Tag: Humanitarian

Film Journey & The Alt Unity

Unity at Birth

Grand Providentia United

Accept It or Not, You Are Part of the Human Community

Whenever I make an honest appraisal of my earliest memories from childhood, one theme that always emerges is a powerful desire to belong. That single desire has remained at the forefront of my earthly persona until this present moment. I have always felt a compelling desire to belong to something that is more than just me. And it isn’t only a desire for connection with other people, although that makes up the bulk of it, it is also a desire for a failproof connection with the Source of Life itself. As you might expect, I had an instinctual need for human connection when I was a baby, and I’ll assume that is a natural and common need for most human children, but I hadn’t even begun to understand my desire for meaningful connections with others. And beyond that, I had no understanding, or even a clue, about having a desire for connection with Source. I’ll assume that is also a commonality we humans share. The focus of this discussion, and I’m hoping it will become a Bonafide discussion, one where readers add commentary, is our desire for connection (unity) with each other. Why do we create communities?

From the moment we’re born we make contact with other human beings. Our physical interaction with others begins at the moment we emerge from the womb. Even if it is only our mother who is present at our birth, we are inevitably touched by human hands. For some of us, those hands are warm and nurturing, while others are greeted by uncaring hands, and in the worst-case scenario, they are the hands of cruelty. Whatever the circumstances of our birth, we are physically reliant on help from others if we are to survive past infancy. It seems as though our instinctual drive to belong to a group of others is an evolutionary feature of being human. It’s part of our genetic makeup that recognizes our physical vulnerabilities and addresses them by giving us the inborn instinct to belong. The desire to belong comes from an entirely different place; It comes from a place of individual preferences. It is the sum-total biases of every interaction we’ve had with others until this present moment. If we’ve learned that we can’t trust other people, then it is likely that we won’t have a desire to connect with them. If we’ve come to the conclusion that human beings are compassionate and willing to lend us a helping hand, then we are more likely to desire their company. Whatever interactions we’ve had with others, and however those various interactions may have colored our preferences in terms of wanting to belong or not, we can still learn to rely on our intuition when it comes to allowing or disallowing other people’s access to our personal lives. In effect, we can choose our own tribe.

At Moore Art Expressions we shared an unspoken understanding that we were all working together to create a successful commercial art business. And we had a whole lot of fun, even when we were dismembering the bodies of sculptural humans to prepare them for molding.

Thank you for stopping in to read! I’ll continue to explore the theme of unity for the rest of this week. Please feel free to comment with your thoughts on this subject, or any other, for that matter!

Below is a link to the Moore Art Expressions FB page. I closed the business in 2019 in search of greener (more profitable) creative pastures. I cherish the memories of S.M.art Castings & Sculpture Services, LLC and Moore Art Expressions but I still believe that I made the right decision when I chose to leave the business of commercial sculpture.

https://www.facebook.com/grandprovidentiaunited/

Film Journey & The Alt Unity

What Have I Done?

Grand Providentia United

“Grand Providentia Projections” update – Originally published in September 2022

This is not a question that I’ve posed with any personal angst attached to it. As in, ‘OMG, what have I done?’. No, this is basically a self-inquiring question that I need to externalize the answers to through the act of writing them down. It is a question that I’ll begin to answer today and finish answering, well, maybe never. It may help some readers of this blog to understand what I’ve done mentally, physically and spiritually in the recent past to keep things moving forward. I’ll describe some of the actions I’ve taken, decisions I’ve made, and dreams I’ve conjured to continue moving toward the realization of the grand dream that I’ve been working to manifest for the past fifteen years. To catch some of you up, the grand dream is to bring conscious awareness of, and attract membership to, the Alt Unity. As the Alt Unity grows, through its creative collaborations and collective conscious intentions, the Grand Providentia Projection will be made manifest. And while the Alt Unity is in the process of manifesting the GPP, we will concurrently produce a rolling factual documentary that is focused on our efforts. Simultaneously, we will also be creating a fictional account (past, present and future) that will tell an imaginative, surrealistic story based on our real-world efforts. As each of the storylines unfold, the factual and the fictional will be brought together and united as one, thus creating the ultimate production of “A True Story, as Yet Unfolding…” So, in answer to the question – What have I done? I will tell you what I’ve done, and what I’ve been doing, during the recent months of practicing presence in the moment of now.

