I want to share with you the teachings from different thinkers and writers that enabled me to see this diagram. I hope that as I talk about each of their writings that it will provide you with important information about the detail of each system. In other words I would like to spend some time discussing each individual writer and some of their thoughts in detail, with the intent that their findings help you understand the diagram. Each one of these individual systems are continuously evolving, but never independent of the others. The purpose of discussing them piece by piece is to discover the multitude of input variables, and to build a foundation for what I believe is a responsibility for artists during these very exciting times we live in.

Gregory Bateson has been extremely influential in my understanding of systems. More accurately the understanding of human psychological, biological systems and how they are intricately interrelated to the larger natural ecological systems of which our origin comes from. One of his primary writings “Steps to an Ecology of Mind” is a series of essays from the late sixties, where some serious questions are asked, and development of theories towards a new way of thinking about the nature of order and organization in living systems. Although primarily a psychologist, Bateson’s work is extremely interdisciplinary in discovering patterns common to many schools of thought. I feel like he has written a manual where systemic intellectual clarity and moral clarity are put together to evoke a very convincing ethic of what is sacred, and right for life. Bateson has drawn many parallels in how ideas interact, and raises the question of natural selection of ideas.
           

Bateson asks “What allows one idea to live over another? Is there a limit to the multiplicity of ideas in a given region of the mind?” Understanding ideas and how they come and go in our mindfulness is very important to truly transcendent creativity. Achieving the mindfulness to be aware and open to that feeling of pure transcendent creativity is important to the artist systems perspective. The feeling we get when an idea is so strong and persuasive. “Ah hah” we say, as an idea seems to come to us from outside and we can’t believe that we even thought of it. Bateson has made me aware that we are all open systems constantly receiving data from the infinite numbers of other systems and energies. Being in tune with this openness of our own selves as open systems increases the frequency and awareness to these purely transcendent thoughts.
           

Since all living systems are self correcting, it is my belief that transcendent creativity is data that when manifested into the physical form of art it will become the pieces of self correcting input. This input is Needed to self correct or re-balance the dominant scientific world view of social systems today. The systems developed from the Cartesian model, which appear to be leading our species to an unhealthy future, or even extinction in the ecosystems ultimate self correction no longer serve us as a whole. This artist systems theory suggests that transcendent creativity can be the spark in really good art that can change cumulative cultural perceptions.
           

Changing cumulative cultural perceptions is a complex solution, which art in its simplicity can start the transformation process. My understanding of systems has lead me to believe that it is time we started seeing problems in their complexity, so that the reality that singular solutions to complex problems do not exist -will begin to be acknowledged.
           

“So how is it that the art of one culture can have meaning or validity for critics raised in a different culture?”  Bateson suggests that this is the result of “Grace”, which he goes on to define as psychic integration. Someone that has achieved a integrated balance between their conscious and  unconscious thoughts. If we think predominantly in one mode or the other the outcome is not synergistic, and in the case of art lacks grace. Western culture has created a mechanistic view of the world dependent on conscious thought and physical reality. A conscious dominant mindfulness. In the 1960’s the use of psychedelics substances and the pursuit of eastern spiritual practices opened up a whole other dimension to the western world - subconscious dominant thought. A reawakening of the interior realities. The scientific perspective of western thought created a debate over which one was better. The point being missed that a balanced integration of the two was a healthy state of mindfulness.
        

Let us assume for a moment that we have achieved a comfortable balance point in our conscious and unconscious thinking, and are experiencing transcendent creativity frequently. Wouldn’t this be a wonderful gifted space to be in as an artist? Well at this point enters an important variable called “Purpose”, Bateson writes. Our undeniable human desire to create purpose in our lives. This has been a very difficult point of departure for me as well as other artists I’m sure. Purpose becomes a linear cause and effect system of thinking about how to best use our creative thoughts. I can’t get to “C” without first doing “A” and then “B”, and so on. I don’t know of a way to avoid this really, although awareness of this psychological component is useful in our decision making processes. For example,  if an artists purpose is to “make it” in the art world, has s/he neglected the corrective nature of art? I presently feel that if an artist can maintain an integrity based approach with the relationship between their idea source and the unavoidable purpose of their art in the physical world that far greater success can be achived than any found in the traditional economic and material models.
           

