“As I talk to men and women sincerely trying to find meaning and an end to a confusing and sputtering life, often I hear the jargon of popular psychology and the glowing bloated terms of the new spirituality. Emotionally it is always tempting to go from one extreme to another, from the bottom to the heights, from feelings of deflation to inflation. This bounce from earthy despair to airy hope; is a particular problem in the spiritual life.
The downward way toward sprit is unflinchingly disintegrative. In an early book of mine I made much of the alchemical saying ‘Solve et coagula—dissolve and congeal.’ Apparently we need to be dissolving all the time, even as we get ourselves back together. But saying it doesn’t accomplish it. We may have to give up the words that cheer us on and discover, simply by being open to the life unfolding in front of us, the particular way of disintegrating that turns us inside out and shows us our spiritual potential. For this mystery Renaissance thinkers, so sophisticated to these matters, used Plato’s image of a Silenus, an ugly and grotesque statue that opened up to reveal the gods.
Dis-integrate means not to feel whole. The word has an interesting and, to me, unexpected origin. It comes from the Latin tangere, to touch, and eventually came to mean untouched or complete in itself. Dis-integrate is a double negative, leaving us with touched, messed with, not original. We may have two different fantasies about our spiritual condition: one is to be pure and whole as we are from the beginning: the other, common in alchemy, is to be in process, to be making soul rather than just being. Spiritual people often speak glowingly of wholeness and pursue it as an ideal. But the soul is present in disintegration as well when we have entered life generously and have been affected, having lost our original innocence and ideals.
To be spiritual is to be taken over by a mysterious, divine compulsion to manifest some aspect of life’s deepest force. We become most who we are when we allow the spirit to dismember us, unsettling our plans and understandings, remaking us from the very foundations of our existence. 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…
We are always becoming whole, and that means we are never whole but always disintegrating as we go. We find our wholeness as we are peeled away, like an onion, with the process finished when there is nothing left to peel. Perhaps only then will we be moved to give up the idea of wholeness altogether, having disintegrated sufficiently to be touched by life, and are therefore empty.”
“The new monk wears an invisible robe.”
Thomas Moore, the Religion of the Soul
The vision of Bluelab hinges upon the technologies of real community.
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 is a new approach to collaborative performance and art making focusing on community as creative vehicle.
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, to watch the breath using various techniques, and to effectively quell the personal ego and its influences. We’re not interested in ideologies—though many of us are dedicated personally 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”.
In other words Bluelab proceeds upon the idea that it’s better to keep things simple on theoretical levels and to direct our attention and energies toward efforts that are clearly mutually beneficial.
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. The problem seems to lie with the religious politicians and powerbrokers. Jimmy Hendrix is quoted as saying, “When the power of love becomes greater than the love of power, there will be peace.”
Bluelab takes the attitude that love is what it’s all about and that learning to communicate and work together lovingly and peacefully is intrinsic to making artistic collaborations which are substantive and transforming.
. “Religion is often a defense against the religious experience.” Joseph Campbell
Initial Questions for Artist Applicants
1. How do you feel about collaborative projects? Do you like working with others? What experience if any do you have with collaborative art making?
2. If offered a stipend would you be willing and able to drop everything in your life and pour yourself into an intensive and immersive collaborative process?
3. Which media do you have experience with? Which are you most proficient with?
4. What in your mind is the difference between “art by committee” and art developed “communally”?
5. Do you have an interest in spirituality? Could you elaborate? Do you have any sort of daily spiritual practice?
6. Are there ways that you see in which art making and spiritual practice are related?
7. Are you optimistic about the coming years—personally and collectively?
8. What is your vision and philosophy for the arts in this new post postmodern culture?
9. How do you think we could make collaborative artwork fun?
“Vulnerability, then, is not only the ability to risk being wounded but is most often made manifest by revealing our woundedness: our brokenness, our crippledness, our weaknesses, our failures and inadequacies. I do not think that Jesus walked vulnerably among the outcasts and crippled of the world purely as a sacrificial act. To the contrary, I suspect he did so because he preferred their company. It is only among the overtly imperfect that we can find community and only among the overtly imperfect nations of the world that we can find peace. Our imperfections are among the few things we human beings have in common….Indeed, only honest people can play a healing role in the world.”
