2000
Knowledge Gardening through Music
patterns of coherence for future African
management
as an alternative to Project Logic
- / -
A. The Challenge.
Learning from myth.
Defining the need.
B. Cognitive functions
of music.
Sacred music.
"Singing the world"
Musical therapy.
Music as a weapon.
Music and song as organizing templates.
Notation systems.
Music of the spheres.
Sustaining community through song.
Web knowledge organization and music
C. Cognitive functions
of gardening.
Gardening and flowers.
Web knowledge organization and flowers.
Website structure in comparison
with flower organization.
D. Participative involvement
Engagement in knowledge organization.
Moving through patterns.
E. Living the present
moment
In the present
Experiencing the moment
Composing the world -- the en-choiring mind.
Re-enchanting conceptual organization.
F. Challenge of benefiting
from insights of musicians, singers and gardeners.
G. Conclusions.
Dialogue context -- in Camelot
or Eden.
Harmonizing project initiatives.
Reframing present initatives.
Back to Africa.
H. References.
A. The Challenge
This proposal responds to the evidence that strategies to
deliver services and remedial measures are increasingly non-viable. Coping at
every level of society, including that of national and international governance,
is proving increasingly problematic.
Whilst there is indeed still a lot of mileage in conventional
strategic initiatives, the concern here is with the many sectors, and inter-sectoral
domains, where new approaches seem to be called for. Of special concern are
intractable situations, as in Africa, where the western management approach
fails to engage with local cultures. This is a situation described by an African
management researcher, based at an African management institute, as like a "drop
of water running off a manioc leaf" (Henry Bourgoin, 1984).
It is unfortunate that the challenge of the Internet for Africa
is expressed in terms of a combination of illiteracy and inadequate technology
infrastructure in a response to the "digital divide" (see Djamen et
al , 1995; Jegede, 1995; and Obijiofor, et al, 2000). This ignores the fact
that use of the Internet in western societies is increasingly spreading to the
functionally illiterate (and may in fact be contributing to such illiteracy),
forcing a shift to visualization techniques that is strongly reinforced by the
perceived inadequacies of text information under conditions of information overload
-- even for the highly literate. It also ignores the possibility that textually
illiterate cultures may be highly "literate" visually (as in the case
of Australian Aborigines) or aurally -- enabling them to creatively by-pass
the need for textual literacy in adapting to the Internet and in processing
knowledge in ways congenial and valuable to their own culture. It also ignores
the impact of satellite technologies in by-passing the need to wire local communities
through central nodes. There is a tendency to state the challenge in terms which
evoke the same old pattern of dependency on industrialized countries, which
of course have a strong interest in the economic implications. This point has
been aergued in an earlier paper with respect to use of information for policy-making
in developing countries (Judge,
1999). There is a need to at least explore other ways of framing the challenge.
There is therefore a strong case for investing some effort
in quite different approaches, even if they appear inherently risky and unlikely
to succeed according to the Project Logic of conventional western management.
The strange challenges of global governance may only be comprehensible through
other means, as Niels Bohr said of understanding atoms: "When it comes
to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly
so concerned with describing facts as with creating images." With respect
to what follows regarding African management, another argument of Bohr might
well apply: "The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough
to have a chance of being correct." To which Freeman Dyson added: "When a great
innovation appears, it will almost certainly be in a muddled, incomplete and
confusing form. To the discoverer, himself, it will be only half understood;
to everyone else, it will be a mystery. For any speculation which does not at
first glance look crazy, there is no hope!" (Kenneth Brower, The Starship
and the Canoe, 1979)
The following sections therefore explore the possibilities
suggested by a wide range of unusual approaches to framing the cognitive challenge
of organizing collective undertakings and ensuring their sustainability and
coherence. They provide a context for technical arguments in a proposal by a
4-partner consortium led by the Union of International Associations to the Information
Society Technologies program of the European Commission (proposal).
This proposal was oriented towards the extensive web databases of the UIA on
interlinked world problems, strategies, values, and institutions (see http://www.un-intelligible.org/docs/overview.php#orga)
Music -- Playing to the Beast: It
is regrettable that there is so little interest in relating cultural insights
into the role of music to the strategic challenges of the times. It is even
more regrettable in that music is one of the few preoccupations that engage
multitudes of people otherwise largely apathetic to these challenges.
