In the indistinguishable and not too distant future, a unified robot uprising threatens humankind’s existence. Retold in the form of transcribed data mined from Archos, the driving A.I. force behind the Zero War, Cormac “Bright Boy” Wallace refers to this written history as the Hero Archive. Each transcription fills in the timeline detailing the crucial contributions of man, woman, child, and robot before, during and after the uprising. Think Bicentenial Man meets the Borg, then they invite the Terminator over for dinner. You can just imagine the eminent major motion picture—directed by…you guessed it…Mr. Spielberg himself.

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Using first, second, and third person methods of research, I will gather data for my final paper and to use for development/marketing. The plan is to have a working beta version of the tracker up and running sometime next week. Beta testers will add and track their practices for two weeks, noting what works; what doesn't; what they might add or get rid of; and generating a user exerience from which we can build the next phases. The future site will include a shared group practice space, and a directory of resources and teachers to guide the practitioner.

This project is flowing—no resistance. This is nothing like trying to walk through a vat, knee deep in almond butter.

I had this great idea the other day to write and illustrate a children’s picture book about Integral Theory. It wouldn’t have any Integral language, and although a child of picture-book-reading age might not exactly grok all the nuances of Integral Theory, they could be exposed to the concepts in ways that they could understand. Sort of a child’s first book of Integral Theory. The art is created in Photoshop using a collage style of layering, cutouts, and patterns.

The main character, Mirabelle meets several creatures living in the pond ecosystem where she was born. Her hope in life is to make it to frogdom without being eaten. But, beyond that, she wonders why we exist at all. When we meet Mirabelle she’s still a tadpole. Her journey from egg to frog will serve as the illustration of levels. The eight pond dwellers are each a different Enneatype and explain, in their own ways, the AQAL elements to her. She will describe different states of consciousness from the first person, have an intersubjective understanding with some of her pond mates, and upon becoming a frog, will take an objective view from outside the pond—the only world she’s known until now. Still not sure how to work in lines. I would also like to include the three postmetaphysical concepts from Excerpt B; nonexclusion (everyone is at least partially right); enactment (nothing is pregiven, but has bits and pieces added to it by the subject experiencing in a particular context); and enfoldment (karma and creativity—every moment is half carried over from the past and half brand new).

I find my self thinking about how I would explain this to my 11-year-old nephew or 6-year-old niece. How much would they understand? Does she already know that tadpoles transform into frogs? Does he care why we exist? Is he satisfied with the explanations he’s been given? Has he even asked? I forsee a road trip in my near future—a little market research perhaps. Plus, it’s just good practice to put this into regular language. Then I’m not standing, mouth open trying to explain what’s so big about Integral Theory and why I’m spending so much time, effort, and money on a degree in a subject that few have ever heard of.

The actual art has come without struggle so far. But, even from the first to second illustrations, I’ve found my self developing a style and committing to a path. This may mean that I’ll go back and re-do the cover image (shown above) to match the rest of the illustrations. It will be about 20 or so pages long. I can get a nice hardcover edition printed through iPhoto which allows me some flexibility in length. Below are some samples of children’s books I think are high quality, both in illustration and in story. Before forging ahead in Photoshop though, I must finalize the narrative and storyboard the flow. I look forward to the time I get to spend on this.

Current Influences:

(download)

Click here to download:

mirabelle-pollywog-xmgkuhikDdhBoeweBfsh.zip (134 KB)

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The Matrix is all about waking up from the illusion—the outward appearance of what is real—what is important. It’s about how we can barely live with positivity and need a constructed world full of suffering to keep us “happy.” I think it’s about making a third to fourth order shift in meaning making. Becoming self-reliant and self-centered, in the best possible way. It’s about identity—knowing who we are and believing. Neo is The One, but he doesn’t know it. Until he believes, he’s stuck in a limiting worldview. The Wachowski brothers are expressing the importance of the left-hand quadrants, the interior individual and collective.

This film speaks to the mystical despite religious preference. The unseen world, the world behind the matrix, is real, but not for the faint of heart. Cypher just wants to be inserted back into oblivion where he enjoy steak, even though it’s an illusion. But we can’t go back. Once we realize the existence of the world unseen, it’s too late. We’ve already taken the red pill. It reminds me of Wilber’s second fall that he describes in Up from Eden. The first fall happened in the Garden or at the beginning of human history. The second fall is when we wake up to the original fall. We want to go back, but it’s impossible. Eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is like taking the red pill. So, faithfully reporting on what I experience in the unseen world is an expression of Integral Art. Just like the Wachowskis, creating a film version of this myth, this neo-myth, I too must report what I’ve seen—the things I’ve learned.

