Bluelab is a developing non profit corporation providing new approaches to new media art productions. Bluelab will seek collaborative involvement on the part of many leading artists, filmmakers, performers, writers and musicians along with highly regarded spiritual teachers and leaders of other fields. Our hope is to aid in "The Great Work"--that of saving the world.
The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. Albert Einstein If one wishes to change the world, one must first become that change. Forbearance, patience and tolerance are the only conditions which keep two (or more) individual hearts united.
Hazrat Inayat Khan It seems that far too many people even sophisticated, intelligent and educated people have little or no idea what true community actually is. Perhaps even fewer have personal experience with it. Bluelab offers a way for talented and skilled professional artists to work together in a truly comfortable and supportive atmosphere with quality professional tools.
Bluelab encourages spiritual practice which can be defined in a wide range of interpretations but which simply helps individuals to relax controls and to effectively quell the personal ego and its influences. We re not interested in ideologies though many of us are personally dedicated to various religious or philosophical interests we re more interested in the experience. As Jung said, contact with the numinous (God) is what heals us .
As Joseph Campbell once said, "Religion is often a defence against the religious experience." It's clear to most of us that experience is what we need--not concepts. If one studies religion from a mystical perspective one finds a lot less to argue about.
The problem here is not with the mystics of the world. They have never been the trouble makers. Jimmy Hendrix is quoted as saying, When the power of love becomes greater than the love of power, there will be peace.
Mark,
see below thanks for your mail tool check alsotonerworks.blogspot.com
com>Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 12:13:13 -0800 (PST)
We are all social animals. While it's true that what we think of one another is none of the business of the other--it seems appropriate to share experience, strength and hope with one another--this is one way that we help one another fulfill our capacities and actualize our dreams.
In 1984 or 1985 I was fortunate to get to meet, hear and eventually work with a man named "Don C" who led a workshop on the 12 Traditions while living in Colorado Springs. He took what had been for me stale and arcane writings and breathed life into them showing how they could be approached as dynamic technologies for building deep and transformative consensus among committed people.
He was (is) a visionary--a haloed medicine man--was the senior Manager for Digital Corp in Colorado Springs handling "NORAD" technical support and what not--a former NASA engineer--and a recovering drunken Mohawk Indian.
He was the first person to link what I had already discovered through my time in Menningers in 1980-1982 which was this phenomenal and miraculous--if mysterious atmosphere called "community" to its functional underpinnings.
When I was an inpatient (at Menningers) in 1980-'82 battling bi-polar illness and what not we used to have these weekly community meetings that as it turned out were really transformative. It's hard to isolate exactly what made those meetings so powerful and nurturing--but I have some ideas.
First, they were held in a highly focused and structured environment. The staff had regular schedules, as did the patients. These were consistent and dependable and created for me a sort of infrastructure for the wild and misguided energies I was often subject to.
Two, there were several people in those meetings who were spiritually awake. Some of these men and women were what we would call "geniuses" or "spiritual masters" meaning that regardless of what sort of pandemonium might have erupted with one or more of the 23 patients (I keep wanting to write "students" in place of "patients") these men and women remained poised, transcendent, yet engaged and compassionate. They had that rare character which I have come to recognize as "sage like.
" Three, all were allowed to speak whatever they wished and were encouraged to be spontaneous--even if that meant risking saying something "inappropriate" or stupid. This tolerance--this real and loving and consistently accepting tolerance of all of us set the tone for "unconditional love." This meant that I gradually learned that I was in fact lovable--even when I was arrogant--pretentious--cowardly--mean spirited--or whatever.
..I do mean fully whatever.
Four, the treators were humane enough and evolved enough to create a level playing field. Rarely did I feel condescended to. The section chief, Dr.
Dean Collins--a world class Psychiatrist with Buddha presence on several occasions would walk up to me as I sat alone in the cafeteria eating my lunch and ask to join me. We never exchanged a lot in words--it was more our sense of one another. He loved me (and I adored him)--and everyone there with a profound and unwavering kindness, cheer, and playfulness that can only be associated with enlightenment.
