Study Proposal Unit 1

Magick, Mysticism and Technology

The powerful aura that today’s advanced technologies cast does not derive solely from their novelty or their mystifying complexity; it also derives from their literal realisation of the virtual projects willed by the wizards and alchemists of an earlier age. Magic is technology’s unconscious, its’ own arational spell. Our modern technological world is not nature, but augmented nature, super nature, and the more intently we probe it’s mutant edge of mind and matter, the more our disenchanted productions will find themselves wrestling with the rhetoric of the supernatural.

Pg 48. TechGnosis – Myth and Mysticism in the age of Information
Erik Davis. Serpent’s Tail; New edition edition (12 Nov 2004)

Aim

It sometimes seems like technology has taken on a role in society whereby it is there to cause reverence, wonder and excitement and to captivate the imagination. There has grown a kind of mysticism about the technological wonders of the 21^st century, This is sometimes apparent in the language that is used in naming software and it’s features I.e. DVD Magic, Installation Wizard, Magic Wand etc; while such examples are obviously just a means of marketing and promoting a software product as being exceptional in some capacity, I feel this is also symptomatic of a genuine belief which is rooted in the collective imagination, a belief, or a desire to believe in the potential of supernatural, or inexplicable experiences and a misguided faith in modern science and technology to fulfil this need.

One need only trace the origins of modern science back to it’s alchemic roots in order to fully consider ways in which the Technician and the Scientist have evolved from the sorcerers and mystics of previous eras .¹ It also seems as if in some ways the technological commodity has replaced the religious icon within western culture as being a material signifier of potentialities beyond the mundane.²

It is ultimately this relationship between technology and mysticism that I want to study and manipulate through my research and artistic practice.

My aim then is to produce art work that emphasises and exploits an inherent sense of enchantment in the way that technology is perceived.

I intend to do this by creating multi-media installation work, that presents it’s self as being ‘high tech’ or technologically avant-garde while also engaging with themes of mysticism and claiming to be producing some kind of supernatural effects.

An example of the kind of project I would like to create is Wilhelm Reich’s Orgone accumulator. Imagine a more high tech (digital?) looking Orgone Accumulator (probably with video and sound involved somehow)

An Orgone Accumulator

‘In 1940, Reich built boxes called orgone accumulators to concentrate atmospheric orgone energy; some were for lab animals, and some were large enough for a human being to sit inside. Reich said orgone was the “primordial cosmic energy”, blue in color, which he claimed was omnipresent and responsible for such things as weather, the color of the sky, gravity, the formation of galaxies, and the biological expressions of emotion and sexuality.’ Composed of alternating layers of ferrous metals and organic insulators with a high dielectric constant, his orgone accumulators had the appearance of a large, hollow capacitor.’

Wikipedia entry – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich

Objectives

To research what a symbol is and how it functions. (I find semiotics does not satisfactorily explore this, in that it’s rigid and closed as a system ) I intend to study Anthropology, Mythology, Theology and Psychology while on this course, and I hope to gain insight into how symbols relate to the psyche³, and ways in which technology might be perceived as a symbol.

I also wish to consider the dematerialisation of art work and artistic process in the digital age, in relation to ideas about the body as the root of anxiety, an anxiety which we first encounter at birth, when we become aware of our physical needs and experience the trauma of realising our status of dependence. This in-turn relates to the Freudian notion of a death instinct as rooted in a desire to escape/transcend the anxieties of physical existence.

I think this desire to escape physical existence might be inherent in the ideal of ‘Digital’ and I think this ideal might be communicated through digital technology itself in ways which influence the creation/interpretation of art work.

I intend to study the Romantic movement and figures such as William Blake who challenged the founding principles of empirical reasoning, and sought to challenge and re-negotiate the values that championed the so called ‘age of enlightenment‘.

I need to research and reflect upon Surrealism, and places where surrealism engaged with science and technology, while many of the ideas I am exploring are present in Surrealism, I do not wish to align myself within a context of surrealist art, so it is important to study Surrealism in order to understand and better negotiate a point of departure.

