The purpose of this page is to offer 'artistry' (vs. art or craft as objects) as a core human capacity that serves our navigation of the most urgent and challenging social issues of our time.

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This page is therefore both a manifesto and continuing research project, in how complexity agents, from consultants to thought-leaders to politicians, can draw from the principles of "artistry".

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Artistry is profound philosophical distinction developed by authors such as D C Schindler and Esther Lightcap Meek (see literature references section below), that offers a re-enchantement of what is real for the human condition. It is a term that is based on a rigorous examination of the underlying assumptions of modernity (e.g. linear accumulation of information as knowledge - and knowledge as our gateway to the real), and provides us with clear principles for engaging with the exponential complexity of human systems, at local, organisational and global levels.

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I define "artistry" here therefore well beyond the creative arts, and more in terms of a specific quality of our consciousness which can touch every aspect of our everyday lives. Further details on this definition of artistry, the levels of consciousness and the spectrum of spectrum of practices can be found here.  
 

There is firstly a very practical and pragmatic purpose to my project, in terms of offering a distillation of the attitudes, orientations and "sensing" capacities that creatives describe, that can be directly applied by decision-makers, leaders and complexity agents. 

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And secondly, 'Artistry' offers a rallying call for us to engage with and  manifest our values (walking the talk) that contribute to the "Good Life" - in other words, living out a life of meaning.

 

This is a major distinction in contrast to the more recent trends in focusing on 'happiness', by putting meaning at the forefront of the human condition. This offers a countervailing stance to run-away technological and economic development, not to mention how this is manifesting in the ambitions of Artificial Intelligence - explored in detail at the bottom of this page.

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Quinn’s quote above echoes John Vervaeke's evoking an awakening from the meaning crisis, and call for how we need to seek meaning 'in' (vs. 'of') our post-modern material lives.

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Lastly, in acknowledgement that the term the "Good Life" Is a divergent property of infinite interpretation across the generations and cultures on our planet, I am fascinated by the relationship between morals as cognitive structures, compared to ethics as a divergent and highly contextual aesthetics. I feel that Artistry can speak to the latter, as described by authors such as Webb Keane (Ethical Life), and that we can begin to weave together the Transcendentals (the Good, True and Beautiful; religion/faith, the sciences, the arts), as a whole.

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And to be clear, this is far from being an 'anti-scientific' vision...indeed, my quest to capture and distil the inner landscapes of the creative experience, draws on scientific principles of experimentation (incl with my own art projects), investigation (filming artists and change agents) and analysis.  My personal interpretation on Artistry allows us to hold Science in context, as part of a greater whole. Such that it can be a movement between the three necessarily competing lenses of the Transcendentals, as an 'élan vitale' or essential vector of energy.