Francois Quilliet
05. mai 2016 01:14 heures
Chapitre 1 › Create a journal entry: Global culture: Create a journal entry: Global culture Afficher le devoir Masquer le devoir

Create a journal entry: Global culture

Journal

Describe yourself, your cultural background and how you experience culture on a daily basis.

Do you observe examples of global culture in your everyday life?

Share your experiences and have a look at the journals of other participants.
Feel free to comment.

Cultural Background and Personal experience of Culture and Global Cuture.

2

Hello everybody, once again,

My name is Francois Quilliet, I am French, 34 years old and living in Basel.
I am working as an art consultant, advising collectors on managing their cultural assets.

About my cultural background:
Born in Tours, I was raised in France. My cultural background was influenced by the Jewish and Christian religions, the Greek and Roman philosophies, the Enligthenment movement and the French literature.
I was graduated from a Business School with a major in Creative Business (Arts, Entertainment, Media and Social innovation).
I was shaped by the Western culture and Universalism. I was enriched by the foreign cultures, countries and people I have encountered during my life experience.
I am always curious, eager to discover, learn and understand.

The way how I experience culture on a daily basis is very personal and intimate question. I firmly believe that art reflects the current state of a culture in which it is created, it gives a "Zeitgeist", a spirit of the time, a dominant set of ideals and beliefs that motivate the actions of the members of a society in a particular period in time.
As I am ageing and as I have the knowledge that I will die, I feel the need to nourish my soul with literary, performing and visual arts.
I cultivate my soul by sharpening my senses to feel alive.
"I feel so I am" (and not I think so I am like Descartes said :)
As it is a spiritual approach and an immaterial need, I seriously consider my approach to art as religious.
The galleries are for me the temples and the museums the modern cathedrals.
I believe that artists but also curators, critics, patrons, philanthropists, collectors, dealers, teachers, art historians, researchers..., are sculpting the world and sometimes helping to make it a better place to live.
I compare them to tea bags. The most influential are often activists, and like infusion they spread and diffuse their artworks to the world, inspiring other people impacting, shaking, awaking minds.
The aim: discovering, learning and possibly understanding about ourselves and about the world that we live in.
The natural sciences give also some very interesting and insightful knowledge about the universe and nature (with testable observations, explanations and predictions). However, the unknown part is vast and wise are the scientists who dare to say like Socrates: I know that I know nothing (or not much :).
In this context, art gives me, (like other religion I guess) an instant feeling of eternity and a unique perception of reality.

About examples of Global Culture, if we consider Global Culture as a pandemic of Westernized consumer culture, indeed I do observe many examples in my daily life of cultural imperialism.
The London based artist Steve Cutts is illustrating this brilliantly.
cf: www.stevecutts.com
As a result, it leads to the end of the cultural diversity and to more conflicts as described by Samuel Huntington in his book, "The Clash of the Civilizations".

In the other hand, if we consider Global Culture as the transmission of the same ideas and values around the world, then yes again, I do observe
that the parents love their children with the same love all over the globe.
Also, I do believe that on a global scale most of the people living on the earth have the same desire to live happy and in peace with each other.
We are all humans.
We are all part of nature.
Could we refer to the ideas of Peace and Love as universally, globally and culturally shared?
Well I think so, and like sang John Lennon in his song IMAGINE, "you may say I am dreamer, but I am not the only one."

Peace & Love to all

Francois

Commentaires

Michael Schindhelm (instructor)
avant presque 8 ans

Hi Francois, thank you very much for this interesting inside. I share many of your points. People are often divided by certain solidarities like race, religion, gender, class, generation etc. On the one hand these distinctions make sometimes sense. On the other hand we can't afford letting them prevail in a globalised world.
Two years ago I did a project at the Biennale in Venice: Lavapolis. Lavapolis is a fictional island in the Mediterranean where all people were refugees and had overcome those distinctive solidarities.
Here is the link to the website of the project: www.lavapolis.com
And here is the cover to the English speaking book on Lavapolis which displays the motto:

enter image description here

Francois Quilliet
avant presque 8 ans

Hello Michael,

Thank you for your comment and for sharing the website of the project Lavapolis.
This fictional island, where all people succeed to overcome their distinctive solidarities, is very inspiring as much as the title of the book : "What joins us comes before what divides us".
These words are powerful when implemented into action.
I use to say that we should pay more attention to our resemblances rather than our differences. We have much more in common with each other overall and also with the rest of nature.
I found the mix of all languages very interesting and the phrases very intriguing imprinted by wisdom and contradiction.
"We are the vanguard. Each vanguard has a common fate: it is either guided by a new truth or led astray by new errors.
We will not discover whether the journey has been worthwhile or not. (...)
HUMILITY
They are the pioneers of a social experiment that they have selected for themselves. (...)
FREEDOM
The cities where we live, wherever they are, are testimonies to our naiveté and our belief in a better world."
HOPE

I also love the "Solution 262"
Meaning that there are at least 261 others solutions and probably some after :)

Very inspiring for opening the minds, creating alternative possibilities of new reality and yes, better tomorrows.
Excellent visionary concept that should be implemented for real.
Where to sign up ? :)

Thank you Michael again for sharing, I will find the book and discover your writings.

Looking forward to discovering our next chapters,

Peace & Love

Francois

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