========================================================== THE BIG PICTURE Or Contemporary Visions of the Past, Present and Future Four Related Essays with an Introduction A search for the divine in a scientific age By Rick Doble ========================================================== Copyright 2004 Richard deGaris Doble All Rights Reserved ========================================================== == The old gods are dead or dying and people everywhere are searching, asking: What is the new mythology to be, the mythology of this unified earth as of one harmonious being? == Our scientists and historians have already laid out the plot. == For it is the artist who brings the images of a mythology to manifestation, and without images (whether mental or visual) there is no mythology. The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, Metaphor as Myth and as Religion Joseph Campbell, 1986 ================================================ TABLE OF CONTENTS ================================================ Prologue WHAT'S THE POINT? A life long dialogue with my father that still continues even though he is now dead Introduction WHAT IS THE POINT OF ASKING 'WHAT'S THE POINT?' Will it make a shred of difference? ========================== THE ESSAYS ========================== #1. The Past: THE BEGINNING OF TIME A modern creation story #2. The Present: THOUGHTS ABOUT ART IN THE 21ST CENTURY Artists must deal with technology and the future of the Earth #3. The Future: THE HUMAN CONNECTION TO THE UNIVERSE Our survival instincts may cause us to do the impossible #4. Communion: DIVINE LIGHT Experiencing the sublime in our scientific age PICTURES & NOTES ================================================ Prologue: WHAT'S THE POINT? A life long dialogue with my father that still continues even though he is now dead ================================================ After dinner in summer twilight when I was young my father and I often sat together in the backyard of his house on Cape Cod. We would watch the light fade across the mill pond. Many times he would say "What's the point?" knowing that I would understand. My Dad liked to ask "big questions." 'What's the point?' was not meant to be ironic, or sarcastic or hopeless. It was his short hand for the questions that he had taught me to ask: Where did we come from, why are we here now, where are we going, and what does it all mean? My Dad was a black sheep in a family of engineers who saw his musings as impractical and pointless. But I understood, in fact I understood better than anyone. I was in tune with his ponderings. Some times I wondered what that made me: what do you call the son of a black sheep who follows in his father's footsteps? It has been said that a thinker, an artist, a writer can be the product of several generations, often three. My grandmother also thought about such things, but being a woman of her time, she kept those thoughts to herself and only late in life did she publish a volume of her poetry. My father did not come to these questions easily or lightly, because more than most he had seen life at its darkest and at its most triumphant. As a American solder in World War I he had listened to the dying groans of men lying out of reach in No Mans Land. He came to realize that the exceptionally large rats he saw in the trenches were getting fat off corpses. A year later after being a prisoner of war, he had become fluent in French due to confinement with French soldiers. Ironically being captured probably saved his life as he was treated well by the Germans. He returned to America almost dead but with a love for Europe and a desire to see it all. He was perhaps the most curious person I have known. He read philosophy, history, psychology, political thought, literature, mythology, religion, understood the basic new discoveries in science, listened avidly to all kinds of music, knew painting quite well and loved to travel. Years ahead of his time he believed that the environment as well as population and birth control would be crucial issues for future generations. In addition he was born into a time when the most rapid technological changes in the history of civilization occurred. His boyhood was a world of horses and coal stoves. Although his family lived in a city, they kept a small herd of cows for their milk supply. He vividly recalled the horse drawn fire engine that arrived when their barn burned to the ground. Just ten years later he was being rushed to the trenches in trucks with airplanes swarming overhead. On the battle field he saw thousands of men mowed down with the mechanical precision of machine guns. And he lived long enough to see the atomic bomb explode and men land on the moon. If he had one overwhelming point of view, it was that life was part of a process, that we needed to understand how we got here. His Ph.D. dissertation in English was to be the evolution of the novel from Homer to the present day; he was never one to shy away from a huge subject. Unfortunately he contracted tuberculosis and was unable to finish. And he believed that art and our understanding of our place in the scheme