A Bit Of Intertwined History Of The MEA/WATTS Connection
Mastering Enlightenments Arts is a private record label owned and operated by Henry Jacobs, the proprietor of this website. If you have ever purchased any of the Alan Watts Seminar Sets from this website, those sets were distributed on the MEA label. MEA is not a newcomer to the marketplace as it has been around for quite a number of years. There's a very interesting bit of intertwined history between MEA and Alan Watts. To understand this history, it's necessary to know a bit of the history of Henry Jacobs, a long time good friend of Alan Watts.
Between the years of 1950 and 1980 Henry Jacobs was conducting experiments that were improvisations with sound and animated films. In other words, he was doing multi-media, before it even existed. Henry's history with experimentally improvised multi-media started with wax recorders and proceeded through wire recorders, tape recorders, film, video, CDs and currently DVDs. In the 1950s', Henry produced a public multi-media (audio/animated film) presentation at the Morrison Planetarium titled "The Vortex Experiments." In these experiments, he used a specially prepared mixing console to distribute sound to speakers that were equally spaced around the circumference of the planetarium dome. This allowed him to "move" sound around the room in the same manner that is done today using "Surround Sound." Henry was there doing it way before anyone else.
When Henry started attending lectures and seminars hosted by Alan Watts and associates, he began recording Alan's spoken word engagements regularly and continued to do so for a number of years. Eventually, Henry gave Alan a tape recorder and taught him how to use it. The result was even more recordings of Alan's spoken works. The friendship between Alan and Henry is responsible for a large portion of the Alan Watts spoken word recordings that are available today.
It's a fact that MEA is proud to present the works of Alan Watts. Also a fact is that Alan is not the only artist on the MEA label. The pioneering experimental multi-media creations of Henry Jacobs are also available on the MEA label. Like Alan Watts, Henry Jacobs is an "Out Of The Box" thinker...his medium is just a different art form. Satire and humor was the direction Henry was going. As the work was experimental, he was free to use spoken words as well as sounds and filmed animations to express a rather wacky "Zen-like" form of satirical fun. Henry shared Alan's interest in the Eastern Philosophies and expressed them in this unique fashion.
When you view or listen to the works of Henry Jacobs, especially the DVD titled "The Fine Art Of Goofing Off," you will recognize imagery that was not duplicated by others for another five to ten years after the fact. Henry was way ahead of the curve.
So, there you have it. Another small piece of the now slightly bigger picture of Alan Watts and the environment around him. If you would like to know more about Henry Jacobs, you're in the right place at the right time as we have just completed the addition of a new section to our website titled "The Wide Weird World Of Henry Jacobs." We think you will enjoy what you will find there (CDs & DVDs,) as it is all about "goofing off" and having fun with humor. To visit "The Wide Weird World Of Henry Jacobs"...... click here.
