Transformative Arts; Mind, Body and Spirit
JULY 2008
It comes up a lot. The term 'transformative arts' was made up by a group of faculty in JFK University’s Department of Arts & Consciousness about thirty years ago. Jack Weller, one of the inventors of the term, is still around and very active. He was trying to redefine art therapy at the time and he and his colleagues thought to call art ‘transformative’. Jack now is Director of the Expressive Arts Therapy Program at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. Ironically the term Jack initially intended as an extension of ‘art-therapy’ now stands somewhat opposed to the entire concept of art as psychotherapy and instead represents an entirely new way of thinking about creative process and its relationship to health, wellness and social change. Transformative Arts, as we define in A&C today, is a rather radical notion. It is meant to suggest that art is, at its essence, about change. We often define art as having (or lacking) energy but rarely think to consider the relationship between the creative energy that is used to conceive and fabricate an artwork and the meaning of the word ‘energy’. This hopelessly overused word simply describes a potential for work and a quantifiable potential to create change; no energy – no work; no work - no change. With the use of the term ‘creative energy’ we are really acknowledging that change is the inevitable result of creativity. It seems impossible to conceive of creativity without change.
Creativity, by most definitions, exists at least in the pursuit of some novel form of change – a better mousetrap, a break in the routine that makes us feel freer and happier, an un-blocking of old and obsolete ways of doing things that lets us get the job done, a painting or a symphony that makes us weep with joy. If we’re being creative, we’re transforming things, and if there’s transformation going on, creative forces are certainly at work. Creativity and transformation are not by any means limited to what humans do. Nature is hugely creative – the very model by which we understand the concept of creativity. Plate tectonics is the creative force behind the formation of continents; sex is the creative force behind the formation of new animals – the ‘pro-creative act’ is associated with animals at all levels of complexity from amoebas to great whales. Creativity in nature and creativity in animals is all unconscious, at least we presume so. When humans become creative, we bring something new to the practice – intention. We create new things on purpose. We do it to make our lives better, because it’s fun, because it connects us to nature and to all creative forces and all beings. We’ve always created new things to make life better in some way or another. Always. We also understand something about creativity that other animals do not; all forms of creativity (human or not) are linked to all other forms of creativity.
It works like this: if we start from the knowledge that all things are inter-related (the one thing upon which virtually all world religions (faiths) agree), we assume a kind of balance in the universe. We perceive everything bouncing along off of everything else in a regular and stable way. Creativity, by bringing something new into existence, creates a temporary imbalance until the universe can figure out what new things get to bounce off which other things. In essence, if we change anything inside a complex system, we automatically and irrevocably change everything in that system. It turns out ultimately there’s only one system and it’s really, really, big. Most creative acts lead to small changes – imperceptible transformations. But big or small, creativity always changes things perhaps in ways that may never even be appreciated or even noticed.
‘Transformative art’ sounds pretty grandiose, like we’re going way beyond the merely ‘creative’ into the ‘TRANSFORMATIVE’. But it’s not so grand at all. We might use ‘creative art’ – or ‘expressive arts’ – interchangeably with ‘transformative art’ except for one important distinction. ‘Creativity’ and ‘Expression’ are both terms that imply singularity; I am ‘creating’ even if I am part of a ‘transforming’. There is an immediate ambiguity that both implies a dynamic connection between myself and something else, as well as a change in myself. Implicit in the word, ‘transform’, is the idea that I am changing because of my creativity at the same time as I am changing something else. The idea of 'art' isn't necessarily related to creativity as we generally suppose. One way to look at it might be as 'self-expression' which requires creativity to be effective, but there's plenty of self-expression that isn't creative. Not innovative or authentic, but merely a recitation of what already exists. Expression doesn’t have much to do with changing things. It’s just something I do for myself or at best, an effort to communicate something about myself. ‘Creativity’ often implies only the potential for change, but ‘transformative’ means an imminent kind of non-dualistic change – changing the inner and the outer simultaneously. Transformative Arts is a term which simply points out that the central function of art which is based on creative self-expression is change. If it’s ‘good’ art then the change is valuable in some way and if it’s ‘bad’ art, then things might change, but not in a way that is of value to anyone. Art can only be valued by its transformative capacity.
The term ‘Expressive Arts’, is almost entirely associated with a particular multi-modal practice of art-psychotherapy. It implies the same limitation that conventional psychotherapy is now addressing in the exciting new genres of transpersonal, somatic and integral psychotherapy. ‘Expressive Arts Therapy’, however, seems to imply that the healing value of the ‘creative act’ exists only for the expressive gratification of the creator – that they do it by and for themselves with the help of the therapist in order to solve a personal problem. Transformative Arts avoids any connection to the word ‘therapy’. It is not therapy – not an intervention into ‘pathology’, but a means to discover and embrace a new relationship between creativity and wellness through the conscious connection to ‘the other’. ‘Transformative’ art is inexorably related to creativity’s basic function of creating connection. It is this inter-subjective feature of art that ultimately elevates it to a mystical act – a transcendence of individual mind and body into a larger and more fully integrated Self. Transformative art in this context implies that art’s innate ability to create multivalent connections between people, rather than mere personal expression, is the healing force behind the creative act. When we get connected, we realize that the pathological self isn’t part of that connection, though it might influence the nature of our relationship to others. When a connection is made through art, it happens at a deep level – our ‘essential’ selves where we’re innately healthy and free of pathology. Many artists spend lifetimes trying to find that deep connection. Transformative Art implies that art is the search for truth and wholeness, discovered through the creation of healing connection. Art requires the discovery of essence.