of things should come from an examination of nature - a key idea in my own thought. From his experiences I also I learned that things were often double edged. For example, the technology that killed so many people in the war had also helped give us the modern world in which we lived. On his face I often saw the duality of life: he had a twinkle in his eyes and true "joie de vivre" that he had learned in France along with the deepest sadness for those who had died so pointlessly in the war. In his wanderings that he could barely afford with his veteran's disability payments he crawled through a long tunnel to see the stone age cave paintings in Spain at Altamira, spent days at the Alhambra palace, saw the Roman Coliseum at night and wandered the English country side. As my parents were divorced, he saved souvenirs from these trips and gave them to me when we were together in the summers. In the summers as a young child he read to me The Stars for Sam, The Earth for Sam and H.G. Wells History of the World. He covered the walls and angled ceiling of my small room with dark blue wall paper sprinkled with white stars. When I went to sleep I looked up at the ceiling and it was as though I could see across the Universe. I mean why not; one could dream couldn't one? This is not to say that my father was without faults. His many flaws and failures became clear to me as I grew up; but none of that took away from what the two of us shared. A follower of Socrates and Plato, he was in love with ideas and saw the beauty that they had in and of themselves. I am not sure if he ever intended to answer his own question, "What's the point?" or like Socrates just wanted to keep asking the right questions. In any case he left it up to me to finish his quest. Now that I am older, I think about him and perhaps the child that I did not have. Yet I have continued his search in ways that I never imagined as a boy. Although our personalities were quite similar, we also had differences. With the remarkable base of knowledge that he gave me, almost like an inheritance, I was able to add other interests such as photography and computers. My Dad liked to ponder and consider as did I, but I also liked to finish projects and then move on. So I have attempted to complete his work or perhaps it is our joint project. What follows next are a series of essays and a children's story that are direct answers to my Dad's questions. You could say that these pages are the result of our combined ages, over 100 years of thought. In any case, people are certain to disagree with some or all of my conclusions. But hopefully, dear reader, you will realize that these pages did not come easily or lightly. ================================================ Introduction: WHAT IS THE POINT OF ASKING 'WHAT'S THE POINT?' Will it make a shred of difference? ================================================ Did anybody read on the front page of the Times that matter is decaying? Am I the only one that saw that the universe is gradually breaking down? There's not going to be anything left. I'm not talking about my stupid little films here. Eventually there's not going to be any Beethoven or Shakespeare. Speech by Woody Allen, Speaking in his movie Stardust Memories, 1980 Many of you might ask, "What is the point of asking 'What's the point?'" And by that you might mean: So what if the world began billions of years ago? Who cares if humans will die out millions or billions of years hence? None of it really matters to us today and it won't even matter to our great grand children. In a hard-nosed everyday practical sense, it probably does not matter. The sun will still rise, global warming will still continue, people will still enjoy sitting around talking in the cool of the evening and the poor will still be poor. A student once asked an anthropology professor why should he care if his distant grandfather was an ape. The professor replied, "Well, it mattered to your distant grandmother. And without them, you would not be here asking this question." So here are my answers to why I wrote each of the following four essays: ==The Past: THE BEGINNING OF TIME A modern creation story Most people believe in some religion and virtually all religions have a creation story as well as beliefs about how humans fit into the universe. At times these beliefs have been so important that people who dared to think otherwise were burned at the stake such as Giordano Bruno who was the first to propose that the stars at night were other worlds. Galileo was put under house arrest for asserting that the Earth orbited the Sun. Why it matters is quite simple. Without understanding our past we are orphans. We will not understand our position, our place on the Earth or in the solar system or in our galaxy; we will not understand this place we call home. ==The Future: THE HUMAN CONNECTION TO THE UNIVERSE Our survival instincts may cause us to do the impossible Without some sense of the future, life itself can seem futile. We are on tiny planet orbiting an average star which is part of an average galaxy. And there are a hundred billion galaxies and ten