“There is no easy way from the earth to the stars.” Seneca
The Western understanding of the human imagination has shifted over time. From the earlier idea of imagination as simply reflecting on pre-existing forms and ideas, to the current concept of the imagination as a force engaged with creating and actively transforming the world.
Humans are unique among animals in their intentional creations. While the survival of animals in the wild depends on their ability to adapt to the world around them, humans have applied their collective imaginations to change and shape the natural world at will.
This same imagination is the artist’s playground. Artists dream and reimagine. Sometimes subtle, drawing attention to a play of light, a perceived colour shift, or change of form. Sometimes raw, intense. They pull apart and stitch together, tear down and build up. By questioning, reinterpret, and by challenging your viewpoint, create new worlds. They construct and deconstruct (Derrida) questioning the building blocks of language (Saussure), and even the structures behind culture itself (Foucault).
As we grapple with the seemingly impossible problems of our time, we should take comfort in the fact that our modern society is a consequence of the dreams of the collective imaginary of previous generations.
The changes we desire simply require us to dream better dreams and indulge in more outrageous flights of fancy. The descendants of Leonardo’s imagination, his outrageous flying machines, today fill the sky.
And while we learn to rethink the future, perhaps Antoine de Saint-Exupéry best captures the mood: “Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.”
