Connections

Dear Vivienne,
I will try to keep my idea as short and precise as possible, but my idea is as follows;

When we are young, we learn through solving problems and puzzles.

I want you to imagine the world as a huge puzzle, which once was perfect and all the pieces matched and fit into place. As ‘progress’ has grown, these puzzle pieces have been taken apart, and chipped away at the segments that fit into one another again.
We now are left in a world where our puzzle is broken due to our own mistake of propelling ourselves into a future that we now have little control over.

Much like when you are a child, and you force pieces back into place, we have manipulated the puzzle to fit back together again, but it’s never the same.

We need to take all of the pieces apart, evaluate and use our brains to work out how exactly to re-build this puzzle in a way that it fits back into place, and nature (being the ultimate force) will see that the puzzle has been fixed, and will grow roots into lines that do not fit, will flow rivers over sections that do not match and ultimately forgive us in years to come.
We are all pieces of the puzzle, as are qualities like ‘Passion’, ‘Desire’, ‘Art’, ‘Culture’ and that is why it requires everybody, and everything for the puzzle to be complete.

Sam Varnham

Also: A drawing I did of Pinocchio, (The Disney Drawn Version to reach as many audiences as possible as it is most recognisable) where he has learnt to fix the puzzle that he broke by telling lies, and being mischievous and will become a ‘Real Boy’ for fixing it all back together again. A character to look up to for the world and my ‘Puzzle’ theory.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_logwz2mcdr1qcs02go1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1317832283&Signature=RcFqwWkhvWsPzeMGYBdeD3Vahrs%3D

Comment by Sam Varnham on 04/10/2011 at 4:36 pm

Dear Sam
Evolution shows that life begins with simple forms which can develop into more complicated forms. So, the idea of a supreme intelligence couldn’t happen in the beginning – it would have to happen in the end.
We like the idea of your puzzle provided you realise that the earth has evolved over time and now supports an abundance and a variety of life richer than ever in our history – one in which human beings can thrive.
Somehow you seem to imply that her evolution has been planned. We accept what Richard Dawkins says,
Natural selection, the blind, unconscious automatic process which Darwin discovered, and which we now know is the explanation for the existence and apparently purposeful form of all life, has no purpose in mind. It has no mind and no mind’s eye. It does not plan for the future. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all. (The Blind Watchmaker)
We’re not saying that Gaia had a plan, only that she evolved in a symbiotic relationship with her life forms and her atmosphere.

Comment by Vivienne on 22/11/2011 at 9:44 pm

After studying the simplified version of the World Family Tree one connection that stands out to me is the way in which the media props up pop culture and celebrity culture in our society. It is interesting that the connection between conformity and decadence is made since that is exactly what I see in media coverage of celebrity culture.
Our society seems to celebrate and idolize “plastic people” like the Kardashian family.
These people are only honored for their outward appearance, most of which has been artificially created and enhanced. This kind of conformity leads to a lack of individuality and creativity in modern society, where a kind of empty value system is embraced. I believe there is great danger and a lack of hope for any society that would embrace this kind of superficial culture.

Jeffrey Jordan

Comment by Jeffrey Jordan on 04/10/2011 at 6:08 pm

Dear Jeffrey
Your link, where you focus on the link between conformity and decadence, where you describe what we get from the media – the bottom line – is opposed on the left hand side of the Tree by hierarchy of values. Hence, the discipline of the Art Lover; “You get out what you put in” – the Manifesto motto.
Remember NINSDOL. What stands out so much at the moment is Organized Lying; we’re being bombarded by the media in support of the status quo – business as usual; they talk about money as the greatest problem when, in fact, the real problem is climate change.
The mark of a civilization in decline is conformity of opinion.