thousand, billion, billion stars. So what's the point? If people believe that humans hold a significant place in the scheme of things and that our civilization is important to the future, they will feel differently about themselves. This belief will affect them in their daily lives and in the traditions that they pass on to their children and to the culture. ==The Present: THOUGHTS ABOUT ART IN THE 21ST CENTURY Artists must deal with technology and the future of the Earth Certainly the most important question to us today is: What do we do now? From my father I gained a deep understanding of how much the culture had changed in the last 100 years. Technology has altered everything and removed us from nature and yet it is nature (such as the Earth's weather) on which we all ultimately depend. But we cannot go back. Our task for the next hundred or thousand years is to understand our relation to the Earth given the technology that we have invented and will continue to invent. ==Communion: DIVINE LIGHT Experiencing the sublime in our scientific age Lastly I deal with mystery. Science seems very uncomfortable with not knowing; today it assumes that it can know everything. Yet there will always be many things that we cannot know given the time that we are born into. And there are many things that humans may never know. Nevertheless irregardless of our understanding, when we look out at the night sky it is there in its magnificence. It is the same sky that the cave men saw tens of thousands of years ago and that space faring civilizations of the future will see tens of thousands of years hence. (Okay there will be a little movement and apparent movement in some of the stars like the North star but lets not quibble!) At times we should stop needing to know precise answers and simply connect in a wordless way to the Universe that made us and of which we are all a part. Oddly with technology, we can now connect in a very direct way to the event that created it all, we can bath in the light of the Big Bang. ================================================ The Past: THE BEGINNING OF TIME A modern creation story ================================================ What is the new mythology to be...Our scientists and historians have already laid out the plot. The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, Metaphor as Myth and as Religion Joseph Campbell, 1986 Did I write this story (like my father reading to me The Stars For Sam to the child that I never had? I worked with children for a number of years, loved them and wrote a number of children's stories. This story is for them which they will understand much better than adults. The story of how humans came to live on the Earth, as told by modern theories, is beautiful, profound, compelling, and comprehensive. The picture painted by science today is vast and mythic. I believe we owe it to ourselves as a culture to tell this story in simple terms to our children who will live with these ideas all of their lives. The chronology and events in this children's story are in keeping with recent findings of science. However, to tell the story in a clear and coherent manner, I simplified it greatly for young readers. In areas where science is uncertain such as the start of life and the development of human language, I took fictional liberties that are consistent with scientific speculation. THE BEGINNING OF TIME CHAPTER 1: BEFORE TIME BEGAN Once upon a time, very long ago, there was nothing, nothing at all, except a tiny ball, smaller than a grain of sand. And there were no trees, no flowers, no fishes, no birds, no cats, no dogs, no people. Nothing was alive. There was not even dirt, or water, or air, or ground, or sky. And there was no Earth, no Sun, no moon, no stars. There was nothing, nothing at all, except this tiny ball. No light, no darkness, no time, no space, nothing except this ball which was like a tiny seed. But one day this seed would grow like an acorn into a huge tree. CHAPTER 2: THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE OR THE BIG BANG No one knows how long this tiny seed lay still - but all a once, like a pot of water suddenly boiling, this seed exploded. And everywhere there was dust from this seed. After a while the dust clumped together, like steam on a cool window pane turning into drops of water. And then out of the darkness a light started to glow - the first star had been born from out of the dust. And then there were more stars and still more, and soon trillions of stars - stars everywhere filling the sky. CHAPTER 3: THE CREATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM These stars burned and glowed until after many years, some of the stars grew old, and they couldn't burn anymore. They were just too old and so they died. But when a star dies it explodes. And when these stars exploded, a different dust was created. Because out of this new dust trees could grow, and fish could swim, and animals could breath. And from this dust our star, the Sun, came into being. And after that still more of the dust circled the Sun until something surprising happened. The dust clumped together into large round