To enhance my practical understanding of Film, Video, Digital Video, and improve my skills in applying these mediums. I also want to gain a more holistic understanding of these formats, to gain better understanding of how this technology works, and to re-appraise my relationship/connection with them in light of these discoveries. Also to extend my knowledge of Experimental cinema/Video Art/Expanded Cinema while utilizing the library collections of UAL and also the British Artist’s Film and Video Study collection at Central Saint Martins, I intend to specifically study artists who purposefully evoke a mystical spiritual atmosphere through their work and who I feel exploit an inherent atmosphere of reverence or enchantment in technology to achieve this; Bill Viola, Kenneth Anger, Rafael Lozano Hemmer, Stellarc might be good examples here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Crossing. Bill Viola (1996)⁴

I believe the idea of avant-garde is vital in the way that technology as an ideal/symbol is consumed, I have to appropriate some kind of technological avant-gardism within my practice; Pure-Data, Processing, HD Video, or 5.1 Surround Sound are all possibilities, I have to discover which if any of these I can relate to and use, I am more interested in the way these technologies are perceived than in what they actually achieve in themselves .

The Written elements of this course are important to me. I do not feel I have ever properly explored my writing potential, I intend to do this while on the course through both the Blog and the Essay(s), it is important for my long term ambitions to graduate with some strong examples of written work and the application of the theory I have studied and am studying.

I intend my final piece of work to be a multimedia instillation, that uses technology in a symbolic way, while evoking a sense of mysticism and ritual.

The overall thing that I hope to develop is a distinct aesthetic that will serve to promote my ideas and my Art work in the future. I have a lot of interests that are related but perhaps not complementary, while I have no hope of decidedly realising all of the objectives defined here, I would like to find a way to package and deploy these ideas and potentialities in a more concise way, without generalising or trivialising my research interests, I think this should be my ultimate objective.

Rational.

Mock on, Mock on Voltaire, Rousseau;

Mock on, Mock on: ‘tis in vain!

You throw the sand against the wind,

And the wind blows it back again.

And every sand becomes a Gem

Reflected in the beams divine;

Blown back they blind the mocking Eye,

But still in Israel’s paths they shine.

The Atoms of Democritus

And Newton’s particles of light

Are sands upon the Red sea shore,

Where Israel’s tents do shine so bright.

William Blake.

pg 94 William Blake an introduction to the Man and his work. Raymond Lister. 1968 G.Bell and Sons, ltd

My feeling is that as people are becoming more at ease with digital technology and as there is a new generation emerging that were born into a ‘digital age’, the way that we relate to computers is changing and the role of technology it’s self is changing, I feel an increasing sense of mundane about digital technology, for me, the sense of novelty has worn off.

However I believe that the demise of technology’s ability to inspire leaves a vacant space in the imagination, in popular culture and in myself. I think it is easy to understand theories about ‘Post humanism’ in light of such a vacation of inspiration in the way that society approaches technology, what was once an almost mystical bridge between the future and the present and a container of mystery and possibility, is now just a box full of circuits, micro chips and processors.⁵

My work is then a strategic aim to engage and to seek other ways of filling this vacancy, I do not really want to instigate what could become an extremely self-indulgent engagement with these ideas, however I consider a flavour or an atmosphere of mysticism, spirituality or occult within my work might satisfy a need for escapist, imaginative, stimulation, a need that the ideal of digital technology arguably

still promises though fails to fulfil as it once did.

Besides this I feel that the focus of this culture is extremely empirical, and I find it upsetting that processes of scientific reduction are generally excepted as the standard means of locating truth.

While it would be absurd to attempt and totally disregard a scientific method of exploring/appraising life, It is important for me, (as for a rapidly increasing movement of people), to explore alternatives to this, and I intend to exert my belief that art and philosophy have a responsibility to promote such alternatives.

While this is a fairly strong conviction, I am intending to be as open minded as I can, and to seek out and then consider and learn from opinions that disagree with mine. I see this as one of the most important parts of my learning process, that I should argue my thoughts and prejudices as I evoke them, while considering and learning from apposing views.

All of the theoretical discussions within this proposal so far, while important to me, are only useful as a point of departure, since it is not ultimately the analytical mindset that I am intending to explore and develop, but rather the imaginative one, and as my project progresses, I hope that I will be able to communicate ideas more through aesthetics and visuals, while relying on written and spoken language less.