Comment by Vivienne on 22/11/2011 at 9:45 pm

I think one of the most important connections here is between Growth and Debt. We live in an overly consumerist society, one which strives to take more and more from Gaia, and uses her finite resources to ‘maintain’ the ‘growth’ of the economy. This creates a number of problems and debt especially in more than one sense. Initially the excessive consumption of our planets resources puts us into massive debt with Gaia. We seem to take take take and never have we repaid anything. One massive debt we owe is the rainforest. Who gave us the right to destroy the rainforest which is rightfully that of Gaia herself? Secondly, as Vivienne has always said, the economic crisis is a direct copy of the ecological crisis. Therefore the massive debt we owe to our world directly translates to the debt which so many countries are struggling with in financial terms. A debt that, until we stop expanding into the rainforest as a means of ‘growth’ will never be and could never be repaid. 

James Emmett

Comment by James Emmett on 04/10/2011 at 10:01 pm

Dear James
You’re right to make the connection between the ecological crisis and the financial crisis and it’s becoming clearer every day that the world is already bankrupt. Growth (quantity, e.g. ‘quantitative easing’) is just a form of debt. Economics in not a science but an agreement – and even though now everyone agrees that our financial system always been a pyramid scheme, they are still playing the game as if the counters have value.

Comment by Vivienne on 22/11/2011 at 9:45 pm

Dear Vivienne,
I would like to speak about Art & Learning in the left branch of the World Family Tree, quoting also some parts of your Manifesto to express my ideas and my feelings better.

As AR says in the Manifesto “Art has never been popular; it is original and it takes time for people to see it. But where there is an avant garde, others will follow: this gives culture. There has to be a hierarchy of values.”
I am fond of art and I have the need to understand the world. I am particularly interested in poetry because when I read a poet’s poem, I can see the world “through his eyes, then look for it in real life” as the True Poet says. Art has the power to open people’s minds and show reality in a new way giving answers to questions of vital importance; it gives human beings the chance to “become more cultivated” (I borrowed again some words from the Manifesto).
I have been fascinated by history and by ancient civilizations since I was a child. And I recall this speech from the True Poet: “The present is always the present moment of the past. We are the past. Art links past, present and future. Cut off from the past there is only habit.”
I think we have to be thankful to the past because we have our roots in it. And we have to learn from it. Harmony bewteen humans and nature is the basis in Chinese philosophy, in fact according to Confucianism nature itself is the origin of ethics, while according to Taoism humans beings are integral part of nature and therefore they have to be in harmony with it. In ancient Mesoamerican civilizations like Incas and Maya nature had a very important role as well. There have been many theories about the collapse of literate Maya civilization, but according to a study in 2003 the answer is Climate Change.
This makes me think a lot.

Just one more thing, your blogs reminds me, we have to fight for the values we believe in.
At least it is worth trying.

Chiara Salomoni

Comment by Chiara on 09/10/2011 at 12:45 pm

Dear Chiara
Thank you for your letter responding to the connection between Hierarchy of Values and Art and Learning and for reminding us that where there is an avant garde others will follow.
The importance of the marriage between Hierarchy of Values and Art and Learning is that if Art and Learning is at the apex of Hierarchy of Values then all people take a deeper pleasure in art.
Respect for art gives Quality of Life and gives us a view of the past and an understanding of the present world; it tends towards peace and sustainability and respect for the talents of others.

Comment by Vivienne on 22/11/2011 at 9:45 pm

Hello Vivienne,

Before I start I have to apologize for the length of the text. My only defense is that this subject is so complex as well as being close to my heart.

I’m humbled by the fact that someone as successful as you are thinking and talking this way. As I see it, you, as well as your brand sit in the mainstream of society (i.e. have been written into history because of your achievements). You speaking in this way will hopefully influence many people.

It warms me to hear you speak about a moral base for how you act and live your life. A morally balanced/stable person is much more likely to create something pertinent and useful. Someone who goes forward in a blind way or someone whose chasing something that has little value i.e. the materialists among us will never find fulfillment. In the end of the day no one can be of use or help to anything if they don’t know themselves.

When reading through your tree I agree with the points you make and ponder, trying to understand how our world/society has allowed this to happen.

I agree with the understanding that we are indefinably connected with nature (I can’t see how anybody cannot) and how you’ve used the tree to depict this. A tree by nature grows from a seed, a baby, slowly into a strong rooted object. I feel there is an important connection between the development of our baby’s/children to the growth and development of your tree.