balls. And planets like our Earth were born. CHAPTER 4: THE BEGINNING OF LIFE At first the Earth was full of water, and lightning, and a sour smelling wind. There was nothing alive anywhere. Not in the oceans, or on the land, on in the air. But when lightning came out of the sky and hit the oceans, again and again, a strange thing began to happen. Tiny plants started to live. The plants were very, very small - smaller than a grain of sand. But they were alive and they were the first things to ever be alive. And each plant had children, and their children had children and so on for a long time. And just as you look different from your parents and your parents look different from your grandparents so each child of these plants changed a little bit. After a very long time, some of the children of these tiny plants turned into larger plants which grew in the sand in the ocean. And some of the children of these plants started to grow on the land instead of in the water. And some of the children of the tiny plants started to swim and became fish. And some of the children of fish came out of the water and went on to the land for a short while. And some of their children became lizards who could walk and live on the land. And some of the children of the lizards began to fly and turned into birds. And other children of lizards turned into animals with fur. CHAPTER 5: LIFE IN THE FOREST Some special animals with fur lived in the trees of the forest. They were smarter than the other animals in the trees, or the ones who walked on the ground, or birds that flew in the air. All the animals in the forest knew that these "furry animals who lived in trees" (who we will call "Fawlits" because we don't know their name) were the smartest of them all. The others knew the Fawlits were smart because they could make so many different sounds and call to each other from tree to tree and across the forest. At first the sounds they made were very simple. One call meant "Danger! Lookout!" Another sound meant "I am a young Fawlit and I'm looking for a mate." And still another meant "My family and I are here on this branch in this tree." The Fawlits were very happy living in the trees. And they were also happy because they liked being the smartest of all the animals in the forest. CHAPTER 6: PART I LEAVING THE FOREST The sounds the Fawlits made became more complicated. Soon they could make hundreds of sounds. And they could combine different sounds to say many things. And when this happened the Fawlits began to speak in words, words just like you and I speak today. But something else happened as well - the Fawlits realized that they had an imagination. They could see pictures in their minds and talk about the pictures they saw. They could remember things they had done in the past, even though it was long ago. And they could talk about these memories with other Fawlits and their children could learn from their parent's memories. And they could do even more. They could imagine the future; picture things they wanted to do, things they wanted to change. And the Fawlits could imagine things that they would never know, such as what the Earth might be like when their great, great, grandchildren would be alive. And about the same time the Fawlits started speaking in words, they came out of the trees and lived on the ground. And they began to make tools with their hands, tools like spears, and knives. Their lives changed a lot from the time when they lived in the trees. And now the Fawlits knew they were very different from all the other animals. CHAPTER 6: PART II LEAVING THE FOREST And some of the Fawlits were sad because they thought their lives would never be the same again. They wanted to go back to the time when they lived in the trees with the animals and they were so happy but they knew they could not go back. Other Fawlits were glad. They knew that learning to speak and making tools was good. Now the Fawlits could work together and help each other. And these Fawlits decided that they were so different from the other animals they would give themselves a new name. They called themselves "Humans" which means "of the Earth". CHAPTER 6: PART III EARLY HUMANS So the Humans lived and worked together in tribes. They learned to make cloth from plants and animal hair so they could wear clothes. And they learned to make pottery from clay they found in the ground so they could carry water. The Humans learned how to make fires so they could be warm in places where there was snow on the ground and so they could work by the light of the fire at night. On special nights the tribe gathered together to dance dances and sing songs in front of the fire. Older Humans told stories of the way their life used to be. And still others painted pictures on stones using different colors of earth. At first members of the tribe looked for fruits and grains growing wild. But after many years they learned to grow their own food in the earth. Soon they could grow a lot of different plants, and they had more food than they had ever had before. CHAPTER 7: THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION When Humans were able to