Wednesday, September 27, 2006

The power of Art!

I'm stark raving consumed!

I realized that there is much more to this techne thing than I even originally thought.

Let me start by backing up. Techne (tek-nae) is a greek word that refered to the art of a thing. Speech had a techne, writing has a techne, virtue has a techne.

From techne we developed english words such as technical, technique, technology.

The problem is that the english translations lost alot in the interpretation. Techne certainly involved specific processes for performing a thing, however it was something much more than that. It was the beauty of the process, the power of the chaotic creations, it was the journey that made the sun itself so majestic (check out Plato for more).

Let me give you an example. Technology and technique give you the specifics of exactly how to do something. You can have the perfect gameplan for winning the superbowl. However, how "beautiful" would the superbowl be, if we played it once a year and just left out all the regular season and post season games. Just pick the two projected best teams and let them play one game. That is what we have made techne into. Life becomes all about the endgame.

However, techne says that the very power of the strategy and of the plan is not in the plan itself but in the journey to get to the plan. It's the beautiful, ugly, chaotic, manic, obsessive process of getting to the superbowl that makes it mean so much. It's the teams that start 0-3 and end up coming back to win the whole shabang! It's the glory of the last second field goals in regular season in the midst of pouring wind and snow that get you the one win you need to get to the playoffs.

We don't pay to see a superbowl, we pay to enjoy the art/techne of the regular season then the post season and then finally the superbowl.

Don't believe me... hide and watch... the World Baseball Championship or whatever the crazy commissioner calls it. It will die a slow painful death, because it has no techne. It's one big event. It doesn't have the backstory, the fullness, the life that a regular US baseball season has.

I'll close by mentioning this. I recently worked to coordinate a youth camp for about 125 people. The structure that we ended up with for the youth camp was unique, however did not technically look that different from many other youth camps. Yet the camp itself was entirely different. It was like no other youth camp ever done. Why? Because of the techne. The back story that went into developing each and every second... not just hour... BUT SECOND... of that camp. The purpose was known, the layers upon layers of ideas that evolved into the structure, the sheer excitement and anticipation of seeing the result of the hard work. THAT IS TECHNE. That is not merely a technical strategy, that is the strategy and all of the latent concepts that are included in building it. That is what we MUST rediscover!

No comments: