The Frontiers of Perception Global Art Exhibit and Virtual Global Art
Exhibit in Cyberspace
Introduction
The frontiers of perception are part of the geography of mental life. They
are ranged around you wherever what you know fades into the unknown. Think
of them as part of a mental atmosphere, that fades into the unknown much
as the Earth's atmosphere and its weather fades into outer space. When you
first notice something new, you are on your frontiers of perception,
witnessing its transit from unknown to known.
Try it now.
Notice something new. Anything new to you will do.... Like spear fishing
underwater, pierce the next thing new to you with a beam of your
attention. ...Now, escalate. Can you notice what you need to notice to
make the next moment better than it's about to be?
This is the beginning of a search for quality that is at the heart of art.
Being part of the human creative process, life on the frontiers of
perception is fundamental to all innovations and inventions. There is
where productivity increases begin in work, and where new products are
first imagined in business. It is where advances in science, math,
engineering, home cooking, argument, love making, friendship and farming
first come into focus.
To a significant degree, the simultaneously astonishing and perplexing
success of human beings as a life form grows out of discoveries on the
frontiers of perception. Penicillin; atomic bombs; global television;
recipes for your favorite foods; population growth; re-writing genetic
codes; and rising global skin cancer rates from atmospheric ozone layer
decay, growing out of efforts to refrigerate food: the seeds of their
genesis and notice of their effects come to us on the frontiers of
perception.
As atomic energy, recombinant DNA and ozone layer decay indicate, we grow
large in the house where we were raised. Our success impacts and changes
the systems in which we have evolved. Compared to what we were last
century, or a thousand years ago, we are huge in our environment. Day to
day, month to month, year to year, we have become one of the main factors
conditioning our ability to survive and prosper.
The graceful feline, the cheetah, fastest animal in the world, has a
genetic structure that implies it went through an evolutionary bottleneck
some time ago, when its numbers were severely reduced. All cheetahs today
are believed to be subject to diseases that normally result only from
family in-breeding-- hemophilia is an example in human beings. Is it
possible human beings are approaching an evolutionary bottleneck, where
wrong moves could wipe us out? Consider atomic energy, our re-writing
genetic codes and the sequence of events leading to ozone layer decay. Can
we notice what to do next to survive such a tricky bottleneck in the
evolutionary obstacle course? It depends on the nature of our lives on the
frontiers of perception.
This ain't no miniature golf. Recent studies of chaotic systems, like the
weather, have revealed they are very sensitive of what are called "initial
conditions." The standard example is the wind from a butterfly's wings in
China determining whether an evolving storm crosses the Pacific to hit
Anchorage, Seattle, Los Angeles or Mazatlan. If you consider time a
variety of weather, chloroflourocarbon refrigeration systems causing ozone
layer decay which lets in radiation which re-writes our genetic codes and
leads to global increases in human skin cancer is an example of the kind
of storm in time we may confront with increasing frequency as our impact
on the systems that frame our lives grows.
In this context, our success as a species implies we are increasingly
likely to affect the large systems of our lives in unpredictable ways.
Re-writing genetic codes is exemplary. We have begun on plants and
animals. Tests are underway on people with cystic fibrosis to re-write
their codes to eliminate the disease--- an admirable goal, but not without
its enigmatic dangers. Nature re-wrote genetic codes in Africa and people
survived malaria as a result, but then lived long enough to find the cure
for malaria susceptibility gave them sickle cell anemia, which brings on
death.
The systems with which we interact, and of which we are part, are larger
than our consciousness of them. We are toying with increasingly
fundamental relationships in the structure of our existence. Yet we have
made our way this far with judgments based on information available. Are
we likely to stop now? Probably not.
What can be done to maximize the chances of human survival and prosperity?
The Rfrontiers of perceptionS are offered as a conceptual tool for dealing
with this situation.
A crucial change is in the scale and scope of human actions. That we cover
the surface of the planet more thickly every day is an indicator. But our
physical growth is secondary to our mental growth -for example, in medical
advances sustaining population growth. In atomic bombs, re-writing genetic
codes, and ozone layer decay, we show ourselves as semi-successful
tinkerers with the systems of existence. In the chaotic weather of time,
this exposes us to the unpredictable results of our success. In this, we
have a very serious growth management problem that perversely increases
with the scale of our achievements.
