Text: “One problem is that we are adapting so quickly to these new terms and conditions, both by shielding ourselves through various technological apparatuses (for those who can afford to do so) and through ingenious survival strategies, that it is often difficult to remark on these new perceptual and sensorial realities. In response to the obvious demands that new ecological conditions are making on people, such as the increased movement of climate refugees from Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, or Northern peoples who are literally watching their ways of life vapourize, the arts can become a way of attuning to new realities. ... Time is central to the conceptualization of the Anthropocene, for it forces evolutionary and geological considerations into Western thought. As Smailbegović argues, “many of the temporalities that are relevant for developing a politics of time in the Anthropocene—such as minute and incrementally accumulating processes of change, or the long duration of geological time, or even the temporal rhythms relevant to particular non-humans—may not be directly available to the human sensorium.”57 Indeed, this is what so many of the artistic interventions in this book attempt to fathom: the various times that pass through ours, the ways in which time can bend and elongate, and how time is written into our bodies, composing the relations we have to all the other things around us. Time… is the accumulation of a lifetime of passing through environments that offer certain kinds of affordances, which then influence the collective perceptions and sensations of the organisms of the Earth. Attuning ourselves, through poetry, art, and description, to pay attention to other times; developing techniques to begin to think through the limits of our temporal frameworks, and then thinking beyond them—these are crucial practices; in fact, they are matters of survival.”
Principle: Art is made often in a singular moment of time, but should always be conscious of the passing of time as it remarks upon humanity. Some art will long outlive its maker, and others will last barely a breath, but the keeping of time through art is crucial to the awareness of the temporality of humanity.
Envisioning a Sustainable World
Text: "I have a vision, but it would make me feel childish and vulnerable to say it out loud. I don't know you all well enough to do this." That remark struck me so hard that I have been thinking about it ever since. Why is it that we can share our cynicism, complaints, and frustrations without hesitation with perfect strangers, but we can't share our dreams? How did we arrive at a culture that constantly, almost automatically, ridicules visionaries? Whose idea of reality forces us to "be realistic?" When were we taught, and by whom, to suppress our visions? Whatever the answers to those questions, the consequences of a culture of cynicism are tragic. If we can't speak of our real desires, we can only marshal information, models, and implementation toward what we think we can get, not toward what we really want. We only half-try. We don't reach farther than the lengths of our arms. If, in working for modest goals, we fall short of them, for whatever reason, we reign in our expectations still further and try for even less. In a culture of cynicism, if we exceed our goals, we take it as an unrepeatable accident, but if we fail, we take it as an omen. That sets up a positive feedback loop spiraling downward. The less we try, the less we achieve. The less we achieve, the less we try. Without vision, says the Bible, the people perish. Children, before they are squashed by cynicism, are natural visionaries. They can tell you clearly and firmly what the world should be like. There should be no war, no pollution, no cruelty, no starving children. There should be music, fun, beauty, and lots and lots of nature. People should be trustworthy and grownups should not work so hard. It's fine to have nice things, but it's even more important to have love. As they grow up, children learn that these visions are "childish" and stop saying them out loud. But inside all of us, if we haven't been too badly bruised by the world, there are glorious visions”
Principle: There is a sense of wonder that is key to artwork, even if it is not meant to be wonderful. There should always be a prevailing vision that the artist should strive to communicate to the viewer, however the viewer may discover some different vision within the work.
annaxmalina
titsay
yousharknotpass
germansingergirl
theartofmadeline
romaincrisis
blakekathryn
baratheonpilled
