I was assigned a partner to obstruct me, that is another peer of mine was required to enforce limitations on my processes for which she would design the platform for this assignment. Despite the ultimate human desire to be free, free of attachment, responsibility, limitations, laws and such we actually need and even enjoy our limitations.
Freedom makes us human, our identity is choice that happens in every moment, and the way to maximize freedom is to maximize choice. Yet we like to be told what to do, when we are given a difficult choice with the burden of responsibility we ask "what would you do? what would you do if you were me?" To much choice can cause paralysis rather than liberation and it has been shown in people that they have such difficulty choosing that they put the choice off or choose to not choose at all. If we get over the paralysis and make the choice, we may not even reach our fullest satisfaction because the sheer amount of choice creates expectations for perfection which further sets us up to potentially regret what we choose because if there is any disappointment in our choice we find it that much easier to imagine the perfect alternative... The solution? Build your own obstacles to overcome, create rules for which to design a platform of play. Have no expectations, drop gaining ideas and have no fear that no matter what you choose, you have chosen your right path, accept and furthermore enjoy your choices... and your limitations.
Thus my limitations were to work digitally, involve text, have a monochromatic colour scheme, create just one piece, and to collaborate with the Baba
Ram Dass, that is the author of Be Here Now. Ram Dass was a psychologist and psychedelic pioneer whom decided to take a trip to India to find his truth. Ram Dass traveled throughout India meeting many a holy man and became content with his journey but never found quite what he was looking for until he came to meet the guru Maharajji. The Guru immediately cut through all of Ram Dass's skepticism and showed him his greater self.
I thus decided to fulfill the assignment I would create a page for my own book "East Meets Wuest; Zen and the Japanese Aesthetic" which I wrote in the form of letters I mailed while studying in the Monasteries of Japan to my friends in America. I thus so illustrated the first page of the last letter which is a piece that utilizes text, is digitally crafted, monochromatic, belonging to a single piece, collaborative in that it takes a similar approach to sharing a spiritual journey and in particular in showing a part of a part of a mosaic of karmic unfolding.
We were than obstructed a second time. After coming to realize that every single piece I had turned in into my Ideation and Processing class was a performance condensed into a two dimensional format my obstruction was to perform in class. I particularly wanted to capture the sensation of leaving Japan on a flight that was just as long as the time difference and thus I arrived at the same time I left. A similar idea to that shared by Tantric Yogins whom are always departing in a state of arrival and consequently arriving in a state of departure. Tantric Yogins live in a non-dual reality where they see eating as excrement, drinking as urine, lovers as mothers and have no destination or beginning to meditation. I decided to search for inspiration with my circus folk in
BrentlyLand. We started getting real loopy playing with a looping station and inspiration struck... I thus had every person in class contribute their own sound to come together full circle to create one piece in unity.
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