I believe that the main reason for the degradation of society comes from a lack of helping our children grow into strong, rooted individuals. Even though there are many factors to this cycle of negativity, frustration and depression. To me, the main area that is to blame has to be our education system. Like the tree a baby soaks up everything around it to grow but instead of just soaking up nutrients we also soak up ways of life.

I find it painful to see how money and material wealth has entered into the education system from such an early age. Creating a conformity that stifles creativity and actually makes people scared of it (even the art world is drenched in this mentality as it alienates its viewers and boxes itself off from society). So many people are just scared to be themselves. I want to see a time when creativity is the foundation of all education. Even though I am an Artist I do not just speak for the art world or for artists. Creativity is something that is intrinsically part of ourselves, a basic human instinct. We cannot get away from it and whoever says that they don’t do it is greatly mistaken. The majority of people in the world have the ability to pick clothes for themselves (even if they are bound to other peoples opinions). There is no doubting that when you choose and put your clothes on you make a creative gesture by doing so. There are infinite examples of this creativity in everyday life that has nothing to do with the Art World. This is why I do not speak from the standpoint of an art maker but as an everyday creator.

I dream of a time when individual creativity/thinking is applauded whoever you are and whatever profession you do. I am 100% sure that if we could break this anti-individual society then everyone and everything will benefit. This will only happen if we teach our children this way of living.

Like you Vivienne I believe that art/creativity and education are key in evaluating yourself, learning about yourself in relation to the world around you and this is essential if you are going to bring something useful into the world.

If enough people can understand these morals and have the strength to stand up for them like you, I believe we can end this cycle.

Josh Learman and Linda Kutti
Graduated Art students living in a material world, having to work in shitty jobs just to survive.

Comment by Linda & Josh on 23/10/2011 at 6:02 pm

Dear Linda & Josh
So nice to have a letter from a couple. Hope that your shared interest in art brings ever greater love and friendship. In answer to your letter, I think you’d be very interested in something I just wrote about Imagination – which is central to the Manifesto:
Should we disappear from the face of the earth, Gaia would never again have the opportunity to create creatures as wondrous as we. No other species has our powers of understanding and expression: our imagination is a model which mirrors the world. All our sensations and experience are represented by coded imitations of reality which are stored in our imagination like a kind of blueprint.
We de-code these imitations by the power of insight, which we also call intuition. This is how we get our ideas – by connecting these flashes and impulses which our imagination feeds back to us; then we strive to convert them to real form, expressed externally. We can cross-reference the codes in our blueprint. No other animal can imitate an object or an idea by drawing on paper, or can dance to music.

Comment by Vivienne on 22/11/2011 at 9:46 pm

Dear Vivienne ,

I find myself looking at how hierarchy of values, art and learning are all connected. I find that this can be seen throughout history as artists use their creations to teach the masses about not only how to live but how to care for one another. For example the painting many people have names “Charity” by William Bouguereau portrays a woman with her three children begging on the streets. The painting really struck a cord with me that although the painting is very beautiful in the time it was set in this scene would have been typical and not many people would have seen the agony in this woman’s eyes. Hundreds of years later the scenario hasn’t changed, only the dress and it did make me wonder how many people see this painting and think ” this is terrible how pain and suffering was allowed in those times” then leave to see a homeless person on the street and do nothing about it.

The point I’m trying to make is this. That hierarchy of values, art and learning are all connected. But in this day and age where profit and consumption are key it is lost on our humanistic side. I find that people do appreciate art but they do not learn from it, they may enjoy the view but they never take in the message. Art is more than a piece of decoration it is a tool for teaching and expressing our values as you so rightly put and without learning there can be no progress into making the human race what it should have always have been. Harmonious working for the good of the people as a whole not just for the good of the individual and I believe that the key to this lies within teaching the correct values to children now before it is too late.

http://www.sightswithin.com/William.Bouguereau/Indigent_Family.jpg

Benjamin

Comment by Benjamin on 27/10/2011 at 10:28 pm