Jim Thorpe, PA – Tybee Island, GA

I decided back in January of 2022, to pursue a graduate degree (MFA), majoring in film and television, at the Savannah College of Art & Design in Savannah, GA. Having received my undergraduate degree (BFA), majoring in computer animation, from the Ringling College of Art & Design in Sarasota, FL, I thought that this would be a fitting way to culminate my career in the field of visual arts. After all, much of what I’d learned at Ringling College is directly applicable to the design and production of film projects. Early in the process of applying to SCAD, I realized that I was missing one critical tool that I would need to buy, if I could even hope to be accepted into the program. You see, one of the requirements for the application is a portfolio film reel (maximum ten minutes long). So, I knew I needed to get my hands on a high-quality camera to shoot the portfolio reel. I have to confess that I almost allowed fear to defeat me before I ever got started. I had a very minimal understanding of film cameras at the time, so I was intimidated by them, but then I thought back to when I entered the computer animation program at Ringling, and I remembered having absolutely no experience with computers. Whether it’s a camera, a computer, a calculator or a clock, you can’t expect to understand how to use it until you get some experience by using it. It took me a couple of months to gather the money to get it, but get it, I did. For any camera enthusiasts out there, it’s the Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema 4K.

The model is considered a good option for beginner filmmakers and students of film, but it is not a professional level camera. Of course, buying the camera was just the beginning. I needed to purchase all sorts of other accessories, like lenses, tripods, lavalier microphones, camera bags and digital storage devices. During the six months following my decision to return to school, I was intently focused on making the logistical arrangements to move from Allentown, PA to Savannah GA, but I was also starting production on the portfolio film that I needed for SCAD. Before moving south, I made a trip north to Hope, Rhode Island, to shoot my very first film clips for the portfolio film which I titled “Return to Hope” when it is was completed. The film features the Hope Mill in its current deteriorated state, but the overall theme of the film is decidedly positive. I’ll give a more detailed description of “Return to Hope” in one of my future blog entries. I’ll end this entry with a logistical announcement: On August 1st, I arrived in Savannah, and on the second attempt I found a roommate situation in a shared apartment that works for both me and my roomie. I’m quite comfortable here in Georgia and I especially love the historic district of Savannah (that’s where the college is located). Below is a link to the finished portfolio film “Return to Hope”.

One other announcement: I started a podcast as a companion site to this blog. I’ve only posted two short episodes so far, but I’ve really enjoyed the process of producing them. There will be many more episodes to come. Including video podcasts, as well. https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scott-joseph-moore/episodes

A True Story, as Yet Unfolding..., Film Journey

Winding the Way to Grand Providentia

Grand Providentia United

Scene 1

Harmony is crouched, fingers clenched tightly to the cold metallic rim of the observation port. She is completely transfixed by what she’s seeing. She snatches a passing thought, ‘What is happening right now is not as simple as seeing, this is more akin to witnessing.’ And what she’s witnessing, is so far outside the realm of her previous experience, that she can only relate to it as being too far out there, way beyond the border of any run of the mill spiritual revelation. Harmony’s eyes are most certainly sending signals to her brain, but her brain seems to be rejecting those signals, one after the other, and without exception. She feels as though her mind is stuttering. Her brain is refusing to generate a coherent description of the visual information as it is being received. Her mind feels overwhelmed, overtaxed, overheated. Harmony fires out a desperate prayer that she won’t pass out. And then… She does.