If, in complex exotic chaotic systems like time, where degrees of chaos
are framed by the regular beat of the years, you can not predict exactly
what will happen next, how are we going to notice the next ozone decay
crisis in a timely manner?
The signs will appear first on someone's frontiers of perception, but
whose?
And will they be ready to notice and imagine what to make of such new
events in their lives?
There is no way to know who could or will notice a key event first, but
there is a way to get people ready to notice, and then to imagine actions
necessary to maximize chances events will play out with us still alive to
try again.
Every human culture is distinguished by the events it notices; and by the
importance it assigns to them. Evolving in different conditions, endowed
with different histories, every culture, and every person in a culture, is
focused differently on events. They each have access to different
frontiers of perception where the known meets the unknown. Here is where
change declares itself. Here is where the wind of the butterfly wing can
be noticed and attention tuned to the systems it might effect. Who will
notice? People or a person carried by history, community, work,
profession, personal inclination, curiosity and/or learning to be on the
right frontiers of perception at the right time.
It is an oddity of the structure of our enigmatic situation that it is
species wide in its scope, and that it is unpredictable where the next key
event might be noticed. Therefore every living human being has a
legitimate, and perhaps crucial, role to play in solving each problem as
it arises and getting us through this potential evolutionary bottleneck to
whatever lies on the other side.
The Frontiers of Perception Global Art Exhibit is proposed as a means of
approaching this situation because it has a conceptual structure that
matches the species-to-culture-to-individual structure of the problematic
situation. The human creative process is a species level phenomenon. Yet
it has unique manifestations in every human culture on the surface of the
planet: the art of human cultures is a physically accessible manifestation
of the species level process with indigenous local roots in the lives of
the people. In its variety, its unlimited profundity and frivolity, in its
access to truth and beauty, in its incalculable next moves, art maps with
its proliferation the very proliferation of attention on the frontiers of
perception essential to the vitality of life on the frontiers of
perception that is a precursor to noticing and imagining what to make of
new events observed there.
A Global Art Exhibit on the Frontiers of Perception? The species-level
frame of reference implicit in this is one of process, not of empire. In
the manner of a mental logo, an image of the creative process -accessible
to all cultures, but not the property of any one- was sought that would be
embodied in the architectural and conceptual milieu of the Exhibit. The
exposition of it here in words is derived from physics and may seem
culturally myopic as a result, but the fact and wonder of it is accessible
from any culture simply by looking up in the sky.
Current theories of the birth of stars begin with a chaotic and
unpredictable process at the quantum level of existence. The equality of
energy and matter set out by Einstein (and illustrated for all in the
flash light of the atom bomb) is manifested here in the quantum flux,
where particles of matter are said to pop randomly in and out of
existence. The process is called "spontaneous creation." Particles and
anti-particles are thought to be born as twins, then rush around and crash
into each other, annihilating each other and returning to energy. There
are theories as to what traps a particle in the material world, but once
this happens, there is gravity, and particles attract each other. Where
conditions are right, those particles condense in the continuing creative
process that forms a star, which then gives off energy that lights the
universe.
An analogy is drawn in the conceptual and architectural structure of the
proposed Exhibit. A person discovering something new and becoming excited
is said to be like particles of matter becoming excited and giving off
light --when the conditions are right. The question then becomes, what
makes the conditions right for a person to become excited about new things
noticed? It is first the job of the Exhibit to make the conditions right
for this.
Its second job is to make growing consciousness of this process as part of
life on the frontiers of perception part of the Exhibit. Every participant
in the exhibit should become excited by it, and, while still excited, be
spun back out into the world of daily life to notice what is new there and
imagine what to make of that.
The root process is organic learning energized by the excitement of
discovery. The Exhibit is arranged in the shape of our own galaxy, the
Milk Way, and each participating culture/nation has an arm of the Exhibit.
