The Aesthetisphere:

The Aesthetics of a World Culture Fusion

The books, magazines and movies that have been in existence for a century and more would still be available to the viewer, but the instant gratification of Internet access would be denied and so would the fulfillment of cross-cultural, multi-cultural fusion through instant responses and non-linear connection to multiplicity at the speed of light. The process of fusion would then be frozen to the currently existing idea of global reality and the infrastructure of movement would be halted or at very least slowed to a pace reminiscent of past experience of limitation to artistic license reserved for scholarly access and denied to the public and hoarded by the educated elite. How then, can the global aesthetic be reached without jeopardizing the traditional aesthetics of any given culture?

In teaching from a global perspective, one must consider moving from a mono-national/cultural context to a multi-national/cultural context. This cultural consideration for community context can be seen as a method to incorporate cultural difference without assimilation, but it does not eliminate the possibility of cross-contamination through exposure to outside catalysts. The priority of movement via Internet access has sped up the process by means of incorporation not necessarily assimilation. It is more an adaptation of information than it is conformity of idealization. Contrary to Barbara Boyer's ideas of cultural literacy and the need to eliminate cultural assumptions, the Internet experience of cultural examination in art is a visceral occurrence rather than an intellectual understanding.

The constant integration of foreign iconography with familiarity of any given culture is the intrinsic lure into the aesthetisphere. New and exciting images can sometimes be overlooked or abandoned because they are not familiar. Styles reminiscent of something in ones own history can prove to be compelling in the fact that they are comfortable and reassuring for both the viewer and the creating artist. The fact that many images can be viewed from different cultures and individuals in a relatively short period of time, eliminates the unfamiliar factor due simply to the reality that even though the image may be overlooked initially, it is somehow stored in the subconscious mind of the viewer and when revisited in another context seems recognizable if not familiar. How many times has an artist created an image that they felt was truly unique and originally their own thought, only to find out later that they had seen or heard something similar a few years before and "forgot" they were exposed to it? This phenomenon is a major contributor to the aesthetisphere's effect on the art spawned by the current access to images and information from around the world passing through the Web.

The reality of the situation is only limited to the extent at which an artist chooses to inhibit production of creation based on the possibility that the creation or fraction of it may already exist. The abundance of architects showing their designs via personal websites, compounded by the plethora of fine-art, graphic-art and pseudo-art exhibits accessible either via web design or display leaves very little left to the imagination. Or, does it open a door to a new imagination, free of cultural identity in the sense that we know it today. Does it in some way free us as creators to explore visual aesthetics in a less than identifying manner? Can a Buddhist symbol for Utopia become a visual representation of zilch? Can a crucifix become non-identified as Christian and suddenly be accepted as an intersection of spirits or a pacifistic identity with modernity? Can a star in the night become a mid-summer daydream? ...MORE