Scrying a Some Day
Artists as visionary leaders
Arrivée de toujours, qui t’en iras partout.(Come from forever and you will go everywhere.)
—Arthur Rimbaud
With the many questions that are rapidly arising from our clear and present dystopian 2020 existence, the undeniable and underlying sentiment should be: “What do we do now and how do we get there?” As a worldwide community, we are now waking up to constructive dialogues on food insecurity, health care as a basic right, homelessness, unemployment, racism, classism and a plethora of similar topics. Meanwhile, ineffective leadership widens the apparent disconnection between politicians/profiteers and working-class heroes everywhere. One must wonder: Was there ever really a bonafide connection? And, if there isn’t, then who should we turn to? Where can we find compassionate leadership?
In a matter of weeks, with world health on the possible brink, (obviously Covid-19, not forgetting that heart disease and addiction typically rise with isolation) “socialism” is no longer a dirty and misunderstood word (and really never was in regards to corporate bailouts…). “Anarchy” may be the next political description to become en vogue, en masse without the majority of folkx (a term that in my world is gender neutral and inclusive ) knowing what true anarchy means. I encourage you to read Leo Tolstoy’s seminal work — The Kingdom of God Is Within You.It inspired Mahatma Gandhi, which in turn spawned perhaps the most legitimate Christian in the last 150 years, former suffragette and avid Christian anarchist Dorothy Day. We must support programs like “Food NOT Bombs” and “Food Not Lawns” (or at the very least let your dandelions grow if you do have a damn lawn to save our precious bees.)
The moment in time for all-encompassing, genuine and innovative solutions IS NOW. This is what it means to think radically. Throughout history, one group has consistently emerged as the most radical and forward thinking, yet continues to be buried as an afterthought of human culture in my opinion: the Artists. Yet far too often, human-kind (oxymoron?) polarizes itself against what it loathes. We clash over politics instead of breaking bread and finding common ground (here’s to peace in the Holy Land and the entire world). Why don’t we bond over art, beauty, and positive progression regardless of profit? Art is war without weapons, and humanity’s divine reflection. Iconic NYC poet Rene Ricard aptly and poignantly discussed such marginalization and societal ignorance in his article, “The Radiant Child,” which introduced to the world a then-unknown and homeless nineteen year old Jean-Michele Basquiat, who once said he staved off hunger with cheese doodles funded by the change found on the floor of NYC clubs. Ricard writes:
What’s with art anyway, that / We give it such precedence? Most basic is the common respect, the popular respect for living off one’s vision. My experience has shown me that the artist is a person much respected by the poor because they have circumvented the need to exert the body, even of time, to live off what appears to be the simplest bodily act. This is an honest way to rise out of the slum, using one’s sheer self as the medium, the money earned rather a proof pure and simple of the value of that individual, The Artist. … There is no great artist in all art history who was as ignored as van Gogh…How many pictures did he sell? One. He couldn’t give them away. Almost no one could bear his work, even among the most modern of his colleagues. He has to be the most modern artist, still. Van Gogh’s don’t crack. But everybody hated them. We’re so ashamed of his life that the rest of art history will be retribution for van Gogh’s neglect. No one wants to be part of a generation that ignores another van Gogh.
Ask any REAL artist (sans nepotism) what obstacles they have encountered, and chances are that many of the issues the world is facing has all before been witnessed and experienced by the artistic community. Witness the governmental ignorance in regards to the epidemic of AIDS first in the 1980’s -’90s and later opiate addiction, which has personally claimed far too many of my colleagues and loved ones. I lost my on-again/-off-again girlfriend, a classically trained ballerina who tragically became “another statistic” (I fucking hate that term) in 2016 after a knee injury that required pain management manifested into chemical dependency. Mac Miller, our generation’s Prince, succumbed in 2018 from an accidental overdose of fentanyl. (He was conceptualizing a soundtrack for one of my films.) And if anyone is so naive or ignorant to think that racism is a thing of the past, they need not look far to see the disgusting treatment of Asian-Americans in recent weeks; Latinx children are still locked in cages without an end in sight. Our African-American brothers and sisters continue to be murdered senselessly, not to mention the vile and blatant disrespect shown to our Indigenous communities. Let us also not forget how poorly our government has treated those impoverished communities inAppalachia and the south. We as a nation and a global community are in serious, serious trouble.