Music has demonstrable and proven capacities to engage the
young, the intellectually challenged, the autistic, and the very old -- across
cultures and levels of society (Blacking, 1995). Ian Cross (1999) explores why
people continue to play whatever they appreciate as music and what role it plays
in cognitive development. The case of musical file exchange, using Napster-type
software, is an interesting reminder of how significant constituencies think.
There is a case for exploring the various myths involving
music to determine what function it was understood to perform in crisis situations.
Particularly intriguing is the case of the Beast whose otherwise uncontrolled
tendencies could only be calmed by musical harmonies -- leading to the possibility
of a more creative and fruitful relationship with it. It might be argued that
civilization has created or evoked its own form of Beast as a challenge to governance
and could well explore new ways of relating to it.
From a musical perspective, why is the Beast so dangerously
out of control? What do musical harmonies bring to the Beast's condition? What
synaptic pathways do they trigger to reinforce the Beast's capacity to control
itself? By what condition is the Beast trapped? The obvious examples, are the
cases of dancing bears and charmed snakes swaying to the music, but perhaps
more interesting isf the use of music in calming some with severe mental and
emotional problems.
In armies of the past it might be argued that music was a
way of engaging and controlling unruly soldiers. It provided an indirect form
of discipline, enhancing collective identity, by which all were engaged. It
continues to be used in this way amongst populations engaged in tribal warfare,
with remnants to be heard in sports stadiums. Cynically it might be argued that
society uses music in this way to control a potentially unruly population. For
if music became unavailable, would not many "take to the streets"?
What experiential pathways are offered to the Beast by music?
Strangely it might be argued that in modern civilization,
as in the past, it is the Beast that could be said to have appropriated music
to some degree. This is well-illustrated by the names of groups and titles of
records (as any web search for Music and Beast illustrates).
What can be learnt from the subtle art of musical accompaniment,
notably for movies?
Magical gardens -- and the Garden of Eden:
It is in such gardens that everything is purportedly in harmony. In a sense
the garden is the manifestation of perfect governance, in which the plants and
animals are effective performers of magical melodies -- they are in tune with
their environment with which they dance.
There are libraries of books on the Garden of Eden and on
utopias of various kinds. Those of greater interest explore the challenge of
the Beast in its various forms to such exemplifications of harmony -- the challenge
of chaos. But in portraying such gardens and their associated utopias there
is usually a break with the many unpleasant features of reality -- banned necessarily
from the Garden of Eden. It is rare to encounter means of traversing the interface
between perfect harmony and the cacophony of the real world. Yet many would
readily agree that music offers vital clues to this, indeed it exemplifies the
challenge.
There have always been those who have favoured a particular
musical mode as the key to harmony, rejecting other modes as inferior. The chasm
between classical and pop music has long been clear. But avant garde
composers interested in dissonance have endeavoured to reframe this challenge.
The principles of harmony, and the ranges of possible music, are far grander
in scope than the particular musics pleasing to particular groups of individuals
at a moment in time. In this sense the musical challenge parallels that of world
governance, but is perhaps better articulated in technical terms and makes it
more obvious why particular styles might be favoured by particular groups. Indeed
the range of possible musical styles effectively defines the range of constituencies
by which governance is challenged. Simplistic efforts to ensure the dominance
of a particular musical style are as obviously inappropriate as efforts to impose
a particular style of world governance.
What is the cognitive and experiential significance of a Paradise
or of a Music of the Spheres? How might it engage with a world of disharmony
and imperfection?
How can knowledge be embodied into song or music -- especially
for use in situations where reference to text is impossible or an indication
of inadequacy? This might be seen as a key question for sustainable community.
It may be a key question for governance of any kind. Even strategic "fire-fighters
" must recognize that if they have to look at a manual in order to put
out the fire then it may well be too late -- and certainly does not inspire
confidence. Most leaders however are now seen to speak from scripts -- because
they have no sense of the coherence of the message they need to communicate.
Given the explosion of information, how can knowledge be packaged in new and
more compact ways that are readily accessible -- and effectively act as templates
through which to respond to complex situations? These new modalities might be
seen as the cognitive equivalent to the see-through information visors of pilot
helmets onto which are dynamically projected vital navigational information.