grow lots of food, some of them did not need to work with the crops. The smartest of these Humans began to work in different ways. Astronomers studied the Sun and the moon and the stars to learn the best times to grow plants, so that Humans could grow even more food. Others worked together to cut down trees so they could make large ships, or they worked together to cut stone so they could design and build cities for hundreds of thousands of people. Artists created stories and music and songs. And people acted out these stories and songs in front of thousands from their city. And still others invented ways to write down the words they had been speaking (written words just like you see here), so that many people could read what they wrote and so that their great, great, grandchildren could read what they had learned. They wrote these things even though they knew they would never know their great, great, grandchildren. They wrote hundreds, then thousands of books. Books that you can read today, written by Humans who lived long ago. Books that Humans wrote so we can learn from their lives. And to this day Humans are still writing words and stories which they hope their great, great, grandchildren will read. Such as these words you are reading right now, this story about "The Beginning Of Time." ================================================ The Present: THOUGHTS ABOUT ART IN THE 21ST CENTURY Artists must deal with technology and the future of the Earth Notes for a manifesto ================================================ What is the new mythology to be, the mythology of this unified earth as of one harmonious being? The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, Metaphor as Myth and as Religion Joseph Campbell, 1986 "For the artist communication with nature remains the most essential condition. The artist is human; himself [herself] nature; part of nature..." Paul Klee, Paths of the Study of Nature, 1923. "The old bond between humans and nature has been permanently altered by technology. The task of the 21st century artist is to forge a new relationship between humans and the world, since our fate is inseparable from that of the Earth." Rick Doble ART AND CONTEMPORARY CIVILIZATION NOTES FOR AN ART MANIFESTO I. WHY ART HAS BROKEN WITH NATURE Up until recently (about 100 years ago) painters painted directly from nature. Now most painters tend to create from their imagination, from subjective inner needs and inner impulses or they paint based on abstract principles or conceptual ideas. Painting has become mostly studio oriented. Instead of drawing from nature directly, some painters draw from their inner nature. For example, Jackson Pollock pointed out that he, himself, was nature. Painting has removed itself from nature for the same reason that the society has removed itself from nature. Human beings are a part of nature and until recently lived close to the cycles of the seasons, changes in weather and the spread of disease. For hundreds of years the goal of technology and science was to conquer nature, to subdue it to serve the need of humans. Today this has largely been accomplished. People are no longer subject to the devastating forces of nature that used to control their destiny. In just 200 years life expectancy has about doubled. People live secure predictable lives. For example, many lethal diseases have been wiped out or can be easily treated. Women can choose whether or not to have children. Generally long distance travel and travel close to home can be reliably scheduled without being subject to the weather. Global communications are effortless. There is a reliable and cheap supply of food and energy. Yet at the same time all these advances have removed us from those natural cycles of which we are a part. Painting and art in this century has merely reflected the break with nature that the civilization as a whole has experienced. In short the old relationship that humans had with nature has been broken and we can never go back. However, in the near future we will be confronted with new and different problems that our technology has created. For example, the UN estimates that in the next century world population will reach the maximum that the Earth can sustain. According to the Larousse Desk Reference the Earth will run out of many essential materials soon. For example, lead, zinc, mercury and tin are expected to be exhausted around the year 2015, copper in 2035, nickel in 2060 and aluminum in 2220. In addition there may be global warming which is a consequence of civilization. The weather and sea levels may be affected. Further the destruction of hundreds of species and of the rain forest may affect us in ways that we do not yet realize. Yet there is hope. The very technology that created this crisis may solve it. For example, reliable computer models that predict the impact of civilization on climate could show us the best ways to alter our collective behavior. Or computer models could show us how to design industrial production to use resources in the most efficient and least polluting ways. Because of the immense power we have achieved and which we will never relinquish, we must oversee and manage the Earth itself. We have become so large and dominant a species, we have no choice but to become custodians of the planet. This means that in addition we will have to understand, confront, and manage our own nature. Technology serves at the command of our wants and desires. It is our nature that has created the world we live in today and will create the world of tomorrow. Our own nature is now our greatest challenge and danger. II. PRINCIPLES OF A NEW ART The goal is to create a new art which examines the relationship between humans and the Earth on which we live, specifically: 1. To explore and understand our own nature in relation to the Earth. 