Altered states of consciousness and visual art (Poster 1: Dali)

Arts and Design Studies, 2016

This paper discusses the greater unfoldment of the mind of the artist as beyond asylum cases that most theorist and critics have argued for. By establishing a scope that exemplifies a symbolic resonance of an idea from the subconscious, the paper as well posits that the problem of semantics in describing the artists experience, observation , beauty or form , and context , are one of such technical reality that are gravely challenged as delayed mental illness. The objective of this paper has been to refute mental illness as acceptable analysis on the artist, but used in a stark way the terms that psychoanalytically communicates the parallel worlds that are only remote in their individual expressions of art have been established. The creative fields in art extols greater energies welling from a deeper but richer consciousness that may not be readily understood by all, are but sensitive to generally acceptable discussions, yet this paper draws references from Jackson Pollock’s Shamanis...

The arts have traditionally served a wide range of social functions, from the utilitarian, political, and entertaining, to the sacred, ritualistic, and religious. As such, the arts have always been an integral vehicle of transpersonal development, by uncovering the unconscious and raising consciousness, preserving cultures, and propelling global transformation. Art as primary instinct activates all the senses, our visceral response and intellect; as a language, it compels participation and is often rich in tacit and explicit symbolism. Art forms the transition between nature and culture; it is life giving and life enhancing to individuals and societies (Jung, 1973). Ellen Dissanayake (e.g., 1979, 2003, 2013), an anthropologist and longtime researcher of art as a human behavior—an action rather than object—proposed that when physical survival is not at stake, humans engage in “shaping and embellishing the experienced, sensed, and imagined aspects of ordinary life to make them more-than-ordinary” (1979, p. 27). Dissanayake has coined the term Homo Aestheticus to denote this human predisposition: an orientation toward artification across the lifespan—accompanying child-play as well as elders spiritual ceremonies. Imaginative expression has been intrinsic to our species throughout the history of humanity, from cave paintings, ceremonial artifacts, indigenous rituals, and religious art, to street graffiti, art psychotherapy, art-based research, gallery exhibits, staged performances, and electronic media. This Special Topic Section of IJTS pays homage to the arts as vehicle and medium of consciousness in the gathering of 20 articles, including original research, philosophical pieces, images of artworks, poetry, and book reviews. The contributions are complied as if in conversation with one another, philosophy and expression meet formal research—a discourse that seems to echo a shared conviction among these transpersonal scholar-artists, expressing the importance of the arts as agents of personal and collective consciousness, transformation, and healing.

Free Associations, 2014

The article endorses a dissatisfaction with Freud's general accounts of art while maintaining that psychoanalysis does offer a variety of ways of approaching the art work and the artist's own relation to it. It discusses the process of creative work and draws possible links between studio and consulting room, especially as this addresses the person of the artist and the person of the analyst. I use the work of Joyce McDougall as regards the value of the information gained by considering the differences in artists as artists and artists as analysands. While proposing that the art work must be met on its own terms, and developing this through a discussion of the work of Martin Creed, I also see the theories of psychoanalysis and the practice of the consulting room as presenting perspectives that contribute to understanding the meaning of art for both artist and viewer. In his article, 'Freud's Objects', a discussion of the need for plurality in psychoanalytic cultures, Stefano Bolognini begins from the art that clustered round Freud and, following Gamwell (1996) links his collection to his biography. Freud seems to have started to collect after his father's death in 1896 when he was isolated scientifically and professionally (Gamwell, in Bolognini, 2008). 'He set up for himself "an attentive audience of objects, including an Egyptian scribe, a Greek goddess of wisdom and a Chinese sage... these hundreds of human and animal

From the twisted convoluted mansion of the mind, springs forth the strings of creation.The dark recess, termed as the unconscious which is beyond the reach of voluntary control is the storehouse of our repressed desires, fears, emotions and longings. "Freud and Jung and their school viewed painting as an aid in releasing the cramped and suppressed imaginative fancies of the modern artist" (Anand 25). They are both concerned with what lies behind the façade. The question as to what is going on underneath; with unconscious hidden motivations, symptoms, and neuroses. The unconscious processes seeks an outlet and the painter unwittingly provides them through the medium of his art. This paper is aimed at looking at how painting becomes a reflection on canvas of a person's unconscious self by undertaking an analysis of Salvador Dali's paintings. 1Anand, Mulk Raj. "Section Five: Transition from naïve art to man art" Poet-painter: Paintings by Rabindranath Tagore. New Delhi: AbhinavPublications, 1985. Pg. 37. Print.

2021

Since its existence, art objects have always been different from other objects in terms of perception and interpretation and have preserved their mystery for both the artist and the audience. This mystery was tried to be supported by various theories by the artist and the audience, and defined and defined with concepts such as spiritual development, spirituality and intuition. There is an ambiguity especially regarding intuition. The concept of intuition seems to be trapped in a bridge between the physical world and the superphysical world. The concept of intuition has been interpreted together with the teachings of Theosophy and Buddhism and turned into an educational theory in today's art-based studies. In our age, interpretations beyond reality are increasing and unfortunately faced with the danger of losing the ground of reality. Art is a type of knowledge and knowing. Due to this feature, the compatibility of surreal discourses with this type of knowledge is discussed in this article, and on the other hand, it is tried to show how concepts such as synesthesia and intuition become possible on the basis of reality, based on the artistic experiences of world-famous artists.