So I guess Five is that we had "wise elders" present who were able to hold the energy of the community in a gentle yet masterfully firm way--which gave people like me who were raised by raging fathers and doting childish mothers (though well intentioned) a sense of clarity and safety. I began to learn that I could let go.
It was in this sublime atmosphere--combined with my time with another master--my main doctor and guru, Becquer Benalcazar that allowed me to break free of the disease that had been killing me for some time--the disease of this destructive and raging and disembodied false self.
When I first got out of Menninger's after 2 years and 2 weeks of in- hospital treatment--I dove into AA and NA meetings. They were my refuge and my support. I craved the energy of community--that transcendent loving space where time slows, voices become softer, clearer, and more audible, where deep thoughts and subtle connections seem to flow without too much ado, where acquaintances feel familial--and where trusted friends feel even more intimate than the day before-- where the darkness--the wolf at the door is turned away--at least for a few minutes or hours.
I used to go to these lunch AA meetings in Topeka, Kansas where Menningers used to be located--and there were 4 or 5 extraordinary "old timers" in the group. They rarely said a lot, but they glowed, transmitting an atmosphere of peace and good will. They were natural and real and consistently kind to me.
Occasionally one would say something to me in passing or in private that would ring my bell--like a Zen master offering a koan that I immediately understood. These were important experiences.
Over the next 15- 18 years I became disenchanted.
A lot of my problem was of course "me" and my attitudes and behaviors--which remained self-defeating and problematic. I came into AA through a world class hospital, believed I was a true genius, had met a number of famous people--becoming friends with some and was a tragic romantic with feelings of supreme uniqueness.
7 years out of treatment I decided to go to art school.
There I had a hard time locating "community" though early on I talked a lot about it. In art school I became a stand out--winning top awards, being asked by the President to holiday meals, and having famous New York artists to my house.
We got to do an experimental work with the sculptor, James Surls who shows in galleries like Marlborough and what not.
We created a collaborative performance called "Beyond Time" which became a platform for a number of my notions. After the performance in his studio north of Houston--a 15000 sq foot redwood structrue surrounded by pines with a kitchen, clean room for his 8 foot wood block prints, showers, a stage, a 30 foot ceiling, and various relics, paintings and sculptures from friends and colleagues..
.he made a b-line to me after the performance--gave me a big hug--and told me it was the best thing he'd ever seen.
I created a piece in San Antonio called "I Wanna Be A Hero" in which a woman came up to me afterward and told me that she'd recently seen the Tibetan Lamas perform and that she'd had the same experience at my show.
This felt like an enormous endorsement.
When I was at the Vermont Studio Center in '93 I was working with Jane Dickson--a woman with work in the Museum of Modern Art and the Met who used to come by my studio and often linger. I knew that I was in that exalted and inspired space that I had been in and out of for years since my initial awakening.
One day she told me that I reminded her of her friend Kiki Smith and that though I was a good painter--she believed I was here to do something else...
I took this to mean creating collaborations as a new and socially engaged art form.
There have been many other experiences. I have met some Tibetans who have indicated that I am some sort of rimpoche--a reincarnated master.
I don't think this is unusual--and suspect that lots of people who are good artists are--like you and Bob probably.
Anyway, here we are. It's 2006 almost 2007 and I am still fumbling around trying to put the pieces together.
I am a visionary--but am not a very grounded or talented business man or corporate strategist. I am a very good team player and having met men over the years who'd worked in important think tanks (I met one older gentleman in the 80's who'd been one of the handful in the Manhattan project) tell me that they could see that I'd be good at that sort of thing..
.I have tried to build bluelab's ideas up enough that they would catch hold of people like you and that your imagination would be fired sufficiently that you'd want to dive in and roll up your sleeves and work.
I am a mysterious and intriguing figure to a number of well known people--but everyone's waiting for me to do something...
I am so grateful that you took the time to write all this. bluelab is about community. Let me recap:
.I think.
The bluelab model proceeds upon the working assumption that "true community" is an udeal conduit by which to design and build works that are "limenal" or truly transformative.
