WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.240 Can I welcome you all here? 2 00:00:01.920 --> 00:00:03.460 My name is Murray Bramwell. 3 00:00:03.620 --> 00:00:06.800 I'm very pleased to welcome you all this afternoon to, 4 00:00:08.020 --> 00:00:12.680 I think, for me, one of the highlights of the Festival of Ideas. 5 00:00:14.620 --> 00:00:19.520 I read in this morning's paper that Peter Sellers doesn't have a clue 6 00:00:19.520 --> 00:00:21.060 what he'll be saying this afternoon. 7 00:00:22.220 --> 00:00:24.680 I have to say I find that very hard to believe. 8 00:00:25.800 --> 00:00:28.480 Since his graduation from Harvard in 1981, 9 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:32.160 Peter Sellers has constructed not so much a career 10 00:00:32.160 --> 00:00:34.600 as the trajectory of a comet. 11 00:00:35.900 --> 00:00:37.860 His accomplishments are extraordinary, 12 00:00:38.140 --> 00:00:40.300 both in their number and quality, 13 00:00:41.160 --> 00:00:42.500 and in their brilliant diversity. 14 00:00:43.060 --> 00:00:47.060 He has directed more than 100 productions, large and small, 15 00:00:47.980 --> 00:00:51.040 ranging from works for the puppet theatre of his early career 16 00:00:51.040 --> 00:00:54.380 to his directorship of the American National Theatre 17 00:00:54.380 --> 00:00:56.520 at the Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C. 18 00:00:56.900 --> 00:00:58.460 He's worked with the Worcester Film Company 19 00:00:58.460 --> 00:01:01.700 and the Worcester Group as director of the 1990 and 1993 20 00:01:01.700 --> 00:01:03.160 Los Angeles festivals, 21 00:01:04.300 --> 00:01:08.160 and lucky, lucky us, he has been appointed artistic director 22 00:01:08.160 --> 00:01:11.240 of the 2002 Adelaide Festival of Arts. 23 00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:22.960 Among his many achievements, 24 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:25.320 Peter Sellers has, in the past 15 years, 25 00:01:26.160 --> 00:01:28.060 transformed opera as an art form. 26 00:01:28.460 --> 00:01:31.760 His collaborations with John Adams and Alice Goodman 27 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:34.820 for Nixon and China and the Death of Klinghoffer 28 00:01:34.820 --> 00:01:37.620 produce works of courage and vision. 29 00:01:38.580 --> 00:01:40.640 His innovative productions of Mozart opera, 30 00:01:40.940 --> 00:01:43.340 of the Handel Oratorio Theodora, 31 00:01:43.440 --> 00:01:46.900 and works by Wagner, Debussy, Stravinsky, and many others 32 00:01:46.900 --> 00:01:50.060 have been staged at major festivals and venues 33 00:01:50.060 --> 00:01:52.420 throughout Europe and North America. 34 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:55.020 They have drawn high praise. 35 00:01:56.200 --> 00:01:58.160 And they have also provoked 36 00:01:58.160 --> 00:02:00.720 a walloping barrage of criticism. 37 00:02:02.520 --> 00:02:04.900 And this is why Peter Sellers belongs at the very heart 38 00:02:04.900 --> 00:02:07.340 of anything calling itself a festival of ideas. 39 00:02:08.460 --> 00:02:10.620 Peter has never been afraid of an idea 40 00:02:10.620 --> 00:02:15.280 and has a genius for ideas when they are most white-hot. 41 00:02:15.980 --> 00:02:19.280 When he undertook a production of The Persians by Aeschylus, 42 00:02:20.280 --> 00:02:24.200 within minutes, it seemed, of the Gulf War in 1993, 43 00:02:25.240 --> 00:02:27.200 the timeliness of the work was stunning. 44 00:02:28.160 --> 00:02:31.400 It was also an example of ideas and connections 45 00:02:31.400 --> 00:02:34.560 that are so uncomfortably appropriate 46 00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:37.140 that they are almost unwelcome. 