Title: Inquiry into Allegorical Knowledge Systems for Telematic Art


Author: Tania Fraga


I - Introduction


Some pervasive questions have dominated the Telematic Art field for the last few years. These include questions relating to our need to create meaningful contents for a diversity of cultures without losing depth. The process of organising an immeasurable volume of information in poetic signs and the articulation of flexible poetic actions for the network environment are very important considerations for telematic artists. These questions are entwined with others related to the use of computer languages and the development of the technological environment in which they will function.


In such environments the mind processes are interconnected with the technological ones. Both types of processes carry information, which enable the organisation and the establishment of relationships among different sets of information, thereby creating symbolic languages. The expressive domain of symbolic languages has been, for the last few centuries, the space for the arts. The artists have been the ones who play with languages in order to create situations where processes happen; to engender collective participation; and to propitiate manifold states of consciousness, among others.


In western societies art has been a channel for the numinous and a repository of dreams. Contemporary Art creates environments where the unconscious levels of the psyche may emerge into the social domain. It propitiates a reorientation of consciousness allowing transformations to occur in one's way of seeing. It also facilitates the rediscovery of one's own creative potentials and the exercise of imagination. Nowadays this poetic repertoire is huge since art has been the refuge of the hermetic knowledge 1 and its more important repository.


Paraphrasing Lawrence Durrell it is possible to say the aim of Contemporary Art has been to 'transform the mob into artists' 2, amplifying their consciousness in waves which radiates as waves on the sea. Although such an ambitious objective may be seen as romantic and idealistic it may be found in the great works of arts produced in the present century. Many are the works of art, which entail such process of transformation. Many of these works allow one to experience and internalise amplified states of consciousness evoked by the artist.


It is possible to talk about an alchemy of the words, materials, sounds, shapes, movements and colours; an alchemy which creates a poetic repertoire accessible to all the senses. This repertoire reflects a direct apprehension of the numinous, the infinite, the epiphany emergent in dreams, the luminous moment of insight or contact with the unconscious that happens to artists and which can be shared with the public.


For a very long time reason and logic have been the focus of science while art has been the repository for the unconscious and for the emergence of languages that assemble symbols and paradoxes. The knowledge and understanding of the processes that happen in the human psyche, developed by psychology, have shown that the deep levels of human psyche resonate beyond the rational intellect and subtly influence human actions and choices. Symbols establish correspondences between the many things, which emerge from the stream of consciousness. Nowadays an integrative approach to art and science is beginning to merge these two fields which were segregated for centuries. This integration, which is happening through the development of Telematic Art, could transform our way of seeing.


II - Discussion


The artists' main role in contemporary societies seems to be the reinvention of semantic signs, giving them new meanings, testing new symbolic structures and articulating manifold knowledge systems. The speculative and experimental approach of Contemporary Art propitiates changes of perspective and confronts the public with poetic, unexpected, paradoxical or conflicting situations.


Although Contemporary Art has acquired the fame of being elitist and hermetic the public seems to be fascinated by it. Exhibitions in galleries, museums and cultural institutions draw crowds to ponder over the works of art and the aims of their creators. At Contemporary Art spaces scholars can be seen guiding crowds of tourists round the exhibits, explaining the vocabulary and "translating" the apparently hidden motives of artists. There are many explanations for such seemingly bizarre conduct. One may find the simplest explanation is the human need for meaning. If a work of art has no apparent social function at least it could be considered as a repository for meanings, as a space for experimenting with symbols: a melting pot for signs.


It is generally accepted that artists re elaborate archetypes through their work. These archetypes emerge from the human collective unconscious, which is a matrix for transformed signs and experiences. For some artists it is possible to discriminate between ordinary consciousness and outside reality on one side, and altered state of consciousness brought forth in special moments of inspiration and trance like states, on the other. Psychologists say that when the unconscious emerges in someone's consciousness a period of identification with its contents happen. The process is a normal psychological process and centred persons will discriminate between the numinous realm and the ego reality. Artists generally will express the experience through their work. They will try to channel the archetypal energies through symbols.


