Global in Natural and Human Terms

We, humanity, are once again compelled by circumstance to develop further in order to counteract the social and environmental demands that lay at our door. Our Worldwide Peace Marker Project (WPMP) is designed to be a working model that directly responds to this great need for such counter-activity.

I hope to illustrate to you why this project matters so much now.

If you think about it, social and environmental demands have been the driver of the course and direction of our civilization from its beginnings. Our predicament today is the latest result of a long series of "improvements" overlapping previous "improvements" that goes back millenniums. These "improvements" include some with good results and others with bad results.

In fact, much new evidence suggests that most of these improvements have yielded an over-all negative effect that closely approaches the definition of catastrophic. More and more we are coming face-to-face with the realization that humanity's activity is proving to be unsustainable.

Art is a part of our social equation where government, science, industry, mysticism and media organize human activity. As an artist, I chose early in my career to develop my aesthetic skills and to explore those organizing themes to address this sustainability challenge and to counteract the entrenched problems at its roots.

I realized that many of our civilization's "improvements" were predicated by new ideas implanted into our culture by artists. For example, Jules Verne embedded the trip to the moon into the culture. Edgar Alan Poe embedded the expansion of the universe into the culture. Arthur C. Clark embedded space exploration into the culture. Science came in afterward and added the hard numbers that made these ideas workable.

But now, for the first time in our history as a species, the challenge demands that our improvements meet an altogether new level of activity. Improvements must now be global in scope and scale to be of service.

Humanity is new to the idea of “global.” Based on the recent developments in Copenhagen, for example, it is not a stretch to surmise that "global" entails much more than we know at present. To begin with, we have yet to employ a way to preserve national sovereignty while participating in a diversified “global” community addressing planetary issues.

WPMP is doing very well on that aspect as it provides us with fresh insights into what “global” can mean in the light of an organizing principle like Sufficiency. WPMP brings the aesthetic considerations of "global" up to the surface for observation and scrutiny. Already, the work-in-progress has opened a dialog that suggests that workable global consensuses in benefit of crucial survival issues are possible and quantifiable.

The importance of WPMP resides with the fact that it is a global work of art. It is a project where the idea of Sufficiency is explored and presented as proof of concept of an organizing principle that conclusively addresses the core issue. Thus, the idea of “global” is clearly conveyed --physically, consciously and at that precise scale.

Scale is the key. As a species, we are entering a new era that requires that we become familiar and acclimated to the global scale of which the new improvements to our activity must be designed. This is the only way that global improvements can become effective and realistic to our own senses no matter where we live in the world.

Anything less than this will invariably toss perfectly good efforts into a spin of circumstances that are doomed to end in failure. Without models like WPMP, “global” is just another vague idea lacking an adequate experiential reference in an understandable context.

In Copenhagen, earlier this month, this was the case. The difficulties of forming a “global consensus” between the 193 nations attending the UN climate change talks played dramatically in the shortcomings of the summit. However, this was just the latest instance when the ability of humanity to act as one species was needed but was not available.

Of course, the reasons for failure in Copenhagen are many and are case specific to this particular summit. But, overall, they gravitate to one nucleus or central reason. You've guessed it. We lack experiences that illustrate acts of global consensus. These acts are required by our senses in order for us to grasp the implications.

We, humanity, are trying to address huge problems without the tools to do so. I’m saying that it is futile to continue to try to address global concerns from a local (national) perspective alone. Yet, that is basically all that we know to do. And, that is why we continue to get such poor results. For global problems of a magnitude or scale never known before, a new tool kit is required.

I understand that the globality problem is unbearably complex. But my point is that we will not do any good about it if we do not have a basic cultural model (or mirror) in which we can look at ourselves as one species reacting to issues that affect us all and have the experience to see what happens.

WPMP is a work of art designed to illustrate, model and to bring about those specific objectives. Therefore, humanity can have a foothold onto the cultural reality of what acting as one species entails. Through its example we should be able to see and understand the advantages and possibilities that emerge from such activity.

WPMP reveals with clarity and simplicity how members of a single species can remain local in relation to their culture, tradition, and geographical position and, at the same time, become global as an extension of their new relationship with the rest of the planet.

I know I seem to be going on and on about the project. However, please notice that I'm not trying to sell you anything. My purpose and insistence is only to show you and the world that we can still do the right thing for our children and lose nothing that is really vital to anyone in the process.

WPMP is becoming an aesthetic triumph for the human spirit. Upon completion, the amazing first visible effect of our working model of world peace is a “global consensus” of 198 nations. And, to sweeten the deal, the consensus reached is nothing less than the beginning of a culture of world peace validated by the unique global presence of a Peace Marker and a native WPMP Artist/Ambassador in each of the world’s nations.

It follows that, a fundamental model of world peace in these terms is a direct example of Sufficiency and further evidence of why Sufficiency seems to be an organizing principle of great promise.

One can only imagine the impact that Sufficiency might have had on the quality and results of the dialog in Copenhagen and its influence on the outcome as a “global consensus.” Perhaps by the time of the next summit in Mexico, WPMP would be nearer to completion and its aesthetic will be better known so as to serve as relevant reference by then.