M.Scott Peck, M.D., a Different Drum
“Every creative act involves a new innocence of perception, liberated from the cataract of accepted belief.”
Arthur Koestler
What is
The Following are excerpts from A Different Drum Community-Making and Peace M. Scott Peck M.D.
“We are so unfamiliar with genuine community that we have never developed an adequate vocabulary for the politics of this transcendence. When we ponder on how individual differences can be accommodated, perhaps the first mechanism we turn to (probably because it is the most childlike) is that of the strong individual leader. Differences, like those of squabbling siblings, we instinctively think can be resolved by a mommy or daddy—a benevolent dictator, or so we hope. But community, encouraging individuality as it does, can never be totalitarian. So we jump to a somewhat less primitive way of resolving individual differences which we call democracy. We take a vote, and the majority determines which differences prevail. Majority rules. Yet that process excludes the aspirations of the minority. How do we transcend differences in such a way as to include a minority? It seems like a conundrum. How and where do you go beyond democracy?
In the genuine communities of which I have been a member, a thousand or more group decisions have been made and I have never yet witnessed a vote. I do not mean to imply that we can or should discard democratic machinery, any more than we should abolish organization. But I do mean to imply that a community, in transcending individual differences, routinely goes beyond even democracy. In the vocabulary of this transcendence we thus far have only one word: “consensus.” Decisions in genuine community are arrived at through consensus, in a process that is not unlike a community of jurors, for whom consensual decision making is mandated.
Still, how on earth can a group in which individuality is encouraged, in which individual differences flourish, routinely arrive at consensus? Even when we develop a richer language for community operations, I doubt we will ever have a formula for the consensual process. The process itself is an adventure. And again there is something inherently almost mystical, magical about it. But it works. And the other facets of community will provide hints as to how it does.”
Realism
“A second characteristic of community is that it is realistic. In the community of marriage, for example, when Lily and I discuss an issue, such as how to deal with one of our children, we are likely to develop a response more realistic than if either of us were operating alone. If only for this reason, I believe that it is extremely difficult for a single parent to make adequate decisions about his or her children. Even if the best Lily and I can do is to come up with two different points of view, they modulate each other. In larger communities the process is still more effective. A community of sixty can usually come up with a dozen different points of view. The resulting consensual stew, composed of multiple ingredients, is usually far more creative than a two-ingredient dish could ever be.”
“We are accustomed to think of group behavior as often primitive. Indeed, I myself have written about the ease with which groups can become evil. “Mob psychology” is properly a vernacular expression. But groups of whatever kind are (never) seldom real communities. There is, in fact, more than a quantum leap between an ordinary group and a community; they are entirely different phenomena. And a real community is, by definition, immune to mob psychology because of its encouragement of individuality, its inclusion of a variety of points of view. Time and again I have seen a community begin to make a certain decision or establish a certain norm when one of the members will suddenly say, “Wait a minute, I don’t think I can go along with this.” Mob psychology cannot occur in an environment in which individuals are free to speak their minds and buck the trend. Community is such an environment.
Because a community includes members with many different points of view and the freedom to express them, it comes to appreciate the whole of a situation far better than an individual, couple, or ordinary group can. Incorporating the dark and the light, the sacred and the profane, the sorrow and the joy, the glory and the mud, its conclusions are well rounded. Nothing is likely to be left out. With so many frames of reference, it approaches reality more and more closely. Realistic decisions, consequently, are more often guaranteed in community than in any other human environment.
An important aspect of the realism of community deserves mention: humility. While rugged individualism predisposes one to arrogance, the “soft” individualism of community leads to humility. Begin to appreciate each others’ gifts, and you begin to appreciate your own limitations. Witness others share their brokenness, and you will become able to accept your own inadequacy and imperfection. Be fully aware of human variety, and you will recognize the interdependence of humanity. As a group of people do these things—as they become a community—they become more and more humble, not only as individuals but also as a group—and hence more realistic. From which kind of group would you expect a wise, realistic decision: an arrogant one, or a humble one?”
