Be-Engaging: Black Mirror

I have recently been watching Black Mirror and some of the shows within the series. It’s written by Charlie Brooker and recently the second series has been on our TV’s. Charlie Brooker in each episode gives us a glimpse of the dark reality of technology and how we use it today, he comments that:

“If technology is a drug – and it does feel like a drug – then what, precisely, are the side-effects? This area – between delight and discomfort – is where Black Mirror, my new drama series, is set. The “black mirror” of the title is the one you’ll find on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor, a smartphone.”^[1]

It is a very clever series of short films about different areas of technology and the side effects of them. It makes you feel uncomfortable as you watch in horror at the things that shadow reality. Some of the themes that are picked up through the episodes are really interesting and I want to explore those themes within the three episodes that I have watched so far: 15 Million Merits, The Entire History of You and Be right Back. There are more episodes but I have yet to watch them. I will be writing these posts over this week, hope you enjoy them.

Talking with art students

I am no expert in art. I like some art, I like engaging with it and looking at it etc. As Christians I think we need to encourage our brothers and sisters who are artists or art students in our churches. So I want to bring to your attention a great blog written by two of my friends on staff who are reaching art students on their patch and they are engaging with art in an amazing way. Why not check them out here:

http://uccf-arts.blogspot.co.uk/

Here are some fab quotes from the blog to wet your appetite:

“We are passionate about seeing Christian art students live wholeheartedly for Jesus: both in the way that you create,  and also in the way that you do life at art college.  We pray that this blog will bless, encourage and resource you to get digging deeper into gospel truths, and delight all the more in the gifts God has given you.”

“Artists are societies’ visionaries or to quote Mark ‘society’s equivalent of specsavers’!  As artists we help people to see what they don’t naturally see.  We are more deliberate in feeling, seeing, hearing, tasting, and sensing the world around us because we study it in a more intense and deliberate way, and so we are making people see more of what’s around them.”

“Whether you are based in an art college, a university, or an office, they all have a culture of their own which has been produced by the people of that place over years.  Do you ask questions of the cultures you live in?  Are you contributing in a Godly way to your cultures, or are you just going with the flow?  Are you mindful of what you paint, sing, dance, design?  Cultural history is easily read through the art of the time so we really do have a great responsibility as the current generation of Christians making art.  Let us have dominion, make work and live lives that produce a cross shaped culture.”

The need for christian artists

A wonderful quote from Tim Keller that I would like to share with you:

“The Church needs artists because without art we cannot reach the world. The simple fact is that the imagination ‘gets you,’ even when your reason is completely against the idea of God. ‘Imagination communicates,’ as Arthur Danto says, ‘indefinable but inescapable truth.’ Those who read a book or listen to music expose themselves to that inescapable truth. There is a sort of schizophrenia that occurs if you are listening to Bach and you hear the glory of God and yet your mind says there is no God and there is no meaning. You are committed to believing nothing means anything and yet the music comes in and takes you over with your imagination. When you listen to great music, you can’t believe life is meaningless. Your heart knows what your mind is denying. We need Christian artists because we are never going to reach the world without great Christian art to go with great Christian talk.“

I think Keller highlights something really important here about Christians and Art. He is echoing CS Lewis and Francis Schaeffer on this as well. But great music and great art can’t lead you to believe life is meaningless because they express something of the reality we are in – the need of a saviour. What better people to show them the true saviour then christian artists in our churches?

Yet we often celebrate those that can stand up and preach, those that can stand up and lead sung worship on Sunday and those that do cold contact evangelism. I am drawing a distinction between those that lead sung worship and those that play in pubs/clubs etc because I think the audience is different and perhaps the purpose as well. Although they are both artists. But what I am really thinking about is what about our artists in the world? Those that draw, take photographs, cook great food, write poetry, write novels, sketch, make models etc for the world to see…yet they often get the back seat. But the church needs them, because these people are speaking into the culture we are in and they are engaging with it in a different way. The are reaching people who the preacher alone could never reach.

But it’s also not about creating a christian sub-culture with your t-shirts and wrist bands, but it’s about creating art that speaks truth and hope into a culture that needs and wants a saviour.

Lets celebrate our christian artists and encourage them. Lets get the church releasing them into the world so that they can speak truth through their art.

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Some really great stuff out there in the web world:

An honest blogpost from Tanya Marlow and her story of how she is learning to trust. Just a great post.

When your blog is not on a Blog Roll… ah yes I can understand Anita!! I feel like this sometimes when I look at someones blog who I read and follow and I notice I am not on their blog roll!! WHY! This post is honest and great.

Btw both Anita and Tanya are on fire at the mo with their blogging, I am really enjoying reading their stuff.

This post was written a few weeks ago by Krish Kandia – Is christianity supposed to be masculine? I think it’s a brilliant, humble, biblical response to what John Piper wrote about Christianity.

