Well Aware

What is imperceptible is not beyond reach.

Give attention to what merits it, remove the attention from the vast number of things that do not, and be attentive to whatever becomes apparent as a result.

Orientation and the Creative Act

Mundane cultural paradigm: one perspective contrasted by another in opposition.

Real forward-thinking leads to entirely unexpected, even unknown, directions in cultural evolution, most radically in the arts uniting sound and vision.

Promoveo, promovi, promotum.

Too Starved an Argument...

The appeal of many aspects of popular culture is the same as that of numerous political ideologies.

They generate attitudes among their adherents that negate the need for thought; they eliminate the necessity for questions; they substitute, in point of fact, for educated, even literate perspectives.

And the result is a ceaseless cycle of ignorance, contention, and a host of ills easily done away with by refusing to acknowledge and support atavistic totalitarianism masquerading under the elitist banners of "progress".

Open Question

One is not given to thinking in terms of "enlightened culture", yet it is never an impossibility.

Rather than making demands upon culture, many appear to be in the position of allowing culture to make demands upon them. This is an untenable position, and the results are everywhere apparent.

Listening, View Time

Experience, absorb, and gain insight.

As the contemplative moment happens spontaneously, so may it be consciously brought into being by effort and intent.  Find the setting, observe, be still, and know.

Shock Value and Its Double

Expressive, perceptive art, even that of sublime merit, will not move the complacent.

A culture dominated by self-absorption must have either art that appeals to vanity or gives offense to its perceived "enemies", those whose perspectives on life are different.

Music and art that directs the attention to a greater sense of being and reality has no impact on such spectators and listeners. Nonetheless, creative minds of broader vision will neither be still, nor silent.

Transmission X

Observe the near-total absence of contemplative art forms, as if they have never existed.

Just as the desire for "enlightenment" is itself an obstacle to that goal, so is the quest for any kind of artistic meaning when cultures and societies are wholly given over to gross, material self-indulgence.

Become and Be

Nothing remains nothing.

Culture created with the expectation that it will become obsolete is not culture at all, but waste.

Everywhere At Once

The creative mind may be absorbed by the times, or defy them.

Yet there is another perspective, one that understands what is within one's will and power, and what is not.  With this understanding there is no reason to give consideration to anything beyond the work.

Against the Grain

There are those for whom art is a vehicle, and those for whom art is a work of creation.

A vehicle serves the ends and agendas of artist, and it is only successful insofar as it provides for the artist's "passions".  But by creation, I mean an objective expression that exists in and of itself, with its own intrinsic value and meaning, beyond the temporal reality of its creator.

Autonomy and The Work

The artist, if anyone, understands limitations and constraints.  These always exist.

Approaches to creative work that obviate the effects of circumstances beyond the artist's will and control are essential. One cannot accommodate ignorance; one can do everything within reason to elevate the light.

Ends and Approaches

Reach for those things that do not yet exist.

Expression reflects learning and experience as well as perceptivity and vision.

Rise to Realization

Advancement of vision is essential to creation.

Evaluate the past in terms of contemporary "standards" and "values" and commit the same errors as those who call the cave paintings of Lascaux "primitive". Real expression is not falsified to accede to such things as social acceptability or "political correctness", these now being virtually the same.

Real expression is revolution, at its core and at its roots.

Interpretations

An individual referred to one of these works today as "Zen Music".

The particular piece was the album Night Traffic, and the individual remains unaware that I am the composer and producer of the work.  A different perspective on the familiar is always suggestive.

That someone, in the midst of initiating a discussion about progressive music, listened to the sounds and associated them with the view of Zen represented in popular culture-- one of calm and a general sense of equanimity of attitude-- indicates a desirable effect.

And Far Between

The idea of beauty is intimately connected to the intellect and perceptions.

It is not always the strange, extravagant, or visionary event that evokes awareness of beauty, but merely the moment given over totally to reflection.

Such moments are indeed few, but do not have to be so.  To reflect, to experience fully, is a choice.

Timeless Expression

Reflect, contemplate, imagine.

Detached, experience what connectivity does not offer.

Nothing More

Technology, in and of itself, is central to contemporary culture.

Yet it is art that elevates the human condition, and technology is nothing more than a tool.

Exceptional Event Awareness

Take cognizance of those impressions that appear on the distant edge of perceptual awareness.

Sensory impressions of this order may, or may not, be within grasp.  For the composer, these can be indicators of auditory possibilities, just as the nebulous image in the mind's eye may inform the visual artist. These may be considered extramundane events, sought out by very few, but the scientist, poet, warrior, and individual of imagination know how to grasp and reveal them.

The Calling

Perceive, imagine, express.

The public, media culture, and social networks, reflecting overarching attitudes of the times, have their preferences and biases, expectations and demands.

But the avant-garde exists nonetheless, and grows increasingly distant, that is to say, far ahead, far beyond the mediocre, the mad, and the mundane.

Art, Social and Personal

Media directs the attention towards external impressions, and interprets them for various purposes.

Yet, given its superficiality, imagery for mass consumption cannot rival direct experience, and does so only in proportion to weakness of intellect and will.  One may well consider all the implications.