The community-building process requires self-examination from the beginning. And as the members become thoughtful about themselves they also learn to become increasingly thoughtful about the group. ‘How are we doing?’ they begin to ask with greater and greater frequency. ‘Are we still on target? Are we a healthy group? Have we lost the spirit?’
The spirit of community once achieved is not then something forever obtained. It is not something that can be bottled or preserved in aspic.”
"...'Community' is a group of two or more people who, regardless of the diversity of their backgrounds, have been able to accept and transcend their differences, enabling them to communicate openly and effectively, and to work together towards common goals, while having a sense of unusual safety with one another.
“
“Community, according to Peck, may be described as "a group of individuals who have learned how to communicate honestly with each other, whose relationships go deeper than their masks of composure, and who have developed some significant commitment to 'rejoice together, mourn together,' and to 'delight in each other, make each others' conditions [their] own.'" [Drum, Simon and Schuster, 1988, p. 59.]
The stages of
Pseudocommunity
An initial state of "being nice". Pseudocommunity is characterized by politeness, conflict avoidance, and denial of individual differences. Let's be honest -- most of us can't keep this up for long. Eventually someone is going to speak up, speak out, and the dam breaks.
Chaos
In the stage of chaos, individual differences are aired, and the group tries to overcome them through misguided attempts to heal or to convert. Listening suffers, and emotions and frustration tend to run high. There are only two ways out of chaos: retreat into pseudocommunity (often through organization), or forward, through emptiness.
Emptiness
Emptiness refers to the process of recognizing and releasing the barriers (expectations, prejudices, the need to control) that hold us back from authentic communication with others, from being emotionally available to hear the voices of those around us. This is a period of going within, of searching ourselves and sharing our truths with the group. This process of "dying to the self" can make way for something remarkable to emerge.
Community
"In my defenselessness, my safety lies." In this stage, individuals accept others as they are, and are themselves accepted. Differences are no longer feared or ignored, but rather are celebrated. A deep sense of peace and joy characterizes the group.
The communal approach to art making in Bluelab
1. Gather
2. Encounter
3. Surrender
4. Accept
5. Transform
6. Celebrate
7. Consecrate
8. Produce
9. Perform
1. Gather
It is important on all levels to gain involvement and commitment from at least a sampling of
2. Encounter
The initial projects will be harder than subsequent ones in terms of these early phases of the process. Artists and creative thinkers are often very private individuals and because most of us are still under the influence of modernist belief systems many find a certain amount of vainglory in isolationism. Again, Bluelab seeks only to change the way artists see themselves in the context of this work and its necessary processes and experiential thresholds. If artists participate in a show they may need to return to the desert or the isolation and privacy of their previous studio lifestyles for a period of time in order to assimilate and make sense of what they experienced and discovered in their time with Bluelab. Some may never want to try something like Bluelab again. I suspect that most however will want to be involved as much as possible with future projects and may create similar organizations and efforts on their own.
The encounter process is my term for what M. Scott Peck has termed, “chaos.” This is where the rubber meets the road in terms of authentic group process. The encounter phase is the stage of the process wherein as kind and gentle a way as possible, individuals become fully aware of who each one is in the context of the group and our shared intentions. This is where biases and beliefs and disagreements are laid out on the floor in the middle of the circle in plain view of everyone. This encounter phase is the point in the process where people give up the need to pretend and to posture and find out and assert who they are and what they think and feel. This is the beginning of a really courageous process of deep and meaningful honesty and self-disclosure and leads to the experience of the collision that we all feel when we try to bring our ideas and thoughts and beliefs (attachments) to others who may or may not fully agree with us (who have there own).