Art as experience of the living body, an East/West experience, 2023

This book analyses the dynamic relationship between art and subjective consciousness, following a phenomenological, pragmatist and enactive approach. It brings out a new approach to the role of the body in art, not as a speculative object or symbolic material but as the living source of the imaginary. It contains theoretical contributions and case studies taken from various artistic practices (visual art, theatre, literature and music), Western and Eastern, the latter concerning China, India and Japan. These contributions allow us to nourish the debate on embodied cognition and aesthetics, using theoryphilosophy, art history, neuroscience-and the authors' personal experience as artists or spectators. According to the Husserlian method of "reduction" and pragmatist introspection, they postulate that listening to bodily sensations-cramps, heartbeats, impulsive movements, eye orientation-can unravel the thread of subconscious experience, both active and affective, that emerge in the encounter between a subject and an artwork, an encounter which, following John Dewey, we deem to be a case study for life in general. Ce livre analyse la relation dynamique entre l'art et la conscience subjective, selon une approche phénoménologique, pragmatiste et enactive. Il vise à faire émerger une nouvelle approche du rôle du corps dans l'art, non pas comme objet spéculatif ou matériau symbolique, mais comme source vivante de l'imaginaire. Les contributions théoriques et les études de cas sont prises à diverses pratiques artistiques (arts visuels, théâtre, littérature et musique), occidentales et orientales, ces dernières concernant la Chine, l'Inde et le Japon. Selon la méthode husserlienne de « réduction », en écho à l'introspection pragmatiste, les textes témoignent que l'écoute des sensations corporelles-crampes, battements de coeur, mouvements pulsionnels, orientation des yeux-mises en jeu par l'oeuvre, permet de dénouer le fil de l'expérience inconsciente, à la fois kinesthésique et affective, qui émerge dans la rencontre entre un sujet et une oeuvre d'art, une rencontre comprise, à la manière de Dewey, comme un cas d'école de la vie en général. Christine Vial Kayser (PhD, HDR) is an art historian and museum curator (emeritus). She is an Associate researcher with Héritages (CYU) and a member of the Doctoral School 628-AHSS. Her research relates to the capacity of art to transform representations within an individual and in the collective mind, through embodied, mnemonic, and affective processes, in a global, comparative (East/west context). She works at the crossroads of art theory, anthropology, and neuroaesthetics. Christine Vial Kayser (PhD, HDR) est historienne de l'art et conservatrice de musée (émérite). Elle est chercheur associé à Héritages (CYU) et membre de l'ED 628-AHSS. Ses recherches portent sur la capacité de l'art à transformer les représentations au sein d'un individu et dans le cadre collectif, à travers des processus incarnés, mémoriels et affectifs, dans un contexte global et comparatif (Est/Ouest). Elle travaille au croisement de la théorie de l'art, de l'anthropologie et de la neuroesthétique.

Journal of Aesthetics and Culture, 2024

This essay delves into Antoni Tàpies's profound engagement with non-dualism, a philosophical stance encapsulated in the aphorism "samsara is nirvana and nirvana is samsara." Tàpies's exploration of non-dualism, which integrates diverse spiritual and philosophical traditions, profoundly shaped his artistic practice and worldview. Drawing from Western hermeticism and Eastern philosophies such as Hindu Advaita and Zen Buddhism, Tàpies embraced non-dual consciousness as a guiding principle in his art. His creative process incorporated alchemical symbolism, aiming to transmute mundane materials into expressions of unity between matter and spirit. Tàpies's attention to the ordinary and overlooked underscored his non-dual perspective, emphasizing the intrinsic value of all things. This ethos mirrored in his choice of humble materials and focus on everyday themes, as well as in the diptych structures that symbolized meaningful relationships between opposites. Central to Tàpies's oeuvre is the assertion that "samsara is nirvana," a concept deeply rooted in Mahayana Buddhism. His artworks serve as vehicles for awakening consciousness and transcending the illusion of duality, offering glimpses into the underlying unity of existence. Furthermore, the essay explores Tàpies's esoteric influences, highlighting his incorporation of mystical symbols and his belief in art's capacity to evoke transformative experiences. By examining Tàpies's essays and artistic works, alongside insights from extensive secondary sources, this essay aims to provide an enriching perspective on the artist's contributions to international discourse on non-dualism and aesthetics.