I created a piece some time ago called blue glass projects in which I went out and found 15-20 artists who were willing to meet regularly and to draw, to paint, to write, to brainstorm, and to make videos and performances.
there was not enough structure and we lapsed too often into chaos--2. we had little of no money--so we were all stressed out trying to make work without proper resources. 3.
we lacked some of the artistic skill sets to make polished collaborative presentations--that might turn heads--I don't know what else. The point is that the thing was successful on some levels--but it flew under the radar of the public eye--and consequently made no real impact.
This all goes back to what I was saying about "transformative space" A true community according to Peck is a "mystical body.
" This to me means that the community becomes a conduit--a channel for the miraculous. Because of the content of some of what I saw in my visionary moments in '81 I believe I am called to this work. I don't have all the technical answers or supports for my argument that this thing can in fact work and change lives--I am like Noah who was told to build a ridiculously large boat in the middle of dry land and to wait.
..
I am not the Power, I am not the Idea. I am not the Language. I am not the Inspiration.
I am only the builder of the boat. I don't know how subtly correlative this analogy actually is, but in my mind--I am the founder--a founder-- in what can only be made fruitful by the concerted efforts of several very talented and skilled participants.
Peck who was for my money the man who picked up where Bill Wilson left off in terms of applying these principles of community to the world at large--said more than once that "in community lies the hope of the world.
" I've ran accross others saying things like that "if and when the Buddha returns he will return via community. "
Don't you think I know how hard all this is to swallow? I have carried the weight of being viscerally committed to something I can neither fully understand or seemingly shoulder for 25 plus years now.
All I can say is that it is my work. I want to make it clear enough and compelling enough that it will attract unto itself those who are called to be active participants--fellow leaders--as true community implies. It's not about me being the heavy--that will never work.
There are plenty of instances in recent history to turn me away from the idea of being The Leader. Jim Jones, David Kuresh, Jim Backer, Jimmy Swaggert (hey, what's with the "Jims") are all examples of the corruption of inordinate power.
Artists in subtler ways have been examples of abuse of power too. I have long called this (after Robert Moore, the Jungian professor from the U of Chicago coined it) the "Elvis Complex." This is rampant in today's culture.
bluelab if it is to be successful will have to be safeguarded by principles (again from AA) such as anonymity.
Enough for now..
.I am so grateful to get to interact with you Mark. The vastness of your curiosity, your diligent and courageous body of work, and the quality of your tenacious independence have inspired me.
Jeff
My dream is to get artists who are technical wizards and who have the maturity to embark on an arduous and risky psychological journey, to get spiritual teachers and community building experts in to work with us, to have the funding to afford good food and reasonable tools and resources, and with all this some time--maybe a couple weeks or more--and build works that will turn heads--that can change hearts.I felt that you were attacking me when you said simply, "cowardice is the enemy." no-- fear is what i fight these days.
I find that it is an inside job. No one is out to get me,. No one is falling down in their appreciation of my art.
It is all about my unwillingness to step up to the plate. so i was encouraging you to fight your cowardice if you have some.
Look Mark, I know you're a crackerjack artist--and incredibly driven and hard working creative--and that you've been out on your own investigations for decades.
All I ask for is your wisdom and your expertise in the form of an occasional phone conversation and/or email like the above. I don't mean to offend you. In truth you owe me nothing--other than (in my mind at least) to fulfill the implied and mutually defined task of being a board of advisers member---an adviser.
When I first approached you and Bob I didn't really know what a Board was or how it might be defined. Now I feel I have a better understanding--bluelab will soon be getting 501C-3 status and begin asking for money from donors--then the "board of advisers" will be asked to change hats to become the "board of directors." When this happens, there will be bi-laws and structures and agreements and you will have voting rights and responsibilities.
Some words you mentioned that sound like trees in the forest:
mutually defined taskboard of advisers"board of directors."change hatsbi-laws and structures and agreementsvoting rightsresponsibilitiesI know what tasks and responsibilities are. what sort of tasks and what responsibilities?
Which part did I define? I guess you can use my name for now if you like but i still don't get what you want me to actually do. if it is write an email yes I can do that.
I will keep you informed of my activities.I appreciate your interest in my work.