Some personalities thrive in this sort of conflict while others naturally recede and prefer silent observation to vocal participation. It seems important that everyone has at least some time in the limelight and that those who tend to want to speak too often learn to be quiet and to bracket their urges to express and hear someone else’s thoughts and feelings while the more stoic need to push against their natural urge to retreat and to let themselves be heard.
At times very volatile issues emerge and everyone is thunderstruck by the chaos and the confusion of the moment. The aggressive want to take over, the squeamish look for the door, and everyone throughout the spectrum of experience finds themselves wondering what they’ve gotten involved in and whether this thing is real or worth the hassle. For those who’ve been through a number of these experiences it can actually be an encouraging signpost. When one has been through the nooks and crannies of community processes enough times, one finds a level of equanimity and detachment by which to simply let things happen. When dealing with human beings in the context of building a true community one is dealing in the realm of mysterious phenomena and subtlety too complex to ever really control. One learns that rather than controlling, one must simply trust. As each person gathers positive experience through the process, each individual begins to build experiential knowledge that the process can be trusted—that we can each trust our personal experience as well.
3. Surrende
This is one of the most difficult and perhaps rewarding phases of the process. Surrender is perhaps the essence of all authentic spirituality. In this context we are speaking of the individual and collective struggle to let go of control and to experience the silence or emptiness of relinquished personal exertion. In dealing with a group of true artists and highly creative thinkers we’re talking about a coming together of some very strong personalities. It has been my discovery that even so, the more sensitive, intelligent and creative a person, the easier it is to tune into the conversation of the moment and to simply be with others. The more each member can surrender to deeper levels of silence, the more powerful the group becomes. Some mystics such as St. Theresa of
A simple analogy might be that of growing corn. If we as a farm coop want to grow corn together to eat and to sell in the market, the larger the field we develop, the more corn we’ll harvest to eat and to sell. Obviously there’s more work involved in clearing 100 acres than 1. This removing or emptying of belief systems and ideas we may have attached ourselves to and brought in the doors with us coming in to the community building process is the crux of the work of surrender. This is tough stuff one can be certain, but is also incredibly rewarding and freeing. As we learn that love always fills the vacuum left when anything is sincerely surrendered we welcome more and more the necessary struggles and difficulties we must walk through in order to make our beliefs real.
When a group of people has suffered together and been truthful enough with one another and are clear enough about what they as a group want and don’t want for themselves, a miracle begins to grow in which each person begins to feel the extension of his or her boundaries grow. Our hearts grow larger and stronger—more capable of love and compassion. This surrender becomes the very process of forgiveness. We come to experience within the same equanimity of God who “rains upon the just and the unjust.” It is though this transformation that we begin to discover our capacity for unconditional love and for self-transcendence. This, some would say, is the essence of enlightenment.
4. Acceptance
Just as in Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ 5 stages of grief work, acceptance is the attainment of the miracle of Grace. In the context of community building this is the stage wherein a group of strangers has passed through some difficult thresholds together and have arrived at the shared mystical phenomena known as “true community.” There is a palpable experience shared by the group in this context. Suddenly individuals begin to experience a level of trust and warmth and safety that had heretofore seemed like little more than a pie in the sky ideal.
It is at this point that the group has become prepared for collaborative work that will go much deeper than simple creation by committee.
5. Transformation
This is a word that’s been tossed around so freely that it’s lost much of its specific meaning. A true transformation implies a qualitative change in the object in question. From a holographic standpoint, as we are changed as a group we are of course changed as individuals and vice versa. When gifted articulate artists are brought to this level of collaborative experience, there is an emergence of an entity recognized as the “Group” or “Community” that is truly something and this something is worthy of deep reverence. When the individuals comprising the community experience the power of this exalted thing each member becomes humbled and inspired by it and sees “IT” as the vehicle—not him or herself. There is a lot of relief in this as it takes a lot of the heat and pressure off the individual and allows each individual to begin to shift their perception to “IT” as the sanctified vessel of which each individual is a part. As one builds experiential knowledge of this sort of thing one begins to understand new depths of ideas like “love” and “service” and one begins to know life in new and profoundly deeper dimensions. As one gathers experience along this line, one develops greater powers of perception and discernment on all fronts of one’s life. One’s sense of center deepens and becomes more and more deeply rooted offering greater and greater buoyancy, peace and well being.