The integrity purpose of transcendent creativity becomes the artists mental model.  The “Mental Model”  is a term used by Peter Senge. Mental models are the filters we hold in front of our present experience. They can be deeply seeded perceptions formulated from past experience that prevent us from seeing the present reality. The mental model of the starving artist is not something we have to buy into in the process. Instead living creatively brings  joy, sensitivity, and prosperity to our lives.
           

A artistic career dedicated to service becomes a difficult path to follow in a consumerism based society. For me it becomes a question of how else do we measure the success of our art, unless it is being adequately consumed, and by all means in the right social circles. This is why I placed “consumerism” as the vehicle between creativity and societal cumulative perception on the diagram. At this point the current economic system is a reality, and survival based on the integrity of your relationship, with psychic integration, is a vision to hold true to along the way. “Shared Visioning” is something that can only be achieved after “Personal Mastery” writes Peter Senge.
           

This brings me to the next influence in my systems perspective for artists. Her name is Joanna Macy. She has spent a life time translating, studying, and writing on the complex fundamentals of Buddhism. One of the most profound concepts that she has brought to my awareness is that of “dependent co-arising”. She has composed several books and what could be called the manual for human ethics of our times - “World as Lover, World as Self”. Interestingly enough she has been extremely influenced by Gregory Bateson’s systems work as well. Joanna is a  compassionate and powerful writer that has brought to westerners some very important Buddhist teachings from a systems perspective.
           

From an ecological perspective, dependent co-arising can be understood as synergy. Joanna brings forth the concept that we are being acted through. This is profound in that it changes your perception of what power is. In falling into the way of thinking that we exert power over our external world we have lost sight of the fact that this is not how nature works. So if we bring in Bateson’s point that we humans are open systems, and that all systems are self-organizing, and tie it together with Joanna’s teachings we can see that natural order is implicit in life. Living systems evolve in complexity, flexibility, and through interaction. So being aware of your image as an open system and its integral part being played out in the larger systems you find openness and vulnerability, not previously present, to start the flow though of energy and information. This process brings into play new responses and possibilities increasing the capacity to effect change in the larger systems. From this belief system, I think that collectively art and artist’s can have a huge impact on the societal systems that effect cumulative perception of health and well being. Synergy is the interdependent release of fresh potential.
           

There is an interesting point to make here on the perceptions of synergy of these two writers. We talked about how Bateson expressed that grace comes from the integrated psychic of the individual. An achievement of balance between conscious and unconscious thought patterns. In Joanna’s writing on dependent co-arising she brings up the point that consciousness co-arises with sensory activity. It does not exist prior to or independently of its environment. She says that “Apart from condition, there is no origination of consciousness”. No action or thought can exist with out a series of previous actions and thoughts leading up to that one in the present. Does this suggest how we might arrive at social cumulative perceptions? So here we can start to see how the artist systems approach can be developed.

An artist that is critically reflective of their environment and culture, and sees this cumulative perception in an integrated consciousness, processed through their awareness of being an open living system, will inevitably experience the manifestation of art from transcendent creative thought. Wow !          

This can be seen as the raw formation of a creative system for a individual artist or an artist community. The issues of purpose and perception as this system is processed through each one of us is where the uniqueness comes into play. The continuous feedback loop of information we experience in our cumulative perceptions as artists are subject to the code and constructs in which we interpret the world - Mental Models. We can not avoid this. We “see” by interpreting through our memories, expectations, and habits, which influences our every living moment. In terms of creativity and art this is a undeniably refreshing and exciting element that produces an infinite number of unique input variables. While several different artists may experience the same relative spontaneous thought, no two will produce the same physical form in their art. This is where an “Art Movement” comes from. Many art theorist have written extensively about this phenomenon of how an art movement or style will flourish for years, when then it seems to die off for a period, and then reappear on the scene.  From a systems perspective it is less of a phenomena and rather a growth cycle with a starting and a rest period, while perhaps self correcting with novelty from another art movement, before  the original thread picks up again later.
           

This movement creates energy that influences. We can see this historically in how societies love to gravitate toward this energy and create trendy neighborhoods, expensive restaurants, and profit from this to the point that, at least in American culture, artists end up having to move elsewhere because they can not afford the increased affluence in the area they effected. Or is it the purposiveness of the art movement being gobbled up in the more dominant economic system? A consumerism based societal structure does not view artists as the reflective information source that aids in steering the direction of a culture towards the future. So with this being the effect of the dominant economic and business systems wanting to profit from the synergy created by artists communities, how can the input of this creative systems approach begin to change this pattern?
           

