Art, Sensemaking and Dialogue Projects by John Oliver
...science is looking for answers and art is looking for questions.
British contemporary visual artist
Quinn’s writing echoes John Vervaeke's evoking an awakening from the meaning crisis, and call for how we need to seek meaning 'in' (vs. 'of') our post-modern material lives.
Photo: Autoportrait by Tyler / John Oliver
The Role of the Arts in Complexity Sciences
What can artists bring to the field of human social complexity, from making sense in our ever-changing world with exponential technology development, to transforming social conflict, to the more existential questions of our individual and collective purpose?
A great deal has been written (see references below) on how artists can be seen to be navigating paradox and polarities, working with fragments and integrating the disparate parts of our lives into new forms - noticing what is needed to make things whole.
The work of artists generates conversations and questions, opening possibilities for connections and relationship that were previously unseen.
Artists' oxygen is the very complexity and ambiguity of the human condition, as they explore the dynamics of our contradictions and edge of our sensemaking - creativity and hope therefore spring from their polarities with conflict, tragedy or decay.
This notion of "edge" I like to evoke when taking a step back, and considering if our work in this world is working in or on the system.
My own personal journey having worked in diverse sectors across technology (e.g. aerospace and satellite communications), overseas development aid, and organisational development, has inspired a passion for integrating the sciences with the humanities (anthropology, sociology), The most recent development has been for me to extend that inquiry within an artistic practice, that contrasts my academic interests and analytical education, to a syncretic integration of disciplines and capacity to sense or feel the 'whole'.
I see this as my developmental edge as I cross the age threshold into my 50s, and explicitly connect my artist experiments with my spiritual inquiry over the past 30 years (e.g. attending a religious schools until 16 years old, then learning mediation at 18 from my ordained Buddhist brother and continued exploration of the Eastern wisdom traditions),
There is of course a vast landscape of artistic and creative practices, ranging from improvisation theatre to conceptual art installations, to community therapeutic arts. From this diversity, there can however be essential qualities of the shifts in consciousness that occur for those participating with the creative process - a quality of consciousness that can add significant capacities for those working with complexity.
Having established a first phase of contrasting artistic practices (in video, painting, sculpture) since 2019, I am now passionately drawn to how as an artist I can engage in the application of the artistic principles to individual, organisational and societal development, and connecting the arts to my professional experience in Sensemaking.
Below is an evolving list of the key qualities that an artistic practice can bring to the field of applied complexity sciences - speaking to a conviction of mine that:
"agents and facilitators of change, especially those leveraging the complexity sciences
practices such as in Sensemaking (using for example frameworks such as Cynefin, Integral Theory and
developmental psychology), should all have an artistic practice"
Principles and Qualities of "Being" at the Heart of the Creative Experience
BEGINNER's MIND
Artists live on the edge between expertise and non-expertise...practicing 'beginner's mind' where the naïve questions fuelled by curiosity can unveil deep assumptions and open up the field of perception. Beginner's mind is very effective in revealing possible blind spots or biases.
PATTERN RECOGNITION
Artists engage their full sensory field, integrating multiple levels of processing (mental, body sensorial) to make sense of the whole and being alert to detecting weak but significant signals.
NAVIGATING TENSIONS
Complex systems are defined by their constant dynamic, in negotiating and adapting to internal and external tensions. They can be between competing (but equally valid) values or perspectives.
Artists leverage these tensions at the heart of its practice, inviting the observers' own inquiry.
WELCOMING DISCOMFORT
The creative and artistic experience leads us to welcoming those opportunities to go out of our comfort zone. Discomfort is a source of insight, self reflection, challenging what our biases and habits might be hiding from us.
NEW DIMENSIONS OF PERCEPTION
Art's evolutionary purpose is in its power of honing and expanding our senses, and creating new layers of abstraction.
Abstraction is at the core of how human's understand their environment and make choices.
Art can provide a unique visual or sensual representation (in combination with analogy, symbolism, metaphors) as compared to intellectual or verbal descriptions.
CYCLING EGO
Related to the practice of 'beginner's mind' is the separation from one's ego - not to disown it, but as a dynamic of opening oneself up as a channel, and later reintegrate ego. Many artists related to their works in the 2nd person, creating a dialogue where the artist feels that the creativity came from something beyond them.
SENSING DEEP TIME
Accessing deep time - - Sense of timelessness... Kairos and Chronos
- Sense of the ongoing infinite future
The central practice of wasting time, and unproductive time.
IMPERFECTION AND ERRORS AS FUEL
John Berger's quote here is probably all that needs to be said: "Art is a constant process of error correction".
ABDUCTIVE THINKING
While deductive ('de-' = from) reasoning always follows necessarily from general or universal premises and inductive ('in-' = to) thinking forms a generalization based on what is known or observed, abductive ('ab-' = away) thinking is an inference of understanding from a collection of observations.
TRUSTING IN ACCIDENTS
There is a visceral sensation of having to suspend expectations and control. Not-knowing is a faculty or muscle that can be developed.
With patience and a willingness to play, moving in non-linear ways, accidents turn into synchronicities and can be only understood retrospectively.
SEEING FROM THE FUTURE
Artists are unique in their capacity to work from a place where the future already exists. They take leaps that are not constrained by the present.
CONSTRUCT AWARENESS
The creative process engages all senses, and therefore reveals the relationships and tensions between the emotional, the rational; the intuitive, the logical; the spontaneous, the planned. Each step in the creative process therefore invites us to be aware of our constructs. The rational, the logical, the planned - as "constructs" - are all under scrutiny from their opposites.