William Blake, Gregory Bateson and David Lynch: Audiovisual Approaches to Blake Scholarship

Jacob Smith discusses parts of his book, Bateson’s Alphabet: The ABCs of Gregory Bateson’s Ecology of Mind. Bateson began his academic career as an anthropologist in the 1930s, collaborated with Margaret Mead on groundbreaking anthropological research utilizing photography and motion pictures, and participated in the founding conferences on cybernetics. After parting ways with Mead, Bateson embarked upon a series of research inquiries that moved across academic disciplines, culminating in Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972), a book that brought him a new level of public recognition and influence. Bateson was deeply influenced by the work of William Blake, and the talk will present his thoughts on Blake. This talk also explores an audio visual adaptation of Blake with reference to the soundscapes of David Lynch, which Jacob has used to create an audiovisual essay on William Blake's The Sea of Time and Space.