If each individual artist sees it as their responsibility then we have the seeds of a “Shared Vision”. This is a term that systems thinker and lecturer Peter Senge uses in his systems teachings. I like to believe that to a large extent that this is implicit in the art world already. The division is found in the separation between fine art and commercial art. Another way to look at it would be an artists ability to respond to dominant systems paradigms.
             

Is there really a separation in the methods used to achieve creativity between the commercial advertising art world as to that of the fine art world? Its seems to me that the players in the advertising world have fined tuned this creative systems approach to graceful creativity beyond our conscious awareness. Look around you today at the advertising coming out of the big agencies, and you’ll notice that the major brands don’t even need to use a name anymore. Over the years they have worked fine tuned slogans and a barrage of imagery into our collective subconscious psychic to the point that we just need symbols now to know what to do. I am not saying that the advertising and marketing companies of the last hundred years or so have used this creative systems approach that I am presenting here today. Although I do intend to point out that they understand the systems approach to an ecology of mind that Gregory Bateson wrote about. So if it works in the pursuit of monetary and material profits, could not a movement with societal and earth honoring intentions using the same element of mindfulness and creativity achieve the goals of a more balanced sustainable society? If our belief systems are effectively transformed to an eco-psychological perspective, does purpose then become the self correcting force in our actions?
           

Gergory Bateson has shown us how a integration of conscious and unconscious thought creates a mindfulness called grace. When creative manifestations arise from grace they are thought to be transcendent. Joanna Macy’s systems view of Buddhist text teaches us of dependent co-arising. These two bring us in more simple terms to the phrase; “there is no separation between the individual and society”.
           

Let us assume that we have spent some time developing the ecology of our mindfulness and feel comfortable with the regularity of our spontaneous creative ideas enough to trust them in the world out there. Also that we are starting to live a lifestyle that is earth honoring and starting to feel the increased sense of interconnectedness that manifests as a result. As we start to visualize ourselves as open systems co-creating with the ecological systems around us, we also start to feel the pain, confusion, and imbalance that the ecosystem is experiencing at this time. Remember the whole system is acting through us. This is a lot more of an emotive investment than we bargained for, and we aren’t making any money in the reality of the economic situation we live in, and all of our human connections like the artwork, but think we are crazy and start to alienate us. Wow.......after all of this most of us will want to go back to our old way of thinking and being.
           

In figure 2, System for Successful Transformative Work you can start  to see how to address these concerns.

Two teachers come into to play here for me. First of all I encourage you all to read Joanna Macy’s book “World as Lover, World as self”. She writes extensively on what to do with the emergence phase, and provides exercises for when you get to this point. For example Joanna points out that basic to most spiritual traditions, as well as to the systems view of the world, is the recognition that we are not separate, isolated entities, but integral and organic parts of the vast web of life. So eventually we will find like sources of energy in the web, because we are being acted through and the system is trying to correct itself. There can be tremendous positive vibrating energy and motivation to keep moving along once this perspective is fully visualized.
           

The next writer is not necessarily a systems thinker, but she has written a manual to un-blocking creativity, and will help you reach a core creativity within yourself. Her name is Julia Cameron, and the title of her book is “The Artists Way”. Julia’s point is that we are all recovering creative's no matter what our profession or lives work is about. From this point of view she has developed a logical approach to this recovery process. Upon initial inspection her book appears rather simple and straight forward. The book is oriented into twelve chapters, and the reader is instructed to read one chapter per week and complete the exercises. I thought it would be a breeze, and when it was all said and done I found that it took more like twenty weeks for me to finish. Unblocking creativity, getting a handle and letting go of your ego in the creative processes, and recovering your true self from the Cartesian model most of us were brought up under is not a breeze by any means of the imagination. I imagine the intent was different in the time the Cartesian model was evolved, but presently the impact of a life lived in that model keeps us unauthentic, and out of touch with our true creativity.
           

Many of the exercises in The Artists Way are not just something that are accomplished once at the end of each chapter, but rather they need to become part of your lifestyle. The ego hates this discipline and will fight it all the way until you show it who is in charge. For this reason the exercises can be deep penetrating hard work the first few times, and later become more fun.
           

