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Planet Art Report for Desperate Earthlings of the Past
by José Argüelles (1983)

1. Art is a function of energy. Given the unity of humankind as a single planetary organism, art is the expressive connective tissue binding together the individual organisms through energy transformations focused in the emotional centers of those organisms. Emotional energy is the expressive or outward moving manifestation of vital or biopsychic energy. Properly catalyzed through form, rhythm, color, light, sound, and movement, emotional energy is directly related to the establishment of a dynamic equilibrium with the other forces of the phenomenal world, from the microscopic to the galactic levels. In other words, there can be no proper management of energy at whatever level and for whatever use without bringing into proper deployment the energy system of art. When art dysfunctions all systems ultimately dysfunction. According to William Blake, “Art degraded, Imagination denied, war governs the Nations.’

2. No genuine art without transformation of self. Given the nature of art as a function of energy, we find that art, energy and health are integrally related. If the maker of art is not convinced of his or her own sanity and basic goodness and is not working on ways to bring his or her total being into line with the universal energy spectrum, then the resultant art effect (artifact) will be incomplete and quite possibly destructive of health. Transformation of self is alignment of personal organismic energy with the total energy spectrum, coupled with the acquisition of whatever skills are necessary to communicate quality and depth of feeling and insight through whatever means.

3. Openness of individual breeds collective aesthetic association. The individual creating art not to satisfy personal ambition but to serenely and openly express the universe as he or she experiences it inevitably develops an inclusive attitude i.e. that art would communicate with and include as wide a range of audience members as possible. Universal feeling being inclusive rather than exclusive, the artist also seeks out the possibility of aesthetic enhancement through collective association with other like-minded individuals. This sets the basis for cooperative artistic efforts.

4. Universality of planet art includes past and future in present moment. Art being the expression of energy, the great monuments of past art are actually present moments in the expressive connective tissue of planet art. The pyramid structures of Giza, Teotihuacán, Borobadur; the Ajanta Caves; the Acropolis; Chartres Cathedral; Chinese landscape painting; the Mosques of Isfahan all comprise a network of points of aesthetic transmission. The energy of which they are a repository continues to broadcast. Their transmissions are nutrients adding to the health of the organism. Their form and structure provide keys to the development of the post-industrial planet art system. New forms such as radiosonic architecture (combining visual light structure and sound) integrate past energy and future vision. Future vision is simply that which is born out of a concern for what will benefit the greatest number of people for as many generations to come as is conceivable.

5. The recognition of art as a planetary network vital to the functioning of the human organism considered as an interrelated whole, is a factor in establishing the basis for a new planetary social order. The planetary organism has been mutating beyond its present anarchic, pre-holistic limitations and planet art is actually a tool facilitating the present transformation. The primacy of art will be established and new, healthier and beneficial modes of living will replace the sterile assembly line activities of the Industrial Transition. Making full use of the education and leisure activities made possible by computer technology, planet art provides non-threatening forms of contemplations and action. Drawing on lessons learned from the excesses of ancient monarchy and industrial democracy, planet art can present aesthetic forms rooted in organic hierarchical patterns of nature. Utilizing electronic communications, it can monitor these visions on a global scale. Thus, while we have entered a prolonged stage of political anarchy and barbarism, planet art can present a unified vision. This will be of immense help in the long period of reconstruction that lies ahead.

6. Those forming into Planet Art Associations must do so through a common regard for the deeply spiritual nature of humankind. Without this faith in humanity’s basic goodness and capacity for transformation, planet art will falter on the shoals of war and the selfish crimes of the past.