Transcript

The Atomic Power of Artistry | Brian Cole | TEDxBerkleeValencia

I vividly remember the first time I truly felt and understood the power that art has in this world I was unprepared for how that experience would change me change my future as an artist as educator was 2009 in Caracas Venezuela first of many trips in my work with El Sistema the now very famous program of social of transformation and music that's for more than 40 years has dramatically changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Venezuela's most at-risk children and I was transfixed by what I saw arrghh Astaire's of six seven eight year old children performing Beethoven symphonies in an old gymnasium one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city and I stood dumbfounded by a massive chorus and orchestra of four-year-olds playing instruments some actual instruments some made of cardboard singing dancing performing these these amazing arrangements of Venezuelan traditional folk music and with such incredible joy they did this for 3-4 hours every single day and their lives and their communities were transformed by a connection to something bigger their aesthetic and emotional perception of their world had changed and this kind of change doesn't happen through mere experiences it happens because of that connection to something deeper something that changes at the source level something that catalyzes a new order a new understanding and that source level in the physical world will call the atomic level so when you change something at the atomic level it's not just powerful changes everything changes the nature of the substance itself music was the powerful catalysts in the lives of those Venezuelan children a modern example of the power that art has to change lives and change our world an artist throughout history has shown us that they can use their creations shine light on something to refocus perception to move hearts and minds from the world of photography we have Dorothea Lange's famous migrant mother and through this intimate portrait of devastating poverty she gave a face to a nation suffering from the Great Depression perhaps the most famous anti-war painting in history Pablo Picasso's massive Guernica he showed the atrocities of war and the devastating effects on the individual his response to the Nazi bombing small basket owned in the Spanish Civil War and in 1957 West Side Story one of the most famous musicals in all of history was the first to deal with serious issues like race discrimination immigration right it challenged its audiences to confront their own biases their own humanity and for a very current example I personally like to look to hip-hop philosopher Kendrick Lamar and his watershed album to pimp a butterfly which sent shockwaves through the music industry because he chose to take on difficult core political concepts power racial identity leadership and he brought important heightened attention to the black lives matter movement he reassured and outraged and fearful nation quote we gonna be all right do you hear me the you filming we're gonna be all right Kendrick does it much better so all of the artists in these examples somehow refocus society's perception or exposed a new dimension of understanding and I was recently reading this really incredible activist artist in San Francisco and she said this way art helps us identify with one another art creates profound empathy and connection and it does this at our core it does this and changes us at the atomic level and for me it's an artist as a human being that's all inspiring that's incredible isn't it it's tragic that's so often in contemporary society the role of art an artist is relegated to the category of extra or in the worst case scenario non-essential and this is most often done by those in power those who set the agenda those perhaps who fear that kind of change the most art and artists are central to cultural and social change not some parallel or abstract force art creates change in the world much like waves are formed in the ocean and when I mention the word waves it's likely that many of you in the audience the first mental image you got is that of breakers that you might see on the beach like this one but that's just what you see from something that was created much earlier deeper because most waves are created deep in the ocean by small slow-moving deliberate changes in the current that when they rise to the surface there's something you can see so when you move a small amount of water at that deep level you get breakers like this but when you move a much larger amount of water when you move a massive amount of water you get something much different you get something more powerful and so like waves are formed in the ocean throughout history artists have changed our world and they'll continue to do so and man if we ever needed that kind of change now history repeats itself better for worse and the cycle of joyful and tragic things that happens to us in our world so goes the cycle of artists responding to it with their art as well as the cycle of society either paying more or less attention to it consider this what if we always paid attention what if the world was constantly flooded with this kind of art what if focus and power were central to how we viewed artists in the first place I like to think that if that were the case then cruelty the lack of empathy that those things that still exist in our world they wouldn't have a chance the next generation of artists has the power to lead this but we as educators have to do a better job of helping them and how we've trained artists traditionally has one that's been focused very inward prioritizing things like the development of technique study of history of styles study of other artists developing personal creativity and all these things are super important they're essential but if as educators couldn't we find a way to balance priorities to also have our young artists from the very beginning focused outward outward into the world hardwired to be constantly considering the affecting the power that their art can have what if it were central to the experience we make it central to the experience of training artists that they're facing outward responding to the world that they're seeking ways to make connections calling out injustice when they see it giving a face to cruelty then it will stick with them and we'll see more transformative art we'll see real change I'm convinced that a major tool in doing this is embedding things like service social action and entrepreneurship into the educational experience in an integral way and I feel very fortunate that I worked at two institutions that really get this and they've seen great results first here at Berkeley where the concepts of equity and diversity are not just important topics for discussion they are core institutional values that range from top to bottom and my current institution the University of North Carolina School of the Arts deeply shares these principles at UNC si the idea of service and social action of the Arts is one that's prominently in our students minds and it's emerging in our curriculum we have this really amazing unique art service program called artists core an artist core takes accomplished young artists and it places them with the most high risk/high need children in our region and it helps them connect to their community in some cases build a community through music dance drama through creating art and the buy-in for this program is tremendous and that is so cool to see but you know what's cooler to see the experience the effect that that experience has on our students that participate in the gateways it opens up in their mind and for their own artistic impulses one of my favorite examples is one of our composition students Kendra Harding you can see Kendra there playing with in refugee children and her lullaby project and the framework for the project was created by Carnegie Hall but Kendra's version she sought to connect with immigrant Latino women and help them write lullabies for their children and she worked with a Latino community center and she connected with women that were under a tremendous amount of stress single mothers teenage mothers some were homeless some had been to prison some had a collection of all those factors and she partnered with them to help them use art to express themselves to express their situation and most importantly to help them find a new and deeper way to connect to their children a very simple concept but one that has broad ramifications and some of the most transformative ideas and works of art share those two characteristics simple with broad ramifications I've seen the true and raw power of art in this world and I've seen that power and young artists it's visceral palpable and I have unwavering faith in those young artists what they will create and how it will help shape our world our world which due to gross indifference greed ignorance by those who row it runs so many of our governments it needs those young artists more than ever I'm gonna leave you with one final thought lately I find myself reflecting on a quote often by the great Bob Dylan and he said when I watched the news I realized that those who run the world never listen to music that's sink in and then let's give them something to listen to let's help young artists give them something to see something to experience something to feel something will make a connection breakthrough to help shape all of our atoms for the better thank you you