Examples might include:
- First aid mnemonic songs or chants
- Survival songs or chants
- Negotiation songs or chants (holding options
at different stages in a complex process, as articulated in Getting to
Yes)
- Enterprise management songs or chants
There is indeed a case for repackaging most knowledge in this way as
an alternative distribution mechanism to costly books or other information media.
Whilst the process raises many questions, there are some valuable aspects to
rote learning, especially if its aesthetic dimensions can be heightened through
song (cf the case of Harold Baum's Biochemists' Songbook designed to
facilitate memorization of biochmeical pathways; or the use of songs to develop
science concepts in chi!ldren http://www.seaworld.org/Songs/songs.html).
Of particular interests is the way in which knowledge can be held in learnt
songs long before the significance or application becomes evident. This might
be considered somewhat like the delayed release systems used to water or fertilize
plants. It is the basis for monastic rote learning and chanting in Buddhist
monasteries.
Sustainable songs could be designed to carry sets of concepts.
Simple variants of a song could carry fundamental concepts, such as the basic
10 concepts of economics, or of electricity, or of sustainable development.
The verses or song structure could be designed to be open to more complex development
(possible through transposition of key, multi-part development, counter-point,
overtones, etc) to carry larger, subtler patterns -- sets of 20, 50, or 100
concepts. The design could allow concepts to be nested according to need. The
creative could be challenged to come up with more powerful songs to hold knowledge
even more effectively -- somewhat along the lines followed by avant garde
composers in developing musical ideas.
Qualification for participation in sustainable community,
might then depend on knowledge of the songs to determine:
- at what level a person could effectively
participate
- what self-discipline the person can apply
Aspects of this already operate in the processes whereby people are (self-)selected
into sustainable dialogue processes, whether face-to-face or electronically
mediated. Knowing the "language" of the group may be more a question
of knowing the "song" through which resonant relationships are
sustained. "Participation" in community or democratic processes may
come to have more of the significance associated with the technical and musical
ability to take "part" in a polyphonic choral group.
The function of music as an organizing template for spiritual
experience has long been recognized. There is a form of isomorphism or resonance
between the music favoured by a particular religion and the structure of that
belief system. Music can therefore be selected to reinforce a pattern of belief.
It provides scaffolding for belief and, through the coherence it offers, a comfort
to those of that faith that are in distress.
From this perspective the strong views of the Catholic Church
on particular music, considered anti-thetical to religious belief, are understandable.
Various Pope's have expressed great distress at polyphony and the "diabolic"
nature of unacceptable chords (diabolus in musica). More recently other
Christian groups have expressed concern at the concsequences of the abuse of
music in general, but especially with regard to Christian worship, arguing that
music itself is being promoted as a mysterious supernatural force that will
produce glorious results (Tricia
Tillin, 1997).
As an organizing template, the patterns of music may effectively
hold special knowledge of unique value to a culture -- and to identity within
that culture. It is for this reason that invaders have often sought to suppress
musical expression by the conquered. Some religions have gone as far as to condemn
musical expression in any form. It might be said that some forms of musical
expression are a direct challenge to certain articulations of knowledge -- they
give organizational precision to alternatives and call attention to a larger
reality.
Jacques Attali (Noise, 1985), former president of the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, has gone some way towards
suggesting that western managerial thinking is effectively playing out schemes
of organization articulated in classical western music of the 19th century.
He argues that musical organization is a precursor of social organization. Classical
music thinking is clearly challenged by other styles considered more appealing
by the young or by other cultures. The strength of 19th century compositions
might be said to lie in their degree of organization, namely the complexity
that could be integrated within them. This is not a characteristic of pop music,
except in the case of some forms of polyphony.
What is not clear from this perspective is why no equivalent
managerial sciences have emerged to embody the organizational principles articulated
in the complexities of some classical eastern forms of music. As argued by Mohan
Krishnamoorthy (1997):
"Music has always been regarded as the most philosophical of all the art
forms, perhaps due to its exciting and invigorating blend of art as well as
science. Indian classical music was referred to as shastriya sangeetham
until the term 'classical' was borrowed from the West. Loosely translated, shastriya
sangeetham means 'scientific music'. However, while the science of the music
stresses conformity, discipline and acoustic accuracy, the beauty of Indian
classical music is the immense freedom that it allows the performer; the freedom
to improvise..." "Improvization" has only recently become a fashionable
strategic concept for management.