There are lots of ways to get connected. Physical connection is obviously the most prevalent and most easily understood. Creative and compassionate physical connection includes, shaking hands, rubbing noses, play, sex, dance, caress, hugs and other forms of intimate touching. Physical disconnection is commonly understood as 'fighting' – the struggle to become disconnected, to establish boundaries, to punish, to exercise control. Fighting is associated with fear and rage; compassionate physical connection is associated with love. They are opposite forces but may be equally creative. In Transformative Arts, the underlying energy (potential for change) is love – or compassion. Rather than intending only personal gratification through the creative act, the transformative artist understands, guided by a sense of love and compassion, that true creative self-expression is a always a gift to others -- one way or another.
In the training of transformative artists here in Arts & Consciousness, the introduction of the idea that art is always a gift to the world adds the transformative dimension to the creative act. It is ultimately not creativity or art that heals but loving connection. It is not the simple cathartic act of expressing oneself that transforms, but the reception of that creative energy by others. At the same time, the creator, finding a loving and compassionate connection, receives the gift of being recognized and affirmed. In the witnessing of the creative act, viewer and artist are both transformed. We try to teach this form of witnessing through critique. It’s not the old critique – not the negative judgment-based practice of following a proscribed set of rules (formalism). That most familiar, traditional form of critique is spiritually the opposite of ‘transformative’ -- it is ‘conform-ative’, though it often pretends to be creative. In A&C, critique starts with an acknowledgement of everyone’s right to be seen and to be taken seriously as artists. It is a process of honest witnessing in which judgment is replaced by reception. Challenge is still present, but in the form of inquiry rather than attack. ‘Why have you done it this way?’, rather than ‘You shouldn’t do it that way.’ opens dialogue and connection rather than closing it down. If connection is the ultimate function of art – at least the transformative kind – then critiques must strengthen rather than destroy connection. This is one of the most important pedagogical strategies in our program.
Transformation also implies liminality. It is always at the edge of things that change occurs. In learning to understand ourselves as transformative artists, we seek the edges -- the point where things connect. It can be seen as a portal – a doorway from one state into another, but creativity always happens most intensely as the change is happening. We are excited and inspired – often confused and frightened -- by being in the state of change as it happens. For artists (and scientists too), often the most important kind of liminality is the edge between reason and intuition – between noumenon and phenomenon. Creativity requires us to explore our limits. We discover through direct insight what exists just beyond ourselves and enter a state of ‘not knowing’ – the void. When consciousness returns to the known, new perspectives creative team). I am expressing (even if I am expressing a social reality). But, when I say ‘I am and expanded points of view have been added. By penetrating the void and returning to the phenomenal world, we define the creative act. Exploring the void, is really about learning to welcome, rather than avoid, chaos and understanding they are essential parts of the learning process.
We sometimes teach Transformative Arts as an alternative to Art-Therapy. Graduates from our program sometimes do work in the community that at first appears to be like art therapy. If ‘art therapy’ is defined as art that helps others. transformative arts can certainly be art therapy. The more frequent use of 'art therapy', however, refers to the practice of psychotherapy aided by techniques associated with creative self-expression – free-associative drawings and paintings, expressive movement and poetry as well as other techniques aimed at allowing the ‘clients’ to free themselves from emotional blocks by expressing inner reality. The audience in such practice is inevitably the therapist. A connection is made in art therapy, but it is a contrived and limited connection when compared to the open and spontaneous connections that occur in self-expressive creative work which enters the world as 'art' – even student or amateur art. The transformative potential of art is directly related to the number of people to whom artists connect through their artwork. It is also related to the ‘receptivity’ of those people to the artwork being presented to them. It is important for artists to understand that they create art for others as well as creating it for themselves. In the act of aesthetic reception, the ‘I-thou’ boundary is blurred. Transformative Art acknowledges a paradox – a single gestalt of artist and viewer when true artistic connection occurs. It might seem like a casually positive response to an artwork, or a profound revelation. In both cases, the moment of recognition of truth in the artwork creates an event in which linear notions of identity, time and space are suspended. This is the nature of aesthetic response.
Artists throughout history and across cultures have understood the transformative power of their work. In contemporary art, there is a competing ethos of political posture – opposing cultural oppression and globalization, with an overall acknowledgement of futility and a corresponding embrace of frivolity. Both motives are part of ‘the canon’. However, the notion that art actually changes things on a spiritual (and therefore a material) level eludes the grasp of most contemporary art theorists. Instead, they argue for a flat-footed use of art as a kind of propaganda – advertising against a philosophically and morally bankrupt world culture. By failing to acknowledge the fundamental nature of creative expression, they limit the possibilities of art. Transformative Art stands for limitless possibilities. The seminal post-modern philosopher, Jacques Derrida, said that language is an intrinsically unreliable structure for communication -- taken by most of his followers to be a proclamation of the end of culture and meaning, since they be language. He called it ‘a dimension of not-knowing’ and suggested that this was the appropriate domain for true education. Creativity and transformation require entering that dimension – going beyond language and reason and finding the common ground between all living things from which real creativity and profound transformation emerge. Rilke said, ‘The only journey is the journey within.’ That’s the true foundation of transformative art.
Michael Grady, July 2008 © All rights reserved
