Cosmos, Values, and Consciousness in Latin American Digital Culture

Angelica J. Huizar

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9783030453985
• Topic: Scienze sociali
• Subtopic: Scienze della comunicazione

This book understands digital cultural production of electronic literatures and digital art by looking at electronic and digital works that produce subjective positionality, clouded knowledges of quantum theories, and metaphysical patterns grounded in a cultural ideology. This book underlines a conceptual framework for understanding how digital media impacts reading, approaching, and even interpreting social reality. The qualitative analyses interpret the current zeitgeist, and the works selected speak of the diverse, sometimes regionalized, and often multi-ethnic reality of the Latin American experience. The analyses elaborate on how artists reflect both the world they live in and a universal consciousness. These artists are not simply "digitalizing literature, " and these works are more than techy creations; rather, they make us think of other directions and connections.

© The Author(s) 2020

A. J. HuizarCosmos, Values, and Consciousness in Latin American Digital Culturehttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45398-5_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction

Angelica J. Huizar¹

(1)

World Languages & Cultures Department, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA

Angelica J. Huizar

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Cosmos, Values, and Consciousness in Latin American Digital Culture situates digital cultural production of e-literatures and digital art in works that produce subjective positionality, clouded knowledges of quantum theories, and metaphysical patterns grounded in a cultural ideology. This book underlines a conceptual framework for understanding how digital media impacts reading, approaching, and even interpreting social reality. The qualitative analyses interpret of the current zeitgeist, and the works selected speak of the diverse, sometimes regionalized, and often multi-ethnic reality of the Latin American experience. The analyses elaborate on how artists reflect the world they live in and reflect a universal consciousness. These artists are not simply “digitalizing literature,” and these works are more than techy creations; rather, they make us think of other directions and connections.

Keywords

ConsciousnessInterconnectednessPostmodern theoriesTechnologyDigital mediaPerception of reality

End Abstract

The key to growth is the production of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.

Lao Tzu

I began exploring with the idea of consciousness and interconnectedness as a leisurely pursuit as I read many of Deepak Chopra’s books as a way to gain a more positive outlook on life. In these readings I found a common thread—the quest for understanding our role in life, the responsibility of our connections to others, and a pursuit for purpose. Above all, an emphasis on present awareness practiced through meditative practices was key to achieving a fuller, more connected consciousness. These ideas are not new, of course, they are contemporary renditions of ancient Eastern metaphysical notions of the interrelation of events and things. This interest led me to connect my leisure reading to my scholarly work as I read Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism (1975), which posits the interconnectedness between Eastern metaphysics and theories of quantum physics . This fascination gave me insight into what Capra terms the paradigm shift that occurs at the turn of the twentieth century. A new way of perceiving a reality with a multiplicity of possibilities and with no certain terms, no prediction of possibilities. A shift in thinking, a zeitgeist of sorts that involved not just the scientific field but enriched the reasoning, critique, and analysis in the humanities as well, as seen in postmodern theories that call for a questioning of underlying assumptions, in critiques of normalization of truths and myths, and in finding ways to contextualize our ideas in an effort to understand them holistically. Eventually, this led to a recognition of our connection to, dependence on, juxtaposition with, and competition with technology—effectively leading us to ponder posthumanism, as claimed by recent scholars .¹

These readings, which began as a personal search for peace of mind and understanding life connections, journeyed into a much more nuanced curiosity of how we are currently communicating with and in digital media. With this lens in mind, I began thinking about how we perceive reality. I began to find the same narrative in current digital cultural productions—partly because I was enmeshed in said vision but also because in some way there is a current universal trend to perceive reality in these particular terms. That is, the connections that emerge from these works to the correlations between Eastern metaphysics and quantum mechanics that Capra speaks of are making themselves quite relevant in these pieces.² The artists use the digital medium as a means of communication, and for some, language is no longer necessary: art is made with and from vibrations, for instance. Beauty is achieved by and with forms created by their play with brain waves transmitted on water, or by the patterns produced by music on sand plates. So, what does this all mean?

