Science has liberated us ‘cogs’ from the religious machine
and revealed our complexity. We are now shiny drops reflecting the world around
us in all our individual glory. But science, with its acceleration of
communication, has also brought us to the ocean. I see myself as a drop-an
individual with a vital message to give to the world-but when I tried to
express it I am brought face-to-face with the fact that I am one of millions of
unwanted writers clogging up the in trays of thousands of unwanted publishers
when all that the world really needs is a steady flow of bestsellers from
leading celebrities published by a couple of top publishers. The same is true
for everyone -hopeful pop stars, bright-eyed school leavers, revolutionaries,
inventors…. We all feel our enormous value as shining drops, but when we
approach the ocean we just melt into insignificance. Science has given us a
cruelly indifferent universe………. Ramsey
Dukes
As a musician and teacher I am constantly aware of the
problem of the rationalist aspect of education and the general media babble.
Much of this, from the media especially, is loosely scientific and maybe best
put as pseudoscientific. Stories that knock unscientific thought abound in the
media and particularly in the hallowed halls of the BBC where they will quite
happily knock alternative thought but quite happily embrace some religious
programme in the guise of free speech.
What I would like to do is to look at this from the point of
view of the artist and musician and that scientific thinking is not conducive
to creativity. The above quote by Ramsey Dukes is a good example of this
because anybody who wanted to start a band only has to look at the statistical
possibility of having any form of success is so remote you may as well become a
professional lottery player.
However because people are irrational and illogical we have
art and we have music with new musical bands and solo artists of which the
United Kingdom is truly blessed. So being naïve is probably a gift for the
young, for the irrational, no rules, and no holds barred sensibility of the
artist.
The scientific viewpoint as pictured in the above quote is
intriguingly homeopathic, where a small droplet in the ocean can make the
significant difference in somebody’s health. This is of course poo-pooed by
science but strangely seems to work for people since the time of Hahnemann back
in the 18th century and intriguingly also works for animals. Hey but
according to science doesn’t work.
If we look at the world of computer programming we find no
problem with a small program acting as a virus that can destroy complex
computers and this is the attitude that we need to adopt as an artist that
something that we do which in the scheme things will be incredibly small will
have a vast impact in the sea of human consciousness.
So be brave and irrational adopt a state of mind this is
egotistical and naïve and create something beautiful. Remember small is beautiful.
Vic
www.bluescampuk.co.uk musical magic, book for next year