Dear friends, the reality is that art must also develop to suit the perceived demands of the time in which artists create their art. As an artist, I feel obliged to build my practice as a continuation of the work of my predecessors. I consider their work to be my inheritance as well as my responsibility to explore it further, to take it to the next level.

Consider the following comparative instances, please.

If looked at from the accepted point-of-view of the conceptual art canon, WPMP is a complete work of art already. To that end, all that is required is the recipe (in this case, the description of a global work of art and its purpose) and a prototype (the Peace Marker) to vouch for the physical aspects of the work of art.

WPMP is not too far removed from the large environmental works by Christo and the late Jeanne Claude whose works helped pave the way to establish the scale of WPMP. A difference is that I can now adapt my works to our emerging new cultural needs. Such requirements were not apparent or required to the aesthetics of Christo's and Jeanne Claude's practices. But now they are and must be included.

I was deeply influenced by the late Robert Rauschenberg who I admire greatly. His observations that “painting relates to art and life, although, neither can be made..." and "...I try to act in the gap between the two...” led me to a great realization. If art and life cannot be made, then art and life can certainly be reconciled. And, it follows that the artist may now act in the gap of such reconciliation.

That is another point of vital significance to the role of art (all art) in the 21st century.

The reconciliation between art and life now taking shape in the 21st century is not between art and whatever lies outside of it as it was perceived in the 20th century. Rather, it is the reconciliation between human nature and Nature's processes.

The reason for this reconciliation is that a proper combination of human activity and Nature’s activity can secure the future for both. In other words, the reconciliation I seek in my work, is between humanity and the natural world. Therefore, as an artist I can act in that gap. The result of this activity is Data A art.

As its name suggests, Data A is information at a new level - level-A. Data A art informs humanity that we already have an abundance of the right words, perfectly good reasons, proven abilities, unbelievable technology and a universally expressed desire to do everything we need to do to provide our children with a future. And, Data A art brings into view (through the aesthetic of that reconciliation) the organizing principle that can assist us to put it all together.

Now, we can activate and add credence to new dreams like Planet Earth 2.0 where efforts like the Worldwide Peace Marker Project can have a place and where its ideal, “world peace,” can develop and flourish. As always, art is perfectly suited to do more. And, it is.

For your own copy of the image above, "Global in Natural and Human Terms," click here.

Tiité

Edited by Brent Scheneman

The Great Seal of the Worldwide Peace Marker Project

The imperative needed to achieve a "global consensus" is heard everywhere these days. In contrast, however, the imperative to find, sponsor and nurture ideas leading to obtain such consensus is rarer still. The Worldwide Peace Marker Project is an effort that is leading the way through art to create a simple and crystal-clear example where global consensus can be experienced by all at a planetary scale.

But, this search for common-ground leads to one sobering fact. Despite having been, for some time now, completely wired up as a global and interdependent civilization, we, humanity, have yet to operate as "one." Nor, have we even approached the point where we have stood as one species about anything in response to the many social and environmental issues that affect the entire human and world biosphere.

This deficiency is a formidable barrier to action of any kind. The barrier must be eliminated if we are to have an opportunity to react intelligently and on-time to the real needs of civilization and of our planet.

I have been writing about the reasons, situations and the cultural climate that surround our predicaments as a species. As an artist, I have endeavored over the last half-century to establish a role for the arts in the shaping of the cultural assets needed to effect the transition between the current cultural (unsustainable) model that leads to our next best alternative.

But, as an artist I'm only one component in the overall effort to create a workable alternative, one that must include the efforts of science, government, industry, mysticism (as religion) and media in order to have a realistic cross-section of the operative human culture in the creative process for an alternative future that affects us all.

And, as an artist, for me to do otherwise would be to attend to the already nauseating pattern of more of the same to the end. I said it before on this blog that I want to focus on the stuff that helps and leave the itemized list of what is wrong, conspiratorial, dying and unattainable to the experts in those fields. I think we are all beginning to suffer from apocalypse fatigue.

The attention I pay to Sufficiency is because it is not only a new idea but because it is an idea that holds a great promise. It will help us to organize humanity with a measure of intelligence beyond the norm and help us to act along natural directives that address better the misfortunes caused by our "youth" as a species.

Allow me then to preface the comments that follow by saying that Sufficiency is about determining the proper amount of information or quantity that is required for a specific purpose. Sufficiency goes a little further than that. It also allows for adjustments to be made (on those quantities) as the requirements change through time.

Since Sufficiency now has the favor of a notable scientist (as I mentioned in my last post) as is the case with Professor Thomas Princen and his book on the subject "The Logic of Sufficiency," I will defer to him the hard science. I will carry on with my part as an artist in creating ways to communicate Sufficiency through the use of "Data A art," a direction in art that has been suitable for the construction of proof of concept models and solution models to problems where Sufficiency can be experienced at work.

At this critical moment in our history there is, to my mind, no project in progress anywhere in the world that is more relevant to the issue of gathering proof of a global common ground than the Worldwide Peace Marker Project. The evidence being gathered as we move toward completion of a verifiable model of world peace reveals that we are closing in also onto the actual experience of this elusive "global common-ground" imperative where global is everyone.

