The Big Fish: Consciousness as Structure, Body and Space. (Consciousness, Literature & the Arts)

417 Pages·2007·11.97 MB·English

by  Anna Bonshek

The Big Fish
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General Editor:
Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe
Editorial Board:
Anna Bonshek, Per Brask, John Danvers,
William S. Haney II, Amy Ione,
Michael Mangan, Arthur Versluis,
Christopher Webster, Ralph Yarrow
The Big Fish
Consciousness as Structure,
Body and Space
ANNA BONSHEK
with
CORRINA BONSHEK
and
LEE FERGUSSON
Amsterdam - New York, NY 2007
Cover image: Still Frame, Reverie II (2002), Anna and Corrina Bonshek,
22-minute single screen DVD projection. From Project Reverie (2002)
Cover Design: Aart Jan Bergshoeff
The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ISO
9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents -
Requirements for permanence”.
ISBN-13: 978-90-420-2172-3
ISSN: 1573-2193
©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2007
Printed in the Netherlands
Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii
Contributors ix
Introduction xi

Part One
Infinite Mind/Infinite Body: Awakening and
Re-envisioning Consciousness
Anna Bonshek 1

1. Preamble—What is Consciousness? 3

2. In Sight—Cognition or Darshana:
Expanding Artistic Vision 35

3. Memory as Smriti—100% Wakefulness
The Seat of Creativity and Retrieval 77

4. Performance as Yagya or Offering:
Socially Responsible, Transformational Art 115

5. Capturing Light—Outer and Inner
The Maharishi Vedic Observatory as Site Specific
Cosmic Structure, Astronomically Aligned Monuments
and Sun-Dependent Art 161