6. Celebration
Words seem almost silly here. When we have arrived at this point in the process there won’t be too much confusion about celebration or what it’s about or why we should do it or whatever. Celebration will come naturally. In the context of making art, this is the point in which this gathering of gifted artists gets to really show off. In this context it’s appropriate to show off—as this is truly an archetypal impulse and is as pure and right as all pure archetypal impulses are and having done the work of community building we will have the natural sense of balance and limitation to push off from and to return to in a sort of rhythm that will be as simple as breathing. The power of joy and love and inspiration will be as palpable as the wind. If we have done our work leading up to this point, this will be the point in which we really reflect upon ourselves as a community and each of us as individuals will be able to truly say that we’ve paid a price to get here and that we’ve grown perhaps more than we knew possible and that we’ve come to realizations that we’d never even dreamed of.
7. Consecration
This is the point in the process in which we as a community can reflect on all that we’ve discovered and through the shared experiential knowledge can say that what seemed impossible—perhaps ridiculous before now seems very possible—even eminent. We have found innocence and have been reborn. This doesn’t mean we’ve been made perfect—but that we’ve perhaps revisioned perfection and now understand that it is actually only us doing our being. We are no longer encumbered by our egos in the way we had recently been. We sense that we are part of something great. We still have our balance though—this is not some sort of pretentious cult experience. We still have our individual will—it’s simply that we are aware of this entity—the Community—and we want to work for it—knowing that doing so simultaneously feeds our deepest longings.
So enjoying our newfound awareness it is now time to dedicate ourselves to the sacred task that Bluelab is about—participating in the Great Work—that of saving the world. This is simultaneously the stuff of cutting edge science and philosophy and the stuff of the ancients. “There is nothing new under the sun”…or one could say it’s all new—and this newness combined simultaneously experienced with a sense of the ancient is the stuff of awakening…
8. Production
Our production processes will be the natural progression of the processes we’ve established through the previous stages. More will be revealed and articulated about this when the time comes. For now, suffice it to say that we will be operating on very high levels intuitively and that much of what goes on in typical ego driven production environments will not be necessary for us here. Having discovered our center—both individually and collectively we will be far more focused on loving communication and upon sharing and developing ideas that are of a higher trajectory than much of our previous work. Here we will find ourselves doing things that weeks earlier would have seemed inconceivable.
9. Performance
Our performances will be the icing on the cake. I don’t want to say much here. Suffice it to say that our performances will be the proof we’re seeking that Bluelab’s productions will be authentically liminal.
People will be enthralled at our shows—and changed.
a brief summary of the central concepts of bluelab
- Art as individual and communal meditation holds great potential for personal and collective transformation.
- Art when linked to science and philosophy provides a panorama of transdisciplinary potentials toward personal, inter-personal, and trans-personal discovery, healing, balance and growth.
- Rather than focusing upon answers to generally unanswerable questions, we feel that communally built public art might offer deeper entrance into our shared central questions. Perhaps learning new ways to share space and deep questions will lead to new keys in understanding civility and our deep need and love for one another. Enquiries held in proper atmosphere give rise to inspired consciousness and deep reverence. These spaces are the essence of authentic veneration in terms of aesthetic experience and awe in terms of the numinous or sublime. When such fundamental mysteries are held in patient reverence they might serve to change us. Enquiries that when transmitted through highly developed works of art might evoke change in the community at large.
- The spirituality of Bluelab is not a monolithic spirituality of superior attainment, but one of love’s humble decent into purified childlike awareness—into our shared core of contemplative (experiential) innocence. Bluelab offers a spirituality of imperfection wherein contradictions and paradoxes are integrated resulting in the emergence of a new set of transcendent unifying principles and capacities. The whole truly is greater than the sum of its parts. As individuals our surrender allows us to lock arms with others and to see the sublimity of the teaching, “Wherever two or more are gathered in my name.”
