To the list:
I began this statement as an answer to Clyde Howell's first post but was
put off by the density of my answer. As the dialogue has evolved I have
become convinced that the conversation can handle it. In fact I have been
impressed with your dealing with my daily issues.
I'm afraid that this is very dense. I apologize for not being able to
make it more easy to read but it just isnt. I have hit the hi-lites and
hope that although it is technical to my work, the applicability is
obvious. If not, I would be happy to respond to any questions that you
might have (on the list or otherwise). I would also like to congratulate
Clyde on starting this exploration.
REH
====================================================
JC Howell wrote:
> What do you think? Am I out in left field here? Is there room in the
> typical organization for artistry? In a Learning Organization? Is
> artistry desirable?
Hi Clyde,
Absolutely. What you described are the PERCEPTUAL ARTS. In the
perceptual arts you have two categories that have been over the years
called many things: i.e. Fine Arts/Popular Arts, Sacred and Profane, High
brow/Low brow, etc. What I find the most useful definitions of these two
types of perceptual art are:
-1) The Fine Arts, Sacred, High brow, etc: are research and
THEORETICAL in nature. I use the technical term theoretical
so as not confuse the terms used by the non-professional art
appreciators as well as the professional writers who struggle to
communicate to audiences who are not in the mood for a lecture
on the technical distinctions between serious and commercial art.
(For example the word play is often used as a description
of artistic creation. This should not be confused with
recreational play. When we say the "play is the thing" in this
section we literally mean imagination with the structured
repetitive exploration of the child as an ideal model.)
A confusion with the outside world is the issue of profit as
motive. Like the scientific researcher in areas like pure physics,
the artist does not begin with how they will sell their product
as a motive for production. In fact, it is considered an issue of
seriousness that the composer, painter, etc. is first concerned
WITH THE HOLISTIC PURSUIT OF VALUES IN THE MEDIUM that is their
work. This type of art, like theoretical physics, is not for
profit but is for the sake of the exploration.
To consider profit as the motive is like climbing Mount Everest
in order to become a tour guide. Quite frankly it is too hard
for such meager rewards. The rewards are not extrinsic but
intrinsic.
Although all societies must have this type of imagination
to mature, capitalist market societies often abuse the people who
unction in it, unless they are so famous as to stir envy in
ownership and then the artist can become quite wealthy.
All capital for theoretical artists is Intellectual Capital.
How valuable the artists contribution is judged, is based
upon the fashion of the day. Unfortunately, fashion is based
upon the audiences understanding of what the artist has
accomplished in their pursuit and fashion, is a very poor
contemporary judge of value in the theoretical arts. It is
usually more a failure than a success. Creative breakthroughs
are the determiners of success in the Fine Arts and that usually
takes time to know. The historical reputation of whole
cultures depends upon these expressions of mastery.
A good case in point is Germany after the horrors of WWII
were revealed and punished at Nuremberg. Immediately after
the war they hired singers from all over the world to preserve
the traditions of German Art with many of the singers even being
drawn from the ranks of the victorious nations. It seems clear
that they knew what they wished to be remembered for in the
tides of history. Italy of course showed with the treatment of
the body of their former Dictator and his mistress that it was
Michelangelo, De Vinci and Verdi who were the real Italians.
History often brands good artists as "charlatans" like Salieri
who was a tremendous musician and the teacher of Beethoven
as well as one of the great voice teachers of all time, BUT he
entered the realm of the composer and in that realm his
competition was the great Mozart. The critics of musical history
have been withering to Salieri, but we must remember that
Salieri was Fermi to Mozart's Einstein. As we shall see in the
section on Beauty below, only Mozart carried the term Master
Artist down through history and that is one of the determiners
of what is and is not true Fine Art, the TRUTH of the thing.
That is what Constantine Stanislavski meant when he told the
Americans play good, play bad, but play TRUE! Because
the Fine Arts are so hard to know, even a mistake can turn out
to be a masterwork if it is true.
-2)Popular, Profane, Low brow, etc.) are COMMERCIAL ARTS/
ENTERTAINMENT that usually differ from the Theoretical in
that the Commercial Art is a product reproduced solely for
the generation of wealth.
Generally you can compare Commercial Art to Fine Art in the
same way as you would compare a lab technician to the developer
of a cure for cancer; however in the arts it is not so simple.
The technical requirements for artistry in both cases are the
same. (See Truth and Beauty elements below.)
Although the techniques are the same, the intention is different.
In one case the intent shapes the product based upon what will
sell in the contemporary fashion of the audience. As I pointed
out above, the Fine Arts search for values are intrinsic to the
to the skill, mind and intuition of the artist while being
extrinsic only in the materials provided for the medium. In the
Commercial the values are extrinsic based upon what will satisfy
the external purpose of the creation.
But why is one superior to the other? Well that is not so simple.
In the hands of a Rodin or a Bach there is little to no
difference, except history records their employers as bores and
busybodies. I believe, however, that anybody who encourages great
artists deserves a special place in the firmament. Generally,
however, the pursuit of profit has different rules about quality
of thought than does the holistic pursuit of values in a medium
for its own sake. (remember the Hubbell Mirror) The pursuit of
profit often stops short of the artistic goal of BEAUTY (see
below).
