Upcoming Red Book Events, Winter 2016

The conference will present a wide array of voices active in the cultural landscape who are specifically addressing the occult tradition through research, scholarship and artistic practice.

The arts and humanities at present are acutely interested in subjects related to the occult tradition. The tradition represents a rich and varied visual culture that displays a complex set of relations at once culturally specific and global in their transmission. Roughly defined, the occult tradition represents a series of culturally syncretic belief systems with related and overlapping visual histories. Though there are as many ways into this material as there are cultural – and personal – perspectives, universal occult concerns often include a belief in some sort of magic; a longing to connect with an immaterial or trans-personal realm; and a striving for inner-knowledge, refinement of the self, and transformation of one’s consciousness – if not one’s physical circumstances.

This year’s conference coincides with an onsite exhibition of prints from Carl Jung’s The Red Book, courtesy of DigitalFusion.

Art, Technology, and the Mysterious Imagery of C.G Jung’s Red Book

In 2007, Jung’s Red Book was released from the family vault for the first time in decades and given to Hugh Milstein from DigitalFusion to evaluate and archive for future generations. This behind the scenes journey into how The Red Book was digitally captured begins in 2002 and will provide insights into the technology, process, and care undertaken in Zürich during the photographic process. Hugh will reveal the technological transformations that have occurred in the last 12 years, allowing this masterwork to be printed with amazing clarity as fine art prints. He will share conversations with Massimiliano Gioni from the Venice Biennale, where The Red Book and fine art print reproductions were exhibited in the world famous art show, making a transformative historical statement about Jung’s art into a modern reality. Hugh will also share in-depth closeups of the masterwork, revealing mystic imagery and hidden themes that were hand crafted by Jung.

Hugh Milstein, co-founder and President of DigitalFusion. DigitalFusion is a leading Creative Services company headquartered in Los Angeles. With a base in photography, and an expansion into motion, DigitalFusion is a cutting edge provider to major publications and entertainment outlets worldwide. Hugh’s expertise in image making led him to be name to the “100 most important people in photography” by American Photographer. Hugh continues to design and develop new image styles and services that appear on digital newsstands, moving billboards, iPads, and mobile devices.

From February 29 to April 1, 2016, an exhibition of the DigitalFusion prints from Jung’s Red Book will take place at the Salena Gallery of Long Island University – Brooklyn. You are cordially invited to the Opening Reception on Friday evening, March 4, at the gallery at One University Place, Brooklyn. These magnificent 25×33 inch reproductions of Jung’s paintings made their art world debut at the 55^th Annual Venice Biennale in 2013, where the original manuscript of the Red Book was on display.

In conjunction with the exhibit, a Conference will be held on Saturday, March 5, at the C. G. Jung Center of New York, 28 East 39th Street.  Entitled Snakes, Dragons, and other Scaly Creatures, the Conference will be co-sponsored by the C. G. Jung Institute of New York, the New York Association for Analytical Psychology, the C. G. Jung Foundation of New York, the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism, and the Analytical Psychology Club of New York.

Jung asserted that when we meditate on a particular image, it comes alive and takes on an independent life of its own: “That is the case with any fantasy image….It gets restless, it shifts, something is added, or it multiples itself; one fills it with living power.”

We invite you to muse on the symbol of the snake. Let the image speak to you and stir your imagination. Follow your ideas into realms such as psychological theory, mythology, clinical practice, and contemporary culture.