messy. There are always exceptions.

Applying these observations to my life, I notice how difficult it is to simplify. I seem to need a lot of space and stuff to maintain an aesthetic and comfortable home, do my work and pursue my interests. I think of the Native Americans who, living in teepees, could gather their belongings in a morning and move on. At the other end of the spectrum I think of the “rat race,” where people educate themselves and work hard for many years to achieve prestigous positions and salaries, only to find their jobs stressful and unfulfilling. 

Simplicity of thought and mind will lead to a reduction of the desire for material things. It may seem paradoxical but the gift of simplicity is the gift of abundance.

Satish, Kumar, Indian British activist and pacifist,

Author, Elegant Simplicity: The art of living well.

In his groundbreaking and visionary book, Voluntary Simplicity, Duane Elgin made the case for living with balance and ecological awareness, a life that is “outwardly simple and inwardly rich.” More recently, Linda Breen Pierce’s book, Choosing Simplicity: Real People Finding Peace and Fulfillment in a Complex World provides compelling stories of people who chose to simplify their lives. An example close to home, my friend Glenn Geffcken and his wife Maria, moved to a remote location in New Mexico to live off the grid. As homesteaders, they’re constructing the life they want to live from the ground up. 

Considering the above images together, I notice that they depict different states of consciousness as well as communication and lifestyle strategies. Waking consciousness is extremely complex and dynamic. It needs to be, for us to engage in and process information. Recently, brain researchers found that sleep performs a cleansing function for the neurons, equivalent to erasing the buildup of chalk on a blackboard. The mind becomes renewed. The act of contemplation does the same thing in a waking state by focusing for a time on just one thing. And perhaps the ultimate reduction of mental complexity comes with meditation. The reason, I suppose, is that meditation’s proper object is being rather than doing or having. Simply being present.

Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.

Steve Jobs, Entrepreneur, business magnate, industrial designer

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

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The value, precautions and prospects of machine-made images

Inspired by Jerry Uelsmann‘s photomontages in 1975, I spent the better part of a day searching through my proofs to find images that might work together to make an intriguing composite. 

On another day, I did the actual printing in the darkroom with a variety of masks, using quite a bit of chemistry and photographic paper—trial and error—to get the above image. And that was only possible because I had a fully equipped darkroom, the appropriate materials on hand and had done the research on how to combine elements on a single sheet of photographic paper.

Today, anyone with a computer could accomplish a similar composite in a matter of minutes, by using an AI software program and typing in a request. For instance, “Florida beach symmetry with boulders in the foreground, one of which has the face of a stone statue in it.” Within seconds of pressing the Return button, the composite would appear on the screen. If printed on photographic quality inkjet paper it would be ready to hang in a gallery, certainly to be used in advertising or part of a portfolio. Now that it’s so easy to create top quality images that are captivating, composites or not, the question arises: “Is it art?” 

Words Matter

The French began using the word “Art” in the 10th century, borrowing it from the Latin artem, “practical skill; a business craft,” which derived from the Greek artizein, “to prepare,” the suffixed form of the root ar– “to fit together.” (Online Etymology Dictionary). In keeping with these traditions, the word “art” applies to a creative process, not its outcome. 

Ancient indigenous people all over the world, didn’t have a word for art. Objects were created for utilitarian, ornamental or religious purposes. Whatever the medium, the process of making something by shaping or fitting things together was part of everyday living. 

Today, we use the word “art” loosely. In a capitalist society it’s natural to attach a monetary value to everything we make, do or perform. Without established values on goods, trading one’s creative output in a complex society would be too problematic. But selling it is easy; values are much better agreed upon. When we refer to both a creative process and its outcome as art, the monetary value of the object tends to supersede the intrinsic value of the creative act. It’s why I try to make a distinction between “art,” the process of stitching things together, and “artifact,” the outcome.  

Who’s doing the stitching?

When a computer is given a command such as the one above, it’s the hardware and software that’s doing the actual combining. The process was designed by the individual(s) who conceived and manufactured the computer and instructions. And the outcome, the image that appears on the screen or is printed, is an artifact, evidence of the operator’s creative imagination. 

Applying these distinctions to AI, the art is in the conceptualization. So, to that extent the operator can rightly be considered an “artist.” What comes out of the printer is an artifact—until someone begins to call it “art.” It was the same with photography. For many years, there was a debate about whether or not it could be considered an art form. When George Eastman mass-produced a series of Kodak cameras (Kodak #1 in 1888, a box camera loaded with a 100-exposure roll of film), the critics claimed that “anyone could do it.” But that changed when master photographers demonstrated that not everyone could produce high quality, “expressive” photographs.  

