Hello everyone…
Haven’t seen you since last year ? as is customary, in the new year I wish all humanity; first health, then happiness, then peace and lasting peace.
As we step into the new year, this time I will talk about art, artists, the new world order, and chaos. In doing so, I will go over the topics with small nuances and I will aim for you to enjoy my article without making you think too much…
Friedrich Nietzsche, the famous German philosopher, philologist, poet, and composer, said, “If there is anything that will prevent us from dying because of the truth, it is art”.
Indeed, art treats heals, repairs, and beautifies. While fulfilling its function by constantly developing and renewing itself, it acts with human and life elements. It constantly keeps the search, questioning, resistance, and change active. With enthusiasm, passion, and consciousness, it becomes a party and witness to the age it is in. Most of the time, it has a contrary and impulsive structure. And because of this characteristic, he says what he wants to say in different ways, based on the realities of the existing order. We have art so that we don’t die because of the truth.
Picasso defines art differently. According to Picasso, art consists of lies that allow us to grasp reality. According to him, “We all know that art is not real. Art is a lie that allows us to grasp the truth.”
When we consider all the teachings in history from past to present, we see that art, which carries the accumulation of human life to the future, has a stance. In today’s capitalist order of exploitation, art, which tries to stand upright in the face of power and capital with its unique values, strives not to get caught up in the wheel of the order it is in, not to surrender itself. Because art is the backbone of society.
On the other hand, art and the artist cannot be considered separately. They are a whole. Artists are creative producers who make art. The artist is a bridge between the past and the future in terms of understanding and reflecting the spirit of the age in which they live.
Unfortunately, with globalization, art and artists have started to be seen as an economic element in the capitalist system. They have been assigned certain tasks to cover up global policies, manipulate the masses, and ensure the continuity of the governments. The imperialist culture created by the globalists, with its crude and unfamiliar sensitivities, has made art no longer art. It has taken it away from its real function and made it serve its political interests.
However, the fact that artists today have become people who wait at the gates of the rich is a reality that is difficult to understand, more difficult to get used to, and more difficult to digest!
In this era where the impact of digital is more visible than ever before, we are witnessing the mobilization of the power of communication tools for an effortless, human-less, and lifeless art with technology. Assuming that the thoughts that pass through our minds flow by triggering each other, we can say that human existence has reached a critical end. Considering that we are moving forward with a generation of artists who encounter digital tools at a young enough age to accept them as natural, our job is very difficult.
When you look at it, it is almost as if human and life elements want to be removed from the virtual world and art where soulless bodies wander. Artificial intelligence is the latest example of this. Aside from making our lives easier, artificial intelligence gives excitement and hope, but it also changes the existing balances and increases people’s concerns about their professional futures.
On the other hand, we are aware that these days when possibilities are always on the edge, the challenges we face create opportunities and new definitions emerge. By putting ourselves out there, we embrace change and accept the transformation into a completely different order, but we can’t help but think about this:
Hey! Or is it chaos? If chaos is the point at which the order inevitably established to sustain human life comes to chaos, we can say that at this point we need a new order again. We know that chaos theory emphasizes that even the disorder in the universe has an order. And it shows us an unexpected connection between messiness and creativity. Did you know that small changes in plans, unfamiliar people, and unforeseen events can cause us to feel anxiety and anger, which can lead to new ideas and opportunities?
This theory, which emerged in the early seventies when Edward N. Lorenz realized that a small change of about 1/1000 while doing weather calculations on his computer could produce quite different results, has influenced many branches of science, especially mathematics. Lorenz gave a remarkable example of his research in 1972:
The flapping of a butterfly’s wings in the Amazon forest can cause a storm in the United States.
So, what does this mean? According to Lorenz, all living things on earth are interrelated. Everything affects each other in a chain and it is this cycle that creates life. Every seemingly insignificant detail in our lives, every action we take at a very simple level affects the flow of our lives or someone else’s life in some way.
For example, the chaos created by the ongoing wars and the millions of migrants are increasing with the new fronts opened by wars. The lives, hopes, cultures, and countries that are destroyed by war.
For example, the chaos caused by epidemics and the resulting pandemics that affect the whole world and the loss of human and labor force.
The climate crisis. Its repercussions on the economy, politics, education, security, health, etc…and for a long time, artworks were used in protests against the climate crisis. Artists, art historians, writers, and academics have debated and are still debating whether this works or not.
For example, the recent Jeffrey Edward Epstein case. With the case, names and information have been revealed that have affected us all deeply. The embarrassment, anger, disappointment, and rage caused by the involvement in this case of names that the whole world knows, trusts, or sympathizes with, and the chaotic state of mind that we have inevitably fallen into as a society.
Globalization, capitalism, new technologies…as you can see, we can multiply these examples. Pick and choose. All kinds of different situations and the chaos they create. We are all exposed to them in one way or another. We can analyze, talk, and discuss the consequences of these. But we cannot ignore them. We have all witnessed and are witnessing how the chaos we have experienced, small or big, has shaped art and the artist until today:
Do you think the world is going through an ongoing chaotic process with all the things that are going on?
Nowadays, when art has surrendered to capitalism and imperialists; is it blocked, or on the contrary, is it provoked in terms of creativity? Can we talk about creative chaos here?
In my opinion, the effects of chaos on our creativity in local and universal cultures are undeniable. The most important factor in the development of an artist’s creativity is their environment. Creativity is innate and develops to the extent that it is influenced by the environment.
The order that has been dominant in the world for a long time has a certain place where art and artists are trapped. Artists who choose the unpredictable, the elusive and the unknown have already faced the fact that they need to be more courageous in chaotic environments and have learned to live with it. In art, which has the power to reach the same truths through different paths and feelings, the way to go is clear. And I am sure we all benefit from our creative chaos.
Everything that emerges is the result of the sum of these. Love your chaos. Look for ways to turn chaos to your advantage.
I quoted Friedrich Nietzsche at the beginning of my article, and let me close with him again:
“I tell you: to give birth to a dancing star, one must still have chaos within oneself. I tell you: there is still chaos in you.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche (Thus Spoke Zarathustra)
If we intend to create dancing stars out of ourselves, the master has given us a tip.
There must be chaos in your soul so that you can create a shining star.
Should we embrace chaos or not? I leave the decision to you.
What is your way of managing chaos? How do you deal with chaotic situations? I am waiting for your comments.
Kamil Cakir
İnstagram: kamilcakirstudio
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