2. To explore a new "technological" relationship with nature since the old agricultural and pre-industrial bonds have been broken. III. THE ROLE OF ART Art has often been a guiding force. Since civilization is leading us to a point of crisis, it is fitting and proper that painting and other arts should be in the vanguard. Painting and art is well suited to create new images and icons that can serve as touchstones to our future. This is an heroic task in the best sense of the word. There is no guarantee of success, but that is the nature of heroism. IV. ART FORMS AND IDEAS Note: Earth (capital E) = the planet; earth (small e) = soil or dirt. The word human comes from "humus" meaning soil or earth; human means "from the earth" or "of the Earth." Therefore humans must constantly seek to renew, recreate and celebrate their relationship with the Earth from which they came. Works should explore modern expressions of: myth, vision, story, dreams, desires, wants, ideals and to create symbols, icons, and experiences that guide and help humans in this understanding. In order to achieve the above there should always be an emphasis on the human scale. Works should create or evoke a sense of place. Such a sense is important to a human's feelings of belonging. Humans need to believe that they are "a part of things" or "a part of the world" or "a part of something larger." Works of art should help people bridge their anxiety of dislocation and the modern malaise of alienation. In order to help create a sense of belonging, works of art might refer to, derive from, or relate to previous art forms. By previous is meant the entire history of civilized art as well as primitive, prehistoric, folk and naive art. Humans must constantly seek to renew, recreate and celebrate their relationship with the Earth from which they came. In order to help create a sense of connection, works of art might include the natural rhythms of the Earth. Some works might draw on ancient forms that brought humans and the natural world together such as the megalith construction at Stonehenge. This art should often (but not always) be an inclusive art. By inclusive is meant an art which has wide appeal and is accessible to a wide range people. Too much of modern art has appealed to in an in- crowd and deliberately put many viewers at a distance. ================================================ The Future: THE HUMAN CONNECTION TO THE UNIVERSE Our survival instincts may cause us to do the impossible ================================================ I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. [Please note the word "immortal"] William Faulkner, Nobel Prize Speech, Stockholm, Sweden, December 10, 1950 If I did not work, these worlds would perish... The Bhagavad-Gita An instinct to survive is basic to life. Without it life simply would not exist; it would die off. Further intelligent life adds an additional dimension to the life force. As Jacob Bronowski, a natural philosopher of science and author of the BBC series The Ascent of Man has said, humans are not like other animals adapted to their environment. Instead we have the ability to change our environment to suit our needs. The power to consciously shape and control the environment on a massive scale is unique to homo sapiens. As human culture grows, our power increases geometrically. Today we can create atomic explosions, air condition huge enclosed malls and make new materials at the molecular level. If we continue this process at the same rate of progress achieved in the last 100 years, we will hold immense power. Imagine what we could do in another 100 years, or 1000 years or a million years. What about a billion years? Baring some catastrophe, such a time period should be available to us. With this power intelligent life will shape and mold as needed in order to survive, and this includes planets and stars. While some may consider this farfetched, the human management of the Earth and solar system has already begun. According to the History Channel humans now move more dirt and soil on the planet than is moved by natural forces. NASA is currently mapping Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) and developing scenarios to prevent meteors from colliding with the Earth. Some have said that we are the Universe trying to understand itself, the consciousness of the Universe, you could say. I would go much further. Because intelligent life is part of