A subconcious reality.

This lesson we spoke of artists in relation to psychology, and the subconcious. A world in which our minds are left free to switch off into a much simpler state, where we do not need to use our brain, and we do not need to think as much about what we are making.

The subconcious was a key ingredient to New Zealand born artist, Len Lye's art pieces. However, he had started out drawing images inspired by several artists, and aboriginal art. He drew many symbols, mostly circles, which soon he came to find out that in relation to the ideas of Carl Jung were very similar.

Jung had an idea called the "theory of scnchronicity". He believed that each of us as humans are alike, living in harmony, and that we all subconciously think alike in a way of primal form. Even us as different races, and from far different parts of the world will still produce the same symbols to eachother. A small section at the back of the brain is supposed to feed this primal urge. It guides us into what we feel is right, or what we feel we should draw subconciously.

Len Lye figured that being influenced highly by aboriginal art, he produced the circular images much in the same way his aboriginal ancestors would have determined them, through the use of the small part of his primative brain, or his "old brain" as he had called it. Symbols, in the subconcious would have driven those people millions of years ago to produce art, Often very sylisticly, because they would not have been using their "new brain" to see an object, and draw it from reality.

The hero theory further portrays this idea of unconcious thinking. An old tale of Hercules would have a basic skeleton to his character. he would bare a weapon of choice, in his case a shining sword. He would also have in his story some sort of damsel in distress, and a conflict making a barrier between him and his girl. The hero of coarse, thrashing his sword in the air, passes all challenges ahead of him with flying colours, and sweeps up the girl without one bat of an eyelash. This idea has always been used in stories, perhaps even in primal times. Today, we also have a similar skeleton for stories in cartoons.

Popeye, for example uses this. His weapon of choice being spinach! The greens to make you tough as steel! Gulping it up, he swims over to skull rock island, biffs Bluto in the face, and swoops down to collect his sweetheart, Olive Oyl.

We all seem to have this constantly evolving ideal lurking somewhere in the back of our heads to copy and reproduce unconciously.For this reason, it is quite easy to see why a man from china, may be able to draw a symbol in a similar way to someone living in the united states. or that they may even be thinking about the exact same thing at one time. A simplistic, primal portrayal.