47 00:02:38.300 --> 00:02:41.780 We are well used to modish attempts at relevance in the arts. 48 00:02:42.140 --> 00:02:45.560 When Peter Sellers produced The Persians at the Salzburg Festival 49 00:02:45.560 --> 00:02:48.120 and when he joined Adams and Goodman 50 00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:50.160 to present The Death of Klinghoffer 51 00:02:50.160 --> 00:02:52.820 with its focus on the Palestinian cause, 52 00:02:53.180 --> 00:02:55.200 he created much more than relevance. 53 00:02:56.080 --> 00:02:58.040 He restored a genuine theatre of ideas. 54 00:02:58.160 --> 00:03:01.260 He restored real social and political impact 55 00:03:01.260 --> 00:03:02.680 to the performing arts. 56 00:03:03.580 --> 00:03:06.740 And he showed us that an idea, in its perfect moment, 57 00:03:07.020 --> 00:03:08.600 can have breathtaking effect. 58 00:03:09.040 --> 00:03:10.840 Will you please welcome Peter Sellers. 59 00:03:11.200 --> 00:03:12.000 Thank you. 60 00:03:24.120 --> 00:03:26.280 Hi, everyone. Thanks for coming over. 61 00:03:28.160 --> 00:03:32.600 I have to say I'm totally knocked out to get off the plane 62 00:03:33.160 --> 00:03:35.700 and walk into this festival of ideas. 63 00:03:36.200 --> 00:03:38.960 And I just don't know which is more impressive, 64 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:43.220 the folks who organized this or the folks who are attending it. 65 00:03:44.240 --> 00:03:47.520 I was so moved to meet the public last night 66 00:03:48.160 --> 00:03:52.000 and to feel the energy in this town 67 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:57.160 of people willing to be heard, pleasure in hearing themselves, 68 00:03:58.160 --> 00:04:00.620 and a sense that things need to have an edge 69 00:04:01.160 --> 00:04:02.020 because it's high time. 70 00:04:02.780 --> 00:04:08.680 That we will not tolerate the usual runaround any longer. 71 00:04:10.200 --> 00:04:15.260 And that kind of energy that filled the festival theatre last night 72 00:04:15.260 --> 00:04:17.440 just made me say, oh, what a relief. 73 00:04:19.360 --> 00:04:21.280 I'm so happy to be here. 74 00:04:23.300 --> 00:04:26.580 So I have to say, first, again, 75 00:04:26.580 --> 00:04:30.060 thank you, Festival of Ideas organizers. 76 00:04:30.620 --> 00:04:32.840 This is an exhilarating weekend. 77 00:04:33.480 --> 00:04:34.320 Thank you. 78 00:04:39.960 --> 00:04:46.540 And of course people are asking me about the Adelaide Festival in the year 2002. 79 00:04:47.380 --> 00:04:49.460 And I just want to say in advance, 80 00:04:49.660 --> 00:04:52.320 anything that I may happen to say in the next little while 81 00:04:52.320 --> 00:04:53.820 may or may not be relevant 82 00:04:53.820 --> 00:04:54.580 and 83 00:04:54.580 --> 00:04:57.480 can be neither confirmed nor denied. 84 00:05:01.580 --> 00:05:01.760 But 85 00:05:01.760 --> 00:05:09.660 in fact, since I actually do believe in a democratic process 86 00:05:09.660 --> 00:05:16.280 and we will create this festival through a very deep-seated grassroots process, 87 00:05:16.440 --> 00:05:19.480 I do not want to try and handicap it in advance 88 00:05:19.480 --> 00:05:22.380 by trying to make absurd predictions. 89 00:05:22.380 --> 00:05:25.580 But what I thought I would do is mention today 90 00:05:25.580 --> 00:05:32.600 a few things that have come up over the last two days of meetings 91 00:05:33.480 --> 00:05:38.660 and then give you a few images from some of the festivals that we did in Los Angeles 92 00:05:38.660 --> 00:05:42.140 and a sense of right now what is possible 93 00:05:42.140 --> 00:05:44.480 and what it feels that we're on the cusp of. 94 00:05:44.780 --> 00:05:46.640 Now, please feel free, 95 00:05:46.840 --> 00:05:49.320 I know there's a formal question period supposedly later, 96 00:05:49.480 --> 00:05:51.840 I actually respond very well to heckling. 97 00:05:54.640 --> 00:05:57.460 Feel free to truly stop me and say, 98 00:05:57.500 --> 00:05:58.060 that's enough. 99 00:05:59.780 --> 00:06:02.420 And, I mean, I'm just asking, 100 00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:04.920 don't actually make me cry. 101 00:06:08.340 --> 00:06:10.640 But, you know, feel free to disagree. 