Crisis of Transcendence a Theology of Digital Art and Culture
Nobody knows exactly what is going on, especially when the subject area is that of theology, belief and myth. In spite of doubt, some people attempt their luck and open up about their religion through fine art.
Spirituality in the Information Age is a rather puzzling phenomenon. Nevertheless, simply like in any other historical period, our current spirituality is deeply embedded in the socio-economic condition of our club. In brusk, our beliefs are merely products of the engineering science and information to which nosotros have admission. Because the importance of digital structures nowadays, information technology is crucial for us to fathom how and why our experience of Reality is then often equated to the functioning of a estimator.
According to artist and theologian Dr. Sage Elwell, our civilisation is currently characterized past a 'crisis of transcendence'. In which a collective shift of consciousness, caused past the implementation of digital structures, has caused globe and cocky to be experienced as devoid of necessity. In sum, Elwell proposes that the digital revolution has promised absolute control and precision over the external globe, leading to an elevation of human reason over nature. This, in plough, has wearied any previous sense of refashioning of either the human being experience or objective reality, every bit cipher seems to possibly transcend what we have created ourselves. In determination, Elwell's theology indicates that currently, no common ground is capable of regulating behaviour and civilization, leading to a crunch of objects of devotion and organized religion. [ane]
Though Elwell'southward remarks tend to focus on the rather gloomy side of our age, I believe that the loss of a common transcendent footing, brought into full force by the Digital Revolution, has finally democratized spiritual authority and truth. Whereas in the past knowledge of the True Nature of Things was reserved to a very sectional grade of people. In internet culture, such insight has been scattered throughout the whole of the human race, granting each individual a cocky-contained piece of Truth. The logic employed is that the universality of digital structures does not multiply nor reduce the natural world, but rather dwells in the array of possibilities supplied past this same world. Which suggests that virtual spaces are not mere simulations of Reality, but Reality itself. If Reality is subject to digital structures regardless of code, database and algorithms own particularities, then the same is truthful to its relation with individuals.
To become a clearer moving picture of what this item theology looks like in practice, I propose a quick peek at some of the artistic movements that have been circulating the internet.
Artist Jake Foreman, Instagram user @_jakeforeman, is a adept instance of the lack of transcendent grounds making space for decentred spiritual discourse. Though his theme selection often draws on concepts shared by the New Age milieu, the imagery of his work puts an accent on individual intuition and interdependence between men and nature.
A like case is seen on the piece of work of Instagram user @bosssdog. The team tackles the subject area of mortality and fourth dimension. The image of the Reaper is present in most of the artworks, and seems - from my viewpoint - to symbolize the timelessness of Reality, juxtaposed with the ephemerality of human life.
In the more than hush-hush side of the net's subcultural styles, lies what most people refer to as Dreamcore or Weirdcore. Both of the artworks above were extracted from the feed of Instagram user @dreamc0revoid. Most of these artworks lack credits, and are hard to trace dorsum to its original creator. Nonetheless, the themes approached by the mode oftentimes make allusions to a foretime heaven, which tin can exist understood, in this context, every bit the downside of spiritual democratization. For in the process of universalizing spiritual truth, digital civilization has shattered, as previously mentioned, any transcendent ground capable of prescribing the manners in which we ought to interact with the world. The result is a complete lack of certainty, and a strong longing for an unattainable paradise.
Angels
The Youtube video Angels (2020) past artist Baphomet Kun, explores the idea of a nostalgic heaven further, by unitiying music, video and text. An ecstatic piece of art for those who caused the sense of taste, the video exposes the illusion behind such an ideal afterlife by contrasting information technology with bizarre collage and digitally distorted images.
Concluding but not to the lowest degree, I would like to draw attending to the circulating ideas of 'Manifesting' and 'Your Thoughts = Your Reality'. Such notions have been explored by diverse internet users, i of them existence the author of the Tik Tok video above, William Knight. Both concepts are vague, pseudoscientific, and lack a strong factual basis. Yet, the principles are very like to that of the Constabulary of Allure, in which thoughts are given extraordinary roles in, or made equivalent to, objective reality. It is possible to detect similar ideas in traditional religious text, such as in Natural Liberation, where Padmasambhāva mentions that the earth "arose from insubstantiality", and is virtually an illusion of the mind. [1] Merely the application of these concepts vary drastically, which leads me to think that "Manifesting" is rather a symptom of a youth that has been left with no suitable theological symbol or principle, and is attempting to keep step with a world that is condign ever more rapid, precise and methodical, due to a i-sided implantation of digital technologies in homo affairs.
In the end, information technology might very well be the example that "Manifesting" is the manner for getting things washed present, merely because we may have somehow forged Reality like that. Merely, for the time being, what we can predict is that a decentralized spirituality may gradually pave the way for a more than equal order, on the grounds that its ideal execution would imply equivalence between individuals. Notwithstanding, a partial or perverted execution of it would pb to a society in which individuals hold fast to the idea that the Absolute within them is the single facet of the Absolute, and should hence be regarded equally the but one. Though both options strongly diverge from one some other, they remain tied together by their attempt in locating the self confronting the immensity of the universe. A task that has been considered, by many philosophers, to be the ultimate goal of homo being.
For those who would like to swoop a little farther in the subject of theology, digital age, and art, I advise you read Sage Elwell'southward book Crisis of Transcendence (2010). Additionally, I highly recommend Robert Kuhn'south show Closer to Truth, where philosophers, physicists, psychologists and theologians are interviewed almost the subject of cosmos, consciousness and meaning.
I would also highly recommend i to farther explore the works of the previously mentioned artists. And to check some of the memes surrounding William Knight'due south Tik Tok videos.
[i] Elwell, J. Sage. Crisis of Transcendence. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2010, p. 32, 114-115
[2] "Affiliate Four. Experiential Instructions on the Transitional Process of Dreaming" in Padmasambhava. 1998. Natural Liberation: Padmasambhava's Teachings on the Vi Bardos. Translated by B. Alan Wallace. Boston: Wisdom., p. 143
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