Art
as an Anti-Environment
'Art as an anti-environment is an
indispensable means of perception,... for environments, as such, are
imperceptible.'
-Marshall McLuhan
When asked to discuss the subject of art I am instantly
drawn to what I have found a difficult concept to grasp, that of art as an
anti-environment. What does anti-environment even mean?
First we need to understand what an environment is - Our
environment, or its limited perception, is based around our technology
(technology being an extension of ourselves e.g. microscope/telescope extends
the eye, microphone extends the ear, speaker/amplifier extends the voice). It
thus follow that an anti-environment falls outside of technology. This is art;
a form of originality that is archetypal, yet the repetitive reproduction of
art to such extents become subsumed in to technology as cliche.
In this way an artist lives in a world without environmental
boundaries, but their forms of art are not restricted to the assumed centers of
art (painting, music, photography, film etc), but are in fact that of
anti-social activity. Rarely is the artist well adjusted to their environment
and the artist has an air of amateurism in the creation of artistic discourse.
There is no form of professionalism in great works of art only the ability to
see beyond what is acceptable. Art is then as previous mentioned outside of the
assumed centers, it raises the unconscious anti-environment to conscious
perception.
The criminal and the small child are the greatest of artists
for they do not or will not understand the rules that limit what is acceptable.
These modes of communication within art ask us the greatest questions that in
the environment we inhabit do not come to the fore. To observe art is a moment
of contemplation, of awe and extendible discourse beyond this.
Anti-environmental art will only last for as long as it fails to be subsumed,
but once it has it will be come part of technology and technique.
Technique is the distraction of contemplation; it give us an
understanding in it analysis - no moment of contemplation only thought and
analysis. Beyond structural analysis is where our perception is sharpened and
we cannot do that with cliched technique. McLuhan say that ‘Poets and artists
live on frontiers. They have no feedback, only feed forward. They have no
identities. They are probes.’ This is what artists do, they are probes in to
the unknown and they deliver us in to what is missing with our estimation of
reality. They do not show us what has previously been missing but what is now.
Art then becomes the precursor to our future endeavours as a race, preceding
life and determining its trajectory.
By Mark Dawson