the development of the cosmos (our existence proves that) and because it will become increasingly powerful over time, intelligent life is a basic force, perhaps a fundamental force. I believe we have been created by the Universe to eventually forge the Universe. Humans will manage the entire solar system, nearby stars, the Milky Way galaxy and beyond. That is why we are here and why life will be everywhere. Intelligent life will shape and mold the Universe itself. However, success is far from guaranteed. Let us say we have been given the opportunity. It is up to us to follow through. If we succeed, we may become masters of the landscape of the Universe. If we fail, our race of homo sapiens may become extinct. The point of all this is quite simple, quite human, quite heroic and goes back to ancient thought, such as that of the Greeks: If we have the will, if we struggle, we might survive. It is not guaranteed; it is not certain, but without the struggle we are surely doomed. NOTE: THE REPORTS OF THE DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE HAVE BEEN GREATLY EXAGGERATED Did anybody read on the front page of the Times that matter is decaying? Am I the only one that saw that the universe is gradually breaking down? There's not going to be anything left. Speech by Woody Allen, Speaking in his movie Stardust Memories, 1980 Its incredibly interesting that there's a lot more we don't know about the universe than we do, in spite of all we've learned up to today. And therefore some of the wild ideas from science fiction including things like worm holes might or might not be possible; we just don't know at this point. Dr. Lawrence Krauss, CWR University Science Channel Documentary, Creation A new discovery [dark energy] about the fate of the Universe has sent scientists into turmoil. And challenged our understanding of the fundamental laws of physics. Science Channel Documentary about Dark Energy Just about every cosmologist I have read has confidently predicted that the Universe will become cold and dead given perhaps a hundred billion years. To make such a prediction with absolute certainty is a bit farfetched. While I am not a scientist, I do know that there is a lot we don't know. Our theories of the Universe are based almost entirely on visible light seen through optical telescopes which is only 2.5% of the electromagnetic spectrum and on visible matter which makes up only 4% of the Universe. According to the Astronomy Magazine special issue of The Origin and Fate of the Universe, the rest is dark matter (23%) and dark energy (73%). Our understanding of dark matter is minimal and dark energy is such a recent idea that we know almost nothing. New instruments that look into the non-visible radiation in the Universe are already causing major alterations in cosmology. So while cosmologists will probably laugh at my layman's ignorance, I have to ask, "Isn't it possible that in a thousand years when we understand dark energy and dark matter and we have mapped the Universe at all frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum that we might have a very different idea of the fate of the Universe?" And if the human race is given a billion or so years to learn, what forces could we bring to bear on the shape of the Universe itself? ================================================ Communion: DIVINE LIGHT Experiencing the sublime in our scientific age ================================================ == And, once we all understand the true nature of the universe, we can all take part in the discussion about why it exists. Stephen Hawking, Stephen Hawking's Universe, 1997 == For it is the artist who brings the images of a mythology to manifestation, and without images (whether mental or visual) there is no mythology. The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, Metaphor as Myth and as Religion Joseph Campbell, 1986 Imagine that we could get in touch with the earliest moments of the creation of the universe and simply let the light from those moments wash over us like light through a stain glass window in a church, or a shaft of light falling within a temple or the sun lining up with the ancient stone columns at Stonehenge? In such moments who would ask for precise scientific answers to human questions? Who would not be in awe of something that created a Universe large beyond human understanding? Surprisingly this is quite possible today. The echo from the Big Bang creation does exist right now; in fact as you read this page microwave radiation from this echo (which started out as light) is falling on you. Over 10 billion years ago, about 1 second after the Big Bang explosion, light was created. About 400,000 years later (a moment in cosmic time) this light was set free to shine across the Universe. Known as "cosmic microwave background radiation" or CMB, it is available to everyone everywhere on Earth and to all peoples and all cultures. Within this early light are fluctuations which were the embryos of life and are at the heart existence: == The liberated photons [light of the very early universe] carried the fossil imprints of the early universe's