Persistence and Legacy
One of my wonderful artist friends just told me today that her life was feeling like a lot of ups and downs at the moment.
We do live in uncertain times, and uncertainty is gaining in momentum on a daily basis. The illusion of safety, the idea that we can continue to turn our back on the fragility of our lives is being eroded day by day (and we have to remind ourselves that living in a “Western” country is a most cushy experience to begin with compared to the rest of the world).
As artists and alchemists, our lives are about transmuting the muck, turning lead into gold: Using our personal experience and work as a platform for shared transformation, be it through our artifacts or teachings. And we do it as prototypes, so that others can do the same in their own lives. While she agreed, she said it was tough to persist sometimes, and to keep a long-term perspective. I absolutely agree with that, and I think the two are connected.
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50 Episodes of Mon(k)day!
Wow… just realized I recorded 50 episodes of mon(k)day so far!
When I started this project last year, I had no idea I would actually get such lovely responses from people and hence have plenty of reason to keep it up and running. Thank you for watching monkday, for recommending it, for tweeting it, for your encouragement and support!
Here are some of my favorite episodes over the last year:
- Cha-cha-change – Episode 14
- Silly Songs – Episode 22
- Kids – Episode 20
- Get drunk! Episode 23
- 4-fold Paradox – Episode 40
- Worry be gone! Episode 43
- Tooltime – Episode 46
Thank you for the inspiration and the opportunity to not take myself too seriously 
Smiles
philip a.k.a. joy(monk)ey
“Art and (r)Evolution” – Video of the talk
Here the video from the talk on “Art and (r)Evolution” I gave the other day for c3: Center for Conscious Creativity in the context of the LA Ring Festival and the Brewery ArtWalk.
Thank you Alfonso for filming, Barry for recoding audio and Vanese for editing the video! All of you are wonderful gifts to my existence…
Recent Work in Copper
Copper is one of the few metals to occur naturally as an un-compounded mineral. Copper was known to some of the oldest civilizations on record, and has a history of use that is at least 10,000 years old. It is probable that gold and meteoritic iron were the only metals used by humans before copper.Copper was associated with the goddess Aphrodite/Venus in mythology and alchemy, owing to its lustrous beauty, its ancient use in producing mirrors, and its association with Cyprus, which was sacred to the goddess. In astrology, alchemy the seven heavenly bodies known to the ancients were associated with seven metals also known in antiquity, and Venus was assigned to copper.Crucial in the metallurgical and technological worlds, copper has also played an important cultural role, particularly in currency. Romans in the 6th through 3rd centuries BC used copper lumps as money.The gates of the Temple of Jerusalem used Corinthian bronze made by depletion gilding. Corinthian bronze was most prevalent in Alexandria, where alchemy is thought to have begun. In ancient India (before 1000 BC), copper was used in the holistic medical science Ayurveda for surgical instruments and other medical equipment. Ancient Egyptians (~2400 BC) used copper for sterilizing wounds and drinking water, and as time passed, (~1500 BC) for headaches, burns, and itching. Hippocrates (~400 BC) used copper to treat leg ulcers associated with varicose veins. Ancient Aztecs fought sore throats by gargling with copper mixtures.
“Art and (r)Evolution” – talk for LA Opera Ring Festival
What a week… going to the opening of the LA Opera Ring Festival in a moment, then tomorrow is the first theCOREcircles event in Los Angeles, then Brewery ArtWalk this weekend. Am selling my art for the first time, which should be fun, and will also give a talk on “Art and (r)Evolution,” for the LA Opera Ring Festival.
Richard Wagner’s themes in his 1849 essay “Art and Revolution” are in many ways as applicable today as they have ever been. Drawing from perennial wisdom as much as from future technologies, this talk will draw an arch from the beginning of art, the Greek drama, the Camerata Society’s first Opera commission, Wagner’s impact on arts and media, to today’s possibilities and tomorrow’s responsibilities.
