ArtiFact #1: Abraham Maslow & Artistic Creativity | Alex Sheremet, Joel Parrish

ArtiFact: Books, Art, Culture

In the first episode of ArtiFact, Alex Sheremet and co-host Joel Parrish discuss art and artists in light of Abraham Maslow's classic text, "Toward A Psychology of Being" (1962).

This discussion can also be viewed on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFUooBvJAOo

Read the latest writing from automachination: https://automachination.com

Joel's website: https://poeticimport.com

Music sample: Lowkemia - "Lorem Ipsum" (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Timestamps:

0:14 – Introducing Joel Parrish, co-host of ArtiFact
4:02 – Why was Joel drawn to the arts, but not other pursuits?
6:52 – How artists get stuck in “preparation mode”
8:10 – Alex: knowledge is/was my defense mechanism against insecurities
10:50 – Joel defines Abraham Maslow’s primary argument
17:17 – How do artists perceive their inner world?
23:27 – Alex: art is communication, with an emphasis on “how”
24:55 – The problem with Vladimir Nabokov and Albert Camus
28:45 – Joel: art emphasizes – and requires – some sort of hierarchy
30:54 – Alex: our definitions of art exclude so much from the discussion
36:10 – Maslow says not every feeling of insight is an insight
38:28 – Bela Tarr’s “The Turin Horse” (2011)
42:31 – Growth and regression in the artist
47:15 – Do we really have “options” in life?
54:18 – Joel: artists must cultivate a filter
59:54 – Alex: I’ve given into too many “deficiency needs” these last few years
01:09:11 – Joel: self-actualization is especially hard for artists
01:19:15 – What does the word “high” in “high art” really mean?
01:28:40 – Resolving the artist’s internal contradictions
01:31:12 – Maslow: artists must be selfish and un-selfish at the same time
01:45:03 – Alex: artists must rehabilitate bad works of art for deeper purposes
01:49:07 – Do flow states imply artistic unity?
01:55:02 – Nietzsche and Maslow make similar arguments
01:57:07 – Joel enthusiastically eats a banana
01:57:50 – Critiquing Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Archaic Torso of Apollo”
02:10:46 – Critiquing Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel
02:28:52 – Alex: beauty and art are separate concepts, though they do overlap
02:34:41 – Joel: beauty is a slippery slope to “art is subjective”
02:36:58 – Critiquing Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights”
02:59:52 – Bosch’s connection to El Greco
03:02:11 – Alex: great artists build infrastructure for the next generation of artists
03:05:15 – Critiquing Wallace Stevens’s “A Rabbit As King Of The Ghosts”
03:20:03 – Critiquing Walt Whitman’s “As I Ponder’d In Silence”
03:26:34 – Joel: artists must enjoy, poke fun of, and take liberties with art