- Art needs to be socially engaged. Seeing the urgent challenges we all face in our present world situation, art holds practical potentials in the creation of works that impact our culture in functionally positive and healing ways.
- Art is deeply and eternally linked to mysticism…to the direct experience of the Ultimate Mystery and of divine love.
- Bluelab seeks to make work that is conceived, developed, and completed/performed/transmitted through spiritual community. This is high idealism but is the stuff of considerable research and practical experience in terms of community building, collective art making, non-profit development, etc.
- Bluelab will focus on making works that are interdisciplinary in their formation but designed and built with the intention of accessibility and inclusivity with our public. We want to make work in an organization that grows naturally with the completion of each successful project and that will provide a venue and equipment for new media as well as the experimental use of traditional media.
- Bluelab calls for the assistance of community leaders in all fields as well as benefactors sympathetic to the cause of the arts and social justice. As we develop budgetary abilities we intend to bring in leaders in a number of fields to teach, guide and assist us, to provide inspiration in the form of shows and talks, critiques, workshops, etc. The beauty of such a model is that in terms of our broader support community, we need not exclude “non-artists” from our gatherings. Anyone with enough vision and awareness to want to be involved is qualified. The “us vs. them” modernist mentality that still pervades the art world is a worn out and elitist model. If one groks the gravity of our current political climate and is aware of what may be a narrow window of opportunity to make work of this nature, one realizes that anyone who wants to be involved and is willing to work cooperatively is qualified. Bluelab will be much stronger and more effective if professionals from a number of fields are involved—at least on advisory levels.
Some preliminary bluelab strategies:
- Spiritual practice. Artists and participants in bluelab will be encouraged to develop a commitment to personal spiritual practice. We are not interested so much in belief systems and religious dogmas as in a daily self-regulated structure that allows time for study of various spiritual literature, contemplation, meditation, yoga and sacred ritual. We will welcome individuals from all religious as well as non-religious backgrounds. We believe that inclusivity will promote a realistic, energetic, and dynamic community. We are more interested in our common bonds than external differences.
- Spiritual direction. bluelab has no interest in erecting specific religious proscriptions or divisive ideologies. Individuals involved in bluelab will be encouraged to be self regulated in their practice. We stress however, an ancient and time tested need for individualized guidance from worthy teachers, leaders, and spiritual adepts. We are not interested in rank. We simply urge participants to seek out quality guidance in their personal work. We will periodically entertain a variety of guest teachers who will work with the community at large, but we will encourage participants to work out the many specifics of their personal practice individually. The mystical path is fraught with difficulty and peril and we are all wise to seek counsel of trustworthy guides.
- Artistic integrity. We stress the importance of collaborative experiment, intuition, and discovery. As we gain involvement on the part of gifted artists and intellectuals and establish effective ground work in terms of community building and creative interaction, we are confident that our artistic achievements will be well received. Artistic values are shifted from object to cooperative objective. The quality of our work will be reflected in the lives it touches and challenges.
- Process as cooperation. In any authentic community there is diversity and at times dynamic tension as well as conflict. We see an organic organization evolving that will embrace and honor divergent views giving rise to rich and layered works of art. We feel that the practice of art and spirituality are inextricably intertwined. Ecumenical group processes will readily pour into discovered and transforming art making.
- Media as reconstruction. We will strive to work with experts in many new media forms in order to make work that avails itself of significant new technologies. We see leading edge technologies as tools offering ever new configurations for fresh experimental expression stimulating delight and awe.
- Community as womb and crucible. In the safety and lateral power distribution of community, individuals will find insight into personal biases and pitfalls and will consequently discover deeper dimensions of their relationship to each other and the world at large. Visionaries come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Artists will learn from physicists and philosophers and vice versa. All core creative people will find support and guidance to be invaluable from wise counselors whether they be recognized spiritual masters, wise and mature business people or suburban housewives. The founders of Alcoholics Anonymous have laid an intricate experiential network of guide posts and suggestions for effective cooperation instilling groups with an atmosphere conducive to breakthrough.