But there is hope. This is on us, and we need new guidance to lead the way. The Guild of Future Architects aspires to be a trailblazer in progressive ideology not only by forward-thinking but by adopting a holistic mindset that values the artist’s thought process and endeavors. The driving ideal that has been posed by visionaries Kamal Sinclair and Sharon Chang could be summarized by one powerful question, “What is our foresight to manifest a productive and creative future?” This notion in turn propels a thought-provoking discourse; a discourse that I call nouveau syncrétisme (new syncretism) which intricately ponders and considers the effects on all beings stemming from their particular art discipline. Syncretism is the amalgamation of cultures and disciplines, and the nouveau syncrétiste is the artist who personifies and understands both explicitly. For example, to jump-start such a dialogue from a facilitative and imaginative spectrum, our Zoom conference on March 26th asked participants (myself included) to, “Imagine the past to remember and rewrite the future.”
Hold up, so what does that mean exactly? It translates to identifying specific societal problems, changing said problem to the diametric opposite and workshopping. First the hypothetical framework, and then, the imagined outcome. That supposed outcome stems from a particular/historical catalytic event and thus consequently dictates an idyllic ascribed future. The rough workshop outline for Group One (there were two groups) was as follows:
- Present State: Identify your group’s ideal present state which would be the aspirational state of a societal issue they’d like to see addressed (e.g. ideally we would have in place a global response system for climate change effects, natural disasters and pandemics).
- Inflection Point: Choose a historical Inflection Point directly related to your ideal present state;(e.g. Occupy sparks social movements across the nation)
- Artifact: Identify a Historical Artifact (i.e. a policy) associated with your chosen Inflection Point (e.g A viral video of slaughter houses explodes which in turn connects to global youth movements of the time (Occupy) that pressures governments around the world to adopt a new lens on healthcare and conservation efforts for all living and breathing beings.
- Lenses: Utilizing the Radical Imagination Lens, articulate a one-sentence perspective from the selected Inflection Point: Imagination (unprecedented, aspirational change). The Pillars of the new healthcare lens would be that Housing and income are needed for health, animals are considered as part of our health systems and their well being is logically linked to our well being; in turn new government healthcare policies take all the recommendations (precautions)of WHO regarding pandemic response, so we are better prepared for CoVID 19.
CONCLUSIONS: Because animal wellness is centered, we have less zoonotic diseases and NO wet markets. Healthcare systems globally have consequently and radically shifted from capitalistic imperatives to holistic wellness of the ENTIRE person AND includes the wellness of animals and natural ecosystems.
This is my ideal scenario and let us as a united planet finally stop making excuses. Our lives may indeed depend on it.
My understanding of our symbiotic relationship with animals is what has driven me to work on my documentary project on the dreadful conditions under which animals are imprisoned at the Lagoon Amusement Park in Utah. Tigers, lions, cougars, zebras, warthogs, and kangaroos are kept in small, barren enclosures. Many of the big cats are frequently seen pacing endlessly in their cages, a clear sign of psychological distress, aka zoochosis. There are clear and definitive connections between the way certain members of our society treat animals, and in turn, the way they treat people.
The silver lining of a global crisis is the emergence of practicality: differing dogmas are forced to come together and adopt centrist and responsible policies. Many of our current social distancing strategies stemmed from lessons learned from the 1918 influenza outbreak. Animal rights and veganism,which were once considered fringe ideologies, are now being given rational consideration and serious thought; there have been NUMEROUS Covid-19 breakouts in US meat processing facilities alone. In his groundbreaking book entitled “The World Peace Diet” (a personal favorite of mine) author Will Tuttle aptly states,
Until we are willing and able to make the connections between what we are eating and what was required to get it on our plate, and how it affects us to buy, serve, and eat it, we will be unable to make the connections that will allow us to live wisely and harmoniously on this earth. When we cannot make connections, we cannot understand, and we are less free, less intelligent, less loving, and less happy.
Mother nature will not wait. From this, one can easily deduce that CONNECTION must be the key operative term to potentially blueprint a syncretic and worldwide modus operandi. I firmly believe The Guild of Future Architects aspires to be that change. We desperately need nouveau syncrétisme that takes into account Planet Earth’s forever welfare/protection as its focal point.
Can we PLEASE consider it an obligation to listen to our indigenous populaces? Open up your hearts and homes to the hungry and destitute (animals and people alike), and thus create an environment of learning and universal understanding. We must indeed look to those who are passionate in regards to the welfare of ALL instead of the choice fortunate few. A true artist’s sole purpose (or should be) is to create, inspire and when the time comes, leave this world a bit better than they found it,because what would this world be like without the radiance of creativity and radical forward thought? We must all collectively shudder at the mere notion and do absolutely everything in our power to perpetuate a meaningful and considerate existence. One Love.
I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.
—Angela Y. Davis
Originally published on GOFAR
https://medium.com/guild-of-future-architects/scrying-a-some-day-artists-and-visionary-leadership-e64826c44c92