It would seem that the condition of Africa needs more than
is offered by the cognitive framework of the continuing use of Beethoven's Ninth
Symphony in moments of international solemnity. A new kind of holy music is
called for -- perhaps better framed as a "wholly" music, or a music of enwholement.
Many traditional peoples have a relationship to their environment articulated
in part by music and song. Priests in many early religions have engaged in rituals
that involved some understanding of assisting the sun to rise through song,
or ensuring the turn of the seasons. Traces of this persist in the cycle of
Christian rituals. It has become a topic in relation to the expansion of hermeneutics
through visualism in science (see Don Ihde, 1998). Musicians associated with
the green movement have produced conservation songs. For example, Jean Hoem
argues: "More music than one realizes has been composed as a direct response
to an actual experience of the composer in nature. . . . Music of this kind
has tremendous possibilities for creating environmental awareness and for developing
in young people attitudes of care and concern for the environment. Awareness
and appreciation are the prerequisites for developing an environmental ethic,
and involvement is the key to learning these skills. Such involvement in [music]
can be achieved through (1) listening, (2) performing, and (3) creating."
The Australian Aborigines have a special relationship to their
lands that involves maintaining songlines across the landscape through song.
The land is cared for through song. Topographical features may then be described
as "sung". This understanding of the noosphere may be usefully compared
to that based on information highways (Judge,
1996), although absent from a recent study of noopolitics (John Arquilla
and David Ronfeldt, 1999).
Modern variants of this may be seen in the use of hymns or
other songs in morning assembly at schools. Japanese corporations have encouraged
the use of corporation songs to focus and motivate employees of all grades --
to give coherence to their collective effort. Several US businesses specialize
in the composition of customized corporate songs (http://www.renegadecow.com/corporatesongs.htm;
http://www.yoursforasong.com/).
Declared objectives include to: motivate a sales force; help people remember
key points and ideas; inspire personnel; keep clients thinking of the corporation.
This has rarely been extended into other forms of plenary
assembly, with the notable exception of socialist use of the International
and the use of national anthems, whether sung or not. Totalitarian and nazi
regimes have used song to engender and enforce a perspective. A document on
the web in 2000 during the US presidential electoral race, indicates Bush and
Gore as "singing from the same corporate songbook" funded by 66 corporations.
It is an interesting, but perhaps naïve question, as to why the General Assembly
of the United Nations never finds any reason to burst into song in seeking to
care for the world. But of course this does reflect the practice in national
parliaments in caring for their countries.
The more official or formal modern uses need to be distinguished
from those in which the singers are engaged cognitively in the process to a
higher degree -- presumably the reason for the Japanese use of such song. This
raises the question of how effective is song in focusing collective endeavour
when engaged in voluntarily rather than through obligation or as a facilitated
process. What might be the effect of greater use of music and song in plenary
assemblies of representatives? Especially in Africa?
Of special interest is the use of multi-part songs to reflect
the complex interplay of different, even opposing, perspectives in a larger
comprehensible whole. It is ironic that sub-Saharan peoples are often highly
skilled in this and yet find it dissociated from the "serious" western-style
decision-making according to which they have been obliged to function. Why is
it that they have effectively been deprived of the assistance of a natural skill
supportive of cognitive complexity in dealing with complex social situations?
Healing through music and song has a very long tradition of
which Marsilio Ficino was a noted exponent at the time of the Renaissance. It
has been extensively explored in recent years (see for example: http://www.westmusic.com/music_therapy_library.asp;
http://www.gironet.nl/home/kjk97/practice.htm
), even as a means of assisting the dying process.