Value

As noted, the output of an AI image or print is an artifact of the operator’s imagination. But increasingly, as the results demonstrate a producer’s creativity, it will be considered an object of art. As we’re often reminded, art is in the mind of the beholder.

Imagine yourself to be a collector of fine art photography. You’re considering the purchase of a print of the above image. The gallery owner shows you two prints, one made by hand in a darkroom by a lifelong photographer, and the other an inkjet print generated by an AI program. Side-by-side the prints are top quality, they’re equally compelling aesthetically and the price is the same. Which would you choose? What makes the difference?    

Okay, now you’re the art director for a big-city advertising firm. You’re shown a series of color photographs taken by your in-house photographer, and you’re about to approve one you think the client will like when an employee comes in and shows you an AI image she made on spec. Her image would work even better for your client. Of course, you choose the AI print. Application matters.

The Marks We Make

One of the defining characteristics of human beings is the urge to make marks, to express ourselves, who we are, what we’re doing and thinking. Whether those marks are as simple as handprints on a cave wall or as complex as pixelated electrons on a computer screen, we’re fascinated by any medium that can extend our being and experience. Mediums extend. And when the results can be shared, traded or sold, so much the better.

Whatever the expression or message, the marks we make contain an unconscious subtext that says, “This is me.” “I am here.” And “This is what I am experiencing.” In a complex society, our marks (words, images) help us to explore and improve our perception of self, others, the world and our place in it. Additionally, as certain creative expressions attract attention and become increasingly admired, their exchange value increases; the greater the attention, the greater the value we place on a person’s marks. Baseball trading cards, paintings by recognized masters, photographic fine art, Broadway plays and movies are examples.

Now take the case where several squiggles and a line are generated on a computer in response to an operator’s command. A viewer, not knowing the operator or how the printed image was created will try to make sense of it. In one of Steve Martin’s movies, observing a piece of modern sculpture in a museum, he asks a companion, “What kinda deal is this?” When something doesn’t make sense, we move on. 

But if the viewer learns that a well-known artist made the squiggles and line on a computer, it doesn’t matter. We stop and pay closer attention. Isn’t this what we do walking through the halls of a museum? We look for the artist’s name because their marks have been validated and will likely stand the test of time. Whether we know it or not, their creative output represents a life of soul-searching, perceptual and technical evolution and fascinating personal experiences. There’s substance and history behind the work. And an observer can find it there, if they care to look. 

Relative to AI-produced images, it’s important to know the person behind the computer. Who’s doing the stitching together? What was he/she thinking? A dazzling image produced on a computer by a trained monkey may be visually appealing, but the consciousness and experience behind it lacks substance and meaning. It may excite us and produce a sense of wonder, but that’s it. On the other hand, an experienced and highly skilled artist using the same computer program is likely to produce an image that is loaded with these qualities and more.

Art, as process, resides in the consciousness and experience of a human being. The artifact is an expression of that thinking and process. As the AI movement gains momentum in image-making, it will become increasingly important to know the conceptualizer, the person in front of the screen. For me to take an AI image seriously, to see it as containing substance, particularly for use in my contemplative practice, I would want to know the producer’s motivation and objectives.

Creative Challenge

Whatever the medium, we live in a time when we can’t afford to make images that sacrifice the future for the present, that draw attention to the abuses of freedom, fan the flames of separation, self-centeredness and fear and distract us from the task of uplifting the human spirit and consciousness, and building the world in ethical and sustainable ways. 

So much of our creative energy is spent directing our attention to the dark side of human nature. What we attend to we make more of, so negative images, irrespective of the medium, promote self-fulfilling prophecies. The pressures of the moment are urging us to instead, invest our creativity in ways that demonstrate and encourage the higher human characteristics—love, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, generosity, collaboration, the making of images that contribute to human and planetary flourishing. 

Dark moments exist to provide contrast to experience the lightheartedness of pure joy–doing work that regenerates and restores vitality in humanity and the planet. The invitation is to evolve toward embracing a unified view of life both at home and at work, living with multicultural perspectives, compassion, and oneness. 

Dawna Jones, Business consultant

Author, Decision Making for Dummies

Hope is Rising

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Wisdom teachers are putting the abuses of freedom in check.

The iris symbolizes hope, wisdom, faith, trust, and bravery.

The biosphere has hit a limit, delivering a constant stream of evidence in the form of more frequent and increasingly destructive fires, flooding, droughts, tornadoes and earthquakes. At the same time, and probably related at some level, the social sphere is tightening and convulsing due to war and the fear of it escalating, political polarization, self-centered and nearsighted nationalism, disregard for truth and ethics, gun violence and police abuse. 

