es161011 A unified field theory  

Jen Graves is Seattle’s best writer on the visual arts—and she stated one time that her eyeballs guide her in her work. This may be why I never expect her to meet with me. Her intuition that I am not a visual artist is correct. I am one of those who think the arts, like science, conform to a general field of energy that acts on all the senses.

That’s why we have different disciplines in the arts, and in science. To get one’s mind around a general field of art, where a writer, for example, could do well covering ballet, opera, painting, architecture, etc. is too much. The sciences, too, encompass too vast a universe for one person to comprehend.

A person may comprehend the vastness, but in an attempt to express it only a half-vast iteration would come. Einstein succeeded, we are told:

“The Einstein field equations (EFE; also known as "Einstein's equations") are the set of 10 equations in Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity that describes the fundamental interaction of gravitation as a result of space/time being curved by matter and energy.” –Wikipedia

Despite that science and technology in general have brought wealth to and made Seattle and the surrounding region successful, the arts in general have just tagged along. This is partly because the educational and government institutions have not carried the burden of examining its place in a region of this kind.

Historians will point out, sometimes, a connection between the arts and the sciences or technology at turning points in art history. I think of color, for example, and early experiments in air travel. Also medicine, psychology and anthropology.

For as long as she has worked in Seattle (since around 1999?) I thought she might spend a few minutes with me. Those thoughts came when she wrote about Seattle’s art schools, or recent history. However, she never did contact me, and I think—because of her devotion to information that she can see with her eyeballs—she never will.

Why would she? The main channel for her production is The Stranger, the demographic for which is more or less like Jen. She has no interest that I’ve seen in art and technology. Who, in the arts, does, really?

The art and technology events or seminars are weak. A general field theory like Einstein’s is relevant, but the arts have no Einstein. He described the fundamental interaction of gravitation as I would have like to have seen described compared in the interaction of the arts.

That is what I was working on in the 1970s and ‘80s—a kind of general field theory that could be utilized in a university, like the UW, to structure an education program superior to that which was in place. I had in mind making a bridge, interacting creative art students with sciences and technology.

That’s why I found Dennis Evans, Carl Chew, Sherry Markovitz, Norie Sato, Nancy Mee and others so interesting as students and as community artists after they left school. They represented hope that, if I could build a program based on their proofs, as it were—their “10 equations”—then the UW would a place worthy their coming back to for post-graduate work.

By this strategy, the UW Art School would have been more relevant than it was at the time—which was more of a degree mill than a real center for teaching, research, production and service. As it was, it served (as Jen might describe it) the interests of old white men.

My efforts to change this failed miserably, and for three decades I have lived with regret that I failed; and—especially in the US American climate of the past couple of decades—I am losing hope.

On the bright side, however, my former students taught me that the basic tenets of my “general field theory” was correct. So, when I resigned from the UW, I took what they taught me and applied it to my life.

The sad thing is that my education seems to be serving only me and a few people who have occasion to learn what they need from my productions.

Wikipedia says Einstein had a set of 10 equations; I have a set of ten, too, which helps me to explain why some of my former students put their talents to effective use and provided Seattle and other cities with works of art, craft and design worth experiencing.

I made those ten into islands that I call “Domains of Expertise” in my imaginary place, Emeralda.