There seem to be few examples of the use of music to "heal"
societies and to offer a form of remedial therapy to governments in disarray
(for a review of these possibilities published by the European Platform for
Conflict Prevention and Transformation, see Kees Epskamp. Healing Divided
Societies [through visual and performing arts], 1998). However the Spring
2000 issue of Resonance (published by the International Music Council)
has as its theme "music and peace" which is the thematic programme
of IMC for the year 2000, strongly supported by UNESCO. But although suggestions
for projects are requested, it is unclear in what way they will move beyond
the long-established pattern that fails to address the alternative cognitive
possibilities potentially associated with music in concrete crisis situations
such as Africa. Are there indeed new ways to work with music that might be meaningful
to Africans?
There are undoubtedly songs that helped to focus the national
spirit in times of emergency. The UK was attentive to this during the more harrowing
times of World War II. Song continues to be used as a means of raising the morale
of troops. Whether particular songs can be considered to have performed a healing
function for a (possibly divided) country is unclear, although presumably this
is one function desired of national anthems.
At present any effort at reconciliation is designed to get
the separate parties to the same table and produce and sign a text in appropriate
legal terminology to ensure their agreement is binding. The text is usually
relatively meaningless and unmemorable to those not present.
The possibility that the focus of a reconciliatory gathering
might instead be on the composition of a song (sufficiently complex to hold
and honour the represented differences in a larger set of harmonies) has not
been explored. It is surely worthy of modest effort -- especially as a service
to tribal populations whose preferred mode might be aural rather than verbal
and written. The "conclusion" of the gathering is then a song, which
should necessarily be valued by the populations whose interests are reflected
in it. The closest approximation to this in the western world is the annual
Eurovision Song Contest -- which serves to some degree to bind people across
frontiers (although totally unrelated to policy decisions). This approach might
have much to recommend it at a time when most declarations are effectively "unsung
" and designed to be "unsingable" -- a strange contrast to pop
songs evoking the same themes, but known worldwide.
It is easy to assume that music is unrelated to organizational
operations in the real world and is at best a tool of public relations. However
its value in military style operations has long been recognized. Troops were
accompanied into battle through music, notably with the bagpipes. Music sequences
were also used for signalling purposes during battle (eg sounding the attack,
or the retreat, by bugle). They psyched themselves up for battle with music,
as continues to be the case in modern tribal warfare (for example by the Inkatha
in the inter-ethnic conflicts accompanying the transformation of the apartheid
regime in South Africa).
Music continues to be used to intimidate opposition, as exemplified
by the drumming during Orange Marches in Northern Ireland. It is used in certain
siege-type operations by the US military (as with the psy-ops in Grenada and
Panama) extensively documented on the web. War chants have a long history of
which traces are to be seen in the Haka chant performed by the All Blacks rugby
team prior to a match. They were designed to terrorize the enemy and embolden
the attacking forces (as continues to be the case with sports chants).
Chants have always been used, as one technique, at the community
level to mock those scapegoated by the community. Their power is well understood
in harassment and bullying by the institutionalized, such as in schools or prisons.
Song may also be used in a community to entrain dissenters and to drown out
dissent.
Questions might be usefully asked about the role of certain
forms of western music in converting other peoples to western ways and away
from their own patterns of behaviour and modes of thought. As such it is in
instrument of cultural imperialism through which other cultural identities are
effectively crushed. Religious authorities have, throughout history (notably
in colonial periods), sought to prohibit songs of a culture -- to ensure susceptibility
to those of the invading colonial or religious power. Shopping-mall music is
an instrument deliberately designed to encourage consumerism.
The destruction of the autoimmune system of up to 25% of Africans
through AIDS may prove to have been a tragic parallel to its memetic precursor,
namely the destruction of the knowledge organization protecting African culture
from invading cultures -- who now proceed to withhold pharmaceutical products
offering some palliative effects.
For those who believe it appropriate, what form does the music
or song take in the "battle" against drugs or in support of sustainable
development? Protest songs have been significant in reframing certain causes
and in opposing war (as in the case of Vietnam). But it is perhaps the churches
in their militant role "against the forces of Satan" that have focused
most clearly on the use of music and song as a weapon -- notably one employed
by the "forces of darkness" . But it is not clear what might be learnt
from their efforts.
From the above it is clear that music has performed a vital
role in motivating collective initiatives and providing coherence to an enterprise.
