Novelty is better than Repitition
Introduction
According to Researchers from the United Nations institute UNU-WIDER in 2019 “the top 1% own half the world´s total household wealth” (Addison et. al.). At the same time, 22 percent of the population of 107 developing countries, that are 1.3 billion people, according to the Multidimensional Poverty Index 2020 from the United Nations Development Programme, live in multidimensional poverty (c.f. HDR.UNDP). If GDP and total revenue is compared, it appears that ten out of the Top 50 are corporations (c.f. Fortune Global 500, Weltbank 2020) and 70 percent of global trading accounts to the five hundred biggest corporations (c.f. Werner-Lobo). The Top 500 corporations though, employ less than 1% of the world population, 69.3 million (c.f. Fortune Global 500).
These numbers picture a world of inequality and it is this inequality that I want to refer to when talking about rebellion. Most of the times numbers do not work emotionally and the perceiving person might understand the prompt but probably is not shifted to take action. In this essay, I want to examine the use of art as a mediator between science and public by transferring scientific information and emotionally encouraging the perceiving person to take action. In the following, different types of art are examined for the effect on ideology and several examples of political statements or movements dealing with the topic of climate warming are discussed to what extend these can transmit scientific measurements.
Ideology and Identity
Ideology and Identity are definitions of society explaining individual relation to societal constructs. Both, Ideology and identity, is hard to define. Reason for this is, according to Terry Eagleton, that these words have a variety of meanings and they derive from different cultural context (c.f. Eagleton, Ideology). A soft differentiation between both words can be described with the following. Identity is described as a “phenomenon in constant process and change” (Lahl, p.9) illustrating social affiliation. Ideology, in contrary, is information-based reasoning for acting (c.f. Eagleton, Ideology). This, of course simplified definition, is taken as a reason for the following discussion, if art can influence ideology, not identity because this essay aims for the action of perceivers of art, instead for the social affiliation through art.
Literature
Literature is one out of many types of art, but it is one of the least which uses language to create stories and pictures in the perceiver´s view. Due to the use of language the information transfer to the reader is possible and simple compared to paintings and performances. In contrast, the impact on the emotional attachment of the reader and the shifting of ideologies through literature is much more discussed and demonstrates a core problem of the use of literature for political movements. But according to Eagleton, it can be stated that literature is perceived in the structure of subjective ideologies (c.f. Eagleton, Literature). He explains that literature is interpreted by “value-judgements [which] themselves have a close relation to social ideologies” (Eagleton, Literature, p.14). Supporting this argument, Roland Barthes examines the death of the author, in his homonymous essay, as a necessity for the birth of the reader (c.f. Barthes, p.148). Barthes describes that modern literature consists of language instead of the author, which means that the written is not contextualized in the writer’s life and personality, but rather enables a contextualisation in the readers relation (c.f. Barthes, p. 146 ff.). Whilst both, Eagleton and Barthes, argue that literature is put into context of personal ideologies, it is to question if this contextualisation can affect and shift personal ideologies.
Paintings
Whilst literature transmits written information, paintings can transmit external as well as internal appearance. Paintings are rather demanding in the look but open in its interpretation which is a core difference to literature but within this area paintings encourage thought processes of the perceiving person. Fundamentally, in paintings is the perceiving view illustrated for which reason it directly engages with the perceiving person. According to Clark the painting is “consumed and imagined” (Clark, p.80). Furthermore, Clark describes a painting showing a prostitute where the perceiver takes the position of the suitor looking at the prostitute (c.f. Clark, p.80). In this constellation the person looking at the painting is involved in the illustrated situation and, hence, experiences the painting in another way.
There are at least two ways to involve the perceiver in painted art. One is to take the perceiver in a predeterminate situation. Martha Schwartz, an US-American landscape artist, illustrates this in her lecture of 2019 “Landscape, Art and My Existential Crisis”, including the following picture:
The perceiving person is confronted with the usually scientifically described problem of climate change in an artistic way. In an article from 2019 by Tania Gianone, the author questions if art could help mediating between science and politics and the general public through an artistic engagement with problems like climate change (c.f. Gianone). Schwartz believes that creative professionals can include scientific studies and incorporate sustainable approaches into their work and she even encourages artists to join the global movement to rescue our planet by transforming their work, in order to transfer scientific findings (c.f. Gianone).
Another way of including the perceiving person in the painting is to give the perceiver control over the painting. An example for this is the art of Oleg Shuplyak, a Ukrainian artist, who creates illusionary portraits within the structure of nature. The following is a self-portrait of the artist:
https://www.shupliak.com/art.html
In his work, Shuplyak uses layering to create two pictures in one (c.f. Opticalspy). The perceiving person can now switch between the two perspectives. As a consequence of this the viewer finds itself in an illusionary state, magnetized by the emanation of this art (c.f. Opticalspy).
Comparing predetermined situations and self-determined situations from the perspective of the viewer, it appears that both engage with and include the perceiving person in the experience of each painting. Though, because of the focus on information transfer in predetermined situations, these may be more appropriate to shift the perceiving person´s interest and ideology. Like Martha Schwartz is using her art to convey illustrated consequences of climate change, giving the perceiving person a possibility to visualize scientific measurements and theories.
Performance
Irrespective of the medium of art (painting, photography, etc.) performance is an important fact considering the affiliation of art to the perceiving person. Peggy Phelan describes performance as the present demonstration which cannot be repeated without being different (c.f. Phelan, p.146). She points out that performance is the actual demonstration, communication or transfer between art and perceiving person (c.f. Phelan, p. 147). Hence, performance elicits the actual impact of art on the perceiving person. Considering this, performance is an important fact when encouraging people for activism or sensible people for several topics.
