Our Questions

  • What is to be understood by Joseph Beuys’ ‘every human being is an artist’ and his ‘expanded conception of art’?
  • What does this offer us in our work toward an ecologically sustainable society?
  • What is the connection between social sculpture, transformative social process and direct democracy?
  • And how is the connection between social sculpture and the development of appropriate social and economic forms to be understood?
  • What is the connection between ethics and aesthetics…between aesthetics and responsibility?
  • How do we free the aesthetic from its narrow confines and return it to the life of the society?
  • What is the role of the aesthetic in overcoming the anaesthetic, numbness and certain forms of alienation and denial?
  • What is the role of ‘imaginal thought’ (bildhaftes Denken) in our work towards a sustainable future?
  • Does this have something to do with archetypal psychology’s notion of ‘soul-work’ and Beuys’ “warmth character of thought”?
  • What role do different modes of consciousness play in enabling us to connect more deeply with the world around us?
  • And does this have anything to do with the relationship between the aesthetic and responsibility, or the ability to respond?
  • Is there a connection between social sculpture / connective aesthetics and developing respect for all other life forms?
  • What insights does social sculpture offer us about working towards a humane and ecologically viable society?
  • How can we rethink work in ways that enable us to work creatively for one another?
  • How can we move away from a system based on wages for labour that creates unemployment, overproduction and dis-ease?
  • How do we produce and distribute what we need in the world, without exploiting each other and destroying that which sustains us?
  • Is there a difference between social sculpture and a purely instrumentalist approach, in which art is a tool, or vehicle, for conveying information in artistic form?
  • How do we develop new forms of ‘art’ that engage us in the shaping of our lives, and how do we share this expanded understanding and practice?