102 00:06:10.820 --> 00:06:12.520 I think one of the first steps, 103 00:06:13.060 --> 00:06:14.860 and it was very moving last night, 104 00:06:14.940 --> 00:06:19.080 having certain voices who come from situations 105 00:06:19.080 --> 00:06:21.360 where what we take for granted, 106 00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:23.300 cannot be taken for granted, 107 00:06:23.420 --> 00:06:25.700 where culture cannot play a leisure role 108 00:06:25.700 --> 00:06:27.740 because these are places where there is no leisure, 109 00:06:28.400 --> 00:06:30.100 where people are not at leisure 110 00:06:30.100 --> 00:06:33.200 to consider culture as a leisure activity. 111 00:06:34.840 --> 00:06:37.180 Culture does not play a decorative role, 112 00:06:37.380 --> 00:06:39.520 it actually is the most essential role 113 00:06:39.520 --> 00:06:42.080 and the only thing left that can hold anything together 114 00:06:42.080 --> 00:06:43.300 or move anything forward. 115 00:06:48.300 --> 00:06:51.340 So, I think yesterday it was so important 116 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:51.880 and so moving 117 00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:54.200 to watch people, 118 00:06:54.460 --> 00:06:56.520 some people have to choose their words carefully 119 00:06:57.060 --> 00:06:59.460 and other people who could feel their privilege 120 00:06:59.460 --> 00:07:01.280 not having to bother with what they said 121 00:07:01.280 --> 00:07:03.840 because they will never be held accountable for anything. 122 00:07:06.660 --> 00:07:09.300 And, what is the level of accountability 123 00:07:09.300 --> 00:07:12.080 that this moment in history demands from all of us, 124 00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:14.120 but if I may say, artists in particular, 125 00:07:14.340 --> 00:07:17.900 because it's the last leadership possibility 126 00:07:17.900 --> 00:07:19.720 that we have left. 127 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:22.500 In the age of Mandela, 128 00:07:23.360 --> 00:07:25.800 which is one of the greatest parts 129 00:07:25.800 --> 00:07:28.840 of being alive in the world today, 130 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:33.220 we are alive in the generation that is Mandela, 131 00:07:33.340 --> 00:07:35.180 the age of Mandela, 132 00:07:35.220 --> 00:07:39.020 that somebody actually earned the right to be a leader 133 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:43.280 and possessed a moral force 134 00:07:44.440 --> 00:07:47.800 to, in their lifetime and with their lifetime, 135 00:07:48.100 --> 00:07:51.200 break the cycle of violence. 136 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:52.240 And, retribution. 137 00:07:53.500 --> 00:07:55.020 Somebody finally said, 138 00:07:55.140 --> 00:07:56.820 okay, now that I'm in power, 139 00:07:57.020 --> 00:08:00.360 I will not do to you what you did to me. 140 00:08:03.160 --> 00:08:05.080 That is unbelievable. 141 00:08:07.100 --> 00:08:08.600 What that means 142 00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:14.640 that all of us have to put away our enemies' lists. 143 00:08:16.420 --> 00:08:18.340 If Nelson Mandela 144 00:08:21.660 --> 00:08:24.080 can come out of 26 years 145 00:08:26.920 --> 00:08:31.760 holding a hammer and breaking little pieces of granite into gravel 146 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:38.540 and embrace the people who did that to him, 147 00:08:42.520 --> 00:08:45.640 then we can put away our enemies' lists. 148 00:08:47.480 --> 00:08:48.940 Because the fact is, 149 00:08:48.940 --> 00:08:50.780 until you find some way 150 00:08:51.520 --> 00:08:54.180 to include the people who are trying to kill you, 151 00:08:55.140 --> 00:08:56.720 nobody is safe. 152 00:08:58.860 --> 00:09:00.660 And our task right now, 153 00:09:02.500 --> 00:09:06.480 when Dr. Ashwari spoke of new relationships, 154 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:09.740 one of the new relationships 155 00:09:09.740 --> 00:09:12.660 is to people we never would talk to, 156 00:09:13.820 --> 00:09:16.220 have no idea how to talk to, 157 00:09:18.220 --> 00:09:20.180 wouldn't know what the words are, 158 00:09:20.340 --> 00:09:22.920 and certainly are not emotionally prepared. 