I don’t know that much about Taoism, but what I read about it in Benjamin Hoff’s primer, makes a lot of sense in the integral way of looking at things. There’s a sense of calm in letting things be what they are instead of trying to make them into something else. This seems a pluralistic/integral view of existence, with a focus on being, rather than doing. Not to the exclusion of doing, but just to even out the scales a bit. Having our life  (identity, creative process, etc…) instead of being had by it. A few things that struck me, in regards to art: The uncarved block, or P’u in Chinese, has obvious correlations to sculpture—and when DaVinci said the statue already exists in the stone, I just have to remove the extra bits (my paraphrase). That reveals to me a sense of ultimate, or underlying truth, which, whether or not we uncover it, the “shape inside” is there anyway. (p. 11) In the case of identity, the Taoist way recommends finding out my place and function, then operating within my limitations—knowing that my weaknesses may very well turn out to be my strengths. (pp. 48-49) Emptiness and loneliness look a lot alike. (p. 147) From this I distill a couple of principles that might be applied to the practice of making art. 1) Don’t try so hard. Let the art be what it is and try not to get in the way of that flow. 2) Let my unique expression have its own parade. So I’m not technically or realistically skilled? Who cares? Do what I do REALLY well. 3) Slow down and clear out some of the brain/life clutter. Entertaining emptiness will help me stay connected to the Ground of Being—the source of creative inspiration.

Integral Art is a map for both creating and evaluating art using the framework of AQAL’s four quadrants. In his Journal of Integral Theory and Practice (JITP) article introducing Integral Art, Matt Rentschler quotes Ken Wilber’s definition of art: anything with a frame around it. “Regardless of medium, style, genre, or school, art can generally be defined as anything selected, arranged, or framed for its significance.” (Rentschler, 2006, p. 41) But, who decides what is significant. Building on four main schools of art critique, Rentschler takes the reader on a quadrant tour, showing the importance of taking as wide a perspective as possible.

From within my individual experience (UL), I want to express something artistically. Perhaps it is my joy at being alive, or a painful issue over which I hope to connect with others who struggle similarly. Perhaps I seek to expose an injustice, or bring awareness surrounding a tacit shared blind spot, á la The Emperor’s New Clothes. Suddenly, my subjective perspective on a social phenomenon is pushed out into the collective (LL). I hope not merely to express something, but to have impact on others—even stimulate individual and/or collective action (LR). Perhaps my art will affect institutional thinking in education, politics, or another overarching social system. Rounding the quadrants to the individual, exterior I perform certain actions with specific media to get my inside vision to the outside (UR). My art is an artifact, judged by different criteria (realism, balance, color theory) and having different effects on different viewers. And, this is only the quadrants. Renschler takes on the other four elements in his companion article in the same issue of the journal.

I've been reading Rick Riordan's Olympians series "with my 11-year-old nephew, Adam." Truth be told, I may be enjoying this far more than he is. I like mythology, but it's really coming alive for me as the half mortal/half divine children of the gods fight the forces of evil. It's crucial for them, despite the learning difficulties cause by their tell-tale dyslexia, to know the stories of Greek mythology. I just wanted to note a couple of really cool things I've run across so far:

1. In The Lightening Thief (Book 1) not only is Zeus' Lightening bolt stolen from Mount Olympus, but so is Hades' Helm of Darkness. Cool. Percy's quest is to find and return them.

2. Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon are referred to as The Big Three; as in The Good, The True, and The Beautiful; Buddha, Dharma, Sanga; I, We, It(s). Another trinity to add to the list.

3.    "Celestial bronze, Percy. An immortal weapon. What would happen if you shot this at a human?"

"Nothing," I said. "It would pass right through."

"That's right," [Chiron] said. "Humans don't exist on the same level as the immortals. They can't even be hurt by our weapons. But you, Percy—you are part god, part human. You live in both worlds. You can be harmed by both, and you can affect both. That's what makes heroes so special. You carry the hopes of humanity into the realm of the eternal." (Sea of Monsters, p. 252)

The human condition. Part god, part human. A foot in each realm. A spark of divinity--Christlikeness, Buddha nature, Spirit--embodied, drawn by the gravity of the soil from which we spring. No wonder the angels are jealous. Thanks Rick!

...when the filing is done! And the inbox is emptied. I find this year to have passed rather quickly and without stealth. Am growing to enjoy my new ME! Happy New Year!