Sonic Serpent

"Sonic Serpent"
found objects, acrylic, pencil  11" x 5" x 1"  2012

This is part of a series that I'm doing (an ongoing, multi-decade long project).  The finding of figures in ordinary objects is the primordial creative act.  Before artist took ocher to cave walls, faces were seen in clouds, trees, etc (pareidolia).  Before God was named, occasionally the feeling arose that otherwise ordinary, random events could be interpreted as having direct personal numinous significance (paranoia).  Play (and art) opens that primordial neurological channel of bidirectional energies.  Here be a Serpent, showing the Seven Stages.  

meatwad resurrection

"meatwad resurrection"
acrylic, marker, found materials  28" x 33" x 6"  2008- 2012

I prefer to explore subjects based upon reality, and not shamelessly stolen from the minds of other people.
I only paint that which has independent existence- such as these boys from New Jersey
(2 of whom are not visible at this resolution)

Meatwad was found embedded in the trunk of an ailing (indigestion?) tree -he had severe trauma present in the cranial region-
this does not seem to have impacted cerebral functioning (if any).

In the future, everything will be numinous for 15 breath cycles.

If I could imagine a better future for Meatwad, He would be resplendent upon a raised platform, with many friends, in a beautiful forest of strange animal plants.  Meatwad of all, be He thrice blessed!!  Foolish wad of meat transforms into most (mostly) anything- was He ever there?  Did you treat Him kindly?  Meatwad is back!!  Meatwad will always be here!!

functional dream generator

"functional dream generator"
14" x 15" x 4"  acrylic on terry cloth on wood  2012

ventral oblique view

-harnesses the power of pareidolia

-assists neural growth factors

-assists wish fulfillment

-uses readily available power source with high efficiency

-millions of permutations

-educational and entertaining

-works even while you sleep

-medically safe

if everyone were happy?

"Liberty Future" (detail)

"Liberty Future"
acrylic, pencil on wood 28" x 36" (incl. frame) 2012

fear/pain based motivation vs. intellectual (curiosity) based motivation:
which insures maximum chance of survival for longest possible period?

or is it necessary for there to be two groups (the unhappy and the happy) in a given population for the most robust culture to emerge?

where would you rather live?  and you with all your goodies, are you free from fear?

in the future the game may be quite different.

there may be hope that mankind can grow up!  

basically, it's this:  we're at a technological/economic transition point- essentially we have solved the problem of survival and growth of the human species- technologically it could be done- everyone could be fed and and doctored to lead exciting happy and fulfilling lives (at the present world population level and beyond).  

Warlord mentality however insists that the time-honored practice of theft and enslavement is still working (for them).  Wars, though, are becoming less profitable- in the sense that invasion and occupation of territory provides booty- (although it still is profitable as entertainment and an opportunity to sell weaponry (but your consumers can only consume so much, and then you have to consume the consumers (hey, hey, U.S.A.))).  So what do you do to keep swimming in your pile of imaginary  guilders (insert supercut of Scrooge McDuck diving in gold coins here)?   SPACE!!  SPACE WARS!!  Maybe we need some Aliens to menace us.  

   the more recently trending yet ancient alternate trend of positive sum games, i.e., free commerce and innovation (see Steven Pinker- Better Angels of Our Nature) coupled with robust infrastructure and education and basic humanist principles maybe can does balance the self-destructive insanity of paranoid Greed?

Perhaps the Galactic Watchers residing at the center of the Milky Way will send us some local thuggish dupe aliens to harrow us just enough to push us to the next frontier and get over this petty bickering and imaginary scarcity.  (I'm convinced that the only reason we haven't discovered extraterrestrial intelligences yet is because THEY don't want us to.  Probably waiting till we're REALLY fat and juicy before they consume us.  

science, art

"red dog activates neuralizer on a green cloud"
acrylic on carpet on wood  12" x 12 1/4"  2012

science relies upon communication.
communication is the essence of science.
-the process of verification- an essential part of science- relies upon the communication of data with minimal error.
-it relies upon the reproducibility of communication.
the experimental method must be exactly communicable so that results can be reproduced many times by different people.
-only then can it be said that the theory "holds water".

this methodology goes hand in hand (down history's lanes) with the related field of technology and manufacturing.
tech of all kinds not only relies upon communication, but produces, in the consumers, ever greater ties with an information/transportation network.
we are building a robust system composed of individual units (human beings) that have many and redundant and increasing forms of communication between them.
-to build a greater consensus-
-this all forms an increasingly complex intercellular matrix between people.
-this in turn forms the part of the body of a larger organism.
indeed all of our environment- all life and everything on earth- is becoming increasingly connected in a single web.

a "goal" of these processes is to strengthen survival advantage.  to discover patterns in nature (science) and to exploit those patterns using technology.

Science, Religion and Art are all on the same spectrum of the dreaming mind.
the discoveries of Science are revelations in the Religion of the Real.
Art is a Gnosis.
Religion and Art will continue to incorporate Science and Technology in its growth.

increasingly, dreams, religion, art, politics and the creative processes of society in general are becoming the subject of scientific study using the expanding toolset of evolutionary biology.
eventually, the subjective (experience) will meet the objective (consensus) through the action of artist/magicians from one end and cognitive neuroscientists and evolutionary psychologists from the other end.

eyesectionsection

"eyesectionsection"
acrylic and found materials
22" x 18" x 6"  
benjamin harubin 2012

I love trash.  I love the messy blights that inevitably intrude upon the overly air-conditioned, paved and scented consumerist constructs that pass for human environments in the developed world.  There the lessons lie for future evolution.  It is only when we design whole systems, economically and socially, allowing for the chaotic and "irrational", and all views and lifestyles that we as a species will live long and prosper.   So the mistakes and injustices of our world, the cracks in the concrete, point to the work that needs to be done.  Naturally, poets and madmen are drawn to the morbid at the same time that they are idealists.

So too, in creative practice, "found art", i.e., trash, is the gateway for inspiration, revealing all the intricate messy dynamics of the whole organism.  "It came to me in a dream, doc.  ...you're the one with all the dirty pictures."  

Looked at from the viewpoint of "art imitating life", the visible work is forever incomplete; a section of a section- lacking in several dimensions.  It is up to the Eye to complete the work.