Original Lecture Date: November 23, 2019

Recording Length: 2 hours

What do C.G. Jung, David Bowie and Beat-era novelist William Burroughs have in common? These diverse and highly creative individuals all encountered what has been called the enigmatic “Third,” a creative entity which manifests out of chaos in certain types of creative expression linked to surrender, chance, and trust. This “Hidden Third” has affinities to the Tao Te Ching, to Jung’s signature theories on symbol and the transcendent function, as well as to contemporary thought on transdisciplinarity and emergence.

In 1978 William Burroughs, along with painter and writer Brion Gysin published The Third Mind, which featured over twenty years of their collaborative work. This project gave instructions for Gysin’s “cut up” collage-making technique. Also, in the 1970’s, iconic singer and songwriter David Bowie encountered Burroughs’ and Gysin’s work during a particularly fallow phase in his expansive career. This workshop will inhabit a place between and across disciplines as it joins Burroughs’ and Gysin’s Third Mind with the Jungian “bridging” of consciousness and the unconscious, along with the Taoist principle of “action through non-action.” As arts-based research, this workshop seeks to observe and document the process and outcomes of the “cut-up” method for stimulating creativity.

This workshop will inhabit a place between and across disciplines as it joins Burroughs’ and Gysin’s Third Mind with the Jungian “bridging” of consciousness and the unconscious, along with the Taoist principle of “action through non-action.” As arts-based research, this workshop seeks to observe and document the process and outcomes of the “cut-up” method for stimulating creativity.