Proposals, Correspondence, Editorials

PROPOSALS, CORRESPONDENCE, EDITORIALS Bruce Baillie Fromproposalto Sr. Luis HumbertoMota Enciso, UniversidadAutonoma de Guadalajara, July 1991 to any course or seminar focus and content, I am always concerned with the real potentialof contemporary broadcasting media-as an essential tool or art for enlightening modern society (self-image/identity), as media for reflecting the higher aspirations ofa world civilization, especially since it has become clear that survival, at every level, depends upon information/communication. It is, I think, not impossible to view the art and technology of modern communications media as serving the same locally and universally applied and mythic functions as were served in antiquity by the centralized frieze of ancient (Indian) city-states in Central and South America. Which is to say, in contemporary television broadcasting , for example, realinformation as opposed to "constant misinformation" (Maxim Shostokovitch). If there is available film or video equipment, the seminar can be oriented around practical field work. If not, the course can be by lecture and from example: television, cinema, advertising, as well as examples from twentieth-century Mexican painters and the artifacts from earlier Indian societies. If there is a budget, we can order some ofthe 16mm films from our San Francisco cooperative, which I founded in 1961. We might even establish weekly or monthly public showings of 16mm non-commercial cinema, including some of the great Bufiuel works, as an adjunct to the course. It is also conceivable the students might produce a small, local TV show, especially if there are facilities available in Guadalajara. Ad-writing is another interesting possibility.The TV ad is a potentially useful form for confronting social, psychological , environmental, and economic problems. Any film or video artists in the area would be welcome to bring their work-in-progress to the course (the University might wish to advertise the fact, should I be able to visit this year). Finally, I would perhaps have luck in finding a student to help me as translator. U 35 Such a course in modern communications technology might be tied to other courses, wherein written assignments in other disciplines could be acceptable for credit in this particular course, critically reviewed together in the light of the emphasis of my own course. Certainly, I should become acquainted with the "feel" of your curriculum, etc., so as to integrate my own offering. I want to present in my teaching, whatever the theme and/or external format, an essential consideration of Who Am 1?, the one question upon which is hinged our survival. If we will communicate we must understand who it is that is the communicator in the sense that we understand what it is to be a communicant in taking communion. Without this understanding of the inner aspect, or ground of being(Thomas Merton), wed to the arm of contemporary technology, we continue to live disparate, isolated lives, inventing empty and useless images which tend merely to misdirect our best efforts as a people who share a common Eden. From correspondencewithJeremy Coleman, Parkland,Pennsylvania,January 1994 Remain always at the Beginning. Saturate yourself in the Beloved subject/object, here there is no birth nor death, no error, no dead image, no false combination or connection; the heart, the art of the moving image. A poet does not err, only in busy-ness can we or do we commit adultery, etc. Art is the attention of making Life. Each image is a reflection of the Light which is (endless) Life. This is vision. That is why we create, like Miller, Mahler, and _ , and a life indistinct from our art and vice versa. Only one champion in millions will attempt this. None will succeed, which is of no import. Do this, and it will come out right. What you have already accomplished is valuable and important to what you will do and what you will need to know. From editorialsin local (Washington State) newspapers Neighborhoods. With respect due others. Noise, machinery, pollution, new construction, cutting, loss to the immediate area of familiar perhaps essential forest, etc. The Canadians, for example, have an increasing community spirit regarding many of these factors which affect the quality of life as well as the usual business of quantity...