The question is whether its possibilities have been neglected in relation to
contemporary challenges of reconciliation and sustainable development. Could
music be designed to bridge gaps between opposing parties and embody the larger
significance that they share in ways that joint declarations and legal agreements
have been unable to explore? Could music provide organizing principles relevant
to the operationalization of sustainable development, ensuring its coherence
over time?
There are various leads that merit exploration:
1. Mnemonic: Complex organization requires enhanced collective memory. In cultures
with writing, or oriented towards the written mode, text serves this purpose.
In a world of very significant levels of functional illiteracy, even in industrialized
countries, other mnemonic techniques are necessary. Interesting examples include:
- Biochemical pathways: mnemonic songs (see above)
- Mnemonic chants: attack pattern in the classic Dirty
Dozen movie
- Ditties for cooking, and other procedures
How is it that untrained people are able to remember hundreds
of songs whereas the articles of the main legal instruments, supposedly designed
to regulate civilized communities (declarations of human rights, constitutions,
etc), are memorable only to those with a legal bent? Does this not suggest a
potential for holding insight relevant to sustainable development that has been
extremely poorly explored?Exceptionally for such an
institution, an FAO electronic conference on small farmer group associations
(SFGAs) in 1998, faced with the problems of low levels of literacy amongst those
involved in decision-making bodies of such groups, raised the possibility of
reinforcing rules and procedures in verbal ways through developing means for
"ritualizing procedures which can be strengthened by mnemonic devices (songs,
rhymes, etc)" (http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/SUSTDEV/PPdirect/ppfo0007.htm)
2. Work chants: These have long been used as an accompaniment to work, whether by
sailors, field workers, slaves, trainee soldiers in bootcamp, etc.Desdpite the
"two cultures", in German there is a tradition of guildsmen having
other social roles as singers, as exemplified by Wagner's Meistersinger.
3. Jingles: The advertising industry is adept at designing memorable jingles to
entice the mind in ways beyond the capacity of political slogansl. Jingles are
designed to persuade people to a certain pattern of behaviour. Jingles with
a political message have been widely used in Communist China, notably in street
broadcasting.
4. Rhythm: It is clear that rhythm engages people in patterns of organization,
especially when it reinforces natural rhythms (Ayensu and Whitfield, 1982).
It is often something they are engaged by voluntarily, although a rhythm may
be forced upon people notably with drums (as in marching, or slave rowing of
triremes). Rhythm may therefore be used to control patterns of movement, although
it is precisely the notion of "control" that is called into question
when people are enticed into the rhythm voluntarily as in dance. Monastic communities
have explored its use in regulating their daily rhythm, whether using drums
(Zen monasteries) or bells (Christian monasteries). The tradition of using bells
continues in many schools, and has been converted into a simple noise in the
case of factory hooters and whistles. The question is then what function it
might have in regulating sustainable communities in general -- of which monasteries
are a very particular case.
5. Enticement: How are people "enticed into" music? There are some quite
distinct lines of inquiry:
- Fairy stories: The process has been explored to some
degree in many folk tales and myths.
- Incense: Religious rituals have used incense as part
of a package of techniques that dispose people to the patterns of organization
offered by music
- Drugs: These are a secular variant on the use of incense.
Are there learnings from this in relation to enticing people
into new patterns of behaviour of a more sustainable form? Why does western
legalese fail so significantly in engaging people into new patterns? Why does
the United Nations continue to invest so heavily and exclusively in a mode that
has such a questionable track record? What exactly is to be learnt from initiatives
such as the Symphony for the United Nations, or its EU equivalents (Chamber
Orchestra of Europe http://www.coeurope.org/;
European Union Youth Orchestra http://euyo.oracle.com/; European Union Baroque
Orchestra http://www.eubo.org.uk/) --
where the setting for the performances is designed for decorative rather than
cognitive effect, and where the performances fail to respond to the multicultural
challenge of musical preferences across classes and cultures? During the time of U Thant (according to Robert Muller), it was informally proposed within the United Nations that Beethoven's Ode to Joy should become the anthem of the UN. When asked his opinion, Pablo Cassals said that as an alternative he would write music for this purpose. The resulting lengthy peice has been rarely if ever performed -- an embarrassment at official greeting ceremonies for visiting UN dignitaries. The Ode to Joy has become accepted as the anthem of the EU however.