Warmly, Jeff
jeff I am not sure what you want me to do
But, where can we possibly go, and how? We live in a society that has drastically narrowed our sensitivity to moral and spiritual issues; the problem we face is how to deal with a belief structure that has blocked both psychological and spiritual development.
Suzi Gablik
today I have been thinking about a name for an idea i have had for years which is OMNICASTING in other words, everyone has their own little broadcasting station and is busy transmitting to the rest of the world. this has been coming for a long time and now it is here. its a miracle.
who knows what form it will take? but yes i agree with you that the world is ailing and we need to put out positive messages. put yours out.
our job is to take actions. we are not in the results business. we take the actions, the results we cannot control.
if you require something from me to complete your happiness, then you will remain unhappy because you cannot guarantee what I will do.techniques like shame are like rumsfeld torture. it is unethical and more importantly it doesn't work.
well maybe it does...
you got me to write back!I like this image I found on your site http://www.flickr.
com/photos/64522811@N00/252090997/today i have been thinking about the followinglook them up on wikipedia if you need further elaboration about their definitions- i think wikipedia is wonderful, don't you.false consciousnesscommodity fetishismpropaganda modelflakmass mediacommunicationbioinformaticsinformation theoryinformation entropyentropydiffusionmeme are you hip to the "Turqoise Meme"crossing the chasmbass diffusion modeldiffusion of innovations-----> this is where I started. It is a clumsy word.
I prefer PANMODERNISM. I am developing my theoriesi found this particularly enlighteninghttp://www.utdallas.
edu/~mzjb/bass.ppt I am interested in using capitalistic principals to achieve my ends at the moment. Not because i think it is the best plan but because everybody else does.
Until it is not here any more, we have to fit into the money world. that means putting butts into seats is the criteria for goodness. it is not always accurate but it is a good indication.
on some level, you have to ATTRACT OTHERS or you are preaching to the choir or screaming into the void. forgive me if i sound harsh. i am busy trying to make a living- off my art and in other ways to try and support my art habit.
I like what you are doing keep it up.tell me specifically what you want me to do and I will tell you if I can do it
.From: Jeff Hogue
com>Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2006 06:52:13 -0800 (PST)To: Mark Bloch Subject:
are platitudes to be equated with substantive support from you? is your time so valuable that you can't take more than 3.
5 seconds to offer support, compassionate direction, meaningful and cogent and specific feedback?
.Mark Bloch wrote:
cowardice is the enemy!
From: Jeff Hogue
com>Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2006 07:56:18 -0800 (PST)To: Mark Bloch Subject: How are you?
Mark, I just wrote Bob and I am writing you imploring you to interact meaningfully with me and to offer a bit of your time and enormous experience to bluelab and to me to try to get things moving. I have refrained from asking again--perhaps out of cowardice--but I am feeling more and more focused and believe (in spite of perhaps a lack of external evidence other than ongoing blog entries www.
communalart.blogspot.com
I have made real sacrifices. This much I know. I value your talent and brains and history.
I could use your help. If you don't want to be affiliated with me I will understand. I just can't keep your name and history on my blog as a member of the Board of Advisers (and eventually Directors) if you are uninterested.
Hope you understand and will help.
What if artists were offered stipends, room and board allowing them to come together and to work intensively and without distraction for substantial blocks of time on film, music and real time performance collaborations? What if artists and thinkers could explore important issues in depth leading to transformational theater, installation, film and music?
What if these artists were guided by experts through a structured community building process prior to beginning to create their projects? What if artists were given opportunity to work with and interact with some of the leaders of our time in the fields of art, science, and philosophy? What if these artists were given all the production equipment and technical assistance they might need to produce global quality shows?
What if supporters and friends of our organization were given intimate amphitheater access to segments of our artists processes as well as early rehearsals, scheduled meals, activities and fellowship? What if the productions could be built and performed with some eventually touring the US and the world? Nothing is more challenging, nothing less sentimental, than the invitation of spirit to become who we are and not who we think we ought to be The new monk wears an invisible robe.
