jeff hogue/ bluelab art org

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 some of our best artists and creatives. As has been stated elsewhere, I believe that many successful artists are destined to be involved in Bluelab. Bluelab is not interested in usurping the other important art related organizations in existance and rather sees itself as a friend to all existing endeavors. While members of our community may want to remain active long after the period when they were directly involved in creating a production we assume that a lot of artists will naturally rotate through our doors. Bluelab will probably work best if there’s a steady turnover among performers from show to show keeping us refreshed and forever young and learning. In terms of the community building process, this will be a time of gathering together able bodied artists and thinkers who understand enough about Bluelab to make an informed decision about getting involved.

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. Surrender

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 Avila make a distinction between meditation and contemplation. In terms of the collective process, this is the point in the journey wherein people begin to sense some larger force beginning to show its will. This is the point in which awe becomes known—the point in which things seem to become easier—where glimpses of inspiration begin to replace effortful struggle. :p>

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.

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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.