159 00:09:26.440 --> 00:09:29.600 And the task for cultural workers in our generation 160 00:09:30.880 --> 00:09:32.600 is to find the vocabulary 161 00:09:33.220 --> 00:09:36.340 for the conversation that has not yet taken place. 162 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:43.000 The negotiation has not begun. 163 00:09:46.900 --> 00:09:51.040 In the U.S.-Vietnam peace talks, 164 00:09:52.260 --> 00:09:54.540 they actually spent the first year 165 00:09:54.540 --> 00:09:57.320 discussing the shape of the table. 166 00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:04.220 That is where we are as cultural workers right now. 167 00:10:05.160 --> 00:10:08.200 I can't give you a finished production 168 00:10:08.200 --> 00:10:12.400 because we don't even know what the table is at which 169 00:10:12.400 --> 00:10:15.960 all the people who need to be seated at the negotiation, 170 00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:19.700 feel they can be present and heard and respected. 171 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:22.060 And as cultural workers, 172 00:10:22.280 --> 00:10:25.800 we are now all looking for the shape of that table. 173 00:10:27.260 --> 00:10:29.620 And all our work for the next generation 174 00:10:29.620 --> 00:10:32.640 is just going to be making tables. 175 00:10:36.920 --> 00:10:41.120 It's a huge, huge responsibility and assignment. 176 00:10:42.800 --> 00:10:44.440 It means that actually, 177 00:10:44.440 --> 00:10:47.720 I don't really care what anybody thinks about any of my shows. 178 00:10:49.220 --> 00:10:52.140 Because I'm not interested in shows, 179 00:10:52.360 --> 00:10:53.800 I'm not interested in theater, 180 00:10:54.060 --> 00:10:57.420 I'm not interested in the result yet. 181 00:10:57.860 --> 00:10:58.840 Because the result, 182 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:01.000 like any important result, 183 00:11:02.040 --> 00:11:04.900 none of us are going to live to see in our lifetime. 184 00:11:06.140 --> 00:11:08.400 And if we're only living our lives 185 00:11:09.160 --> 00:11:12.420 for things we are going to see, 186 00:11:12.520 --> 00:11:14.000 and our benefit, 187 00:11:15.260 --> 00:11:18.040 then we are really sorry human beings. 188 00:11:20.360 --> 00:11:25.240 And I think it's very interesting in the science panels yesterday, 189 00:11:26.060 --> 00:11:27.600 that question of, you know, 190 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:32.020 we've advanced to these really highest levels of sophistication 191 00:11:32.020 --> 00:11:34.320 and complexity as a society. 192 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:36.860 And you say, well, actually by many, 193 00:11:39.100 --> 00:11:40.760 by many measures, 194 00:11:40.900 --> 00:11:44.420 we've reached astonishing lows in the history of the human race. 195 00:11:44.420 --> 00:11:47.360 At this point. 196 00:11:49.480 --> 00:11:50.460 People's distance, 197 00:11:51.520 --> 00:11:56.200 the distance in people's lives from the most basic human feeling, 198 00:11:57.780 --> 00:11:59.700 and incapacity to process it. 199 00:12:00.860 --> 00:12:03.060 In America, as we heard early on today, 200 00:12:03.320 --> 00:12:06.980 that, you know, you can carpet bomb one part of the world, 201 00:12:07.120 --> 00:12:10.120 but not be bothered to want to know anything about it. 202 00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:13.800 And the mechanisms of death that have been created, 203 00:12:13.800 --> 00:12:14.720 where you push a button, 204 00:12:14.780 --> 00:12:17.940 and you do not have to ever think again about the consequences 205 00:12:17.940 --> 00:12:20.480 of what happens at the end of that video game. 206 00:12:23.140 --> 00:12:26.840 Where all of us are living in this consumer paradise bubble, 207 00:12:27.020 --> 00:12:30.500 where none of us will ever be held accountable 208 00:12:30.500 --> 00:12:32.540 for any of the actions of our life. 209 00:12:33.900 --> 00:12:36.240 Either sins of omission or commission. 