People move in from the outside toward the center, from the past toward
the present. The art of the participating cultures is arranged by those
cultures as they see fit to evoke life on the frontiers of perception of
that culture at key transition points in the culture's evolution. The
first art that takes a person's attention draws that person onto his or
her frontiers of perception. What is unique about the Exhibit is that this
is the point where the exhibit begins, for the Exhibit is not primarily of
the art, but of the viewer's own frontiers of perception. The art must be
good, the best, to maximize the chances of getting everyone attending onto
their frontiers of perception; but the Exhibit is private, in the mind of
the each person, as life on their own frontiers of perception is called
into consciousness.
This process begins with choice. The Exhibit can be entered at the outer
edge of the spiral arm of each component exhibit. As an example, in
choosing the Chinese, French, British, Senegalese, Thai, Mexican, Chilean,
Brazilian or Icelandic arm to enter through, new arrivals will know they
are stepping onto, say, their Brazilian frontiers of perception. Choice
takes them there. Anticipation of something new and Brazilian and exciting
becomes a gateway to the frontiers of perception opened by choice. Thus,
without elaborate intellectual gymnastics, choice is set up as a readily
accessible gateway to personal frontiers of perception, just as it is in
real life.
Proceeding toward the center of the Exhibit, each person moves through a
culture's history as seen through its art, focusing on the big transitions
of breakthroughs where new frontiers of perception become accessible to
the culture at the time, and to the viewer in the Exhibit. Attendees thus
have the opportunity to be simultaneously on their own frontiers of
perception and the frontiers of perception of a culture as it evolves.
In the center of the Exhibit, where all the cultures come together, the
finest contemporary art of the participating cultures is arrayed. This
composes an image of the cultural wealth on the frontiers of perception of
each and all human cultures. It is in the center the Exhibit, were all the
cultural arms come together, and is therefore an architectural image of
the creative process in the centers of stars that light our sky, and
excited by this, of the process going on in the brain of the person newly
arrived in this place.
Ideally, in the center of the Exhibit, those attending are on their
personal frontiers of perception, on the cultural frontiers of the exhibit
that brought them to the center moving into the present, on global
frontiers of perception as all the cultures come together with their
distinct beauties contemporarily expressed, and on universal frontiers of
perception where the light produced by stars in the fundamental creative
processes of the universe pours into their eyes and across their frontiers
of perception.
Thus tuned to many levels of life on their own frontiers of perception,
they leave the Exhibit for the world of daily life, newly aware of how
they notice new things, and ready to notice events around them and imagine
what to make of them.
The Virtual Exhibit. This brief synopsis offers an outline only. Early on,
in 1986, it was proposed the catalogue for the Exhibit be in the form of a
video disk. This could be a multimedia image of the Exhibit, serving as
well as a reference for attendees and libraries, and as a text or
reference for schools and universities, giving multimedia access to global
cultural history. Then it was suggested insurance and transportation costs
might argue for a mix in the Exhibit of real art objects and "virtual" art
accessed and/or created by computer. It was suggested that the Exhibits of
participating countries, either after being joined to tour the world, or
rather than being joined to tour the world, could be made accessible via
virtual reality. Local exhibit arms of the frontiers of perception Exhibit
would be in place on the ground, but all Exhibit arms would be accessible
world wide through virtual reality nets.
Much as virtual photography is making new aspects of "photographic" art
possible, the virtual exhibit could be constructed as an ongoing image of
the evolution of a culture in virtual space, becoming an aspect of "news"
as well as of "history." In global cyberspace, it would make the vitality
of local cultures accessible and at the same time facilitate the species
wide communication necessary to notice and sort through, prioritize and
evaluate events that could have a bearing on species level problems.
With the development of virtual reality and the spreading of Internet-like
broad-band computer/space-satellite communication connections around the
planet, the Virtual Exhibit becomes a method of engaging key people in all
cultures in the exploration of relations between cultural vitality and
species level survival and prosperity.
Summary and Conclusion
The Frontiers of Perception Global Art Exhibit is designed to introduce
people from all participating cultures to their frontiers of perception,
where the known meets the unknown in their lives. The strategic goal is an
incremental contribution to the human capacity to respond creatively and
constructively to change. Competence on the frontiers of perception, it is
suggested, will minimize fear of the unknown and maximize inspiration
derived from new experience, improving the process by which people decide
what to do next.