This is nothing new. Human beings have always faced survival threats, environmental and social.  That homo sapiens diverged from Neanderthals and earlier hominids is an indication that our ancestors successfully adapted to the challenges of their situation—they developed social brains, an expansion in cognition that facilitated information-sharing where knowledge could be gained and passed on.  

Our situation is unique and momentous. Through our abuses of freedom, we created and are sustaining a mortal threat. Now, given the nature of our stresses—feedback from nature and storied on the nightly news—our challenge requires another brain adjustment. This time it’s a mental reset, a cognitive adaptation that prioritizes love, respect and concern for the whole as well as the individual.   

Motivated by the knowledge that the sixth extinction is underway and that we are driving it, the “adult” in us is waking up to this challenge, learning and leading the way to awaken more of us so we can respond appropriately and in time. Actually, we know what to do. And the first step—acknowledging that there is a problem—is well underway. We’ve learned the root causes of our metacrises, thinking that once held benefit and comfort for some—materialism, consumerism, unbridled individualism, short-term gratification, greed, disregard for the environment, nationalism—has turned out to be toxic to the whole. 

Now, the consciousness of empathy, soul-based decision making and taking responsibility for the whole of life—Earth and all living things—is lifting its head, getting ready to sprint toward critical mass. Social scientists characterize this period as a phase change, like when water boils to become steam. The required shift is—

  • from hate and apathy to love and engagement
  • from separation and fear to unity and love
  • from treating Gaia as a resource to treating her with respect as a living being
  • from endless consumption to ethical and creative contribution
  • from short-term thinking to long-term consideration
  • from “me” to “we”
  • from quantity to quality
  • from pleasure-seeking to meaning-making
  • from “winning” to “participating”
  • from “receiving” to “giving”
  • from feeding the wealthy few to creating the prosperous many

This is unprecedented, radically new. In large part, this generation and the next are here to bring about internal and external coherence—whole-centered thinking and acting. The former encourages a system’s inner viability and health,  the latter the adaptation of self to the world. For a living system to survive and flourish, both are necessary.

If a critical mass of concerned people would accept the challenge of purposive intervention in contemporary social evolution, the future of humanity could yet be assured… the evolution of our societies, and therewith the future of our species, is now in our hands.

                                                                  Ervin Laszlo, Concert pianist, systems scientist

                                                                  Author, Evolution: The Grand Synthesis

I said we know what to do. Typical of evolution, seeds of the new are planted in the old. On this turn of the spiral, hope is rising because the required shift in thinking has been taught and demonstrated for eons. It’s just that we’ve been distracted by the personal stories of wisdom teachers. Now, the stresses of this evolutionary moment are calling us to actually adopt and apply their teachings. It’s how we overcome the abuses of freedom resulting from toxic thinking. And it’s how we give birth to the flourishing of people and planet. As a reminder, here are the voices of a few wisdom teachers.

Jesus of Nazareth, Endowed with Christ consciousness

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind

Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.”

Do unto others whatever you would have them to do unto you. 

What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? 

Siddhartha Gautama Buddha

Teach this simple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.”

Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.

Consider before acting, whether an action is beneficial.

Speak that which is truthful and useful.

Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim

Conduct yourself in this world as if you are here to stay forever, and yet prepare for eternity as if you are to die tomorrow.

The greatest of wealth is the richness of the soul.

You will not enter paradise until you have faith. And you will not complete your faith until you love one another.

Strive always to excel in virtue and truth.

Moshe Rabbenu (Moses)

The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 

You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.

Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are a {mere} shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.

Be the change that you wish to see in the world. An ounce of patience is worth more than a ton of preaching. In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits. And your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.

Civilization, in the real sense of the term, consists not in the multiplication, but in the deliberate and voluntary reduction of wants. This alone promotes real happiness and contentment and increases the capacity for service.

Geswanouth Slahoot (Chief Dan George, Tsleil-Waututh Nation

Love is something you and I must have. We must have it because our spirit feeds upon it… Without love, our self-esteem weakens. Without it, our courage fails. Without love, we can no longer look out confidently at the world. We turn inward and begin to feed upon our personalities, and little by little we destroy ourselves. With it, we are creative… With it, and with it alone, we are able to sacrifice for others.

Laozi (Lau tzu, Chinese philosopher, Founder of Taoism)

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, and compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.

The voices of wisdom have been seeding our modern consciousness with values and behaviors that can affect the shift from self to whole-centered concern. This kind of thinking is emerging around the world. To get it into the mindset of corporate executives, politicians and dictators where positive change can happen rapidly, we their customers and citizens have to demonstrate a shift in that direction. It’s up to us to motivate them. We do that by aligning our values with those of the wisdom teachers, and allocating our time, attention and resources more toward feeding the soul and prioritizing our needs over wants. 