Thomas Moore, the Religion of the Soul The question is no longer how did we get here, and why? But, where can we possibly go, and how? We live in a society that has drastically narrowed our sensitivity to moral and spiritual issues; the problem we face is how to deal with a belief structure that has blocked both psychological and spiritual development.
If there is a new agenda, a new vision now emerging within our society, how might one help put it into practice? ..
.bluelab is being developed upon the issue first posed by Einstein, "a problem cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness in which it was created. It has become evident to many that in order to meet the problems we face as a species we must embrace a radical revision of our beliefs and our behaviors.
bluelab functions upon the strong presumption that artists likely figure significantly into the revisioning of a new world and the invention of ways to communicate our discoveries. As we all learn more and more about our essential interconnectedness it also becomes increasingly evident that artists can t function in a social vacuum. The label of artist is only used as a signifier of persons with specific media skills and training who are fluent in creative processes and who have some professional link to art.
In terms of the way bluelab will in fact function, we are working to develop a sound and effective approach to community building which relies heavily upon time tested processes that are well understood and are seeking the help of people who are expert in these processes. Why all the talk of community ?It is our firm belief that by building works in a heightened communal space we will in fact be building works potent with transformational energies.
Jung talked about the distinctions between liminal or transformative space and liminoid , or works that are simply entertaining. With a hard look at where we are at as a species and planet it seems like simple math that we must link art making to the real task at hand that of saving the earth. bluelab has been founded by Jeff Hogue and created out of a perceived need to reconsider art making and professional collaborative art practice proceeding boldly from visionary prerogatives.
We don t find fault with the many artists who will not be drawn to what we are doing for spiritual practice and its interface with collaborative art making are not for everyone. In light of our present global endgame scenario it seems frivolous at best to argue over rhetorical issues. bluelab is intended for the Great Work --that of joining leaders of many fields worldwide who are engaged in the work of saving the earth.
We believe that perhaps the only way to meet these challenges is to deeply transform ourselves which implies structured spiritual practice to be determined by each member for her or himself. This is the turning point. When serious professional artists are willing to embrace the rigors of authentic spiritual practice, the work of community building and heightened artistic collaboration will undoubtedly fall quickly into place.
The abundance of quotes from Sufi teachers have been included simply because they are part of my daily practice and do not infer a direct link between bluelab and Sufism. In point of fact, any serious spiritual practitioner must see that there can be no schism between the teachings of true Sufism and any sincere humanitarian interest. In the interest of those who may fear some sort of covert Islamic link, Sufism as it s practiced and defined by and large in the West is Universalist in its orientation and in fact many Sufi s roots are Christian and Jewish.
Save us, our Lord, from the earthly passions and the attachments which blind mankind. Save us, our Lord from the temptations of power, fame and wealth, which keep humanity away from Thy glorious vision. Save us, our Lord, from the souls who are constantly occupied in hurting and harming their fellowman and who take pleasure in the pain of another.
Save us, our Lord, from the evil eye of envy and jealousy, which falleth upon Thy bountiful gifts. Save us, our Lord, from falling into the hands of the playful children of earth, lest they might use us in their games; they might play with us and then break us in the end, as children destroy their toys. Save us, our Lord, from all manner of injury that cometh from the bitterness of our adversaries and from the ignorance of our loving friends.
Amen Some renaissance theologians worked hard at reconciling paganism with Judaism and Christianity. We have yet to achieve this détente that is essential to the life of the soul. Fragments of our hearts and minds are located in the garden of Gethsemane and in the garden of Epicurus, on the zodiac of the Apostles and on the zodiac of the animals, in the wine of Dionysus and in the wine of the Eucharist, in the psalms of David and in the hymns of Homer.
It is not a matter of belonging to a religion or professing one s faith, it is a matter of orientation in life and participation in its mysteries. We can all be pagan in our affirmation of all of life. Christian in our affirmation of communal love, Jewish in our affirmation of the sacredness of family, Buddhist in our affirmation of emptiness, and Taoist in our affirmation of paradox.
The new monk wears invisible robes. Thomas Merton travels across the globe, and in the home of Eastern monks, dies. Isn t this a myth for our time and about the resurrection of the monastic spirit!
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