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Dazed and Confused …
Posted by Joseph Riggio on Thursday, May 01, 2008Moving beyond the limits ...
Leaving behind what no longer works has been a long hard road ... and yet so utterly satisfying in every drop of sweat, blood and tears shed.
Now I find myself more and more embracing and being embraced by the aesthetic ... residing in aesthetic arrest ... and finding my performances expanding in ways unimaginable ... only possible in an imaginal way ...
Howdy all,
Some folks have been noticing that I’ve been appearing infrequently here on my blog ... at least based on some private emails I’ve been receiving. Well there are a bunch of reasons I could give, or I could sum them all up and say that I’ve been overwhelmed with the amount of things to be doing ... but it all becomes meaningless because regardless of what might be going on in my life or yours we all do what we decide is imperative for us to be doing. Simply I haven’t been called to be writing so much here lately ... and I’m beginning to think I understand a bit more why.
Let me start a bit earlier back than where we are right now. First of all I think we all want to live lives full of meaning and purpose ... to be in the flow of the cosmos knowing we are standing in a position well suited to us and where we can make an impact of some kind based on our unique potential ...
It was 1969 and I was most assuredly Dazed and Confused ... when Led Zeppelin debuted the tune with that same title on their premier album Led Zeppelin after Jimmy Page, who IMO was the greatest blues-rock guitarist of all time, reworked a version of the same tune from an earlier group he played with, the Yardbirds. The tune was originally written by a folk singer named Jake Holmes in 1967. It’s a dark tune about what sounds like a bad relationship or maybe an evil woman if you listen to the lyrics closely. But what Holmes said about in a 2001 interview was this:
“The song’s about a girl who hasn’t decided whether she wants to stay with me or not. It’s pretty much one of those love songs.”
I was ten years old when they released that album and that song. When I first heard it I was probably closer to twelve years old and it was 1971. The world around me was dazed and confused ... it was literally in a cultural, social upheaval ... war was raging, rioting had transformed the country and more specifically the city I lived in, politicians had lost virtually all their credibility ... the chant all around was a combination of “Down with the establishment!” and “Question Authority” ... I was a child of revolution, not an external revolution like civil war, but an internal revolution of the mind ... of values ... of everything that represented stability in the world as I knew it to be.
So I listened ... John Paul Jones driving the tune with that compelling, entrancing, exquisitely simple descending bass line ... Page with those ethereal sounds as he bowed his guitar ... John Bonham supporting the pulsing rhythms on drums ... and Robert Plant with that hauntingly pained vocal ... it was mesmerizing long before I heard the words. Literally it was a song title and a soundscape to me and for me ... a way beyond the limits of what I saw, heard and felt going on around me ... maybe even a way out.
The question of course would be, “A way beyond what?” ... “A way out of what?”
The simplest answer I could possibly offer would be, “A way beyond and out of the position of being dazed and confused ... beyond and out of the roiling circumstances surrounding me.”
As I’ve said this wasn’t, isn’t, about the words ... the lyrics ... nothing particularly profound there IMO ... true and honestly raw maybe ... but not profound. It was a purely aesthetic experience ... something that drew me in and opened up to me another position of perception. That sound drew me in and restructured how I saw the world around me, what I heard in what was being said, how I felt about it all ... even that which I myself couldn’t express ... couldn’t even point to ... and yet knew as well as I know my name that it was so ... aesthetic arrest.
At the time I was a committed fan ... listening to Led Zeppelin the way my children today listen to the bands they too find transport them as well. I must say I don’t get it, I don’t get the same experience of being transported by what they are listening to as they do, yet I do get that they are ... transported and beyond the limitations of the present.
And now we are back again ... to the present. I’ve made more than one comment about the idea expressed in the phrase, “Be Here Now” and all such nonsense pointed to being in the present ... in this space and time we occupy, e.g.: The Power of Now ... like where else can we be?!!?!? Of course we’re all here and now!