210 00:12:38.480 --> 00:12:39.600 It's crazy. 211 00:12:39.700 --> 00:12:43.200 No previous civilization ever came up with such 212 00:12:43.200 --> 00:12:45.580 dopey self-delusions. 213 00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:49.460 I mean, just dumb. 214 00:12:51.180 --> 00:12:54.140 And as an American, I feel privileged to speak on this topic. 215 00:12:57.740 --> 00:12:58.320 So, 216 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:04.340 the task is so enormous of, for example, 217 00:13:04.340 --> 00:13:06.500 how do you just awaken basic human feeling? 218 00:13:08.140 --> 00:13:10.640 Inevitably, shock tactics are required 219 00:13:10.640 --> 00:13:14.340 to just get people to pay attention all over again. 220 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:17.780 And get through the layers of Novocaine. 221 00:13:17.940 --> 00:13:21.760 I mean, basically, what it takes to read the newspaper in the morning 222 00:13:22.340 --> 00:13:23.600 is you have to tell yourself, 223 00:13:23.720 --> 00:13:25.540 this is not happening to me, this doesn't matter, 224 00:13:25.640 --> 00:13:26.820 that doesn't matter, that doesn't matter, 225 00:13:26.900 --> 00:13:28.140 that's okay, that's okay, that's okay. 226 00:13:28.220 --> 00:13:32.300 By the time you've gotten done denying all of those things 227 00:13:32.300 --> 00:13:35.420 so you don't commit suicide before you're done with your first cup of coffee, 228 00:13:37.420 --> 00:13:40.260 well then, tell me what do you respond to, 229 00:13:40.260 --> 00:13:41.860 and what do you react to? 230 00:13:44.900 --> 00:13:51.160 So to me, we are in the incredible task of retooling 231 00:13:51.160 --> 00:13:53.360 the whole central nervous system. 232 00:13:55.480 --> 00:13:57.980 And just reintroducing feeling. 233 00:13:59.500 --> 00:14:04.420 And I was so moved in the discussion earlier in the afternoon 234 00:14:04.420 --> 00:14:07.660 on genetic cloning. 235 00:14:10.260 --> 00:14:11.620 That Margaret said, 236 00:14:12.540 --> 00:14:15.580 well if your gut feeling is yuck, 237 00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:18.940 that's the first moral awakening. 238 00:14:22.240 --> 00:14:25.360 Are you capable of hearing your own voice? 239 00:14:27.100 --> 00:14:31.540 Or is your own voice been drowned out in your life? 240 00:14:33.580 --> 00:14:36.480 What does it mean to actually be capable of hearing 241 00:14:37.260 --> 00:14:39.620 that first moral yuck? 242 00:14:40.640 --> 00:14:42.140 And say, don't do that. 243 00:14:42.880 --> 00:14:43.820 Don't go there. 244 00:14:44.580 --> 00:14:45.740 We can do better. 245 00:14:46.500 --> 00:14:47.720 That's not acceptable. 246 00:14:48.340 --> 00:14:50.000 Why would you want to do that? 247 00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:51.760 That's inhuman. 248 00:14:55.800 --> 00:14:57.820 What is it that we're so deaf to that? 249 00:14:58.420 --> 00:15:01.120 And that the only priority in a whole society 250 00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:03.680 is just anything that makes money? 251 00:15:06.560 --> 00:15:09.620 Is that the climax, the apex, 252 00:15:09.620 --> 00:15:11.680 of the grand sweep of civilization? 253 00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:16.360 I'm unimpressed. 254 00:15:18.540 --> 00:15:22.060 And so, funny, as an artist, 255 00:15:22.280 --> 00:15:25.700 we have to react to what's in the headlines. 