6. Identity: For some, songs may in some measure carry the identity of:
- a person:
- my themes
- my melodies
- my chords / style
- a group or a community (as with a sports song, a student
song, or a schools song)
- a relationship ("our song")
In a world challenged by territoriality and erosion of individual
and collective identity, is it possible that music and song could be developed
to carry identity in new ways? Is there some equivalent to genetic identity
-- memetic identity?
7. Collective energy: How are collective energies engendered, garnered and gathered in places
where hopes are low?
- Africa (charismatic churches)
- Latin America (Santeria)
- slums (gangs and music)
- bars / joints / hangouts
- young people / discos
- elderly
8. Theory of harmony: It is curious that so little effort has been
made to explore implications of the theory of harmony to social harmony, as
suggested elsewhere (Judge, 1981;
1993). One unexpected
acknowledgement of this possibility is suggested by the following discussion
of harmonization between legal systems by Esin Örücü (2000):
"There is a place for divergence even in a scheme of convergence,
as harmony of differents is more fruitful and beneficial to the world of legal
learning than efforts to standardise. What is the meaning of integration?
Does harmony mean similarity? Is there a dichotomy between harmonisation and
harmony? Harmony is both an objective and an inherent characteristic of any
system. Law subsumes harmonisation. The notion of harmonisation of laws in
the context of comparative law is, however, obscure. Harmonisation as a concept
is a process of bringing about harmony, analogous to that in music. As a method,
harmonisation becomes a goal for law reform. However, harmony presupposes
and preserves diversity. In the analogy to music, components retain their
individuality but form a new and more complex sound. Consonance as the opposite
of discord is a pleasurable combination. Harmony is a relative concept which
can also include dissonance. We can achieve harmony not only by eliminating
diversity but also within diversity."
The relevance of music to comprehension and dynamic organization
of complex data structures on the web has been explored elsewhere with respect
to the databases of the Union of International Associations (examples)
Knowledge tends to be organized through notation systems of some kind. There
is a long history of musical notation of which the western system used for classical
and popular music is the best known (although avant garde composers use
other forms of notation that are of great interest). Organizations in society
also tend to have their structure represented by a graphic notation system,
most commonly the traditional "organization chart" in hierarchical
form. There is a potentially intriguing relationship to be explored between
conventional musical notation and hierarchical organization charts, even though
the former might be thought of as representing a dynamic and the latter a static
structure.
Consider representation of music on a grid of parallel lines (the "staff")
with a sequence of notes and chords represented -- five parallel lines are used
in the modern form. The height or "pitch" of the note is indicated
by its height on that grid. Two parallel grids ("staves") are commonly
used to indicate different ranges of notes, with the lower often played by the
left hand and the upper by the right -- although the organ may have a third
(played by the feet). Sequences of notes on a staff may be "beamed"
together by a horizontal linking bar to make them easier to read. Notes (to
be played simultaneously) can be linked vertically on "stems" as an
indication of chords, at a particular position in the sequence -- played from
left to right. The sequence of notes is broken into clusters by vertical "bars"
-- the length of the cluster sequence is the "measure" determined
by the meter. The meter signature indicates how many beats there will be in
the bar.
Organizations tend to operate in cycles, whether quarterly, annual or 2-yearly
(like UNESCO) -- with each cycle being the occasion for any reorganization and
reallocation of resources. Some organizations may be better characterized by
weekly (eg some factories) or daily cycles (eg some contractors). Suppose the
organization chart for any one cycle was to be considered like a bar of music.
The vertical organization of such a chart tends to have up to 7 levels, although
this is considered a "deep" hierarchy and "shallower" ones
are more common -- like 5, for example. The "highest" positions on
the staff (curiously the same term as in music) are displayed on the top row,
with those under them on successive rows below. Each functional division of
the organization is displayed from left to right across the chart.
During a particular cycle it could be argued that resources are allocated so
that each function is active (or communicating) in a particular way. For example,
the lower three positions on the "staff" of the first function, the
middle function of the second, and the top two of the third -- if there are
only three functional divisions in the chart. This starts to resemble three
notes within a bar, two of them "chords". The possible number of notes
per bar is of the same order as the number of line functions in a hierarchical
organization -- even a government.
