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