John Prendergast wrote:
> It seems that the road to art is always paved with play, mastery, and
> ultimately, self expression. As individuals and organizations learn and
> become artistic, we move through these stages.
>
> Game - Emulation - We imitate what we seek to learn, trying it on for
> size. We approach new things from many angles as we explore new ideas. By
> playing with new concepts we learn rules, protocols, and basic skills.
>
> Science - Integration - We put our skills together and consciously build
> outcomes, testing and adjusting as we go. The learning becomes part of us/
> our organization. We explore the relation of our new knowledge to
> ourselves and the world.
>
> Art - Extension - Through confidence in our new medium we can transcend
> it. The medium, whether management or music, becomes an extension of
> ourselves. Through it we can now express ourselves/our organization, Art.
John,
This is the learning process that art teaches children in the schools as
well. I have provided it for my daughter and it has built her study in
the Math and Science areas as well.
I consider these to be TIME issues as opposed to the post that I did which
were spacial structural issues. It is also the PROCESS or TIME side of
English that is missing when the arts are not taught to children before
the age of 10. It is what sticks them in the Newtonian reality and makes
modern science realities seem like contradictions. The great Lakota
Wicasa Wakan (high priest) John Fire Lame Deer stated that the artist
process was the only side of English capable of understanding Native
languages and indeed it was the artist/scientist Benjamin Lee Whorf (an
MIT graduate) who opened up western linguistics to those ideas.
In my culture we call your three areas a little differently. They are
four and related to the cycles of:
East, South, West, North; (the Sun cycle in time and space)
Sunrise, noontime, sunset, night;
Spring, summer, fall, winter;
Childhood, youth, maturity, the elders;
Perception/imitation,
Analysis/practice,
Expression/dialogue,
Reflection/teaching;
The Aztecs said it this way:
The one who wears the skin of his teacher, Xipe Totec
The warrior and the one who waters, Huitcilopochtli/ Tlaloc
The Bringer of Songs and the Wind, Quetzalcoatl
The One responsible for the turning of the Universe,
(I will not mention his name for he is the Master Trickster)
Talent, Intellect, Heart, Spirit
One needs both hands in order to understand the purpose and must be able
to give it away before you can truly own it.
Regards (How did you like the Needham post?)
Ray Evans Harrell, artistic director
The Magic Circle Chamber Opera of New York
mcore@soho.ios.com
PS I would recommend a book by Sir Herbert Read entitled
Education Through Art 1956 Pantheon Books NY (Out of Print but
still wonderful if you can find it. Otherwise I enjoyed
"Frames of Mind" by Howard Gardner covering the same perceptual
ground as the Read.
--ray evans harrell <mcore@soho.ios.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>