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For inspiration, my new blog—Love and Light Greetings—features wisdom teachers from diverse cultures and fields, past and present.

Space

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It’s not nothing; nowhere is it empty

 

Photographing on the American Great Plains was heavenly—not only for what was on the ground but especially for what was overhead. In 2012 I ambled the backroads of South Dakota and Nebraska for ten days, intent on capturing space, in addition to landscapes. My interest in “space” as a creative challenge was sparked by readings in science:

  • The Quantum Universe by Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw: “What we call ‘empty space’ is really a seething maelstrom of subatomic particles. The vacuum has an incredibly rich structure made up of all the possible ways that particles can pop in and out of existence.”
  • The Higgs Boson Discovery by Lisa Randall: “Empty space is not truly empty. It can have energy and charge. It just doesn’t have matter.”
  • The Fabric Of The Cosmos by Brian Greene: “Empty space is teeming with quantum activity. It is far from empty. Particles fluctuate. They’re created and destroyed, come in and out of being. Space is “teeming” with fields and particles. It’s so flooded it has been shown experimentally to force things together. One of the properties of space is that it “wants” to expand, faster and faster.”

Scientists writing about the contents of “outer space” being filled with invisible particles, waves and fields prompted the realization that these energies and more, permeate our world and everyday life. For evidence, we need only observe the many and varied electronic towers and satellite dishes that have become ubiquitous. Right this moment, we are bombarded with radio and television waves, microwaves, photons, ultraviolet light, infrared rays, X-rays and gamma rays, cell phone waves and sub-atomic particles such as neutrinos and bosons. And that’s on top of the more subtle and mysterious “stuff” called dark matter and dark energy, which has not yet been identified.

Indeed, space is a teeming maelstrom of invisible energy waves. I observe this, not as a complaint or a cause for distress, but to marvel at the complexities and geometrical beauty of these energies and fields which, although invisible, are natural and powerful components of the universe.

It made me wonder if there was a way that I could capture the sensibility of those forces on film. Linda offered an idea: For space to be seen or noticed, it needs to have a material reference or context. She offered my photograph Solitude—a high contrast black and white image of fishermen in a rowboat surrounded all around by pure white space—as an example. (See my posting of February 8, 2014).

After much consideration and research, the quest for wide open vistas led me to the Great Plains. And I found what I was looking for—vast fields and open skies. Considering that the universe is constituted of only 5%  matter, I composed many of my landscape shots so the sky would occupy 95% of the space within the frame. I also emphasized converging lines to convey distance. In a closeup of whisp grass, the wind blurring the feathery strands served to demonstrate that invisible force. And cultivated fields provided a metaphor for, well, “fields.”

Part of the joy of photographing in those wide open spaces, was not contending with visual obstructions such as billboards, businesses, expressways or jet trails. The challenge of working around telephone poles, wires, fences and road signs was minimal. I could set up my 4×5 view camera in the middle of the road with no concern about traffic. There were times when I wouldn’t see a car or another human being for nearly an hour. And the clouds were spectacular, like they knew I was wanting to capture the sensibility of immensity and space. It was a time of great joy, creative outpouring and freedom—being in the flow.

While these images do not actually show the particles, waves and fields mentioned above, they take me to a place where I can imagine them beyond the sky. And that evokes appreciation, sometimes awe.

The non-visible world’s nature differs so radically from the material world that it cannot be  pictured. It’s both nonmaterial and non-visible. Even so, it is profoundly real and powerful. The new cosmology depends upon an understanding of the reality and power of this realm.

Brian Swimme, Cosmologist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wisdom Of The Spheres

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There is no chance and anarchy in the universe. All is system and gradation. Every god is there sitting in his sphere.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Sphere 754

 

Sphere 782

From atoms to galaxies the sphere is a prominent form because it requires the least amount of energy to form and has the least possible area for the volume it encloses. That makes it the most economical, energy-efficient way of enclosing and separating two volumes of space. In this instance, pools of oil lying on the surface of water in glass containers.

Sphere 779

Sphere 750

Sphere 725

Sphere 741 (c)

I wanted to create images that would contain sacred geometries and fine gradations. As in all my work, I was looking for subject matter and qualities of light that encourage contemplation and ideally lead to numinous experience. The spheres accomplished that for me by evoking the sensibilities of the micro level of living systems and the macro level of the cosmos.

A  description of the making of these images—and many more—can be found in my Blurb book entitled “Wisdom Of The Spheres.“