6. In Visible Cities: Metaphor?
Or Body and Built Environment as Structures of Wholeness 225

Part Two
Expressions, Visions, Perspectives 271

Foreword 273
7. AgnesMartinonBeautyandPerfectioninArt
AnnaBonshekandLeeFergusson 275
8. UnifiedFieldBasedArtEducation:
TowardaSociallyResponsibleCollegeArtCurriculum
AnnaBonshekandLeeFergusson 287
9. AllegoriesofConsciousness:
PerfectioninPrintmakingfromtheRenaissance
AnnaBonshekandLeeFergusson 297
10. SignsofReconciliation—PrintsbyMichaelKaneTaylor
AnnaBonshekandLeeFergusson 305
11. OceanofBeautyIntheMindoftheBeholder
—ASuiteofPhotographsbyMarkPaulPetrick
AnnaBonshek 327
12. DeleuzianSensationandUnboundedConsciousness
inReverieI
CorrinaBonshek 333
13.ReverieII:Revelation,ConsciousnessandPeace
AnnaBonshek 343
14. 1StandsOut
AnnaBonshek 361
Bibliography
PartOne:InfiniteMind/InfiniteBody 365
PartTwo:Expressions,Visions,Perspectives 379
GlossaryofSanskritTerms 387
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to all those who have helped The Big Fish come to
fruition eitherfortheircontributions, feedback, orsupport—Dr. Daniel
Meyer-Dinkgräfe, Dr. Lee Fergusson, CorrinaBonshek, John Danvers,
Dr. William Haney II, Dr. Geoffrey Wells, Dr. John Price and Sandy
Price, Dr. Bevan Morris, Fran and Asher Fergusson, and Dr. Sam
Boothby, and to the artists who supplied photographs and permission
to print images of their artwork including: Judy Bales, Gillian Brown,
David T. Hanson, Mark Paul Petrick, Lawrence Sheaff, and Michael
Kane Taylor. In addition, thanks to the Des Moines Art Center for
permission to publish prints by Albrecht Dürer and William Blake
from the permanent collection, particularly Mickey Koch, and to Tim
Fitz-Randolph, Jonathan Lipman, Tower Companies, and Anthony
Lawler, for images of the Maharishi Vedic Observatory and Maharishi
Sthapatya Veda designed buildings. Recognition should also go to the
journals and institutions that have published essays that appear (most
in edited form) in Part Two of this volume. These include: Modern
Science and Vedic Science, Social Science Perspectives Journal, the
Des Moines Art Center, the Institute for the Creative Arts, Tractor,
Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, and Body, Space and
Technology. The author would also like to express appreciation for the
efforts of all those at Rodopi, especially Marieke Schilling, who have
madethispublication, andtheentireConsciousness, Literatureand the
Arts series, possible. Finally, deepest gratitude is reserved for His
Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the Vedic tradition for the
knowledgethathasinspiredmuchofthematerialinthisbook.
A few points to be noted at the outset: Certain terms used
throughout this volume including: ®Transcendental Meditation, TM,
TM-Sidhi, Yogic Flying, Maharishi Vedic Science, Maharishi
Sthapatya Veda, Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health, Maharishi
Gandharva Veda, Maharishi Jyotish and Yagya, and Maharishi Vedic
Observatory are registered or common law trade marks licensed to
Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation. In this book
these terms are discussed in the light of, and referenced to, primary
sources (listed in the footnotes and bibliography). Any further enquiry
viii
into trademarks, the related licensing organization, and knowledge of
Maharishi Vedic Science and its technologies of consciousness, can be
directedtowww.mou.org,www.mum.edu,andwww.tm.org.
In addition, regarding transliteration, Sanskrit words quoted in
subsequentchaptersarenotshownwithdiacriticalmarks.Forexample,
the term Vastu would be written with a dash over the letter “a”
indicating a long “ah” sound, Vaastu. Smriti would be written Smrti
with a dot under the “r”. Likewise, in the transliteration of Rk, the
name of the first of the four Veda, the “R” would usually have a dot
beneath the letter. Otherwise, Rk is often written, to more accurately
indicatephonetics,asRik.
For simplicity sake, the transliterated Sanskrit terms that appear in
The Big Fish do not include diacritical marks but for a precise
indication of pronunciation, the reader can ideally refer to the quoted
primary sources oraSanskritdictionary. A simpleglossary ofSanskrit
termsisprovidedattheendofthisbook.
Contributors
Anna Bonshek is a multi-media artist and founder of Akshara
Productions, an organization that facilitates collaboration across the
digital, visual, sonic and performing arts. Interested in consciousness-
based knowledge, living, and creativepractice, Bonshekhastaughtart,
theory and Vedic Science, received awards from the Royal Society for
the Arts, the Science Policy Foundation, and the National Endowment
for the Arts, and was a visiting fellow at the University of Tasmania.
She studied at the Slade School of Art and gained her PhD in Vedic
Science from Maharishi University of Management. Her work has
been shown internationally at the Visual Arts Gallery—India Habitat
Centre, New Delhi, the DakshinaChitra Museum, Chennai, the Des
MoinesArtCenter, CSPS and theCedarRapidsMuseum ofArt, Iowa,
Novosibirsk State Art Gallery, Russia, A.R.C. Gallery, Chicago, and
the Royal College of Art, London. Bonshek has written articles for:
Body, Space and Technology; Consciousness, Literature and the Arts;
College Student Journal; Modern Science and Vedic Science; Artlink;
Tractor; Artist’s Newsletter; and the anthologies Reframing
Consciousness and Visibly Female. With Lee Fergusson she has
curated several exhibitions and was reviewer and regional editor for
the Chicago-based journal New Art Examiner in the 1980s and 90s.
Her book 2001 Mirror of Consciousness: Art, Creativity and Veda
applies a Vedic understanding of consciousness to art theory. She is
currentlyinvolvedinindependentartanddigitalmediaprojects.
Corrina Bonshek is an Australian composer and sound artist with a
passion for multi-arts projects. Completing a Doctor of Philosophy in
Contemporary Arts at University of Western Sydney (UWS)—where
she undertook a composition/musicology degree programme—
Bonshek also lectures at UWS and has published and presented
numerous papers on her work and related research. Her recent work
Shadows and Dreams at the Female Orphan School (2005) was
performed at the Female Orphan School, Rydalmere, sponsored by
Parramatta City Council. In 2000-2003, Bonshek was musical director
forAksharaProductionsforwhichshecomposedthreeelectro-acoustic
musical pieces as part of a collaborative enterprise resulting in the