Yet many people recognize that they are not available to what is here or now ... what is present in this space and time. In essence they are in another space and time ... a fabrication that they impose on this space and time. It’s not a question of operating with a consideration of alternate space and time being present ... or calling into this space and time the consideration present in other space and time possibilities ... but the imposition on this space and time of another that doesn’t belong or fit.
This then becomes the essence of this dialogue ... the fit ... or as I prefer, the fit and match ... of things. Another way to call this out would be as the pattern of things. Pattern resides at the core ... the heart ... of the aesthetic position. When the pattern is recognized in the sensual experience the veil of the aesthetic has been drawn.
The challenge with all of this ... the aesthetic position ... has to do with the unspeakable nature of it. The aesthetic position cannot be spoken ... nor can it be written ... and therefore I have chosen more and more to remain silent.
I find myself drawn by the pull of the aesthetic. I’ve said clearly that the work I do resides in the aesthetic ... neither scientific or psychological, neither rational or irrational ... maybe non-rational, it’s not even philosophical ... although it’s most definitely informed by all of these and contained by none of them. I follow the pattern to see where it leads. Try selling that to a client who thinks they are paying for results!
Yet ... this is where I am ... embracing and embraced by the aesthetic. I am positioning myself more and more to hold this position ... for myself and for those who seek something of the same ... aesthetic arrest ...
Best regards,
Joseph Riggio
Architect and Designer of the MythoSelf Process
Princeton, NJ
I am stepping outside of the contained position this summer .. stepping into that place where the aesthetic reigns ... and yet connecting it to the place where we live in our ‘ordinary’ lives as well ... Intentional Performance ... it will be exciting to see who’s ready to let go and show up ... all I can promise is that I’ll be there and no where else.
(1) Comments • Permalink
I remember about a decade ago, i was a junior in college and i got into a long debate with my housemate and very close friend, Nate.
He was my favorite person to debate with because he had a tremendous phalanx of well-researched facts and information in his mind, not to mention he was just about the brightest guy i’d ever met.
The other element of my delight was our total polarity when it came to personal styles. Mr. Left Brain v. Mr. Right Brain.
When we played video games, there was one in particular called, Tekken 3, which is a two player fighting game - it was always like reason v. art. He would stay up countless nights learning patterns and figuring out how to mechanize his personal excellence in the game. The next day we’d play and he’d be chanting musical patterns in sync with his character as he meted out some digital whoop ass.
Then there was me. I would do my best to just relax so deeply that my instincts would take over and i could just respond to the onslaught in-time. Like a boxer, hearing, seeing and feeling the patterns before they even emerged. Responding with the perfect counter before he even knew he was attacking.
The coolest part was that my skills were always forced to evolve in immediate response to his and vice versus.
Anyway, on this particular day, we got locked into a conversation that was not going to end until someone emerged victorious.
A clash of the philosophical titans. For three hours we delved deeper and deeper into the underpinned assumptions of our arguments. Ultimately we realized that our positions were both perfectly well-formed and the difference in them originated from a difference in how we experienced and decided what was valuable in our lives.
Then came my moment of glory. He stopped, looked at me curiously and said, “so...really...you’re just a hedonist.”
Then he took pause to really consider this.
I smirked and repeated him"just a hedonist...i like that...what more do you want from me? Then i added, “i just like it to feel good man. And by feel good i don’t mean that i’m always going to be feeling ‘good’ but that i like to enjoy my experience no matter what it is - just because i have the good fortune to be alive and experiencing it. Really, it’s an aesthetic choice. Which is what life is all about for me. Aesthetics married with reason, intelligence, friends...everything. ..I like endlessly creating the life i’m living - because it’s awesome. And so long as it fits with my integrity, it fits the bill. I’m an artist. But it’s a secret because i’m a reality artist and most people aren’t used to measuring lives in artistic terms. In any case, whether you like my aesthetic or not - it’s what led me to our friendship, loser. 
”
Love the post.
-----
Stamped on every one
of your 50 trillion cells
God’s imprimatur.
How else
could i love you
so uncontainably.