256 00:15:25.880 --> 00:15:28.260 But we also have this marvelous sense of time 257 00:15:28.260 --> 00:15:29.660 that the scientists were talking about, 258 00:15:29.780 --> 00:15:31.580 of these long trajectories, 259 00:15:31.720 --> 00:15:34.800 of in order to speak about the Gulf War, 260 00:15:34.940 --> 00:15:39.600 I have to invite the voice of the Gulf War. 261 00:15:39.620 --> 00:15:40.560 I have to invite the voice of Aeschylus 262 00:15:42.060 --> 00:15:44.220 to be present with us. 263 00:15:45.340 --> 00:15:48.480 And I have to stage the first surviving play 264 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:50.020 in the history of Western drama 265 00:15:51.620 --> 00:15:54.620 in order to talk about what the headlines are. 266 00:15:55.400 --> 00:15:58.700 In order to say, well, maybe there's a larger yardstick 267 00:15:58.700 --> 00:16:01.920 in your life than what is expedient or convenient 268 00:16:01.920 --> 00:16:03.120 in the next 15 minutes. 269 00:16:03.760 --> 00:16:06.060 And maybe we need to look at our actions 270 00:16:06.620 --> 00:16:08.460 through a larger lens, 271 00:16:09.620 --> 00:16:11.200 and with a larger timeline 272 00:16:12.200 --> 00:16:14.460 about what has been handed to us 273 00:16:14.460 --> 00:16:15.820 and what we're handing on. 274 00:16:17.820 --> 00:16:19.240 So, as an artist, 275 00:16:19.560 --> 00:16:21.880 my task is to situate 276 00:16:23.300 --> 00:16:24.740 these daily actions 277 00:16:25.620 --> 00:16:27.060 in some kind of larger continuum 278 00:16:27.620 --> 00:16:29.700 that allows a moral echo to come back. 279 00:16:30.500 --> 00:16:32.360 And that actually breaks through 280 00:16:32.360 --> 00:16:34.300 this dumb time-space thing 281 00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:37.640 so we get to what the... 282 00:16:38.420 --> 00:16:40.780 what the panel yesterday didn't get to, 283 00:16:40.880 --> 00:16:43.220 which is the fact that there's no time and no space, 284 00:16:43.420 --> 00:16:45.920 that in fact, we're in this moment 285 00:16:45.920 --> 00:16:47.880 of complete creation at every instant. 286 00:16:50.120 --> 00:16:53.940 Or to take a piece made by the video artist Bill Viola 287 00:16:53.940 --> 00:16:56.940 called Passage. 288 00:16:57.060 --> 00:17:00.100 Bill took a 20-minute home video 289 00:17:00.100 --> 00:17:02.240 of a four-year-old's birthday party 290 00:17:03.700 --> 00:17:06.640 and slowed it down to seven and a half hours. 291 00:17:10.140 --> 00:17:13.060 Now, I believe I'm the only living human being 292 00:17:13.060 --> 00:17:15.220 who's ever watched all seven and a half hours. 293 00:17:16.680 --> 00:17:19.200 In fact, Bill has never seen it all himself. 294 00:17:20.780 --> 00:17:22.620 But I used to have this thing 295 00:17:22.620 --> 00:17:24.700 that you should sit in front of a work of art 296 00:17:24.700 --> 00:17:26.500 as long as it took the person to paint it. 297 00:17:27.420 --> 00:17:30.940 And after a while, you might start to appreciate it. 298 00:17:31.500 --> 00:17:33.380 So, in that phase in my life, 299 00:17:33.480 --> 00:17:35.480 I spent an entire day with this piece. 300 00:17:35.840 --> 00:17:37.040 I actually have this... 301 00:17:37.040 --> 00:17:40.180 odd thing, because, you know, we're in this speed culture. 302 00:17:40.560 --> 00:17:44.140 And I actually go the opposite way. 303 00:17:44.540 --> 00:17:49.160 You know, I go to Japan to see a full day of no plays 304 00:17:49.160 --> 00:17:53.360 that begin at, you know, just after dawn and end at dusk. 305 00:17:53.360 --> 00:17:55.780 And I sit there and watch all of them. 306 00:17:55.880 --> 00:17:58.800 And at the end of the day, the people come off the stage and say, 307 00:17:58.860 --> 00:17:59.560 Who are you? 308 00:18:01.360 --> 00:18:03.660 I'm the only person who would think of doing that. 309 00:18:05.020 --> 00:18:05.460 But... 310 00:18:07.040 --> 00:18:10.240 In fact, I'm interested in your metabolism 311 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:14.760 once you slow it down and open it up into larger vistas. 