The art of human cultures is used to symbolize both the human creative
process as a species level activity, and the unique wealth that can come
from every culture and individual in applying this creative capacity to
their local circumstances.
The Exhibit is designed to introduce learning as an organic process that
occurs on the frontiers of perception, in any domain and on any level of
human experience, in and out of classrooms, in and out of exhibits, in
families, on streets, in woods, plains, mountains or on the water; in
business and science and all forms of work; in love and friendship; in
glory and defeat. Simply put, learning occurs in the process of noticing
something new and imagining what to make of it, and that happens on the
frontiers of perception.
The Exhibit is designed to give renewed access to the excitement of
discovery. It should reinforce the value of discoveries that build unique
lives because of their potential importance to all human beings. In a
world where the pace and scale of change, often driven by human actions,
could destabilize the systems that have nurtured human evolution,
competence on the frontiers of perception becomes increasingly important.
Change is not the enemy. When you are falling off a bicycle, it is utopian
to think of stopping in mid air. Change will continue. The problem is to
imagine action that will make it the best it can be. The proposed Exhibit
looks at this process through the art of the world, seeing what others
have done to make it the best they can.
In today's world, implicit in this process is an approach to ethnic and
national conflict that begins by identifying inherent value in local
cultures, communities and individuals apart from changing distributions of
economic and political power. Once it was assumed the rise of
international community anticipated by some in the League of Nations, then
the United Nations, would entail the demise of national and ethnic
divisions and rivalries. This did not -or has not- come to pass. The human
need for identity in the context of human community makes a global
community devoid of distinctions not only impossible, but undesirable.
What is needed to go with the global community that television, finance,
and the current political climate are ushering in, is a notion of place
for all, unique and valuable, in the context of a global reality.
The place of art in the human creative process, and of art in local
cultures, offers an image of viable and mutually reinforcing relations
between global and local communities. The potential strategic importance
of local discoveries on the frontiers of perception to species level
viability in the chaotic weather of time offers a place of importance to
every human being, and to what they say next to their friends, and to the
culture they build over the years that offers its unique views of the
mystery of existence to those born into it.
The importance of this process can not be overstated. What we are doing in
this world changes not only how it appears, but what it is. Ozone layer
decay is a striking example, but hardly the only one. How we see the world
and understand it is a big part of how we decide what to do next. The
fundamental nature of this fact is illustrated by efforts to understand
light, that comes from the Sun and nourishes all life forms. At the
beginning of this century, experiments in physics were devised to
determine what light is: wave or particle. One performed on electrons was
called the double slit experiment. It determined that electrons were
either energy or matter, depending on how they were observed. One slit,
matter. Two slits, energy. Out of this, on Werner Heisenberg's frontiers
of perception, came the uncertainty principle in physics, which is at the
root of quantum mechanics that brings us television, computers and global
space satellite communication systems. Among its implications that most
puzzled and tantalized Heisenberg was the suggestion that our ways of
interacting with reality determined what reality was to us. If we
interacted with an electron with a double slit, it became what we
experienced as wave energy. If we interacted with it via a single slit, it
behaved as a particle. To Heisenberg, this did not mean that reality was
subjective, but that the manner of our interaction with reality determined
what it would be to us.
With this in mind, "the frontiers of perception" is devised as a
conceptual tool consistent with the evolution of viable global community,
compatible with, and indeed dependent for its vitality on the diverse
vitality of local cultures, communities and individuals at all levels of
society.
The Global Art Exhibit of the Frontiers of Perception is designed to bring
skills into conscious focus that we will need to survive and prosper in
Earth's economic, political, and ecological environments in the next
century.
As a step in this direction, the Global Art Exhibit is proposed for the
year 2000, looking away from a century of national and ethnic conflict and
brutality of unprecedented scope, including two World Wars, toward a more
viable conception of our place in this planet, which, if adopted, just
might make viable global community, rich in cultural diversity,
conceivable, then possible.
_________________________________________________________
Should this be of interest to you, please let us know. Thank you for your
attention.
-b.c. mitchell
chair of the board of trustees
the frontiers of perception institute