These are universal questions meditated on in Buddhist mysticism and whose parallels in quantum physics discoveries have been well researched and continue to be reconfigured with new findings. While some critics may find this approach far-fetched from the works presented here, I maintain that this is not to insist on the author’s intent nor the only interpretation. This approach is my personal reflection of what the works represent for me and my analysis of how these do in fact reveal a subconscious and unintentional, at times, reference to this zeitgeist. This new paradigm, as Thomas S. Kuhn called it, has also been referred to as the Age of Aquarius or New Age, linking ecological, scientific, and spiritual concerns. Fritjof Capra, David Bohm, and Ilya Prigogine draw parallels in scientific theories in New Physics to those in Tao, Hinduism, Daoism, Zen, and Buddhism, all of which preach the unity of oneness of all things. In chapter 10 of his book, for example, Capra explains that quantum interconnectedness , as highlighted by Bohn and Heisenberg, demonstrates how quantum theory proves the ancient Buddhist teachings of Nagarjuna: “Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves” (1975, p. 313). That is, matter and basic phenomena are interconnected and must be understood as integral parts of a unified whole. It is in fact “Bell’s theorem [that] demonstrated that the universe is fundamentally interconnected, interdependent, and inseparable,” explains Capra (p. 313). He explains how quantum physics attempts to deal with the well-established fact that the behavior of subatomic particles, such as electrons, cannot be predicted: there is no certainty and there is no prediction of possibilities. Nick Herbert, in Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics, explains:

Quantum theory was devised in the late twenties to deal with the atom, a tiny entity a thousand times smaller than the wavelength of green light. Disturbed by its philosophical implications, many physicists at the time considered quantum theory a provisional device bound to fail outside the atomic realm. Quantum theory continued, however, to propel beyond its inventors’ wildest dreams resolving subtle problems of atomic structure, and then extending its reach to the realm of elementary particles (quarks, gluons, leptons) which many believe to be the world’s ultimate constituents. (1985, p. 94)

Quantum theories posit an ontological vision of the world with permeable boundaries, inbuilt openness, and multifarious relations. Since the 1975 publication of Capra’s The Tao of Physics, much has been written on this subject. The ideology adopted by those scientists and James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis, that the Earth is a living system, an organism that has consciousness and intelligence, was followed by the “transformational politics” concept developed in the early 1990s by political scientists.³ Their work is serious scientific research that gainfully advocates for a more eco-sustainable use of the environment and calls for a responsible use of resources, and above all, an informed and proactive consciousness .⁴

While this new paradigm clearly has an ideological inclination—as would be expected of most zeitgeists—the dogma of New Age and Gaia developed into an “ecological ideology” that conveys the message that humans must respect the Earth and have the responsibility to act to conserve its beauty and resources. Gaia stresses that the planet’s survival, success, and endurance are more important than any individual species. Much like Eastern mysticism, it calls for compassion for the natural world, for other species, and for human beings. Ultimately, this philosophy debunks the anthropomorphic hierarchy: the universe, the world, and all its entities are part of an interconnected, cyclical system. What is this new global imaginary? Wouter Hanegraaf in New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought characterizes the nature of New Age thought as twofold:

Firstly, the New Age movement as a whole can be defined indirectly as based on a common pattern of criticism directed against dominant cultural trends. Secondly, New Age religion formulates such criticism not at random, but falls back on a specific tradition: western esotericism . (Hanegraaf 1996, p. 515)

He does not find it to be a unified ideology, even though the inclinations tend to be meant as “alternatives to currently dominant religious and cultural trends” (p. 515). That is, the old age, which the new age seeks to replace and transform, is criticized as...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction
• 2. What Are We?
• 3. Who Are We?
• 4. How Are We Interconnected?
• 5. Where Are We Headed? Why Are We Complacent?
• 6. Conclusion
• Back Matter