- The vitality of anonymity. In our first world culture we have often seduced our artists by placing them on pedestals and worshiping them as icons and divas. If we are to find our way through the labyrinthine cultural challenges that lay before us all, we will have to find ways to develop and to honor our shared need for humility and authentic empowerment. By preempting tendencies we all share for self cherishing, we will create a sustainable vehicle not easily derailed from our commitment to service. Borrowing from any number spiritual traditions we will endeavor to heighten our awareness of the need for humility, inclusion, tolerance, and unity through ritual cleansing and consecration to our shared cause.
- Community as vessel. The systemic cultural challenges we face globally are far too complex and layered to be tackled by isolated individualistic iconoclasts. A community provides complex and integrative capabilities in terms of transpersonal encounter and absorption. We hold that our common bonds as human beings are more primary than our cultural distinctions. A liminal work of art that is created in the context of true spiritual community will be earmarked by multidimensionality and inspiration. Intuitive creative responses to our shared crises will be received intuitively by a variety of cultures. This means that as a numinal crucible and transmitter, Bluelab will have potential impact on widely divergent cultures establishing new connections and pathways between citizens of previously adversarial orientations.
“The practice of Dharma, real spiritual practice, is in some sense like a voltage stabilizer. The function of the stabilizer is to prevent irregular power surges and instead give you a stable and constant source of power.”
His Holiness The Dalai Lama
“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.”
Thomas Moore
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, and confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. It turns problems into gifts, failures into successes, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. It can turn an existence into a real life, and disconnected situations into important and beneficial lessons. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
Gratitude makes things right.
Gratitude turns negative energy into positive energy. There is no situation or circumstance so small or large that it is not susceptible to gratitude's power. We can start with whom we are and what we have today, apply gratitude, then let it work its magic.
Say thank you, until you mean it. if you say it long enough, you will believe it.”
Maryland Missing Persons Network
http://www.marylandmissing.com/
Red Letter Agent Tonight
Don't pass out
Don't pass by
Heard your voice on high
Please come back
Lest I cry
Heard your voice on high
Tonight dreaming of the light
Tonight dreams will heal your sight
Please don't quit
Must I try?
River deep, river wide
Tonight, tonight
Dreams will take your heart tonight
Dreams will take you home tonight
Dreams reveal the wars we fight
Dreams reveal there is one light
Summary presentation September 2006
Who
Bluelab is the work of multimedia artist Jeff Hogue of
What
Bluelab is a developing non profit corporation that will provide facilities, resources, and strategies allowing professional artists opportunities to build collaborative projects of real value to the world we live in. Bluelab has been created in response to the recognition of our shared global crises and the endgame need for heightened cooperation among creative people of social courage. Bluelab will offer a focused and energized atmosphere providing a safe and supportive environment wherein creative breakthroughs can readily be evoked and funneled into new media works with the potential to change our world.
Bluelab’s key ideas, concepts and strategies center upon the potency of focused communal work fused with interdisciplinary collaboration and our many concepts will be made vibrant and effective through ongoing consensual developmental processes as we complete productions. Radical inclusion of visionary citizens from a number of professional backgrounds will lead to a foundation of organizational solidarity that will inform and support all our endeavors. Making art with a passion for service in highly experimental forms calls for substantive support from those around us.
Where
Bluelab has been in development in
What
Operating as test microcosms, pilot projects of gifted collaborators will be assembled to implement and adapt processes through close working relationship to one another fostering art making that will have the potential to change their lives while raising the bar in terms of potentially transformational film, theater and music. Discoveries will be transmitted to the public at large through installations and events shedding fresh light upon human potentials and creating “living energetic sculptures” comprised of healing and transforming archetypal energies.
When
Bluelab will begin preproduction on our first official pilot in October of 2006.
A call to artists of all disciplines please contact us at triageart@yahoo.com
“It has been said that when the Buddha comes again, he will arrive not as a person but as a community.”
Marianne Williamson Everyday Grace