One of the most appropriate practices from “The Artist Way” is what Julia calls “Mourning pages”. She instructs all of her students to write three pages every mourning. No matter what! I had a million excuses of why I couldn’t do this part of the work, but soon I found this was the surest way to access very valuable subconscious thoughts. Some mornings I have a direct line to my higher self and the clarity of a life time. Other mornings there is a real block to getting started, and I just have to write what ever is there even if that means writing the same thing over and over, because a few lines of this and eventually boredom from repetition ensues and something important will surface.
           

A second important practice that I have learned from Julia’s book is what she terms the artist date. The cool part is that this is really a weekly date with your inner child. Allowing ourselves to recover a sense of play, wonder, and fun like we did when we were children. Once a week  an hour or two is allotted to doing something by yourself that you normally wouldn’t allow yourself to do. I find that a lot of my dates with myself are centered around art itself like seeking out a new gallery or going to a museum exhibit. I recommend starting artist dates without any correlation to the kind of work that you do. I always try to emphasize the mental framework of fun, and maintain the sense of wonder that a child has about the world s/he is discovering. Going out and getting some water colors and a new pad of paper can take on a whole new experience. While this is going on, check in every once and a while and take note of what parts of yourself you are experiencing during the process of discovery, and then let them go.
           

The adaptation of these two practices are extremely useful in opening up a more consistent dialog with the multiple levels of subconscious thought. Is it coincidence how different thinkers have found different skills or paths to access the same aspects of mindfulness? What Joanna Macy teaches about dependent co-arising suggests otherwise.

Figure 3 is from Gregory Bateson's book "Steps to an Ecology of Mind". The systems diagram shows us the three dominant social systems that make up the crises of the modern world. Technology, Population, and Hubris are the three dominant systems in the social systems. Notice the three sub-systems of pollution, war, and famine. These sub-systems are the results or the output when the dominant systems spin out of control.
           

My theory and goal of this essay is aimed at the Hubris. When creative thought comes from a integrated mindfulness, grace, it transcends the individual artist, and is the self correcting matter that the whole system needs as input to reach a balanced state. When transcendent thought manifests in art form, it carries the messages to co-create new visions, which will have a transformative effect on the cumulative perceptions of the hubris. When the cumulative perceptions of the hubris have enough self-correcting information formulating, the process of dependent co-arising will create new realities.

            Can artists collectively co-create new realities sufficiently and effectively enough to rekindle ecological and social cohesion in the modern world?

 

References:
 
Bateson, Gregory- “Steps to an Ecology of Mind”, Ballentine Books; (1972)

Berman, M.- “The Re-enchantment of the World”, Cornell University Press, (1981)

Cameron, Julia- The Artist’s Way - A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity”, Tarcher/Putnam; (1992)

Cavalcanti, Clovis-  “Patterns of Sustainability in the Americas: the U.S. and Amerindian Lifestyles”, Institute for Social Research,Fundacao  Joaquim Nabuco, Recife, Brazil, (1994)

Cowan, James-  “Messengers of the Gods”, Bell Tower/Crown Publishers, (1993)

Fabun, Don-  “Dimensions of Change”; Glencoe Press, (1971)

Gowdy, J. & O’Hara, S.- “Economic Theory for Environmentalists”, St. Lucie Press, (1996)

Hawken, Paul- The Ecology of Commerce, A Declaration of Sustainability, HarperCollins (1993)

Highwater, Jamake- "The Language of Vision"; Grove Press (1994)

Ingerman, Sandra-  “Welcome Home”, Harper/Collins, (1993)

Kelly,  Kevin- “Out Of Control” Addison Wesley Publishing, (1994)

Macy, Joanna-  “ World as Lover, World as Self”, Parallax Press; (1991)

Mander, Jerry-  “In the Absence of the Sacred - The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations”, Sierra Club Books, (1991)

Mitroff, Ian- “Business Not as Usual”, Jossey-Bass Publishers,(1987)

The Presidents Council on Sustainable Development, “Sustainable America - A   New Consensus”, U.S. Government Printing Office, (1996)

Prugh, Thomas- “Natural Capital and Human Economic Survival”, (1995)

Roszak, Theodore- The Voice of the Earth ;Simon & Schuster, (1993)

Senge, Peter- The Fifth Discipline, The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Currency Doubleday (1990)

Wilber, Ken- "No Boundary"; Shambhala, (1981)

Wilber, Ken- "Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religon";Random House (1998)

Williams,Lloyd-  “Business Decisions, Human Choices”; Quorum Books, (1996)