It was Carlos Castaneda who first introduced me to the term 'shapeshifting'. At fourteen I was given the first book in the series, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. Books, which today are hotly debated as to whether they are fiction or not, but books which nonetheless had a huge impact on my concept of the world. I remember distinctly feeling that there had to be truth in the concept of alternate realities. While I can not claim to have ever seen anyone shapeshift, I certainly have had my own personal share of unexplainable occurrences that transpire when I am sleeping and which come to fruition upon waking. They are always centered around death. I dream about someone specific, wake, and find they have recently died. I believe when people die, the spirit as we understand it, visits the people that have meant something to the departing life. Of course they are people close to me in some manner or having had some great impact upon me. They are never people I see in daily life. When I was about sixteen I had perhaps one of the most bizarre dreams of my life. I had gone to sleep in my bedroom with a friend in an adjacent bed in the room. I dreamt the other girl was pregnant and out in the snow in trouble. The dream had me worrying that I would be forced to deliver her child because of our current predicament. When I awoke we were both in another room- in the living room. She on the couch with her legs draped over the couch arm and me, I awoke on the floor under her feet. Neither of us had any idea how we arrived in the living room but she revealed she was dreaming that she had to get to me for help. I have absolutely no explanation for that experience other than we were on the same wavelength but in another reality. There are a multitude of other frequencies to tap in to. How and when we do so, and whether it can be done at will is up for debate, but I do believe it happens.
Shapeshifting Through Mythologies
Mythologies are often presented as something of antiquity; entities, concepts and belief systems no longer adhered to. They may be gone but they are not forgotten. Western psychiatry, devoid of the concept of religion (heaven and hell) uses the language of mythology (narcissism, ego, psyche, Achilles, etc). The premise of psychiatry, to simplify, is to guide one's self back to a state of non-guilt (guilt is a concept ushered in with formal religion and is considered the basis of neurosis). If psychiatry is to succeed it is necessary for it to incorporate various cultural belief systems. Simplified, if I culturally believe that the unseen is present in the same way as the seen then I must take that into consideration as I contemplate who another is. Or if I believe that mental illness is due to demons nestling inside me, an exorcism may have more of an effect on my well being than trying to convince me that there is no such thing as demons. If I believe that death is just a continuation of life or that what befalls me in life is due to a past life then one must take into consideration my belief system, and so on, and so forth.
In Norse mythology concepts of animism (that all things- plants, animal, land- are conscious), and pantheism (that divinity is here and now rather than after death, elsewhere or confined to one being), are concepts of antiquity that are having a revival of sorts, yet they have remained in the collective consciousness. Hamr, pronounced 'hammer' and which translates to shape or skin, in Norse mythology refers to the concept that we can be seen as something other than what we may be. The closest I can come to an explanation is that sometimes we use phrases like, sly as a fox or cat eyes, or he looks like a wolf. That these attributes of animals are based upon perception and that we are sometimes more animal-like than human and vice versa refers back to animism and shape shifting.
Björk uses these concepts of mythology in much of her visual work. (And why wouldn't she? She is after all from Iceland; it is her cultural landscape). In 'Hunter', a song about the pressures of producing music when others are counting on her for their own paychecks she shape shifts into a bear-like creature.
In mythologies and fairy tales, bears, wolves, boars (pigs), birds, and cats, turtles, rabbits, flowers, and snakes amongst other animals are often used as symbols of masked identity. They become the animal-like 'souls' of their human counterparts.
In Björk's video, 'All Is Full of Love' (which will also be discussed as the sensual in part three), we see the inanimate imbued with the concepts of animism, pantheism and hamr all at once as she, Björk, shape shifts as a sensual conscious robot. No matter what the subject matter of her songs they are incredibly sensual; wonderfully lush.
The concept album, Biophilia, explores, creation, science, love, symbiotic relationships and the relationship between life, harmony and the functions of science (biology) both internally and externally. It is holistically conceptualized: seamless between ourselves and everything imagined around us. That nothing is separate from the other. That seen without a focus on detail all things become beautiful. That we are all shapeshifters in a cosmic sense. One might describe it as an environmental album.
The videos released for the album are much more organic and don't always include Björk's physical presence. Videos from the album are Moon, Crystalline, Cosmogony, Dark Matter, Hollow, Virus, Sacrifice, Mutual Core and Solstice. They are
an exploration of the mythical nature of life. Part Two of this series has been much more difficult for me to write. I have Björk's entire repertoire on a loop listening to her music, and with each passing I hear something new. I can listen to her when I write - something which normally, for me, is reserved for classical music. Then I remember something David Attenborough said in the documentary When Björk Met Attenborough: When he needs to think, he listens to Björk. She is as complex as Bach and like Bach one needs to listen over and over again to hear the complexities.