Here is a wonderful how-to-guide on how to make a Latte and a pretty foam picture on top of it (you know  how you get those pictures on your coffee in the shape of a leaf, tree and your Auntie Mable etc?) Here is how you can do it at home!!!

And lastly here is a wonderful video of these guys singing composers names in the style of their music! it’s a bit long but worth watching!!!

The infinite Artist

“What is the world? What is it for? It is art. It is the best of all possible art, a finite picture of the infinite. Assess it like prose, like poetry, like architecture, sculpture, painting, dance, delta blues, opera, tragedy, comedy, romance, epic.

Assess it like you would a Fabergé egg, like a gunfight, like a musical, like a snowflake, like a death, a birth, a triumph, a love story, a tornado, a smile, a heartbreak, a sweater, a hunger pain, a desire, a fulfillment, a desert, a dessert, an ocean, a leap, a quest, a fall, a climb, a tree, a waterfall, a song, a race, a frog, a play, a marriage, a consummation, a thirst quenched.

Assess it like that. And when you’re done, find an ant and have him assess the cathedrals of Europe. This painting is by an infinite Artist. It is a reflection of Himself (could there be a better subject?), worked out in colors, lives, and constellations, in a universe that to us seems endless but is to Him a mere frame, a small space, a confining challenge for His artistry.

The temporal narrative of reality is every Art– invented and collected and woven into one cosmic, finite portrait of the infinite.”

–N.D. Wilson, Notes From the Tilt-A-Whirl

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Well Halloween is coming very soon and no doubt everybody has their piece to say, especially Christians… yet one of my colleagues, Peter Dray has written three posts on Why God loves Halloween. Yup a different spin on things! Worth a read.

Over at Redeemed Mind Apologetics, Dan asks what our worldview is. I enjoyed tracing through the different options and outcomes! Which worldview are you? Have you ever tried this on the public to find out what they believe, it proves to be quite interesting and you can have some great conversations through it!

If you are a student and have exams. These top 10 tips for study may help you!

Was the name of Jesus declared by Moses?

Here is some really cool coffee art.

Lastly, check out Rob Ryan. An artist that makes incredible books and stories. Here is an interview with him… And here is a video of him working. And here is one of his pictures:

 

Is art a commodity or a relationship?

This may seem like a really odd question to ask. “Is art a commodity or a relationship?” When I say commodity I mean is art just a product you can buy and use or does it have more value and more expression then that? Does it connect with us in some way, does it communicate to us or can art just be reduced to pencil, paintbrush and glue? In which case we may view art as dead and something we can pick up and throw away when we like without considering the value of it nor the person behind it.

But I don’t believe art to be dead at all, rather it is living and communicating to its audience. I grant you, I don’t understand it all but that doesn’t lose its meaning or purpose at all. Why am I so bothered about this? I think because we have hit a stage in life where everything is about being entertained, everything is about having a quick buzz and fix until our brains are pulsing on entertainment like squirts of red bull in our neurons.This leads to so many dangers in our relationships with each other, which I really want to come to next.

Ellis Potter says that when it comes to art people say - “I am what I like, I am what I enjoy” and this is something we need to move away from. He is saying that we define ourselves by the entertainment value that something else has. People say: “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like” and so we reduce everything to what we like rather than be challenged, stimulated and moved by everything else. If we define everything by how entertaining it is to us and how it appeals to my life, then we can move away from some of the most influential, ugly, beautiful, inspirational, strange art and say that we would rather not listen to what it says because it does not entertain us.

Ellis Potter goes on to say “If we see art as a product to be produced and consumed, then we can be self-centered and protective – is this how we treat people?” Ellis makes a link between how we view art to how we view people and I think he has hit on to something here. You may have no interest in art like that of a painting, but I bet you consume and watch some form of TV or surf the internet or read blogs or books… all of which is art in some form and I wonder if it’s all for entertainment? If we treat everything for its entertainment value in our lives, then there is a danger to treat people the same. We can see someones value to us by how much they might add to our lives, how they provide amusement, encouragement, joy, love, sustaining conversation etc. But what about the people who can’t add that “entertainment value” to your life because they don’t appeal to you, they are needy, they are outsiders, they are hurt, they don’t talk much, they are awkward – do we ignore them because they add nothing of that “entertainment value” to our lives? Do we do this in church?

Art is more than just a canvas on a wall, art is an expression of emotions, ideas and the values of the people behind this art and their hearts.

I think the question is whether we see everything in life as a product to be used, sold or thrown away? That includes people and art. Is anything a relationship to us? In church we are very big on community and relationships – but sometimes we stray into the idea of “is this good for us? is it edifying to us?” and its good to have integrity when it comes to watching things, but if we throw away everything without listening and understanding what our culture is screaming at us and seeing their real needs, then we are in danger of throwing away all the hurt, lost, sick, questioning people who come into our lives and they will not be entertainment to us but they will need great love and will certainly need Christ.

You can listen to Ellis Potters talk on Art here.