Artists and meaning making

Marshall McLuhan on the role of artists in harvesting patterns:

“When you give people too much information, they instantly resort to pattern recognition, in other words, to structure the experience.   I think this is part of the artist’s world.   The artist, when he encounters the present…is always seeking new patterns, new pattern recognition, which is his task.   The absolute indispensability of the artist is that he alone in the present can give the pattern recognition. He alone has the sensory awareness necessary to tell us what our world is made of.   He is more important than the scientist.   The scientists are going to wake up to this shortly and will resort en mass to the artist’s studio in order to discover the forms and the matter they are dealing with.”

Sono Hashisaki and I worked with an artist this week, Steven Wright, who drew some patterns and helped make meaning for us, and it was wonderful.   Gratitude overflows.   Thanks Steven.