For the most part she sings in English but her phrasing is not with English pattern expectations. The expectations we have of what a love song might be, or a song about anger, grief, or suicide is filtered through a culture and mind that is holding these subject up to a different light. Hyperballad was conceived of via a dream, hence her sleeping throughout the video. The subject matter, Björk supposes, is about loosing a part of yourself when you are in a relationship and how one needs to go off and do sometimes violent things in order to return to the relationship afresh. That sometimes we imagine ourselves dying if we have to spend another moment with a particular person. I randomly googled five of Björk's songs and each one has quite an extensive explanation as to what the song was about. I invite my readers to do the same thing with their choice of random songs. View the video, get the lyrics, and then read the Wikipedia explanation of the song. If you want to understand Björk that is what you must do. It's an essential component to understanding not only what the song is about but how she visually (the videos) incorporates the song into her performance piece. If you do the exact same exercise with anything done by Madonna, for example, (or any other pop artists), who is the number one selling female artist, worldwide, you will find yourself scratching your head. What the meaning of Madonna's songs are about is rarely, if ever, conveyed in her videos. For example, Madonna's huge hit, 4 Minutes with Justin Timberlake, is supposed to be about saving the planet and Like A Prayer claims to be about interracial love. You could have fooled me. I thought Madonna videos were about Madonna. Is there a Madonna video where Madonna doesn't actually appear? I don't know. I am not dismissing Madonna because in her own right she is a master at what she does. She is the queen of reinvention and dance music. Where Madonna emulates the vagina dentata, Björk imbues the sensual. Madonna is not sexy. Madonna demands that we see her as sexually privileged like a man. Björk makes us watch her sexual ecstasy. Big difference.
Many of Björk's videos are playful and often have animals standing in to suggest certain characteristics of human traits or the importance of nature. In Triumph of the Heart, a cat (Tom Cat, fat cat, alley cat, cool cat, a nondescript man - a cat) is shown to be her boyfriend. Through the course of the video we can see they have some sort of lovers quarrel, resulting in Björk going out to get drunk at her local, returning home and her 'cat' morphing into a life sized (human) cat presumably more mature and human after a night alone to think. In Wanderlust (2D), a completely animated video, we see a Björk type character traveling with large thunderous beasts in an imagined, Tibetan-like world. The animals are not soft and cuddly and for me look like they are covered in gigantic ticks yet Björk has bonded with these beasts. Many of her videos incorporate cutting edge technology which has often been invented for her needs and visions, (All Is Love, Wanderlust, Stonemilker 360, Mouth Mantra, Declare Independence).
A short documentary film, The Inner or Deep Part of an Animal or Plant Structure, (found at the end of part three), provides an excellent visual and auditory birds' eye view into the collaborative nature of her work. We witness artists bring their various voices to her projects lending sounds that appear to be man-made yet mimic the inner functions of the human body or which are found in animal and plant nature. When interviewed we can hear her explanation as to what her hopes and intentions are in her music. A desire to convey the inner workings of life as well as the reproductive instincts (below the waist as she phrases it), that is a part of us all. In part three, Big Time Sensuality, I will explore the sexual and sensual aspects of Björk's work. Taken together, these three segments should work together and combine a whole or at least fuller understanding of Björk's work.
.
Shapeshifting Through Mythologies
Mythologies are often presented as something of antiquity; entities, concepts and belief systems no longer adhered to. They may be gone but they are not forgotten. Western psychiatry, devoid of the concept of religion (heaven and hell) uses the language of mythology (narcissism, ego, psyche, Achilles, etc). The premise of psychiatry, to simplify, is to guide one's self back to a state of non-guilt (guilt is a concept ushered in with formal religion and is considered the basis of neurosis). If psychiatry is to succeed it is necessary for it to incorporate various cultural belief systems. Simplified, if I culturally believe that the unseen is present in the same way as the seen then I must take that into consideration as I contemplate who another is. Or if I believe that mental illness is due to demons nestling inside me, an exorcism may have more of an effect on my well being than trying to convince me that there is no such thing as demons. If I believe that death is just a continuation of life or that what befalls me in life is due to a past life then one must take into consideration my belief system, and so on, and so forth.
