Philosophy
Vision:
SOMA’s vision is of a symbiotic society in which mutual benefit and benevolence foster free forms of self-expression and community.
Mission:
SOMA provides the philosophy and tools for its community to build a harmonious future for humanity and nature alike. From dynamic interactions between art, consciousness and technology, SOMA generates acts of transformation between people, emotions, cultures, and worldviews.
Background:
We live in an era of competing demands in which the sustainability of our natural resources is threatened by a society increasingly populated by new mechanical and electronic devices created by science and technology.
This confronts us with complex challenges, including:
- how to rethink and redefine who we are and our relation to technology and the world.
- how to find new roles for human creativity, collaboration and understanding.
The increasing interdependence of humanity, technology and ecology means that there is no future in conflict, nor in the exercise of power to dominate others. Therefore one of our key aims is to nurture and develop mutually beneficial relationships. To do this, we must respect the integrity of our community’s values, needs and identities while preserving balance in the midst of rich diversity and competing energies.
SOMA is an inclusive movement. Central to our principles are the expansion of consciousness and tolerance of difference. This is why SOMA replaces egocentrism (in all its varieties) with more holistic, global, even universal perspectives. When we explore ourselves as part of evolution we deploy not only our logical, rational thinking, but also our subconscious and unconscious mind – the experience and knowledge that resides in the ancient brain and primordial stages of life’s development.
So we see the healthy person of the future as the one capable of unifying different forms of experience that arise through interactions with the world and ourselves. We see the contradictions of contemporary society as expressions of our inner conflict and struggle. We consider inner peace and harmony a prerequisite for peace and harmony between humanity and nature. And we assume that any larger, inclusive movement starts from incorporating our inner impulses into one positive union. This is what we mean by a harmonious personality, both at individual and collective levels.
While respecting freedom unconditionally, we also understand that any kind of element, from atom to galaxy, is inconceivable without a structuring principle. There is no game without rules. So we seek the best balance between diversity and efficiency, the personal and the social, chaos and order, freedom and responsibility, possibilities and constraints.
SOMA celebrates the art of balance and inclusivity.
It is art that allows us to balance interactions between individuals, cultures, disciplines, regions and nations in all their rich diversity.
SOMA & ART
Art is not prescriptive, but explores a plurality of methods; it is not coercive but calls for voluntary engagement, development and exchange between participants.
Art also speaks beyond logical and rational thinking, permitting us to explore and integrate the ancient brain.
Self-exploration, self-awareness, and self-expression are all integral to art.
Art brings technology into dialogue with spirit, suggesting biological life and non-living materials may be brought together to mark out our future while maintaining the integrity of each element (human, biological, technological, spiritual).
Art provides a safe, experimental space for exploring complex topics and states that we might otherwise perceive as dangerous, unpleasant, or strange. It is a crucible for encountering, understanding and transforming the unavoidable and sometimes intangible aspects of our life – such things as pain, depression, disease, anger, jealousy, or self-destructive impulses. Art allows us to confront these dark facts of life without damaging our surroundings, our neighbours, or ourselves, while seeking a route towards more positive states.
Art also brings people together into playful, co-operative relations, integrating each other’s experiences and allowing us to grow collectively and individually.
So we see art as the best integrative discipline for understanding and exploring the evolution of consciousness.
SOMA company constitution
(short version)
SOMA is a company, a team, a commune that consists of people united by goals, views, values and ethics on a level that makes it possible to creatively accomplish projects together (делать общее дело), as well as share knowledge and technology, helping each other achieve the best results.
SOMA is a collaboration that enhances the best qualities of people participating in projects through effective communication, organization and distribution of labour. SOMA has a social maths of 1 + 1 = 3.
SOMA stands for projects and technologies that take care of and improve the world around us and the lives of the people involved, according to SOMA’s values and goals.
SOMA intends to make a significant contribution to culture, social life, nature and its development, making people happier and bringing the SOMA team creative networks, profit, personal realisation and collective satisfaction.
Core Values
We recognize life in all its manifestations to be the highest value, in particular, the life of humanity and the natural world while cherishing the life of every individual.
Life in all its manifestations has arisen, sustained and developed through evolution. Our second most important value, therefore, is change as a process of positive development in society, science, art and personal life, which we can consciously influence.
In order for people to live and develop effectively, they need to be together. People need to function as a society in the work team, in the state and of course as part of the human race. Therefore, our third value is effective communication and relationships between people, built on the principles of mutual respect, awareness, conscience, respect for nature, honest and open communication and the common good.
We understand that we can achieve the best future only by being united in our cause. Therefore, SOMA is an inclusive community that stands against any kind of enmity and discrimination between states, ethnicities, religions, nationalities, genders, cultures and languages. We believe that every form of life – from person to community – has a unique place in the overall evolution of humanity, ultimately constituting a single organism. SOMA is therefore a community of diverse people, each of whom seeks to find and take their unique place that will help them fulfil their potential and give them the greatest opportunity for self-realization.
Goals:
1. To develop art, in particular sound art, and create new instruments that reflect the spirit of the time, the modern palette of emotions and conditions while preserving and rethinking the highest achievements of the past.
2. To develop interfaces, ways of interacting with the instrument through a meta-language of both control and dialogue, which promote a more direct and flexible emotional contact with the musician and more powerful self-expression.
3. To create art instruments that emphasise the importance of the creator-human on the stage and augment their natural human abilities, in contrast to the increasingly pervasive automatic creation and reproduction of art.
To search for a deep Power and a new Spirit through new tools and forms of self-expression.
4. To seek and explore the potential of living forms of existence in the modern world.
5. To nurture creative communities of people based on mindfulness, honesty, openness, joy, consistency, creativity and mutual benefit in such a way that these principles form the basis of each community’s strength and productivity and that the value of applying such principles becomes self-evident.
6. Communities can be social networks, festivals, art centres, communities of developers, joint business projects, environmental projects, research projects, etc.
7. To develop attitudes and relationships between people based on common values and mutual benefits. To contribute thereby to the development of awareness of humanity and the Earth, as a coherent ecosystem.
8. To promote the development of an understanding of the paramount importance of the balance between different parts of the ecosystem instead of trying to establish the dominance of one aspect by suppressing and degrading the others.
9. To develop philosophy in both an abstract and an applied form towards breaking the deadlocks of modern society in ideological, economic, political, communicative, environmental, etc terms. To build a model of future social, economic, political systems in which we would like to live and in which we would like our children to live.
10. To search for a harmonious symbiosis, balance and productive contact between the scientific worldview that forms the basis of industrial power and the subjective, creative, emotional, inner world of a person that determines our ethics, values, intentions, emotions, and ultimately determines how these scientific and technical advances will be applied.
Goals can be achieved across multiple platforms: art projects, business projects, community building, research, creation of information sources, etc.
Vlad Kreimer – concept
Rolf Hughes – tweaking
Grzegorz Lacek – dialogue
