Technology to Advance the Spirit
Can technology help you connect with your spirituality?
Technology opens a new pathway through the labyrinth of enlightenment and allows a transcendental movement through which a spiritual awakening emanates. The most vibrant display of this phenomenon is through the art of filmmaking. For my creative work, I made a short film and throughout the process I reached a heightened level of my work, my spirit and myself.
The two elements behind the structure of a film, sound and vision, play an equal role in the effect and intensity of a piece. Oskar Fischinger a German filmmaker influenced the work of John Cage and Edgard Varese, juxtapositioning a new generation of thinkers to argue the theory behind what music is and how it affects the spirit. Fischinger “ went to theorize that an object’s characteristic sound was an emanation of its spirit, therefore documenting the unity of the outward, material world of science and the inner truth of spirituality” (Patterson, David New York 2002).
This theory further displays the meaning and message behind the soundscapes of our lives, creating an empowering mode of reaching a spiritual place, transcending oneself through a moment in time just by being. In regards to the visionary aspects caught through the camera lens, watching the production of a painting, the birth of something new is in itself a spiritual journey. Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy behind “any-space whatever” and the notion provided that directors have their own truths behind space and time (Deleuze, Gilles France 1983) reacts with the presentation of film, making it a personalized work even during the sounds of silence for any Woman With a Movie Camera (Vertov, Dziga Russia 1929).
My personal journey reflects the sounds and images of my own spirit. At first denying a self-recognition for a knowledge of music, I felt lost. This turning and turning of my monkey mind (Robertson, David Brisbane 2007) prompted me to research musicians who paint (painting, an activity I feel close to, although a relatively new artistic endeavor for me), seeking out Portrait of JO (1976) by David Bowie and “The Drawn Blank Series” by Bob Dylan. The oil on canvas painting, the inaugural element of my process was originally intended to be a work supporting the theory of synaesthesia after studying Kandinsky’s journey to find the inner sound in Composition IV and Georgia O’Keeffe’s Music-Pink and Blue. Kandinsky and O’Keeffe were both pushing the boundaries, invigorating the inner sounds of fine art, thus igniting a spiritual element making it far more than a representational form (Brougher, Kerry et al. London 2005).
Liked it
-
-
Post Commentcool runnin'
On January 14, 2008 at 3:27 am
Really interesting article!
David Sudmalis
On January 14, 2008 at 9:58 pm
As the creators of one of the works alluded to in this article (Die Eigenheit, MISSINGHAM | SUDMALIS, 2007) I suggest a more thorough investigation if the work is going to be “argued against”.
>
It is clear that only a precursory, surface level of analysis has been undertaken, therefore the work has been interpreted in only the most superficial way.
One of the underlying intentions – to provoke thoughts and action in an apathetic society by presenting one potential future – has been completely missed, for example. As artists we try not to tell people what to think, rather, we hope that the work provokes thought. Therefore surface level
analysis such as this really does miss the point.
>
> I suggest that you consider the work of Primo Levi (If this is a Man) and Douglas Hofstadter (I am a Strange Loop) as a frame within which to reconsider the two parts of the work you directly cite. Both these sources present the human spirit and its capacity as something transcendent and powerful – almost mystical…complex, sometimes flawed, yet imbued
with a power perhaps borne of its organic nature. You might also like to consider some work of Ray Kurweill, our back catalogue, the Wizard of Oz, and perhaps our own artist statement as it pertains to this work.
>
Furthermore, your complete misreading of the final frames of the work suggests that a reviewing of the work might be in order. It is also important to have an insight into where you may have experienced the work – were the conditions optimal? What role did the sound have on your experience (it is interesting that you have not mentioned the role of sound in this work, given that the involuntary psychological and physiological responses to sound is a key element in the sound design of the work).
>
>
We would have welcomed an opportunity to discuss aspects of the work with you, but no attempt at contact was made
on your part. Your citing of the work as a binary opposite to your own opinion (with which we have nothing but support for incidentally!) could be interpreted as rendering you guilty of the transgression with which you are so quick to
(erroneously) accuse us of.
>
Dave Sudmalis