Archetypal symbols have a broad and complex constellation of meanings. For example, in symbols of wholeness there are the union of manifold polarities that are balanced in order to express the unity. The Self - an archetypal symbol of wholeness - is usually represented by images that embody the combination of complexity with wide perspectives due to the amalgamation of different polarities - a multiplicity - into one symbol, which express this dynamic process. "Wholeness is the integration of all the parts and Individuation is creating a purposeful existence out of a superior process than ego at work in your psyche and in your outer life destiny points." 3


Carl G. Jung in his works mentioned the power of archetypal symbols as transformers. The amplification of consciousness and the search for new dynamic ways to express and develop meanings at deep levels may emerge from the evolutionary process of human societies. For the process of transformation to occur it is necessary that one make fundamental choices, going through the pain of finishing identification from the archetypal symbol. It is important to allow changes that will happen in the characteristics and patterns one wants to transform. It is possible to observe archetypal symbols affecting and being used to influence and to manipulate - positively and negatively - society.


Today the new tools and languages available for artists in the telematic art fields instigate research on methods which make possible to work with the multidimensionality and the non-linearity of these languages and tools. When one first approach a new language or tool one tend to use it in known methods until these methods show themselves to be inappropriate. Because human mind has to find redundancies and references one will search for similar situations in human history. When finding an analogue approach one has to experiment with it to see if the old knowledge can be used, re appropriated and adequate to the present moment. This is the case with the use of allegories, which has lead to inquiries upon allegorical knowledge systems and the name telegories. In ancient times allegories allowed artists to use the transformational potential of symbols. They used the material emerged from dreams or other altered state of consciousness re directing their psychic energy through symbols assembled into their work. This is also the case with shamanism and the name Xamantic.


Shamanism is an ancient way of acquiring knowledge. Sometimes forgotten systems burst from the collective unconscious to be reborn in different levels of consciousness. Shamanism - ancient, personal and singular way of acquiring knowledge - is one of these old and almost unknown systems, so old and unknown it becomes new. It is a system of self-knowledge, which happens through inner vision. It is a way a person may use to discover means of direct access to the unconscious. Every one may travel different shamanic journeys within and discover the meanings of their own symbolic keys. Every one may travel different Xamantic journeys in the telematic environment and discover they may share poetic actions. The general patterns or archetypes found in shamanism, around the globe, open a broad range of possibilities that may meet the needs of wide number of individuals from various backgrounds and cultures.


Among many of the characteristics of the shamanic situations described by psychologists, mythologists, anthropologists and historians 4 it is possible to summarise the followings:

  1. a glittering luminous labyrinth;

  2. a multidimensional cave;

  3. a fluid and calm river or sea;

  4. a smooth flying travel;

  5. a dark, tenebrous and fearsome dungeon;

  6. a fragmented, discontinuous and dangerous road;

  7. a shattering howling gale;

  8. any combinations of these situations.


These patterns represent the psychic energies of the traveller and present a wide range of possibilities that may meet the psychological needs of the widest possible number of individuals.


Among a variety of characteristics for Xamantic journeys as a telenoetic 5 experience it is possible to summarise the followings:

  1. the construction of new assemblages of poetic signs;

  2. the reinvention of ancient myths still alive in shamanic societies over Earth;

  3. the creation of allegories upon scientific concepts;

  4. the possibility to share, collectively, poetic actions;

  5. the possibility to assemble poetic telegories with many participants in multi users environments;

  6. any combinations of these situations.


These characteristics also present to telematic artists many poetic possibilities bringing forth a new syncretism, an amalgamation of the ancient, the archetypal and the new scientific cosmologies – a poetic “something” which may reflect the complexity of the telematic age.


III - Poetic Work


The last three years the author has been developing telematic art as a Xamantic context. Sites where the confluence of shamanic experiences and its semantics happen in the telematic environment which compose them. These sites - The Xamantic Web and the Xamantic Journey 6 - are amalgamations of dreams, metaphors for the phenomena of natural world, reinvention of ancient myths and allegories of scientific concepts and cosmologies. They aim to instigate creative and poetic imagination, which is the most important of all human mental faculties. The Xamantic Journey, more specifically, is an poetic allegory of the shamanic journeys and the pattern chosen for it was a tube turned labyrinth and multidimensional through the assemblage of many realms 6. The tube creates a virtual "space" which brings all the parts together into one whole. The transformation rests on a sense of there being a possibility of projection over abstract symbols. These virtual spaces also instigate the participants to re create their own order.


There are discontinuities in time, when the participants have to wait for the next station or realm. When one brings all dimensions together there is a perception of transformation and also there is the experience of the moments of synchronicity and projection. The combination of many separated factors, when put together and raised to full consciousness, creates a type of momentary identity. The Xamantic Journey will lead the participants to a multi user interface where telegories may be assembled.