312 00:18:15.400 --> 00:18:18.800 And so Bill's piece, video piece, 313 00:18:19.040 --> 00:18:23.640 you see these three-year-old, four-year-old, two-year-old kids. 314 00:18:25.160 --> 00:18:30.880 And a single second becomes 16 seconds. 315 00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:33.840 And... 316 00:18:33.840 --> 00:18:39.040 a single instant, a single second of joy... 317 00:18:41.820 --> 00:18:44.740 becomes 16 seconds of joy. 318 00:18:46.460 --> 00:18:50.260 And you realize that human emotion is infinite. 319 00:18:52.020 --> 00:18:57.660 That what we have moving through us is infinite, deep, powerful. 320 00:18:59.240 --> 00:19:03.240 And you look in the eyes of a three-year-old girl when the cake is coming in, 321 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:07.780 and you see her on the day she gets married, 322 00:19:07.940 --> 00:19:09.780 you see her at the age of 80, 323 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:12.920 you see her at the age of 10, 324 00:19:13.840 --> 00:19:16.360 you see her in a midlife crisis. 325 00:19:17.380 --> 00:19:21.300 When you look at every frame, frame by frame, 326 00:19:21.460 --> 00:19:26.960 you realize your whole life is passing through every second of your life. 327 00:19:29.700 --> 00:19:32.180 Every moment, it is all happening. 328 00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:36.100 It was not better once, it's not going to get better soon. 329 00:19:36.920 --> 00:19:39.280 What is happening is what is happening. 330 00:19:39.420 --> 00:19:41.320 And the question is, what are we going to do about it? 331 00:19:42.520 --> 00:19:47.480 And can we enter the moment completely, fully, now? 332 00:19:47.560 --> 00:19:49.100 This is our time on the earth. 333 00:19:49.380 --> 00:19:51.280 What are we going to do with it? 334 00:19:53.400 --> 00:19:58.880 So, I thought I would just mention a couple of possibilities, 335 00:19:59.140 --> 00:20:01.700 a couple of thoughts, because I do think, 336 00:20:01.700 --> 00:20:04.640 as was discussed in the previous panel in this room, 337 00:20:05.700 --> 00:20:10.700 we're at an age where the media empire is obviously... 338 00:20:12.580 --> 00:20:16.760 Well, I tend to think of it as not the symptom, but the... 339 00:20:18.560 --> 00:20:21.880 Well, I tell my students, if they're still attacking the government, 340 00:20:22.200 --> 00:20:26.380 they don't realize that the government is a temporary side effect of the media. 341 00:20:30.320 --> 00:20:36.240 And that the larger issue is information flow and communication. 342 00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:40.120 And in the age of information, there has not been that much communication. 343 00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:46.020 And the idea that we're ending a century where we had this idea of mass communication, 344 00:20:46.440 --> 00:20:49.980 you know, nobody gets that that's a complete contradiction in terms. 345 00:20:50.740 --> 00:20:52.200 There is no such thing. 346 00:20:52.660 --> 00:20:55.380 Communication is something that happens between people. 347 00:20:57.220 --> 00:21:00.140 And is a reciprocal action. 348 00:21:01.760 --> 00:21:06.200 Any communication that is going in one direction is not communication. 349 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:08.040 Hello? 350 00:21:10.380 --> 00:21:12.880 It is a proto-fascist action. 351 00:21:15.420 --> 00:21:24.380 So, can we get into a mode that actually, in the arts, supports, reimagines, 352 00:21:25.180 --> 00:21:26.360 and expands the world? 353 00:21:26.380 --> 00:21:28.280 Extends the possibilities of dialogue. 354 00:21:29.300 --> 00:21:34.360 You know, Aeschylus' big idea, let's put a second person on the stage. 