density and temperature fluctuations as a pattern of brightness variations. Astronomers call this "relic radiation"... == Cosmologists agree that, although the details are yet to be fully resolved, the tiny fluctuations in the early Universe were amplified by gravity to form the large lumps astronomers see today -- galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and other large scale structures. The Origin and Fate of the Universe, Special Issue - Astronomy Magazine Surprisingly this idea of a seed of undifferentiated matter bursting into light to form all of creation, while being quite modern (first proposed by Geroges Lemaitre in the 1920s and only generally accepted in the 1970s), is also one of the oldest ideas from ancient cosmogonic myths: Egg: As the seed of life...Encountered in the mythic notions of a great many cultures...a symbol of the totality of creative forces -- is thought to have been present at the primeval beginning, when it floated on the primeval waters and issued from itself the entire world and the elements... The Continuum Encyclopedia of Symbols, Edited by Udo Becker, 1997 It is quite possible that artists and scientists could band together to create unique art installations for the direct experience of these signals. I have created such a proposal (see below) and am in the process of looking for funding. However, I do not see this as a one time thing. Other artists and technical people in other countries, from other cultures could process the CMB signal in ways that I have not dreamt of. I hope to start something that continues. For example, this signal can be put into a visual form (see pictures) but it could also be auditory or a pulsing light show or a rhythm track. The possibilities are only limited by the imagination of the artists and the ability of the technicians to hone in on the signal and receive it as purely as possible. And while describing the CMB as light is entirely accurate, it is just the beginning. At the moment we only have a fuzzy image of the early universe via our current instruments. As the technology progresses we will get a clearer detailed picture of the contours of embryonic space. This technology will become cheaper and more accessible to non- scientists, allowing them to process and display artistic creations in more sophisticated ways. The future of Big Bang art is bright! LIVE FROM THE BIG BANG A Proposal For An Art-Science Project By Rick Doble PROPOSAL: Radio waves, or CMB, from the Big Bang explosion that formed the universe are available to the right kind of receiving equipment. Once accessed these signals can be molded and shaped in a variety of ways to produce unusual organic art. EXAMPLE OF AN INSTALLATION: A Big Bang Labyrinth Note: The idea of a labyrinth came to me because it might be a self standing structure that could be placed just about anywhere. It could be dismantled and moved to other locations. Also a labyrinth in Greek and other mythologies has often had mythical and sacred meaning. Labyrinth: Passage through a labyrinth was sometimes part of initiation rites; it symbolized the discovery of a hidden spiritual center as well as the ascent from darkness to light. The Continuum Encyclopedia of Symbols, Edited by Udo Becker, 1997 After entering the labyrinth a participant would see very fine images of the CMB on the wall (either printouts or LCD displays). As he or she progressed further into the maze, the images would be enlarged. These images can be blown-up at least 100 times and often produce organic shapes. These patterns are quite different from manmade imagery. These intricate lifelike designs, like the stain glass rose windows in gothic cathedrals or the elegant Islamic designs in the Alhambra Palace, speak directly and without words to humans about the nature of life and existence. They are in a sense the ultimate natural patterns which repeat without repeating like snowflake crystals or human beings which are never the same. This principle of change or movement prevents nature from ever really repeating herself... The History of Scientific Ideas, Charles Singer Participants might get lost a bit in the maze but as long as they moved in the direction of bigger enlargements they would be moving toward the center. As they came closer the sound, also created from the Big Bang echo, would get louder. In the middle of the maze would be a live display of lights, music and rhythms, a dance of movement from the Big Bang signal, i.e. the signal would be processed at that moment and converted into a sound-light show in real time. Viewing and hearing the natural, simple, subtle, rippling patterns of the CMB may evoke age old emotions, such as these expressed by the poet/painter/photographer Wols in 1944 when looking out at the Mediterranean at Cassis, France. ... eternity in the little waves of the harbor which are always the same without being the same... All loves lead to one love, and beyond all personal loves, there is the nameless love, the great mystery, the Absolute, X Tao God the cosmos ... Wols: Watercolors, Drawings, Writings, by Wols (Alfred Otto Wolfgang, Schulze), Abrams Publishers