Methodology

I want to conceptualise processes of conscious experience and more particularly temporal experience, I am interested in the idea of a heightened reality through an implosion or fractualisation of time; time that collapses in upon itself, there are theories and ideas that relate to this within; some meditative disciplines, also expanded experience and the psychedelic movement and also some theories within ontology, phenomenology, nihilism and cosmology. These interests will be explored and documented both through study and research and through practical work that utilises; the Loop, Sonic Feedback, Cut and Paste, Fractals, Repetition, and also mechanical and digital methods of achieving ’the suspended moment’ (photography being the obvious but not the only example). These themes lend themselves well to discussions of a post-modern visual culture that is said to be incapable of referencing beyond itself and functions on the basis of signifiers pointing only to other signifiers in a process of infinite refraction.

I am interested in exploring the digital activity of cut and paste because of it’s essence as an action, all be it an action reduced to the most minimal form, (almost the residue of a physical action), however still an action that mediates between physical engagement and the virtual environment, it is also an action that is often repeated more than once and it can often take on a laborious feeling, it can seem like work. When repeated many times it can feel like a demeaning comparison between the deficiency of human labour compared to the efficiency of the computer processor.

I want to experiment with repetitious actions in general, not just ‘cut and past’, because of an understanding that any mundane task can through a process of ritualized repetition become symbolic and take on an enhanced significance that has mystical overtones while presupposing a meditative form of interaction.

A good example here is Maria Abramovic and her video performance piece ’Art must be beautiful’ where she ritualises the act of brushing her hair, doing so incessantly over a long duration in a manor that is increasingly violent and painful. While all the time drawing attention to ‘the gaze’ of the camera and the construct that she has designed; she repeats/chants the phrases ’Art must be beautiful’, ‘Artist must be beautiful’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still from Maria Abravomic’s ’Art must be beautiful.

So I think repetition could, in it’s self be part of a methodology, and I will experiment with repetitious actions and work procedures as a means of developing my own art work.

The basis of my methodology though; is in appropriating aesthetic/symbolic qualities from a range of religions and cultures and using them freely and arbitrarily to enrich my own art work. In a more general sense this could also be seen as a cultural/theological cutting and pasting of sorts, and also a kind of ‘grotesque mimicry’ or a parody of the way culture, technology, mythology and theology evolve in general. ⁶

Above all else I believe in the symbolic significance of actions of artistic creativity and my focus is on artistic processes rather than art products, I intend to experiment as freely and as much as possible while presenting successes and failures simultaneously.

 

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¹ This generalization is underdeveloped and the term Technician in it’s Greek origins also describes what is generally referred to in the English language as ‘The Artist‘, while I intend to research the evolution proposed here in more depth later, I consider this initially quite crude supposition, to still be useful here in my efforts to establish links and possible dialogues between technology and mysticism .

 

² This perspective can of course be extended to include all consumer products, and it has been arguedthat religious icons occupy a unique place in history due to the previously unprecedented intensity with which they were exchanged and revered and thus represent the beginning of a consumerist society at large. However, I feel there is something specifically interesting about the technological commodity within this perspective in that a sense of enchantment is perhaps carried across from the religious icon in way that is perhaps more profound than in other consumer products.

 

³ I feel that Freud’s model of the psyche has become the standard by which this term is most commonly understood, however I am using the word here and throughout this essay, to also potentially suggest concepts that are not easily packaged within the structure of Ego, I.D and Super Ego. By Psyche I want to refer to a subjective experience that might also integrate notions of a transcendental character which might be referred to as Soul or and Spirit within western thought (Psyche in a more Platonic sense then!).

 

⁴ I have thought about these impressive projections and the way they are installed so as to dominate the Gallery space, as with much of Bill Viola’s work it is impossible not to be; ’wowed’ by the sharp, clean, immaculate, advertising style images and impressed by the resolution and definition of the projections. The atmosphere of mysticism and the themes of transcendence that exist in this work, are I believe initiated and mobilised in the audience through the marvel of this technological achievement. The awe that the work inspires, I believe, emanates from the technology it‘s self, and the function of Viola’s material is to enhance rather than to instigate this.

 

⁵This statement might seem a bit contradictory when one of my main interests is in exploring what might be described as a kind of Techno-mysticism and I am trying to exert a belief that there is an inherent sense of enchantment in the way that technology is perceived, however if it were true that technologies novelty had worn off, I think that it could still maintain it’s essential reverence within the popular psyche due to a habitual and socially conditioned role that technology occupies that is yet to be re-invented.

 

⁶ Interestingly if these principles were extended to include an emphases on nature and natural resources, with less focus on technology, it could also be seen as a definition of the practice generally referred to as Witchcraft.