Art and experience from Steven Kaufman's blog

There are two ways to create experience, from the ground up or from the top down. Actually, all experience is created from the ground up, but one can try to create it from the top down as well, in which case one is still creating it from the ground up, although they are then unaware of the earlier levels of creation.

Creating experience from the ground up involves creating experience beginning with emotion, and then moving into thought and then physical experience. Creating experience from the top down involves creating experience by trying to manipulate and arrange physical reality to create a certain emotional reaction.

Creating experience from the ground up involves purposefully and intentionally creating emotion, and then letting that flow into thought and physical experience. Creating experience from the top down involves  purposefully and intentionally trying to arrange physical reality in order to create an emotional reaction.

Creating experience from the ground up is in accord with the way experience is actually created, which is from the emotional, to the mental, and then to the physical. Creating experience from the top down is therefore the opposite of the way experience is actually created.

When we create experience from the top down we are using already created physical experience, which must have some emotional experience as its basis, to try and evoke a particular emotional experience. When we create experience from the top down we are using already existent physical objects and trying to arrange them in a way that will evoke a wanted emotional experience.

When we create experience from the bottom up, we choose the emotion we create and let that emotion act as the foundation from which physical reality extends and upon which physical experience is built. 

People consider modern art to be actual art, even though it is mostly just the juxtaposition of already existent objects intended to make some sort of statement, because they consider creating experience from the top down to be the way experience is actually created. Therefore, modern art, i.e., the juxtaposition of already existent objects, seems to be an equally valid form of artistic creation because it is created in the same way that most people are trying to create what they experience emotionally, which is by trying to arrange already existent physical objects.

When one does not know how, or has forgotten how, to create wanted emotional experience from the bottom up, in the way it is actually created, one is then left to try and create wanted emotional experience from the top down, in a way that it only seems to be created. Likewise, when someone wants to create art but lacks whatever it is that allows one to create art from the bottom up, they must resort to the only thing left, which is to try and create art through the arrangement of already existent objects.

The physical always follows the emotional, and the emotional is always being created de novo, out of the formlessness of pure Beingness, as Beingness flows in relation to Itself, and as we, as Beingness, apprehend from our perspective how we are flowing in relation to Beingness.

One is free to create actual art de novo, from the bottom up, or one is free to create the appearance of art, by juxtaposing already existent objects. Likewise, one is free to create emotion as it is actually created, which is according to how one is choosing to flow in relation to Beingness, or one is free to try and create emotion in a way that it only appears to be created, which is through the arrangement of physical reality.

When one tries to create emotion through the arrangement of physical reality, it may seem or appear that it is the particular arrangement of physical reality that is responsible for the emotion one is feeling, that is responsible for creating that emotion, but this appearance is only an illusion. It is always the flow of Beingness relative to Itself that creates emotion. All the particular arrangement of physical reality does is cause Beingness to choose reflexively how it will flow in relation to Itself, and thereby reflexively create what it apprehends as a particular emotional experience. But it is still the flow of Beingness relative to Itself that creates emotional experience.

Thus, there may seem to be two ways to create experience, from the bottom up or the top down, but there is really only one way that experience is actually created, and that is from the bottom up. Likewise, there may seem to be two ways to create art, from the bottom up or by juxtaposing already existent objects, but there is really only one way that art is actually created, and that is from the bottom up.

I believe that humanity has, to some extent, embraced the faux art that is much of modern art because it parallels the false and illusory way we ourselves try and create what we experience as emotional reality, which is through the juxtaposition of objects and arrangement of physical reality with the intention of causing a reflexive reaction that produces a particular emotional reaction.

We all want to create a wanted emotional reality, a wanted emotional experience. Likewise, all artists want to create art.

We have lost sight of how emotional reality is actually created, and so we create it in the only way we now know how, which is by trying to arrange physical reality in a way that will cause us to reflexively choose to flow in relation to Beingness in a way that produces a wanted emotional experience. This is clearly going about creating wanted emotional experience the long and hard way.

The way that emotional reality is actually created is according to how we are flowing in relation to Beingness, and how we are flowing in relation to Beingness is something that we choose, either consciously or unconsciously, either deliberately or reflexively.

The easy and direct way to create wanted emotional experience is by simply choosing to flow in alignment with Beingness. Either way, what you apprehend as emotional experience is the result of how you are choosing to flow in relation to Beingness, its just that that choice can be made consciously and deliberately, or unconsciously and reflexively.

When the choice is made consciously and deliberately, one has true control over what one creates as emotional experience, and one then truly creates. When the choice is made unconsciously and reflexively, one does not actually control what one creates as emotional experience, since one is constrained in their creation by the way in which physical reality can be arranged, and so one is then not truly creating.

When the way to create emotional experience directly has become lost and forgotten, one is then left to try and create wanted emotion in the only way that then seems available, which is as a reaction to physical experience.  When the way to create art directly is not possible, one is then left to create art by arranging already existent objects.

These parallels between the two ways in which emotional experience can be created and the two ways in which art can be created are not coincidence, but are a product of the outer always reflecting the inner, a product of the fact that regardless of what seems to be, experience always flows from and is created from the bottom up and not the top down.

Thus, the inner situation, which is the two ways in which Beingness or Consciousness is able to create emotional experience, which is directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously, deliberately or reflexively, is reflected in the outer situation involving the two ways in which Beingness or Consciousness, in human form, creates what are referred to as works of art, which is by creating something out of nothing, from the bottom up, or by creating something by just rearranging already existent somethings, and so creating from the top down.

Modern art is, as a whole, reflective of the way in which most of humanity creates emotional experience, which is as a reaction to the way in which physical reality is arranged. Modern art is creation through the juxtaposition of already existent objects and most of humanity creates emotional experience by trying to arrange physical reality in a particular way.

All art is a creation, and all creation is art, the question is, what is the nature of the creation and so what is the nature of the art? Has it been created de novo, from the bottom up, or has it been created from the top down, through the arrangement of already existent objects. Likewise, we create everything we experience as emotional reality, the question is, are we creating what we apprehend as emotional realty from the bottom up, by consciously choosing our involvement in the relation that creates what we apprehend as emotional experience,  or are we creating what we apprehend as emotional reality from the top down, by unconsciously choosing our involvement in the relation that creates what we apprehend as emotional experience as a reaction to some arrangement of physical reality.

Both ways of creating art and both ways of creating emotional experience each result in something being created, but in each case, one way of creation involves freedom and the other way involves limitation. When we create art or emotional experience de novo, from the bottom up, we are free to create whatever we want, but when new create art or emotional experience from the top down, we are restricted in what we can create by the objects that are available, and the ways in which they can be arranged.

Thus, modern art as a whole is itself an expression, in that it expresses both the way in which humanity is, by and large, trying to create emotional experience, which is from the top down, as well as the limitations that are unavoidably inherent in this method of emotional experiential creation.

And people are therefore able to relate to modern art because it is reflective of or related to the way in which they are themselves going about trying to create their emotional reality, which is from the top down, as a reaction to some arrangement of physical reality, even if it is not reflective of the way in which emotional reality is actually created, which is always from the bottom up, as the result of the way the Individual is choosing to flow, consciously or unconsciously, deliberately or reflexively, in relation to their more fundamental Individuality.