I invite the reader to consider the fact that few if any of the issues that are universally acknowledged to be of crucial global significance can attest to this. Across the board, most global initiatives are in a perpetual state of dialog, negotiations, talks and more talks.

The Worldwide Peace Marker Project (WPMP) is a work of art. But, it is a work derived from an art that is as new as our current survival challenges that the art was specifically created to address. The guiding ideas are new not for the sake of being new but because real hope for the future of humanity must come from ideals that have not been defiled and corrupted by the innocence of human short-term ambitions.

I have the pleasure today to begin to unveil at length to you the Worldwide Peace Marker Project. In the process I will point out Sufficiency as it appears. Its presence in the project is made conspicuous by virtue of the effect Sufficiency has on the activity that creates the project.

The basic assumptions of WPMP

If the idea of peace is ever to be realized, then it must first be made to exist materially.

The Worldwide Peace Marker Project is a deliberate act designed to make the idea of peace exist in a unique physical form that can be incorporated within a new cultural context. This follows the long-held notion that if something exists then its possibilities can be examined and can be acted upon. If it exists, it's possible.

For the last 5,000 years we have elaborated on the idea of peace but we have yet to produce neither a physical presence of it nor a culture of peace to match it. If you doubt this fact I suggest that you visit your local library and ask directions to the "peace reference section" or to ponder why is it that the "Department of Peace" has not been created in any government on Earth.

The first indication of Sufficiency in the WPMP is provided by the existence of the Peace Marker, a key sculptural component made from stainless steel in order to secure the long-term longevity of the object and of the idea. As the name indicates, it marks a geographical "point of peace" created somewhere in the world. Therefore, it has the Sufficiency (of one) to describe itself as one unique individual object unlike any in a world of millions of other objects, none of which can be mistaken for a Peace Marker.

If a worldwide peace project is to be global then it must indisputably include the entire world.

At present time we (the collaborative that is WPMP) are considering the accepted total count of 198 sovereign nations as the point of Sufficiency (or known quantity of existing recognized nations) where 198 Peace Markers or, more clearly, 198 points of peace, one in each nation, constitutes the presence of peace in each nation of the world and thus, a simple model of world peace emerges.

That is to say that with peace represented in each of the world's nations the idea of world peace is thereby created. It is made to exist and to become experiential by their presence as "points of peace" in each and every sovereign nation in the world.

It gets better. If the project is to be truly global it must also integrate all of the cultures in existence across the world.

Consider the fact that each peace marker or point of peace is embraced by a native citizen of each nation acting as a WPMP artist/ambassador. In this capacity he or she incorporates the Peace Marker into the context of the nation's unique cultural identity.

As the artist/ambassador consecrates the peace marker as a national point of peace, something marvelous that has never occured in the history of humanity also takes place. This new point of peace joins the other 197 points of peace in as many nations to consolidate the existence of a working model of world peace based upon the Sufficiency of 198 nations contributing their own culture to structure its presence.

Now then, let's see what we have so far. We have created a work of art that generates a simple model of world peace that is brought into the real world by the presence of 198 Peace Markers or points of peace, as introduced by 198 artist/ambassadors to each of 198 nations in the world. What do you suppose the immediate meaning of that is?

Allow me to elucidate on that point. The basic assumptions of the WPMP are as follows. The Worldwide Peace Marker Project is a deliberate act designed to make the idea of peace exist in a unique physical form that can be incorporated within a new cultural context.

Well, the action of the artist/ambassador introduces the Peace Marker as a point of peace to the cultural context of his or her nation. However, the combined effect of 198 nations introduced to the idea of world peace in this new context constitutes the creation and institution of a new global culture of peace. It begins with the Peace Marker as the "root precursor" for peace (on its own) a kind that we have never known but that now exists. The fact that peace can be made to exist as mere points of peace in the cultural context of the whole of civilization and in every sovereign nation in the world clearly signals the existence of a new and unique global culture of world peace.

The total package is a unit of Sufficiency (for world peace) capable of further development as a culture of peace locally and at a planetary level.

It is only the beginning. But make no mistake about it. It is a beginning of something that we have been waiting for at least 5,000 years. It is a beginning of something for which millions of lives have been offered at the altar of war for hundreds of generations.

In a broader sense, it is a beginning of a much needed cultural asset that is invaluable to a species like ours that must confront the critical survival issues at hand. It is the beginning of a global culture of peace with a fresh spiritual and moral perspective capable of providing a favorable directive as we enter the future.

Above all, WPMP will show us, humanity, that we can reach a common-ground agreement about something we want and transform it immediately into a global cultural pattern to enable us to act as one species and thereby secure the future of all.

I've always known that art can do more than what we are used to. Now that it does, I can't wait for more artist's to discover Data A art and join in the creation of a new world.

This dialog will continue on the next post. Please feel free to make a comment. The future is yours, too.

Curious about the WPMP model, click here.

More about the Peace Marker here.

For your own copy of  "The Great Seal of the Worldwide Peace Marker Project" click here or on the image above.

Tiité