There are conversion experiences that concern religion. I suspect these are the ones we hear about most often. But what I want to write about is not that, since we’ve heard about such things way too often and, more importantly, I believe there are also conversion experiences that concern art, politics, other things as well. Thinking one’s political or artistic convictions are one way, and then you have an encounter or experience that, quite suddenly, shifts them toward something completely different. I now find myself thinking of such conversion experiences as some kind of mini-utopia. Utopia reflecting a desire for the world to change and these personal experiences being evidence that an individual’s sense of purpose and action can shift – more, and more quickly, than one might at first suspect. Such conversion experiences can of course also set off domino effects, where each person changes the next. But can this phenomenon ever really be said to lead to human flourishing? It has potential, yet also seems to fall short. I worry that writing about it so positively neglects the aspects that most resemble joining a cult.
I have always felt I don’t yet have enough understanding as to how change actually happens. Or to the many different ways change might practically occur. Or to the many different ways positive change might occur, since I have seen many negative and depressing political changes take place during the course of my lifetime. (The names I used to give to the root of these negative changes were: Thatcherism, Reaganism and neoliberalism. But there are different ways of looking at the matter, since all these crises also have deeper roots. And sometimes I wonder if a more straightforward name for it is simply: greed.) How does positive change happen and how can I be part of it? And can I be part of it as an artist or would I need to, at least partly, set art aside in order to work in other ways?
.
Jacob Wren
Picture Rupert Loydell