Part 6

S ART IN TODAY’S SOCIETY T

Soul Making

"Therapy, or analysis, is not only something that analysts do to

patients; it is a process that goes on intermittently in our
individual soul-searching, our attempts at understanding our
complexities, the critical attacks, prescriptions, and
encouragements we give ourselves. We are all in therapy all the
time insofar as we are involved in soul-making."
- James Hillman

James Hillman's Archetypal Psychology is inspired by Carl Jung, yet Hillman, in the spirit of
Jung himself, moves beyond him to develop a rich, complex, and poetic basis for a psychology
of psyche as "soul." Hillman's writings are of the most innovative, provocative and insightful
of any psychologist this century, including Freud himself. What makes Hillman's work so
important is its emphasis on psychology as a way of seeing, a way of imaging, a way of
envisioning being human. His work is truly originary and involves a radical "re-visioning" of
psychology as a human science. Hillman's roots are mostly classical, but in the service of
retrieving what has been lost to psychology and, thus, in the service of psychology's future
disclosure of "psyche" or "soul." The power of Hillman's thought, however, has more to do
with how he approaches phenomena rather than what he has to say about it. Soul-making is
a method, a way of seeing, and this cannot be forgotten. Hillman's roots include Renaissance
Humanism, the early Greeks, existentialism and phenomenology. His thought is rhetorical in
the best sense of the word; thus, imaginative, literary, poetic, metaphorical, ingenius, and
persuasive. If nothing else, one cannot read Hillman without being moved.

Hillman's work is "soul-making" and, in this sense, psychological (the "logos" of the "psyche")
in the truest sense of the word. Hillman listens to the saying of the soul, and it speaks in his
writing through him. Of Hillman's use of the term "soul," Thomas Moore writes:

"Hillman likes the word for a number of reasons. It eludes reductionistic definition: it expresses
the mystery of human life; and it connects psychology to religion, love, death, and destiny. It
suggests depth, and Hillman sees himself directly in the line of depth psychology, going all the
way back to Heraclitus, who observed that one could never discover the extent of the soul, no
matter how many paths one traveled, so profound in its nature. Whenever
Hillman uses the forms psychology, psychologizing, and psychological, he intends a reference
to depth and mystery."

For Hillman, "soul" is about multiplicity and ambiguity, and about being polytheistic; it belongs
to the night-world of dreams where the lines across the phenomenal field are not so clearly
drawn. Soul pathologizes: "it gets us into trouble," as Moore writes, "it interferes with the
smooth running of life, it obstructs attempts to understand, and it
seems to make relationships impossible." While spirit seeks unity and harmony, soul is in the
vales, the depths.

"By soul I mean, first of all, a perspective rather than a substance, a viewpoint toward things
rather than a thing itself. This perspective is reflective; it mediates events and makes
differences between ourselves and everything that happens. Between us and events, between
the doer and the deed, there is a reflective moment -- and soul-making
means differentiating this middle ground.

It is as if consciousness rests upon a self-sustaining and imagining substrate -- an inner place

or deeper person or ongoing presence -- that is simply there even when all our subjectivity,
ego, and consciousness go into eclipse. Soul appears as a factor independent of the events
in which we are immersed. Though I cannot identify soul with anything
else, I also can never grasp it apart from other things, perhaps because it is like a reflection in
a flowing mirror, or like the moon which mediates only borrowed light. But just this peculiar
and paradoxical intervening variable gives on the sense of having or being soul. However
intangible and indefinable it is, soul carries highest importance in hierarchies
of human values, frequently being identified with the principle of life and even of divinity.

In another attempt upon the idea of soul I suggest that the word refers to that unknown
component which makes meaning possible, turns events into experiences, is communicated
in love, and has a religious concern. These four qualifications I had already put forth some
years ago. I had begun to use the term freely, usually interchangeably with
psyche (from Greek) and anima (from Latin). Now I am adding three necessary modifications.
First, soul refers to the deepening of events into experiences; second, the significance of soul
makes possible, whether in love or in religious concern, derives from its special relation with
death. And third, by soul I mean the imaginative possibility in our natures, the experiencing
through reflective speculation, dream, image, and fantasy -- that mode which recognizes all
realities as primarily symbolic or metaphorical."

The “shift from anima-mess to anima-vessel” mentioned by Hillman in this quote concerns a
psychological concept, namely the anima, which essentially is equivalent to the soul. The
anima is that energy which inspires or motivates one to reflect upon, to deepen, contain, and
connect with the soul within oneself as well as others and one’s surroundings. The anima also
animates a person to move, to act, and emote — a combination that transforms otherwise
mundane events into experiences of soul and beauty.

