Good music. Good art. What is the criteria? I was considering earlier this year taking courses in art valuation (not the same as art criticism though somewhat related). Paint on canvas can range from $45 USD to $450,000,000 USD. The astonishing truth is, that humungous difference in value might not even be noticeable to the untrained eye at a glance. (You would think you should be able to very readily recognize half a billion US of value. You shouldn’t have to squint!)
Neither is it immediately clear what should make the Michael Jackson classic, Beat it worth about $40,000,000 USD and any pretty similar-sounding production I can churn out of AI at a rate of about 10 – 20 songs per minute almost entirely worthless.
Truth is, beauty and value are to be found nowhere else than in the eye and ear of the beholder. That’s the dirty little secret of life kept from the consumer to insure against the democratization of the marketplace and ensure that power to set price is kept in the hands of producers and the politicians they can purchase. Adam Smith’s free market theories of supply and demand are counterbalanced by other equally powerful forces that create huge disparities of value, powered by ghosts alone – immaterial and hardly logical influences that set price and priority by totally variant mechanisms.
The use value of art does not lie in the economic domain at all, but in the spiritual. Whether it was the haunting effect of walking into the Bank of Jamaica and looking at every single subject of my deepest philosophical musing over a protracted period of months, mirroring exactly scenes from my remembered dreams, all clearly depicted unmistakeably in graphic detail on a single oil on canvas work highlighted in the showcase; or having the very roots of my existence reverberating tremulously as the theme and challenge of my entire life (past, present and future, as the last 50 years have borne out) was sonically and lyrically projected at my ear from two songs (Pieces and Seek ye First) sung by a group called The Imperials (of all names), from outside of my native culture, who should not even be able to relate to my spiritual life, let alone, so masterfully interpret and present it to me with such timeless brilliance and power.
Art and music are so powerfully therapeutic because they help us to see who we are. That is still the most profound human mystery. We have all but unravelled the universe in our time. Yet our scientists tell us they still have no clue what our consciousness is, or isn’t.
It is conversations on these matters – on the nature of the spirit, the purpose of art and music, that excite and engage me most. I had hardly contributed much, but yet was so delighted to have the privilege to edit The Message in the Music hosted by The Caribbean Christian Leadership Network. Giving a testimonial metaphor for the role of Music in Christian Worship was barely brushing the surface of exploring the use of AI in worship, but these are the conversations which matter most to me.
My fascination with religion, politics, science and history doesn’t even come close, even though I have said a great deal on those throughout the years and have still a great deal more to say. Yet I know my heart, like the darkest storm cloud, is positively bursting to talk; and straining, like a starving hyena, to listen, which is why I am so excited about tomorrow’s conversation, and that Chabod Academy finally affords a platform for my deepest interests and concerns.
Worship (not economics) establishes our most fundamental system of value (the price and priority matrix for every item and subject of our experience, not just commodities and services). We are more than animals. And that’s what souls do. We become. Worship is the technology of becoming. We eventually become who or what we worship. (As I like to say we are much more than human beings; we are human becomings and I am esctatic today about the privelege to savour all myself, my family and culture have already become).
What we have become, what we are becoming, and what we will become should be constantly under review and assessment. This is our privilege as conscious beings. We should not refuse it. (Heb 12:25)
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