Telling Time the Biocentric Way
Allan Kaprow, an esteemed originator of Happenings, is associated with the motto, “art as experience.” John Dewey’s (1859-1952) book by this title was read and re-read by Kaprow when he was a student at NYU , as evidenced by the surviving copy from Kaprow’s library which is filled with his scribbled notes and questions. Its contents articulated the arch principle of eco art. Dewey explains, “To see the organism IN nature, the nervous system in the organism, the brain in the nervous system, the cortex in the brain is the answer to the problems which haunt philosophy.”
Thus, he articulated the ‘metaphysics’ of nature as a web of relations that pertained to growth processes, mechanical processes, and mental processes. This biocentric unification replaced the anthropocentric dualism that prevailed in mainstream culture has become the refrain of environmentalists ever since, believing that when humans relinquish their separation from their physical environment, they are less likely to degrade it.
Although Dewey never addressed actual environmental conditions, his writings helped formalize the actions of environmentalists, the research of ecologists, and the Happenings of Alan Kaprow. They all challenged the dichotomies that are entrenched in Western philosophies by manifesting events and processes in constant flux. Within Happenings, as in all dynamic systems, effects are also causes, ends are also means. This reality is not suited to paintings in frames and sculptures on pedestals.
“Time Piece (1973),” for example
is a Happening in which Kaprow instructed fifteen couples to record their partners’ pulses and heart rates as they climbed stairs, telephoned each other, held their breaths, and inhaled their partner’s bagged breath. These activities could be conducted in any location, in any order, and at any time within a three day period.
There is nothing trivial about this simple exercise. By replacing clock time with heart beets and blood pressure, “Time Piece “undermined the entrenched assumption that time proceeds according to uniform seconds, minutes, and hours. This Happening raised awareness of the dynamic variability of biological time, as opposed to the predictable regularity of standardized time. It predicts eco art’s focus on the variability of natural systems and opposed to the uniformity of cultural systems.
By releasing time from the constraints of a rigid, globally synchronized, ordering system, “Time Piece” opened a rich area of eco art exploration. Eco artists have been highlighting other examples of human suppression of natural phenomena ever since. While the cultural impact of controlling the unpredictable irregularities of natural phenomena may be positive, the environmental impact of such engineering feats is often problematic. These actions not only alienate people from the inherent shapes and patterns that prevail across the planet, they interrupt the delicate balance between water, soil, air, plants, and animals that comprise a vital ecosystem. In each instance, the contrived version simplifies the complexity of natural systems, and regularizes their unpredictability. Eco artists celebrate the uniqueness of each moment, and welcome the influence of persistently fluctuating environmental conditions within their works of art.
Using the most elementary components, Kaprow helped introduce a challenge that contemporary eco-artists are still exploring.
– Human lives are interconnected with each other. All relationships are reciprocal.
– Nothing on earth is enduring – not even art.
– Stability and permanence are unnatural. Change is actuality.
– Dynamic systems are too complicated to predict and too unwieldy to dictate.
– Artists demonstrate that chance is the inescapable condition of life on the planet by relinquishing control of their own work.
– Chance is not chaos. It principle of creation!!.
– Eco art is anti-hierarchical and un-commodifiable because eco artists affirm life as it is.
– Life is not the subject of art. Life is art.
– Since life is art, any materials from the real life are welcomed as ‘mediums’ except those traditionally associated with art production. Even debris becomes eligible.
– Because life does not dole out one sensory stimulus at a time, happenings expand the experience of art to include sound, touch, and smell.
– Time is stripped of its contrived measures and is determined by the requirements of a task and conditions.