NOTE: These are abstract forms, it should be obvious that they are mixed
in some fashion in order for the Artist to have a life. Often, however,
Fine Artists (theoretical) make the decision to do other things rather
than having to constantly finish the creative process before it is truly
finished because it has already become a commercial product.
Of course if those building engineers who constructed those ventilation
systems in NYCity office towers had been more Fine Artist rather than
Commercial, Trillions of dollars in illness for the corporations
inhabiting all of those towers would have been saved. In this case
Artistic Values => Economic Values => Moral Values in that people have
been sacrificed to the Gods of Mammon on that altar. The coldness of all
Art is that the TRUTH of a process travels from one place to another
within a system. But that is another story. You might check out Martin
Bubers book I and Thou section on the Artist for a good description
of this.
1. Artistry has two elements:
A. A HOLISTIC PURSUIT OF VALUES IN A MEDIUM, A
CULTURE, AN ERA AND AN INDIVIDUAL.
The Greeks called this quest the search for TRUTH, or a metaphor for this
would be the artist as the most accurate holistic mirror of the
time/space/culture that they lived within.
B. CORRECT HABIT RAISED TO INTUITION.
Or an instantaneous correct response. This performance aspect of all art
is called excellence, however the Greeks called it BEAUTY. is so
important to a Fine Artist that they denigrate conscious theory as
"self-conscious" and therefore un-artistic. Their play with intuition also
involves their genetic/talent structure which (as pointed out above) often
includes mistaken as well as correct action. One friend of mine said that
his mistakes were often the door to his finding the successful artistic
answer.
Being a pedagogist and CEO of an artistic company I have no trouble with
analysis of a process self-conscious or otherwise. I am concerned with
the development of artistic KNOWLEDGE to a level that includes all
knowledge raised to intuition. That is my understanding of what Peter
Senge calls MASTERY
2. ALL ARTISTRY HAS TWO ASPECTS:
A. INDIVIDUAL, requires Truth and Beauty as the tools that the
artist uses to explore the time and society that he/she is given as
material for the work.
B. ENSEMBLE, requires that the team be as conscious as the human
body. Each person has a role and KNOWS (not simple understanding, see
above) both the role and the network of the whole. Just as your right
hand will take over if the left hand is busy (without asking permission)
so does the ensemble member fill their role if it is there to be done. I
must emphasize that in an Ensemble (like in the body), the feedback loop
is instantaneous. Imagine your left hand hiding what it has done from the
right and you will see why this must be so. All secrets in an orchestra
are personal or political, NOT musical!
====================================
NOTE about PERFORMING ARTISTS:
If the Individual Artist is a Performing Artist then they have both
TRADITIONAL WORK (compositions from other times and places) and
IMPROVISATIONAL WORK (elaboration on the Traditional Scores) In an
Ensemble Team you always have both of these elements in one way or
another. In a Traditional Score there is little back pick-up if another
member fails (Sopranos dont sing for the basses if the basses miss their
entrance). Improvisation is another matter with a constant banter going
back and forth between the members within strict rules of etiquette. The
key to the success is the respect earned by each members attention to the
rules of Beauty as defined above. If you aint beautiful then you are
sh.....!
===================================
Finally there is the battle in art between the INTERNATIONALIST IDEAL and
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE. In countries where the I.I. is the rule artistic powers
tend to think of art as Universal, especially their own art. In places
where the art is considered representative of their own time and culture
(rather than the Universe) the art is more a matter of cultural pride.
In all likelihood all art is representative of its time and culture no
matter what the prevailing theory seems to be. History tends to place all
art within the context of its culture and era and to judge both
accordingly.
Artists work with the rhythms and energies emerging from their
cultural and time environment. In this way they foresee the structures
that are evolving in their societies.
Example: AGILE forms were preceded by the Commercial art (movie and
record) companies by fifty years. Edward Deming pointed out that
these companies are the most productive work forces in the nation and
the most profitable.
In the same way todays transnational companies are using the
universalist language of the I.I. artists of a century ago.
These artistic forerunners are the Cassandras that foretell both the
good and the bad of these future structures. The study of the
Cassandras of this world is not be a bad thing for any serious society,
its businesses or its business consultants to look into. After all,
Time-Warner is not just stimulating their own business when they advertise
music as a way of teaching children Math in the public schools. As I have
pointed out in other posts, the relativity of the rules of musical
cultures is the traditional "process side" of the English language and the
way out of the Newtonian dilemma of the English grammatical structure. In
this sense the discussion on language with Rol Fessendon directly relates
to the sophistication of a culture as mirrored by its Artistic products.
Clyde,
I have made this as short as I dare considering the issues. The answer to
your original question about the relevance of artistic standards to
business is an unqualified yes. I must however quote Chief Oren Lyons
faithkeeper for the Onondaga Nation who answered a similar question that I
had posed for him around these issues. He said Yes, but that is very
difficult. I would add; but necessary if we are to be considered
anything more than the oldest adolescent in the history of the world.
I hope this has been a fruitful journey,
To be an artist working within the Fine Arts is a great privilege
although living expenses and dentists are often difficult. For that
reason, feel free to use this on the list, but if any profit product
should come out of it, please remember where you got it.
Peace,
Ray Evans Harrell, artistic director
The Magic Circle Chamber Opera of New York
mcore@soho.ios.com
--ray evans harrell <mcore@soho.ios.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>