355 00:21:34.580 --> 00:21:35.740 And they can talk. 356 00:21:36.900 --> 00:21:40.420 This incredible revolution in the history of art. 357 00:21:40.700 --> 00:21:42.920 Oh, there are going to be two people up there now. 358 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:47.360 So that there is this interaction, this discussion, 359 00:21:47.580 --> 00:21:51.640 that the truth is not located here or here, but indeed, between. 360 00:21:53.280 --> 00:21:56.360 That we're only going to find the truth in the stage. 361 00:21:56.360 --> 00:22:00.400 And that the space between is what's charged. 362 00:22:01.380 --> 00:22:08.540 The question is, what are the poles we're using to generate the electrical charge in the space between? 363 00:22:10.680 --> 00:22:17.220 Where nobody owns truth, nobody owns certainty, nobody owns anything, 364 00:22:17.500 --> 00:22:20.640 because the space between is not controllable. 365 00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:22.240 Thank God. 366 00:22:24.300 --> 00:22:29.000 So, this task of a space between has been one of the most important dimensions 367 00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:31.840 of the whole multicultural movement. 368 00:22:32.980 --> 00:22:35.840 Which went from first envisioning marginal spaces, 369 00:22:36.260 --> 00:22:41.720 and understanding that innovation and forward momentum 370 00:22:41.720 --> 00:22:44.060 is actually driven from the margin rather than from the center. 371 00:22:46.120 --> 00:22:49.320 But also, reimagining the center now. 372 00:22:49.800 --> 00:22:52.220 And not positioning any of us on the center. 373 00:22:52.220 --> 00:22:52.600 But on the margin. 374 00:22:53.160 --> 00:22:57.980 And in fact, getting over this entire model of who's important and who's unimportant. 375 00:22:58.220 --> 00:23:03.020 And can we just get to the basic thing of there are no unimportant people on the face of the earth. 376 00:23:03.160 --> 00:23:03.520 Hello. 377 00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:08.680 No country is more important than any other country. 378 00:23:08.860 --> 00:23:12.200 Some country you never heard of is going to change world politics. 379 00:23:12.740 --> 00:23:15.160 And has a lot in the last 20 years. 380 00:23:17.040 --> 00:23:18.620 And you can't find it on the map. 381 00:23:20.420 --> 00:23:24.360 The fact is, the interpenetration is so deep and so intense now, 382 00:23:24.540 --> 00:23:27.020 that the old models are of importance. 383 00:23:27.120 --> 00:23:30.060 London is important, Paris is important, Adelaide is not important. 384 00:23:33.240 --> 00:23:34.580 These are ridiculous. 385 00:23:35.600 --> 00:23:39.480 And left over from eras that we have, thank God, outlived. 386 00:23:40.540 --> 00:23:44.580 But which are still weirdly perpetuated in media priority lists. 387 00:23:46.200 --> 00:23:48.560 So, how it is that in the art, 388 00:23:48.560 --> 00:23:52.480 we create what I would like to call an alternative information system. 389 00:23:54.420 --> 00:23:58.280 What we're trying to do is allow there to be educated voters. 390 00:23:58.500 --> 00:24:03.220 The same way the Greeks said you have to hire Sophocles and Aeschylus 391 00:24:03.220 --> 00:24:06.460 if you want to deal with the issues of teenagers killing their parents. 392 00:24:09.200 --> 00:24:12.300 Or how you treated the prisoners in the last war. 393 00:24:13.580 --> 00:24:16.540 You can't just hire a sociological study 394 00:24:16.540 --> 00:24:18.540 that's not going to get you as far as you want. 395 00:24:18.560 --> 00:24:18.600 You can't just hire a sociological study 396 00:24:18.600 --> 00:24:19.400 that's not going to get you as far as you need to go 397 00:24:19.400 --> 00:24:21.020 or prepare you for jury duty. 398 00:24:23.120 --> 00:24:27.360 And Greek drama was one of the world's greatest preparations for jury duty. 399 00:24:29.860 --> 00:24:33.420 How do you have insight into what someone else is going through? 400 00:24:34.340 --> 00:24:37.960 And in what way would that remind you of what you're actually going through, 401 00:24:38.100 --> 00:24:40.120