The School of the Unconscious
We are bound, and emboldened, by our experiences. Our interaction, or mere tolerant proximity, to language, nature, sound, smell, force and taste in the forms of music, film, random chatter, radio and television dialogue, governmental policy, or street fight inform and create us. Our outward affinities to some of these aspects allow us to consciously inform ourselves of who we are, reinforcing, sometimes reformatting, our proclivities and affections. But more often than not we are shaped by these environmental notions, which we encounter as if stepping through a fog, without knowledge to its affect. The mist that surrounds us In turn, consciously informed and unconsciously conditioned by these forces, we create our habits, we act in public, repose, react, we create culture. And, in turn, the process has begun again. The culture we are living colors the culture we are to live. We absorb our experiences and set them free, out into the world to be engaged, filtered, and reabsorbed.

With these considerations as tools, how are we to begin to understand the world we have been living in for the past decade? Ironic, disengaged, passionate, violent, stupid,		 caring, vacuous, greedy, fearful. At times an inspiring place but often, arguably, an intense, reactionary, and myopic environment. What has informed the events and culture that have taken shape before our eyes? How did the events which took place on the streets of Seattle, Washington in November 1999, during the World Trade Organization's visit to that city, inform the events of September 11th 2001? How did the last days of the Clinton presidency inform the election, and aftermath, of the presidential race of 2000? How did the terrorist attacks of 2001, and our personal reactions to those attacks, inform the process which led us to invade Iraq in 2003 and occupy that country to this day? To consider these dominant histories the political maneuvering, power plays, and rhetoric are, as always, of concern. But in tandem, intertwined, what role did the words which were spoken by politicians and citizens alike ("it depends on what IT means"), the phrases used (Wasssup?!), the music listened to ("it's gettin' hot in here, so why not take off your clothes..."), the popular films, soft drinks, and fast food of the moment have to play in the shaping of the culture of the time, the process of molding us into who we are, then and now and tomorrow? As a methodology The School of the Unconscious seeks to engage not only the dominant concerns of the last decade - the moments which stand still beneath the spotlight - but the minutia as well, with the firm belief that by considering each node we begin to see the form that encapsulates the whole. And, through this methodical consideration, what is reveled is a glimpse through the fog, to the clear light of day that is our future and its possibilities, and, with a grasp of those possibilities, the chance to help shape what it is to become through that very consideration.