Art of the Occurrence of Meaning
I consider that I work strenuously to come to terms with (understand, be aware or conscious of, perceive and interpret) what it is I value, care about, intend, hope or purpose.
I am prodoundly interested in what is often referred to as “theory of mind” (TOM) – “that which hovers somewhere on the boundary between the explicit and the implicit, the conscious and the subconscious, the objective and subjective” – Maurice Bloch. And semiosis – what I understand to be the process and activity of utilizing available resources, situations, internal and external sensations to construct moments of meaning (“worlding” you could call it – co-here-ing in an embedded context). The seamless combination of culture/person-ality, internal/external, embodied/extended, conscious/subconscious – or selective/regulative – processes that occur in real-life human experiences.
Perhaps this is “Anthropology” as Maurice Bloch would have it:
“Anthropology, at least as I conceive it, presents the immense merit of uniting knowledge about human beings – that is constructed from the top down, by general theory, which in the case of cognitive psychology is supported by rigorous and controlled experiments – with knowledge of particular men and women that is constructed from the bottom up, based on the observation of people as they live their lives”
some commensurate multi-disciplinary examination of human life. I hear myself saying to myself…
[ASIDE: from high school through college when I envisioned being a great poet, I always wanted to be what I termed the “Master of Grey” – one able to plumb and express the indeterminate and indistinct – those liminal mixed and ambiguous realities of experience – exemplified by rain or fog or shadow – the betweens, the margins, the shades…]
Anyway, I hear myself saying to myself when I listen to myself speaking to myself (so very many variations of selves), that as much as I am fascinated and intrigued by the processes of the world (geological, biological, neurological, sociological and so forth) and the apparatuses and hows of human meaning-making (electro-neuro-biological, socio-cultural, etc…), I am yet more interested in the occurrences of human meaning experiences.
The “occurrence of meaning” seems to me the experience of all those elements and processes indiscretely conjoined and con-fused – wholes of which parts can’t be specified – signifieds/signifiers/significants indiscriminate: our PRESENT.
This is where art arises for me. Art and action, for art is action. Art seems to me – or processes of human making – an attempt at conjoining/confusing/commingling and co-relating of the many modes and motions, nodes and notions, processes and practices, influences confluencing the convergences we term experience.
Artistic acts are those where subject/object, conscious/subconscious, selective/regulative, internal/external, intentional/accidental distinctions in human processes do not apply – and these convergences, these realities of human living are sometimes actualized or embodied/externalized. Perhaps, in my way of thinking.
Modalities and genres, fields and spheres, behaviors, cognition and domains – social and personal intertwingled, the perceived and imperceptible carrying on simultaneously – CONverged – and that verge – that edge, rim, margin of activity – that liminal, boundary-zone open border-space is the essential –
a human way of mediately presenting occurrences of meaning, in their variety and multiplicity. Perhaps.
Or so I am thinking.
Answerability in the body of the world.
The meaning event seen in its total matrix.
Polysemic Stupor 
you are inviting to think deep again… this is amazing subject. I need to read again 🙂 Thank you dear N Filbert, love, nia
thank you always for reading, and thinking. All the best Nia
Thought provoking post.
Everything….thought, desire, physical activity….is a form of energy; therefore, an action. Art is one form of the expression of energy.
The existence of a “subconscious” is merely a theoretical proposition. The consciousness of a Human Being does exist and requires no proof of existence. As such, the focus becomes the degrees or depth of consciousness a Human Being might experience. Degrees of consciousness are expansive in the context of sensations, i.e. each degree of consciousness provides greater clarity relative to the energy flows within the Human Species, in particular….and Nature, in general.
Just a few thoughts….
Definitions blur and diagrams become abstract art when dealing with synaesthesia, and my explorations into consciousness, human communication and meaning have been revealing when viewed through this very unique lens that I now realise few others share. However approached, I champion anyone who chooses to tackle it head on as you do Mr.Filbert. It’s refreshing to have an alternative view of a subject close to my heart and never far from my pen.
Thank you also for always appreciating my work, it means a lot.
a few very expansive thoughts. Thank you. I agree re: “subconscious” – I tend to think of that as more of the “regulative” processing of the neural networks, the conscious as the “selective.” And yes, it does seem that as we expand what we take into the processes of consciousness, awareness, we sense a greater clarity to the energy-flows (processes) of human ‘being.’ I appreciate your sharing.
Likewise, and thank you
There: art, not a thing, not a, not owned. Flown. A consummation not consumed. A mirror mirrored. What gods do. Play innocent of consequence. What childen do ( when they forget to be good or bad). Follow the trains of thought noise feeling echo memory dream back back.
( well, this is becoming another tangent, but some great seeds: art as a ground for interaction with, the spirit of the deep balanced with the spirit of the time….). The cauldron bubbles….seethes even…
amen dear forest priest.
You have a great eloquence with your words. I truly enjoyed this article. Thanks for sharing.
P.S. Like the Umberto Eco quote by the comment box, love that guy XD
Lets see if I can express what I mean… I always get the impression when I read here, that you succeed in getting what I miss in my own attempts…what you call the grey… the bit between the first (obvious?) idea and the second, to which we are unknowingly led (by the nose maybe?) Its the in- between that might promise something unforeseen. Your prose has that ‘careful searching for just the just right word quality ‘ that suits ‘in-between’ exploration. When you mention grey I immediately think of Sargent and his explorations of fog, water, sky, evening; little paintings made from one small section of the tonal scale. In this sort of painting every mark counts. Sargent made it look easy, informal. But he was deadly serious in his own way. He certainly was the master of the indeterminate and the indistinct. But, and this but is important, its not public painting. It doesn’t presume to lead anyone anywhere (except, perhaps, to a private truth of the aesthetic sort.) And that’s good, for some, or for some ages. For an age other than this one. Or is that wrong? You see, I’m a bit panicky…. to use the old loaded metaphor—– there’s shouting in the street and the sound of breaking glass. I think of Picasso’s Guernica and of Matisse, doggedly pursuing his vision of domesticated beauty all through the war/holocaust. Maybe, through, we need both?. ..OR …maybe both art and philosophy are redundant now, as we slide over the edge of the abyss. You call art –action –but is there even time left for its truth to find its way in? I ask myself.
thank you for reading and saying so
It is that “in-between” the intimately triggering processes that I am ever-so-drawn to observe. My spouse would say I continuously pick impossibles – like the eye wanting to see that it sees. Perhaps. There is some moral muscle to the desire, I think, as if by involving ourselves in the activity (perhaps better than “action?” does “action” imply more intention than there is?) and reflecting deeply and seriously on the activities we might also be able to effect the activities toward or away from something…and learn or shape activities onward. I don’t know. Is there ever enough time? Thanks for commenting and questioning, it helps infer the activities mean.