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BIG CITY
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Psychic Reader August 2004,  |
Hope in The Big City Art is my religion, art gives me hope. — Joell Jones Joell Jones is a Bay Area artist who creates interactive environments where your imagination and intuition are allowed to come out to play. I recently attended her open studio in Oakland and had so much fun that I just had to go back again the next day. The centerpiece of her playground is The Big City, a futuristic installation piece composed of twenty-six towers, each with its own special theme, corresponding messages and activities. You can visit The Institute of Understanding, the Fantasy Cone, the Birth Place and the Children's House, (just to name a few). The towers are assembled of out odds 'n ends that Joell finds at garage sales and salvage yards. They stand a little over five feet tall on average and are simple creations, yet elegant in their own recycled materials way. Visitors get to wander around the towers and spin a huge divination wheel to select a tower/theme that they can focus on if they so desire. They can use a divination kit to explore in more detail the positive and negative aspects of their chosen tower. They can also follow up with the activities cards, which get even deeper into the social/psychological/spintual context of the themes and suggest "basic" and "advanced" activities to help one's personal growth in each area. Now that I have my own Tower Cards kit, I can play in The Big City at home. Let's give it a try. First of all, I'll select a card from the deck to give me a starting point for some good old soul searching. I've picked the "Cowry Tower," which is the Financial Building. Hmm. That doesn't sound like much fun. I am tempted to cheat and put it back, but NO. On I go. The divination book says that "issues surrounding money may be at the forefront of your life lately." Well, yes. "What are some of the unconscious blocks that may be hindering you from becoming even more prosperous?" I know I must have some blocks, but I'm not conscious of them. I think it's time to see if the activities cards can help me out. The "Cowry Tower" activity card tells me that cowry shells were the first universal currency. In the future Big City, it says, people's wages will reflect a person's contribution to society and no one will live in poverty. I like that prediction. Now let's take a look at an activity. Here's one: "Take an economics class and learn about the stock market. Compare the Dutch Tulipmania of the 1700s to the Great Depression and the recent dot corn boom/bust." This is the kind of advice that I like. It's unusual, yet it's helpful and grounded in reality. It asks me to review the past and use that information to help inform both my intuitive mind and my logical thought processes. Lately, I've been acutely aware of the fossil fuel boom that we've been enjoying for the last hundred years or so, (especially here in the USA) that is coming to an end very soon as we approach "peak oil." The coming oil and natural gas bust is probably going to make the Great Depression look like a Tiny Dent in comparison. What will the measure of wealth in the future be? It might have more to do with how good you are at growing your own food than how much paper money you theoretically have in some theoretical bank account. (Read Richard Heinberg's The Party's Over.) Well, I do feel a little more enlightened already. I agree that the best measure of wealth in the future will have to do with direct services to society and I truly hope that no one will live in poverty. It's a very good future to work towards. Thanks, Joell Jones! If you want to order a Tower Card divination kit or download one from her website, joelljones.com. |
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