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We live and work with the appearances of art in memory. Contemporary art comes to mind quickly, as our exposures are recent and frequently experienced in the flesh. Contemporary art is positioned to impress and imprint itself into memory. If the appearances of new art are not congruent with art already in memory, such incoherent or incongruous art will not stick. Such art will remain outside memory. It will remain unknown.
On the other hand, art that resembles art already in memory will find its place in memory. New art generally appears as the likeness of art already in memory (older art), as art is often a series of events or statements that refer to and replicate earlier art. Art is a reference system designed to accumulate and continuously re-establish its own space (in memory), distinguishing itself and its proponents from culture(s) at large. Art is inherently self-organizing (generative) and auto-accumulative.
Unknown art must therefore exist in culture(s), as those events or statements in memory that fail to distinguish themselves as contemporary art. The nature of culture, in its pluralities, is determined by constituency and locality. Culture is another form of self-organizing (generative) and auto-accumulative memory. Culture is more broadly defined than art. It fills the immense void between our species' instincts and the outer limits of memory. Culture is like the planet's weather. It can be violent and extreme, arid, pleasant, and redundant. Contemporary art distinguishes itself from the cultures that spawn it. In the desert of culture, there are micro-climates of art that feature a lot of rain. Stormy cultures are perforated by islands of art defined by pacific tranquillity.
This muse is anchored to the phenomena of memory. Art and culture exist in memory; in brains, books, museums, recordings, and databases ... . As synthetic memory has increased in capacity (depth) and spread (becoming decentralized), brain-based, secular memory has been severely challenged. Feelings of human inadequacy are largely triggered by the limitations of memory. Children, young-adults, the middle-aged and elderly all exhibit memory shortfalls. Reserves of art and culture embedded in synthetic memory augment poor, brain-based, individual recall of perceptions and insights.
Unknown art is either art that doesn't fit well in the current expanses of biological or synthetic memory, or art that has been misplaced or forgotten. If we could visualize the structural attributes of an individual's memory, it might resemble an inverted pyramid. The apex of the inverted pyramid would be the vanishing point of memory, the very origins of history. The foundation or base of the inverted pyramid (at the top) would represent the totality of our contemporary awareness - our "memory" of the present. Unknown art exists at the periphery of this inverted base. There are greater reaches of unknown art off to the sides of the pyramid as we descend to the vanishing point of history. This inverted apex plows through the deepest unknown, that prehistory unwritten or lost, like a phonograph needle.
The depths of the prehistoric unknown, and the incomprehensible scale of contemporary art and culture are somehow held in balance in memory. Add to this juggling act the potential vacuum of unfilled memory, biological and synthetic, and it is no wonder we find ourselves challenged in the first decade (2000-2010) to an unprecedented degree.
The unknown art in this equation likely exists in distributed pockets of memory currently flush with culture but apparently not art. Individuals with personal collections of recordings, libraries of books and movies, and customized databases, and the urge to link and communicate with other individuals holding dense, eccentric concentrations of culture in memory, will spontaneously initialize and launch art, out of necessity, self-consciously, in efforts to distinguish and code their messages for reception, translation, relay, and auto-accumulation with other sources of art. In societies mediated by telecommunication networks, the largest veins of unknown art currently exist in personally-held, and managed memory banks. This unknown art will become apparent as vernacular communication becomes progressively idiosyncratic in an effort to distinguish the authors (artists) for desired exchanges with kindred spirits. Once the conditions for a productive exchange are met, mutual self-awareness (shared, cooperative self-consciousness) will concurrently refine and amplify the emerging art. Previously unknown art will fill memory, and become known.
Tom Sherman
Toronto
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