Total blackness, and then, two pinpoints of light. They’re polychromatic and they appear to be at arm’s length. Or they could be miles away, like automobile headlights on a dark horizon. The lights don’t seem to be getting closer though, instead they are spreading outward, and fast. The pinpoints become dots and the dots become disks, the disks expand until they collide, integrate, and wash over her field of vision. And all at once, as if she had never lost consciousness, Harmony finds herself crouched, in the same position she had been, her white-knuckled hands, aching, her wide-open eyes still mesmerized by the dazzling light show before her. The waves of spectral color seem to be infiltrating, melding with, and extricating themselves from the molecular matter of the ceramic-clad surface on the inside of the energy containment tank. Almost as if the entire inner lining of the tank is one enormous cuttlefish. Harmony has looked through the viewport on this tank thousands of times over the past five years, always hoping to see some sign of success; some indication of stored energy. She suddenly realizes that she might have given up hope for success long ago, just as many of her friends, and most of her family, had given up on her. What she was now witnessing was so much more than redemption, so much more than success. This was indisputably miraculous!

Author’s note: As an integral part of the “True Story, as Yet Unfolding…”, the previous scene should be considered fictional creative writing. It is but one element of the continuous documentary we will be producing through the Alt Unity. While we should consider it fiction for now, I have an uncanny feeling that it may migrate to the factual side once the Grand Providentia Projection is underway.

To hear a podcast version of this story – https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scott-joseph-moore/episodes/Winding-the-Way-to-Grand-Providentia-e1nk14n

Film Journey & The Alt Unity

Where Are We?

Grand Providentia United

Gathering Awareness – Entry #2

On many occasions during this lifelong journey, I’ve asked the question (usually to myself) ‘Where am I?’. Far less often, I’ve asked the question ‘Where are we?’. Does this mean I’m self-absorbed, inconsiderate or narcissistic? Perhaps. More likely though, it is a basic instinctual inquiry, founded in the desire for self-assurance, and pursued with the end-goal of finding profound meaning and purpose in this existence.

“Industrial Obsolescence” – from the Hope Mill collection

A few moments ago (yesterday), I invited anyone and everyone who was interested, to join me in the current moment. I asked for the courtesy of your presence in the moment of now. I asked if you could put aside worries and fears for a moment, and just be present. That invitation remains open for eternity. The invitation is made in every moment, to every human being that is open to accepting it. It is made by Life itself. Readers of this blog did not require my invitation to be present. Our capacity for presence is as open and unconditional as love, compassion, empathy or any other innate human characteristic. More often than not, it is fear which blocks our ability to be present. Fear opens the door to a broad range of distractions and perceptual distortions that can make it seem impossible to maintain presence, even for a moment.

So, when I ask the question ‘Where are we?’, I am not questioning our current physical position on the planet. Instead, I am asking where we stand in terms of present awareness. Are we lost in yesterdays, wrapped up in tomorrows, or are we here and now, facing life’s constant change with hopeful hearts and an indelible sense of wonder about where we’ll be in the moments yet to come. Please join me in the Now.

Film Journey & The Alt Unity

Merging Intentions

Grand Providentia United

Gathering Awareness – Entry #5

Many moments ago (specifically in January of this year), I sent out a series of specific conscious intentions with the expectation that they would manifest positive and profound changes in my personal life. In setting those specific intentions, I also conjured mindful expectations to affect positive and lasting change in the lives of many others. At the core of these intentions was a deep desire to aid in the healing of our planet, humanity, and all living creatures that inhabit the Earth. In the current moment, where I am continually practicing the art of focusing my awareness, my personal life has indeed changed dramatically since setting these specific intentions. I also see synchronistic positive change in the world I am one with. I see positive changes in the quality of interactions I experience with others, I see similar positive changes in the way I am perceiving the natural world around me, and I also intuit a dramatic increase in my personal ability to love others unconditionally. Yes, love is the ultimate Source energy. Love is always working toward the manifestation of our most heartfelt hopes and dreams. In this moment, I perceive that unconditional love has the capacity to engender our highest positive vibrations!

“In the Silence of Trees, Industry Dies” – From the Hope Mill series.

In the next blog entry, I’ll lay out the specific intentions I set back in January. I’ll propose how those intentions duly manifested the current changes in my personal life and the lives of others. I’ll also discuss how these intentions might manifest positive change for our shared future.