Journal of Conscious Evolution, 2022

To the extent that art mirrors consciousness, what does the art of any age have to tell us about where we are as a species and civilization? In this paper, I suggest that modern and postmodern art reveal the tendency toward deconstruction, of our identities, as selves, as cultures, as a civilization. Through this process of deconstruction, there is a space offered to us through the experience of art, of freedom to recreate ourselves, our identities, and our sense of purpose and meaning in the cosmos. Grounding the inquiry in texts from various authors in the field of art history and the philosophy of consciousness, I present examples of art that deconstruct and reinvent, and invite the viewer (of the art) to self-reflect and consider how we may emerge anew from the experience of art. I invite the reader to engage in the same process. I also ask what the art of the current era can tell us about where we are and where we are going as a species. Keywords: Art, commodification, consciousness, deconstruction, evolution, existential crisis, materialism, modern, postmodern, reification, transcendence, transformation

This dissertation is an attempt to design an interpretation model for the comprehension of unconscious content in artworks, as well as to find painting techniques to free the unconscious mind, allowing it to be expressed through artwork. The interpretation model, still in its infancy, is ripe for further development. The unconscious mind is a fascinating subject—in art production as well as in many scientific fields. This hidden part of the mind, being the source of creativity, constitutes an important foundation for many possible and valuable inquiries in multiple areas of knowledge. In the present study, the unconscious is approached from an art-educational perspective. The nature of the unconscious is addressed through the theories of Carl Gustav Jung and Charles Sanders Peirce, as well as through the information gained from data the author produced herself during the experimental painting process she devised for this study. For psychological distinctions not addressed by Jung, the theories of Sigmund Freud are used to forward this inquiry into the unconscious mind. A research method was created to bring Peirce’s theories into consonance with Jung’s amplification method. Since Peirce’s theories are challenging to read, to avoid misinterpretation, the author used Phyllis Chiasson’s 2001 book Peirce’s Pragmatism: The Design for Thinking as a secondary source. Peirce’s three modes of reality—firstness, secondness, and thirdness—were utilized to interpret artworks. This three-mode reality allows interpreters to reflect on their subjective feelings and then to compare them to collected data. The interpreters’ intuitive self-interpretations often correlate well with the more objective data. In this approach to interpretation, the work of art is seen as a sign, in the Jungian as well as in the Peircean sense, and interpretation seeks to discover a sign’s objects—icon, index, and symbol. Additionally, the objects are studied in combination with Peirce’s designation of the sign’s character elements—sinsign, qualisign, and legisign. Peirce’s theory offers a logical and productive structure for approaching a variety of signs and reaching a multiplicity of interpretations. Jungian theories inculcated a combined psychological and artistic perspective for the interpretation of artworks. Jung’s method of amplification is an effort to bring a symbol to life, and it is used as a technique to discover—through the seeking of parallels—a possible context for any unconscious content that an image might have. In amplification, a word or element—from a fantasy, dream, or, in this study, artwork—is associated, through use of what Jung called the active imagination, with another context where it also occurs. It must be remembered that unconscious images in artworks do not easily open themselves up for interpretation. One way to interpret possibly unconscious images is for the interpreter to become vulnerable by employing his or her own unconscious mind to interpret an artwork; such use of the active imagination can enable a subjective experience of the artwork on the part of the interpreter, who might thereby uncover unconscious content. Moreover, in this study, Jung’s theory of archetypes is employed, in parallel with Peirce’s and Jung’s theories of the sign, to illuminate an artwork’s images by connecting them with collective unconscious archetypes. The author relied upon The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images (Ronnberg and Martin 2010) as the main source for interpreting possibly unconscious elements in the artworks. This approach is especially powerful when artists interpret their own artwork—possibly leading to a galvanizing self-discovery as they revisit past encounters, personal highlights, and other pieces of unconscious content that might reveal previously unknown meaning important to their life. By comparing archetypes to the unconscious content in their own lives, people can discover themselves. Unconscious phenomena were approached on both the theoretical and empirical levels. Different methods and ideas were used to stimulate the author’s unconscious thinking while performing artwork analyses of three paintings: surrealist Salvador Dalí’s (1904–1989) Assumpta Corpuscularia Lapislazulina; abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock’s (1912-1956) The Deep; and one painting by the author herself, and for which the process of painting is video recorded (www.astagallery.com/academic.html). With regard to the third painting interpreted, the author is the study subject, and her artistic production is used as an opportunity to explore the unconscious mind. During the act of painting, an attempt is made to free unconscious thinking by fusing Dalí’s and Pollock’s methods as well as by testing multiple other methods. The author’s artistic production was conjoined with use of a technique that is called the verbal protocol method, which generates additional data not necessarily visible in the final artwork. This method unseals the artist’s tacit knowledge, which in normal circumstances remains silent. In the verbal protocol method, the author, while engaged in the act of painting, speaks aloud the stream of consciousness that accompanies and guides the art-making activity; the recorded and transcribed monologue from the artistic production is supplied, in both Finnish and English, in appendices. This thinking-aloud technique allows a person to become more self-aware and to create more solutions while struggling with emergent artistic problems. Such narratives can reveal more about the painting than the completed artwork alone can convey. Along with the artist’s finished painting and the video recorded material, narratives produced during the painting activity were interpreted. Moreover, the discoveries arising from the author’s interpretation of her own artwork are correlated with some of the latest research on the unconscious. This study allows the reader-viewer an intimate glimpse into the author’s subjective painting experience and demonstrates the participation of the unconscious in an artwork’s creation. The interpretations methodology constitutes an interpretation model suitable for other artists and art educators to follow. Keywords: unconscious, art, archetype, mandala

2019