Source: http://mythosandlogos.com/Hillman

Art Fusion

Art fusion occurs when an artist (from any field –

music, literature, architecture, fine art, design,
graffiti, etc.) collaborates with a brand (of any kind
– product, service, fashion, charity) to create a
product, service, concept or ‘piece’ (for lack of a
less pigeon-holing word) for the benefit of both
parties and society as a whole. The artist provides
the vision, the creativity, the heart and meaning,
while the brand provides the production infrastructure, scale and marketing channels.
 History and Examples

Art fusion has proliferated over the past decade but

examples of collaborations date back as far as the
1930′s. Fine artists and fashion designers were the
first to engage in this new breed of partnership – the
first high profile union being Salvatore Dali and Elsa
Schiaparelli in 1933. Andy Warhol and Yves Saint
Laurent collaborated in the 1960′s and recently, the
idea has gained the momentum of a movement with
many different types of artists collaborating with
many different types of brands. For examples we
find inspiring, please subscribe to our blog. We post
stimulating examples regularly.

How Art Fusion Benefits Brands

A well-chosen, well-planned, well-

executed collaboration can have many
positive effects on a brand. It can bring
newsiness and talk-value, create a
feeling of innovation and excitement,
and generate genuine interest in staid or
even forgotten brands. It can be used to
activate a quiet brand and can often be
effective in introducing it to a whole new
audience.

How Art Fusion Benefits Artists

Art has a profound impact on society’s capacity to

grow and evolve and embrace change. It is for seer
and the destroyer of the status quo. Artists have
voices that must be heard to nurture our society’s
soul – something art fusion can amplify. A
collaboration with a brand can give an artist the
ability to produce work that will reach a new and
wider audience, gain notoriety for their future work,
or simply be a means to permeate culture in places
their art wouldn’t otherwise be seen.
 How Art Fusion Benefits Society

Unlike most traditional marketing, art fusion aims to, and often succeeds at producing
something of value to society. It gives voice to artists, breathes life into brands and infuses
our everyday lives with interesting ideas, guts and beauty that nourish our deeper sense of
longing. While art has always played the role of visual philosopher to stimulate thought, beliefs
and emotion in our culture, art fusion is able to spread the experience of art more broadly,
reaching a larger, more mainstream audience and imbuing everyday life with the art
experience.

Source: http://old.artsandlabour.com/art-fusion

Transcreation

What is Transcreation and why is it so important?

Transcreation (translation and re-creation) essentially

combines the discipline of translation with the art of
interpretation. It is the process by which communications
produced for a local market are re-evaluated and re-
configured to appeal to a culturally disparate audience.
The transcreation process involves gaining an
understanding of a target market and carefully tailoring
communications by employing suitable language, imagery,
style and tone for effective messaging and optimal appeal.

Considerations for Transcreation

1. Language
Literal translation of communications poses problems. At the very least text could be o_ -
message and fail to resonate with target audiences. At worst, text could o_ end audiences,
cause embarrassment and permanently damage a brand. Many successful and high profile
campaigns taglines or puns are “lost in translation”, for example the KFC’s “Finger Lickin
Good” taglines’ nearest Chinese approximation “Eat your Fingers Off” – does not make for
an appetizing proposition.
Equally, local vernacular can alter the meaning of a word as Clairol discovered when they
introduced their “Mist Stick Curling Iron” to the market. The company was oblivious to the
fact that “mist” is slang for manure in Germany, a market with significant potential.
2. Imagery
The benefit of local knowledge cannot be underestimated. Images and colours impact
diversely with different cultures and a failure to recognise this can adversely affect
campaigns.
A powerful example of this can be drawn from Pepsi’s experience in South East Asia.
Pepsi’s decision to change the colour of vending machines from deep blue to light blue
prompted a significant drop in sales which, upon examination, was attributed to the fact that
blue is associated with death and mourning in the region.
3. Cultural practices
In 2008 HSBC introduced their highly effective “Glocalization” strategy. This campaign
“Think Globally, Act Locally” comprised a series of advertisements demonstrating how
gestures are interpreted differently by different cultures. i.e. displaying the soles of your feet
is considered offensive in Thailand, whilst simple hand gestures are construed as rude in
Greece. This campaign powerfully endorses the importance of local knowledge when
embarking on a customised marketing campaign.
4. Legal practices

Some countries prohibit advertising directed at children, others ban the promotion of certain
products, such as tobacco or alcohol. Countries such as Germany, Luxemburg and Belgium
ban comparative advertising. It is important to know the parameters of target markets and to
operate within the confines of local practices. Each of the aforementioned examples serve to
demonstrate the incredible challenges presented and risks associated with global marketing.
Failure to identify, understand and communicate with target audiences can result in a fallout
that can range from public embarrassment and campaign failure, to financial loss and
complete brand destruction.

Typical Qualities for Good Transcreation

Effective transcreation strengthens brand perception at a local level and provides

transferable global customer experience, ensuring strategic consistency and brand
positioning. In an ideal world, local and international transcreation teams should be involved
in the campaign conception process to ensure strategies benefit from global and local
considerations. Typically, however, transcreation teams are engaged after the primary
campaign strategy has been devised and executed. Transcreation teams should comprise
experts in market research, cultural consultation, marketing, in-market writing, editing and
copywriting. Each should possess an excellent knowledge of source and target languages
and cultural backgrounds. They should be of understanding and communicating messages,
style, image and emotions.

Source: https://sg.oliver.agency/news/the-art-of-transcreation