Dancing for Gaia
February 23, 2010
Via Zombie comes news of a tremendous intellectual breakthrough at U.C. Berkeley. At midday on Friday, students will be graced by visiting lecturer Maximilian Mayer, a Research Fellow at Bonn University’s Centre for Global Studies. The lecture in question, Mitigating Global Warming Through Art - Exploring the Importance of Music for the Change of Lifestyles, offers no less than a blueprint for saving the world. The university’s events calendar provides a glimpse of things to come:
Whatever the new law carbon life may look like, simplification is a central issue. From the vantage point of the actor-network theory, simplification means to reduce the complexity of collectives. In order to simplify our life has to decrease the number of “things” one is entangled with in his/her daily life.
The language, she is beautiful.
Yet, one cannot substitute something with nothing.
This must be where the global salvation comes in.
What is the relevance of music for revolutions and societal cohesion? On a personal level, we are looking for an utterly new way of happiness and a quotidian practice that provides postmodern urban dwellers with sense and orientation.
An utterly new way of happiness. I told you it was big.
Music in general and art in particular seems to be a promising Archimedean point for multiple new life styles. Performing music and dancing... may be powerful enough to substitute the culture of consumerism since they enable a creativity-based self-autonomy as well as cultural self-sufficiency. “Back to art” could even open up the path to self-induced simplification in order to overcome the hegemonic consumerist environment... Humanity should not be primarily treated according to the logic of homo economicus. Rather it might be best envisioned as communities of artists.
It’s a revolution, people. Humanity will be reconceived as one big drum circle and the hegemon will be crushed beneath our happy, happy feet. Readers are welcome to speculate as to what form this momentous dancing endeavour might take. Doubtless it will be both elegant and awe-inspiring, perhaps a little like this.