In Norse mythology concepts of animism (that all things- plants, animal, land- are conscious), and pantheism (that divinity is here and now rather than after death, elsewhere or confined to one being), are concepts of antiquity that are having a revival of sorts, yet they have remained in the collective consciousness. Hamr, pronounced 'hammer' and which translates to shape or skin, in Norse mythology refers to the concept that we can be seen as something other than what we may be. The closest I can come to an explanation is that sometimes we use phrases like, sly as a fox or cat eyes, or he looks like a wolf. That these attributes of animals are based upon perception and that we are sometimes more animal-like than human and vice versa refers back to animism and shape shifting.
Björk uses these concepts of mythology in much of her visual work. (And why wouldn't she? She is after all from Iceland; it is her cultural landscape). In 'Hunter', a song about the pressures of producing music when others are counting on her for their own paychecks she shape shifts into a bear-like creature.
In Björk's video, 'All Is Full of Love' (which will also be discussed as the sensual in part three), we see the inanimate imbued with the concepts of animism, pantheism and hamr all at once as she, Björk, shape shifts as a sensual conscious robot. No matter what the subject matter of her songs they are incredibly sensual; wonderfully lush.
The concept album, Biophilia, explores, creation, science, love, symbiotic relationships and the relationship between life, harmony and the functions of science (biology) both internally and externally. It is holistically conceptualized: seamless between ourselves and everything imagined around us. That nothing is separate from the other. That seen without a focus on detail all things become beautiful. That we are all shapeshifters in a cosmic sense. One might describe it as an environmental album.
The videos released for the album are much more organic and don't always include Björk's physical presence. Videos from the album are Moon, Crystalline, Cosmogony, Dark Matter, Hollow, Virus, Sacrifice, Mutual Core and Solstice. They are
an exploration of the mythical nature of life. Part Two of this series has been much more difficult for me to write. I have Björk's entire repertoire on a loop listening to her music, and with each passing I hear something new. I can listen to her when I write - something which normally, for me, is reserved for classical music. Then I remember something David Attenborough said in the documentary When Björk Met Attenborough: When he needs to think, he listens to Björk. She is as complex as Bach and like Bach one needs to listen over and over again to hear the complexities.
For the most part she sings in English but her phrasing is not with English pattern expectations. The expectations we have of what a love song might be, or a song about anger, grief, or suicide is filtered through a culture and mind that is holding these subject up to a different light. Hyperballad was conceived of via a dream, hence her sleeping throughout the video. The subject matter, Björk supposes, is about loosing a part of yourself when you are in a relationship and how one needs to go off and do sometimes violent things in order to return to the relationship afresh. That sometimes we imagine ourselves dying if we have to spend another moment with a particular person. I randomly googled five of Björk's songs and each one has quite an extensive explanation as to what the song was about. I invite my readers to do the same thing with their choice of random songs. View the video, get the lyrics, and then read the Wikipedia explanation of the song. If you want to understand Björk that is what you must do. It's an essential component to understanding not only what the song is about but how she visually (the videos) incorporates the song into her performance piece. If you do the exact same exercise with anything done by Madonna, for example, (or any other pop artists), who is the number one selling female artist, worldwide, you will find yourself scratching your head. What the meaning of Madonna's songs are about is rarely, if ever, conveyed in her videos. For example, Madonna's huge hit, 4 Minutes with Justin Timberlake, is supposed to be about saving the planet and Like A Prayer claims to be about interracial love. You could have fooled me. I thought Madonna videos were about Madonna. Is there a Madonna video where Madonna doesn't actually appear? I don't know. I am not dismissing Madonna because in her own right she is a master at what she does. She is the queen of reinvention and dance music. Where Madonna emulates the vagina dentata, Björk imbues the sensual. Madonna is not sexy. Madonna demands that we see her as sexually privileged like a man. Björk makes us watch her sexual ecstasy. Big difference.
A short documentary film, The Inner or Deep Part of an Animal or Plant Structure, (found at the end of part three), provides an excellent visual and auditory birds' eye view into the collaborative nature of her work. We witness artists bring their various voices to her projects lending sounds that appear to be man-made yet mimic the inner functions of the human body or which are found in animal and plant nature. When interviewed we can hear her explanation as to what her hopes and intentions are in her music. A desire to convey the inner workings of life as well as the reproductive instincts (below the waist as she phrases it), that is a part of us all. In part three, Big Time Sensuality, I will explore the sexual and sensual aspects of Björk's work. Taken together, these three segments should work together and combine a whole or at least fuller understanding of Björk's work.
.
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