The non-linearity and multi-dimensionality, possible when working with languages such as VRML and JavaScript, conducted to the rediscovering of allegories 7. Allegories were used in ancient times to convey complex meanings because they make possible the superposition of multiple layers of metaphors creating a variety of expressive contents, generating depth. They allow the fragments also to be substantial parts of a whole. Telegories are allegories used in multi user environments with many participants to create collective and impermanent works of art such as the Mist Realm. Creative imagination is the most important of all humans’ mental faculties; to use it is to become awake. Telegories comprehend an intricate, collective, incessantly vibrating and living web, a mesh of interlocking relationships and correspondences that may be better expressed through metaphors and allegories.


The Xamantic Web and the Xamantic Journey are amalgamations of myths, dreams, natural world phenomena, shadows of the past, delight for life, all entwined. The poetic imagination mingles and mixtures all the signs which emerge from the unconscious through syncretistic processes with concepts from contemporary sciences. They bring for new poetic situations. They constellate archetypes present in the collective unconscious. They need participants with poetic attitudes so they may find delight in interacting with this abstract dreamland.


The Xamantic Web and Xamantic Journey were built based on concepts such as lightness, visibility, coherence, exactitude, multiplicity, quickness 8, complexity, multidimensionality and non-linearity. They create allegories which may propitiate someone to enter expanded states of consciousness. They are abstract worlds built over old traditions, timeless archetypes, ancient symbols, native myths still alive, the study of natural forces and shapes and the discoveries of contemporary science. The participant can drifts in and out these virtual worlds having poetic attitudes as leading thread to be followed. They aim to reorient consciousness allowing the rediscovering of everyone creative potential through telematic transformation of their ways of seeing.


Joseph Beuys equated the contemporary artist with the shaman since both are engaged in a spontaneous and dynamic evolution towards equilibrium 9. Both work intensifying awareness, integrating altered states of consciousness. 8 The Czech-Brazilian philosopher – Vilèn Flusser – considered the task of art and philosophy to fight stereotypes and "robotization" of consciousness 10. In his opinion this can only be accomplished when eyeing inside the computer's "black box" to unveil unexplored and unexpected possibilities. If not, artists and philosophers will become functionaries of the machines, enslaved by interfaces and procedures they have to obey and which can constrain their work. He also used to say that computers are semiotic machines which can be used by artists in revolutionary ways to present new poetics actions of sharing and transforming signs. New poetics possibilities may emerge from the interplay of chaos and order through artist's actions. These may subvert the established use of computer languages and give birth to new articulations of signs.


References:

1. Baigent, Michael and Leigh, Richard. “The Elixir and the Stone. England: Penguin Books, 1998.

2. Durrell, Lawrence. “Quarteto de Alexandria”. Rio de Janeiro: Expressão e Cultura, 1960.

3. Murray Stain on a recent Internet Jungian discussion group

4. See Eliade, Mircea. "Shamanism". London: Arkana, 1989.; Larsen, Stephen. "The Shaman’s Doorway". USA: Inner Traditions International, 1998.;

De Rola, Stanislas K.."The Golden Game". London: Thames and Hudson, 1997.; Von Fraz, Marie-Louise. "Alchemy". Toronto: Inner City Books, 1980.;

Von Fraz, Marie-Louise. "C. G. Jung: His Myth in our Time". Canada: Inner City Books, 1998.; Jung, C. G.. "Mysterium Coniunctionis". Petrópolis: Vozes, 1985.; and Campbell, Joseph. “Creative Mythology”. USA: Arkana, 1991.

5. Telenoia is a word created by Professor Roy Ascott to convey the feelings of ubiquity and totality one may find in some works of telematic art.

6. The Xamantic Web is at the following electronic address:

http://www.unb.br/vis/lvpa/xmantic/

The Xamantic Journey is at the following electronic address:

http://caiia-star.soc.plym.ac.uk/projects/XMANTIC/journey.html.

7. Calvino, Italo. "Seis Propostas para o Próximo Milenio. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1993.

8. Arbert Durer’s metaphysical Theory of Allegories did not intend to describe the world but to put some cosmic energy into action through symbols.

9. Wijers, Louwrien. “Writting as Sculpture”. USA: National Book Network, 1996.

10. Flusser, V.."Ficções Filosóficas". São Paulo: EDUSP, 1998.