A Dance Group from KQED demonstrates the power of performance in a choreography from 2016 called “Dead Reckoning”. (The video can be accessed with the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N41d7BjShY). The choreography symbolizes the impact of climate change, but according to Josie Sadan, who is taking part in the choreography, no dance or work of art is going to give the facts about climate change (Minute 1:46). “What it can do”, she points out, “is give voice to how people feel about it (…). Does it create anxiety? Does it create vulnerability?” (minute 1:55). Thus, the performance enables an emotional targeting of the perceiving person. Such transfer of emotions can have an important impact for encouraging activism and shifting ideologies.
Film
Technology transformed the art scene in many ways, one was the emergence of the technology to create a film (c.f. Monaco, p.27). A qualitive difference between recorded media (e.g. film, sound) and representative media (e.g. paintings) is the “direct progression toward greater verisimilitude” (Monaco, p.26). Today´s technology even allows 3D- and 4D-animation which approximates films continuously closer to reality. Subject and perceiving person are more closely interacted in films than in literature, which is also used for scientific purpose, according to James Monaco, who continues that films “significantly reduce the distortion that the presence of an artist inevitably introduces” (Monaco, p.26, f.). Hence, the concept of the Death of the Author described by Robert Barthes finds an even bigger application in films. The more direct path between subject and perceiving person created by recorded media allows a realistic illustration of subjects in an artificial way. Thus, abstract subjects can be illustrated in understandable ways. The documentary “We Feed The World” by Erwin Wagenhofer is an example for the direct path between subject and perceiving person created by films. The documentary illustrates the global production of food consumed in Europe and explains the abstract consequences of European food consumption. The documentary is based on lots of numbers which are transmitted in a very illustrating and emotional way to the perceiving person which might be a reason for the fact that since statistical accounting the film is the most successful Austrian documentary (c.f. Wikipedia, We Feed the World).
Extinction Rebellion
Above, the relation between art and the perceiving person is described. In the following this is transferred to an environment protection movement called Extinction Rebellion. Extinction Rebellion introduces itself on the movement´s website (https://extinctionrebellion.de) as an international sociopolitical movement aiming for the “comprehensive and profound change needed for the climate” in order “to reduce the risk of human extinction and the collapse of our ecosystem”. The movement consists of a decentralized, non-hierarchical and self-expressive cell network online and offline which causes local self-organizing activism (c.f. Amm). Due to the “self-expressive movement culture” (Amm, p.24) of Extinction Rebellion participants are encouraged to shape the movement from within. A central instrument are community meetings where, among other things, the creation of art for the use at demonstrations is supported and encouraged (c.f. Amm, p.25). A video by Natalie Haddad (accessible on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pH9tAJHVoQ&t=399s) shows an exemplary community meeting where creative sculptures are built visualising the extinction of fishes. Such visualisations evoke emotional reactions in the perceiving persons, according to a participant of that community meeting (c.f. Haddad).
In the case of Extinction Rebellion, the creation of art seems to be a rather community building tool than a persuading instrument for spectators, but it symbolises the emotional engagement when art is being used to transfer scientific knowledge. Extinction Rebellion is therefore an exemplary movement being a mediator between science and public.
Conclusion
Art engages with the perceiving person´s ideology and believes, for which reason art can be used to transfer rational subjects, such as scientific measurements, within an emotional bond. The film is the medium with the strongest path between subject and spectator but movements like Extinction Rebellion demonstrate as well that the use of art like sculpturing or painting can help creating an emotional bond between subject and perceiving person. To conclude, it can be stated that art is a useful mediator between science and public. With the use of art political movements can spread their arguments and motivate people to take action apart from academic and scientific bubbles within society.
Bibliography:
Addison, T., Pirttilä, J. & Tarp, F. (2019) Is global inequality rising or falling? Policy Brief 2019/2. Helsinki: UNU-WIDER.
Amm, H. (2020). The Extraordinarily Ordinary: How the Rebels of Extinction Rebellion Berlin Shape Their Movement by Using Connective Action Repertoires. Lund University.
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Eagleton T. (1993). Ideologie. J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart.
Eagleton, T. (1996). Literary Theorem. An Introduction. 2nd ed. The University of Minnesota Press: United States of America.
Lahl, K. (2014). Das Individuum im Transkulturellen Raum. Identitätsentwürfe in der deutschsprachigen Literatur Böhmens und Mährens 1918-1938. Transcript Verlag: Bielefeld.
Phelan, P. (1993). Unmarked. The Politics of Performance. Routledge.
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Fortune (2020). Global 500. Fortune. Accessed on 30.08.2020 21:00, derived from https://fortune.com/global500/2020/search/
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Haddad, N. (2020). The Art and People behind Extinction Rebellion by Natalie Haddad. Accessed on 27.8.2020 20:00, derived from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pH9tAJHVoQ&t=399s
KQED Arts (2016). Fighting Climate Change with Dance. Dead Reckoning. Accessed on 24.8.2020 13:37, derived from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N41d7BjShY
Optical Spy (N.D.). Oleg Shuplyak Gallery. Optical Spy. Accessed on 24.8.2020 11:55, derived from: https://www.opticalspy.com/oleg-shupliak-gallery.html
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List of illustrations:
Martha Schwartz, accessed on 25.8.2020 11:55, derived from: https://theyellowgloves.com/2019/08/15/can-art-help-mitigate-climate-change/
Oleg Shuplyak, accessed on 24.8.2020 12:00, derived from https://www.shupliak.com/art.html