Can culture and cognition coexist on the same level of importance? Does culture have more authority over cognition or is it the other way around? These two major themes are heavily discussed through out this paper in search of finding what humans actually understand about both culture and cognition in regards to themselves (human beings). Culture and cognition are two very fluid terms in regards to their definitions so for the purpose of this paper I will use the Webster's dictionary as well a few select definitions from several cognitive scientists in the Edwin Hutchins book entitled Cognition in the Wind. The first term culture means the socially transmitted behaviors of the arts, religious beliefs and patterns of human thought comes directly form Webster's dictionary. However in the book Cognition in the Wind scientist E. G Taylor says that "culture is the whole complex that includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws and customs as well as any other capabilities that are acquired by man while in society." These two definitions seem very different, but it's remarkable as to how much Taylor's definition of culture and the next definition of cognition match up. As mentioned previously the second term cognition means the mental process of knowing, including aspects of awareness, perception, reasoning and judgment. These two terms are very different in that one, culture, is very fluid and can be about many things, while cognition is more straight forward and scientific. Combing these two ideas will be interesting, but to juxtapose the two terms along with yet a third topic in that of Visual Arts student, James Bartholomew and his performance piece entitled A Simulated Environment of Human Rocks will be challenging. Challenging yes, but impossible no, the alternative concepts and drastically different theories will have me questioning the artwork more in a representational aspect in regards to culture and cognition. Like most artwork if one should research deep enough one can find overlapping themes. Through out James' artwork and both terms a constant reoccurring theme is seen in that humans have an inner cognitive process that is self absorbed in that humans focus primarily on themselves. James' art piece explores the idea of being voyeuristically watched by a higher being while Cognition in the Wind talks about the importance of culture and the way people perceive themselves in a cognitive sociocultural system.

In the performance piece entitled A Simulation Environment of Human Rocks James conveys the idea of voyeurism by his efforts to transform himself into one of the massive rocks that has mysteriously moved across the dry playa floor. The idea of voyeurism came from the original proposal of doing an earthwork at Racetrack Playa. Earthworks are not a conventional type of art piece; they are pieces that usually are associated with creating a new environment with the artist bringing outside artifacts to an already exciting environment or to manipulate the already existing environment with what the artist can find around that particular setting. This art is not typically shown in a traditional art gallery as one would expect and since this assignment was to be done on location in Death Valley's Racetrack Playa this would be a perfect opportunity for James to present an earthwork. Interestingly earthworks when completed occasionally are so incredibly massive in size that one might feel as though they are the art piece on display for this monstrous earthwork to observe. This is what led James to gear his earthwork towards voyeurism due to the thousands of people that come to this National Park to see this incredible act of the mysterious sliding rocks, but what these tourists don't think about is that by walking around this environment looking for these so called mystery rocks they are partaking in a art performance in itself. The concept of being an art performance might be a little tricky to follow at first but just think about the similarities between the rocks of the playa and the tourists on the playa. The similarities are uncanny the rocks of the playa make tracks as they glide across the playa floor till they come to stop when the wind can no longer push them well in the same way the tracks of the tourists cover the playa floor in search of these rocks till they come cross them and pause in astonishment. The idea is that both the rocks and the tourists make tracks across the playa and come to settle in close proximity, well on the other hand the major difference between the two are that the tourists think that they are the only ones watching these rocks as if they are the biggest being out there. When actually that is not necessarily true, if the mountains where alive or a satellite were to surveillance the movements of the tourists and record them much like that of a GPS system then the tourists unknowingly would be experimenting in an art performance piece generated by voyeuristic technology. The possibility of this happening is not to far fetched, but just because the tourists can't see this greater being that may be watching they assume that they are the only ones out there observing. This assumption brings me to think that human beings tend to believe that they are the highest cognitive processing beings on the earth and this assumption leads to prefabricated connotations that the possibility of there being anything greater out there is false and untrue.

This cognitive process of the human psyche is highly evolved but to assume that it is the highest intellectual being in the world might be unrealistic. These over absorbed ideologies have been discipline into humans' from a very young age in hopes that we will succeed in our society. In the book Cognition in the Wind, the chapter entitled Cultural Cognition goes on to explain these phenomena in detail. Scientist Gardner (1985) "pointed out, culture, history, context, and emotion were all set aside as problems to be addressed after a good understanding of individual cognition had been achieved." This quote goes to show that the absence of culture in its history, context and mental emotions sets up society to be less emotional and to be more thought process orientated. The lack of being able to think beyond ones self is contributed to the unwillingness to accept others as equals in an intellectual manor. This is why Edwin Hutchins discusses in his book his thoughts on culture and human cognition. "Culture is not any collection of things, whether tangible or abstract. Rather it's a process. It is a human cognitive process that takes place both inside and outside the mind of people." This method of thinking eliminates the old style by separating the two views; cognition and culture by de-marginalizing. Hutchins is a strong believer in de-marginalizing in that he feels that our society has unfortunately designated culture to be more of an anthropologist's area of expertise while cognition would be more marginalized to a department of study like philosophy or more theory based practices. Hutchin's theory of de-marginalization has a strong resemblance to Taylor's theory which was expressed earlier in the essay when Taylor states that the outside and inside processes have to happen to in order for man to be able to coexist with one another in society. Both of these theories support the notion that culture and cognition are not two separate entities but one in the same, humans can not exist if they don't open their minds to culture no matter what form it takes. If humans don't start to open up to the notion of culture being an adaptive process then we will see more hatred not only with in a global aspect but internally with the idea that humans will soon think that we are the most important thing in the world and lose track of what other things are just as important.

Through out this paper I found that I could not just apply one reading with that of another like that of James' performance piece. So I compromised and found bits and pieces that had common themes between both and with that I weaved them together like a quilt. Some aspects of James' artwork had nothing to do with that of the of Edwin Hutchin's book Cognition in the Wind, which went like wise for Hutchin's book and James piece but there were some themes of voyeurism and the inner cognitive self processing that overlapped which gave me a jump off point to explore both of these unique art forms. The idea that making an art piece that is in a traditional sense more craft and less technological makes for a comparison of the two medium very difficult, but I enjoyed the process and like Hutchin's says "there has to be a common ground of culture and cognition" and that is what pushed me to complete this essay.