joelthabo

Composition & Synergy: From dissonance to assonance

When you’re a creator, creating in front of the world, you’re constantly collaborating with the world. I am an artist, in every sense of the word. From the intricacies of how my brain was designed to how I interpret, process, and assimilate information. God is intentional. Everything is teleologically designed to serve a specific purpose. We are moving through time and space. When you are given a designated task, and the tools (gifts) to complete it, and it stems from source, interruptions to that task cause a disruption in the external forces acting in conflict with the motion and progression that source is orchestrating. Oftentimes, that disruption is temporary, but many times, due to entropy, a perpetual state of dissonance is reached. Sometimes, irreversible. That can be attributed to an accounting system that is constantly running in the background of every single transaction in the cosmos. One that transcends our finite mechanisms of comprehension. It is transcendental not just due to complexity but due to capacity.

The brain forms associations. Depending on capacity and mental bandwidth as well as its physiological makeup, these associations can be in alignment with reality, or in conflict with it. Which then begs the question. Is reality objective? Or is it relative to the observer? To answer this question, take a look at the world. Everybody is arguing over reality. The age-old way to resolve arguments has always been, adult conversations.

Unfortunately, due to antiquated methods and forms of psychoanalysis, it is difficult to determine who the best candidates are to participate in these conversations. In day-to-day human relations, we are constantly psychoanalysing each other. The depth at which we go depends on how much information we have about who we are observing, and how much information we have about the human psyche as a whole. The decay, or entropy, at play within human relations stems from an egoistic approach to psychoanalysis, rather than an altruistic approach.

When drawing inferences from external stimuli, we often merge our own preconceptions and biases into our assessment, rather than temporarily forfeiting them for the sake of accuracy. This stems from our desire to take the path of least resistance, often the path that requires the least amount of effort. The only way to circumvent the byproducts of entropy and decay is work. At times this can be laborious, strenuous, and often it can feel insurmountable. In such cases, slow, incremental steps win the marathon. Isolating each day into just that: a day. Our desire to arrive at quick conclusions about people and how their reality interacts with our reality will not only create a more tumultuous social climate; it will result in an irreversible implosion of the human psyche as we know it.

In the digital age, everybody is hyper-fixated on ADHD and how it has become almost integral to the brain chemistry of the everyday individual. There are stark predictions and projections that have been made about the kind of world we will live in, if the triggers are not mitigated. Social media being the most pertinent of all. However, underneath that, lies an even bigger, more pernicious killer. OCD. When we psychoanalyse ourselves and the world around us through the lens of unverified, unchecked, unreliable source(s), we become prone to disrupting our becoming. After all, we are constantly becoming.

There was a time when the probability that one could be emotionally invested through positivity (moving through space and time +1, not -1) was higher than the probability that one could be emotionally invested through negativity. Now, that is not the case. The truth is, the only way to garner the emotional investment required to push the needle forward for the atman, as some would call it, as a true artist, is to make a trade. An unfair trade. After the Industrial Revolution, the reverence and respect that once existed for real art was lost. And then came the digital age, and the need to differentiate yourself from an oversaturated marketplace. Marketing is a hybrid of an assembly line system derived from industrialism and, of course, an art form. Artists are now forced to engage with a digital ecosystem that is not designed for them to communicate their internal world effectively unless they learn how to tango with the algorithm. An algorithm that, again, is driven by negative attention, which we’ll further explore.

Everything we see in this world is somebody’s passion project. Everything. From drug cartels to Hollywood, to political parties, and even down to hairstyles and food dishes. Everything. And each person behind it believes there is a degree of honour behind what they are doing. This passion is what is required to energise them. In this world, full of crabs in a bucket, it is deemed unwise to let people know what you’re passionate about and what energises you. Nonetheless, here I go. Love and hate. How they dance in our temples. How they tango in our psyche. How aware we are of the rhythm of this tango, dictates how we harmonise the two.

You can’t throw away hate. It’s there.

You can’t deny real love. It’s there.

A quick exercise:

Where do I direct my love? Where should I direct my love?

Where do I direct my hate? Where should I direct my hate?

Love and hate are the catalysts for passion, and inadvertently, the catalysts for growth and/or destruction.

A quick exercise:

What do I build? What should I build?

What do I destroy? What should I destroy?

As an artist with an artist’s mind, where I channel my love and hate is pivotal to how I move through space and time. I know this, for a fact. Let me tell you a story. A quick one. For years, I was not self-aware. Now, I am a bit more aware. The end.

The Crux

There is a concept in psychology called classical conditioning. The basis of it is, using how our brains form associations, coupled with repetition, in order to teach us who we are. It can be used for +1 or -1. Unfortunately, due to pain and trauma, we as humans tend to run a self-destructive program. Whenever our temples echo a -1, we are making a trade. This is God’s design. The transaction may not happen immediately, but this is because countless transactions are happening simultaneously. Eventually, as we move through time and space, making transactions with what’s already there, both visible and invisible, through the cyclical tango, depending on our cooperation with source, we arrive, at a place that echos a sound that carries an assonance, that is undeniable.

Quick thought exercise:

Have you ever used an instrument? There is a way to use it and a way to misuse it.

Misusing a harp, or a kora, would resonate a sound that is unpleasant.

Now think of yourself, as an instrument, think of humanity as a collection of instruments. And playing these instruments, is a band. The band is the invisible. You are your soul. Who is the conductor?

Some things are just noise, others are, music. It just depends.

When instruments were created… (To Be Continued)

Imperfection is beauty when we embrace it. When we reject imperfection, it is and is constantly becoming more and more distasteful. Imperfection serves a purpose; it forms a distinction. It forms necessary distinctions that help our qualia to be grateful.

Every time we laugh, there is a sadness behind it. Laughter serves as a form of compensation. Every time we cry, there is a joy behind it. Tears serve as a form of compensation. Some feel that the Goldilocks zone is numbness. The irony of it is that this tango between joy and sadness is integral to the human experience. Egoism creates the conditions by which we depend on vanity and self-deprecating tendencies that are rooted in sadism to compensate for the predicament. Altruism creates the conditions by which we rely on the enriching qualities of life that are rooted in trust. Yes, trust, not love. Today, an artist, poet, or writer’s loudest cry is that the world places the same amount of trust in them as they do in a neurosurgeon, a pilot, or an architect. Almost every day we walk into a building. Artists are experts in feeling and communicating the intangible aspects of becoming that exist in the invisible. And art is just as necessary as the most respected competencies. The invisible, always, yes, always… Becomes visible.