From a reflection on the nature of creativity as described by Wagner and other artists and philosophers to the function of arts and media in society, this talk will reflect on how artists and media makers hold up a mirror and serve as a public conscience, and how they can also inspire long term visions of the future, ever more realistically shared via ever more realistic immersive media.
This free talk will be given in the context of the Brewery ArtWalk and the Los Angeles Opera Ring Festival.
Brewery ArtWalk is a bi-annual event at the Los Angeles Brewery Arts Complex, one of the largest artist enclaves in the world. ArtWalk occurs from 11am-6pm. Soup will be served after 6pm. The talk is scheduled from 7pm-8:00pm. A reception follows.
The event is free.
4th Brain Relating – Things to consider before we meld with the machine…
Community, and the machines we continue to develop to connect with it, allow us to willfully extend our individuality into a networking node, expanding our access to information, knowledge and services, and allowing our own value to be utilized for common benefit and evolution.
As such, it can be seen as our fourth brain, beyond brain stem, limbic system or neo-cortical functioning (physical/emotional/mental -> relational body/brain/intelligence).
We will eventually weave the web between human and machine even further and give rise to a new breed of humans – one, that will require fourth brain relational intelligence to maintain our individuality and to not get lost and fall into the Narcissus’ pond of our own creation.
Therefore it is of great interest to investigate new patterns of human relating that embrace and celebrate both the individual and the entirety of consciousness-capable beings before singularity occurs and machines begin to operate on current human behavior patterns.
Am working on preparing a talk on this topic. Been thinking a lot about community lately, and how the technology we have created for ourselves allows an unprecedented melding of minds, but how we should ensure that we have proper ways of relating in place before Singularity occurs. We have to step up so that the evolution of the machine is paralleled by the evolution of our consciousness.
Universe and You – The Joy of Relating
Below the slides and audio recording from a talk I gave the other day for Tiger Woman Club at c3: Center for Conscious Creativity.
Been thinking lots about relating lately. There seems to be a lot of confusion around distinctions of the universal principles of duality and gender, of the emotional “Like – Not Like”, dialectics, of the ever new experience of “I and Other”. Been looking at a quadropolar model as a means to transmute dualism creatively. Some of that in the video below. Enjoy!
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Twitter- International List of Futurology Research Centers - http://t.co/9bdE9acU http://t.co/FdDRY7Ts
- How Do Innovators Think? - Bronwyn Fryer - Harvard Business Review http://t.co/dHla2e7Y
- Fascinating overview of many new technologies on the horizon http://t.co/blav1MD6
- Star Wars re-mixed http://t.co/uiJipQfL
- Infographic: Why the movie industry is so wrong about SOPA | Matador Network http://t.co/pqxZWwbu
- Health News - Neuroscientists Find That Status within Groups Can Affect IQ http://t.co/1sMYEzWu
- Julian Baggini: Is there a real you? #TED http://t.co/Cf7c0gQ2
- Lisa Harouni: A primer on 3D printing #TED http://t.co/enLbpuTA
- Why own a car when you can share... http://t.co/c5xuRSfo
- “But the nature of the universe is such that the ends never justify the means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end.” -Huxley
- Posts by others I enjoyed reading
- The Silliness of Busyness
- Remaining human: A Buddhist perspective on Occupy Wall Street
- The Fringes Disagree But Science And Religion Do Mix
- Five Tips to Break Through Your Filter(s)
- Reminders from the world
- Tattoo 2.0
- Violin made with a 3D printer
- Realtime Face Substitution softwear
- On The Creating And Sharing Of Awe
- Unautomate Your Money
- 5 Ways To Turn Fear Into Fuel
- Become a God of Learning Your Trade
- A Young Artist's Guide to Playing for Keeps, Pt. 15
- Twelfth century orgasmic brain heat
- Projecting meaning
- AGI and the Emerging Peer-to-Peer Economy: Ben Goertzel Interviews AI Researcher Mohamad Tarifi
- The Future of Brain Workouts
- Breaking Free From Consumerist Chains
- Data is the new Oil: must-read PDF by the World Economic Forum
- TED: JR's TED Prize wish: Use art to turn the world inside out - JR (2011)