Exploring Society of Mind and Mind of Society in Colors of Bali

Marvin Minsky in his book on Society of Mind (1985, 1986) tells us about how our mind is not a single mind, since it is made of another mind and another mind. It is made as a society as some questions that we have as follows. What is mind? What is the origin of mind? What controls the brain? The Mind. What controls the mind? The SeIf. What controls the SeIf? ltself. The society of mind tells that mind doesn’t come alone. It comes with another mind, and another mind, and another mind, together as society.

So the book Colors of Bali is a society of mind in the sense that it was born from a single question that is developed into more and more questions. The first question is about color. What is the color of your mind, the color of your dream, the color of your perspective, the color of Bali that you see. How does color born. What are the ingredients of colors. Then the journey starts. The mind directs. The mind starts exploring another mind to connect to another mind. It becomes the society of mind.

Bali has been known for its richness in arts and culture, since they live by it, they make it as a part of their lives, they learn how to make it, and they pass it down to the next generation. The idea of knowledge heritage has been done consciously, because the past generation has the awareness to keep the arts and culture sustainable, and learnable. And the most important thing is to make it environmentally safe too.  They are way more aware of the sustainable green revolution than we are. Looking back from the book Colors of Bali, we have the system of colors, we have the taksu of colors, the energy that is hard to translate into different language, since it is the spirit or the soul of the arts.

We are in Bali, we witness this amazing coloring things but sometimes we don’t have the mind aware enough to find the answer of how do we keep the colors shine? How do we do the colors wiser? How do we use the colors wiser?

Through this catalogue Colors of Bali, curated by Suriawati Qiu from Cush Cush Gallery, the aim to get higher awareness of how we produce colors in many arts and culture products are raised. What comes after awareness? Mindfulness. Mindfulness is an enhanced awareness that shapes our mind to be more attentive to new perspectives, new ways to see things, find novelty in everything, new contexts, especially in this context, reviewing the way we see colors. By knowing that colors can be made from natural pigments for example, we don’t need to be hesitated on promoting natural color in everything we do, everything we produce, everything we consume.

All natural things will be naturally united with the nature, as the essence of the nature itself. It is the solution within itself. They can unite with the nature once it is used, in whatever forms. It does not harm the universe. That is the idea behind the book, to help younger generation understands better to preserve the colors of nature and to preserve the taksu, the spirit or soul in each of product of arts.

Colors of Bali is a documentation of minds that are connected and make a meaning. Each of us has a story to tell, the question is how do we share it. Why do we share it. Some of us try to keep the stories hidden. Some of us love to share it. When it is shared, it becomes a knowledge that can be passed down to the next generation. This is what I can say about the book Colors of Bali. This book is a documentation of colors made from many sources, from many perspectives, from many fields.

The research that has been done through efforts, the persistence that has been shown should be appreciated. This is to link us with the mind of the artist, with the mind of the society who use the art and culture itself. To reflect and to review what else should be done and what steps should be taken in the near future.

Society of mind will surely makes the mind of society to be more mindful, respectful and insightful.

This is just the beginning of more beautiful colors that will be born. [T]