Within a hierarchical line of an organization, vertical interaction between
positions may have a resonant dynamic as in a musical chord. It might be argued
that a bar of music is associated with the attention span through which the
music is perceived and, although played sequentially, is experienced as a static
gestalt across which are experienced horizontal resonances. Correspondingly,
although there is no dynamic sequence to the line functions of an organization,
there are also horizontal resonances between them that define a gestalt through
which the organization is perceived within a particular cycle. Both organization
chart and musical bar might be experienced like standing waves.
In this light it is now interesting to look at an organization across a succession
of cycles and compare it with a sequence of bars of music. This could be done
by overlaying onto a single organization chart the developments of that chart
for a number of cycles. The same could be done for a sequence of bars of music,
overlayed onto a single bar. These two forms, best represented on a computer
graphical display, now acquire increasing resemblance, especially if the dynamics
can be retained by using blinking effects as features become active or inactive.
This investigation effectively "morphs" one into the other.
But what this suggests is that cycles of organization may have strong resemblances
to cycles of music. And what makes for interesting music may also make for functionally
significant organization. If this could be shown to be the case, then possibly
policy cycles could be constructed in the light of musical principles -- according
to the cultural harmonic preferences of those for whom they are intended. It
is possible that the musical preferences of some non-western cultures call for
styles of organization quite different from those favoured by western industrialized
society. A different rhythm may be called for to engage people appropriately.
The disaffection of non-western cultures for western organization may have quite
similar cognitive origins to their indifference to western styles of music.
Also of interest is the significance of parallel sequences
("staves") of notes -- played by the right and left hands, for example.
In the case of organization charts, only the upper "staff" is evident,
effectively the "top down" or overt representation of the organization.
Equally relevant to organization dynamics is the pattern of "bottom up"
or covert dynamics. This might be represented on a second organization chart
-- the kind articulated by consultants to reflect the undeclared communication
pattern known to those who work in or interact with the organization (its "left-hand"
!). It is the interaction between the two "staves" that constitutes
the reality of the organization. This relates to the Japanese distinction between
tatemae (overt or stated ) and honne (underlying or unstated)
in any communication, especially in organizations. It is tempting to suggest
that the interplay between governmental and nongovernmental organization
in any situation could usefully be seen in terms of the upper and lower staves.
From Pythagoras to the Romantics, music was perceived in western
cultures to have a role that far surpassed its modern status as "art form"
or "entertainment". For those 2,000 years it was no less than an embodiment
of the scientific world; an expression of celestial harmony which reflected
the diversity and complexity of man and the universe.This view has been held,
and continues to be held, in many other cultures. The fundamental cognitive
role of musical frameworks has been explored in studies such as Ernest McClain
(1976). As Antonio de Nicolas (1986) argues: Music is of course organized sound.
It is also structure, sound-form and geometry. Unless we teach and present these
"technologies" as what they are "embodied technologies" that can change our
way of looking at things, hearing, breathing etc., they will always remain cultural
artifacts to be used on weekends or as an escape. These technologies built worlds
and unless the subjects (our children mostly) develop them they (the children)
will be swallowed by the modern digital repetitious and repeated technologies.
We are what we do and what we do is possible because of our embodied technologies
and of these technologies music-epistemology is the language of the primary
(right) brains, not as sound but as structure.
In concluding his review of the role of music as a pattern
of coherent understanding through which the world may be perceived, Jamie James
(1993) argues that at present: "There are no towering figures in the sphere
of concert-hall music because that is no longer the music that focuses the deepest
imaginative energies of the culture. what we call classical music has become
an elite and self-serving institution, over-whelmingly dedicated to the curatorial
function of preserving musical traditions of the past -- undoubtedly an important
function, yet anything but vital -- and to a much lesser degree serving as handmaiden
to the last wheezing, exhausted remnants of the avant-garde...The forms have
been superseded; the distance between artist and audience has simply become
too great....In pursuing the concept of the musical universe from the first
notes of Western music to the latest electronic screech , we have traced its
gradual passage from vitality to sterility, from substance to form.". As
such, in the light of Attali's analysis, it is very much a reflection of the
ability of western Project Logic to provide a coherent response to the challenge
of the times.
Attitudes to the modern international conf | 
