http://hyposurface.org/
WHAT IS HYPOSURFACE?
HypoSurface is the World's first display system where the screen surface physically moves! Information and form are linked to give a radical new media technology: an info-form device.
The surface behaves like a precisely controlled liquid: waves, patterns, logos, even text emerge and fade continually within its dynamic surface. The human eye is drawn to physical movement, and this gives HypoSurface a basic advantage over other display systems.
As a digital device, any input (sound, movement, an Internet feed...) can be linked to any output (logos, patterns, text...) This offers full interactivity with an audience, and a simple User Interface allows HypoSurface to be 'tuned' to any event, its wide range of effects choreographed easily (by you…)
HypoSurface uses powerful ‘information bus’ technology to control many thousands of moving actuators to deform a pliable surface, allowing high-speed movement of the screen surface. It is a highly effective info-tainment device!
'The HypoSurface wall was the ultimate word of mouth virus at CeBIT, then in Hanover. Without any public relation work on our side, 17-20 international TV stations were queuing (from the first minute) to capture the first glimpse of this nonlinear, prototypic, authentic, never-seen-before, mass-media-eye-catcher. In viral science or viral medicine you call a viral marketing-contact-effect like this a 'superspreader', something that encounters no resistance. It is an audio-, visual- and physical- never-seen-before interactive live experience, an architectural-cybernetic-prototype with the dramaturgic magic and impact of a successful live performing pop-band!
'Michael Dodt, Shopfiction, Frankfurt
Sunday, 27 December 2009
+ Shinkenchiku Residental design Competition 2009
http://www.japan-architect.co.jp/skc9/en/results/index.html
Theme: The Residence From Our Having Lived the Movie Century
A little more than a century ago, the first motion picture was shown before an audience. Thereafter, “the movie” grew with tremendous vitality as a medium. In the course of the 20th century, countless movies were filmed in virtually every nation in the world, and countless people attended theaters to see them. Today, the movie has become an integral part of our everyday reality. Since the advent of the movie, we have changed in the way we see and think about things.
This change in our perceptions, nevertheless, is not yet sufficiently reflected in the character of our architecture. Even today, a static image—the photograph—is the primary medium used for showing buildings and communicating architectural design. Even buildings essentially born from sensibilities and modes of thought fostered by movies and dynamic images are disseminated using static images. This reliance on photography may be one obstacle to needful change.
In truth, that obstacle is currently dissipating, owing to the Internet’s growing capacity for video transmission. This being the case, architecture suiting our perceptions and ways of thinking as people who have lived and fully digested the movie century may soon hereafter begin to appear. Architecture that can only be seen from a moving perspective? Architecture that transcends the architectural diagrams? Architecture as story? What are the possibilities from our perspective as people who have lived the movie century? This competition seeks residential design proposals that respond to that question. (http://www.japan-architect.co.jp/skc9/en/)
Theme: The Residence From Our Having Lived the Movie Century
A little more than a century ago, the first motion picture was shown before an audience. Thereafter, “the movie” grew with tremendous vitality as a medium. In the course of the 20th century, countless movies were filmed in virtually every nation in the world, and countless people attended theaters to see them. Today, the movie has become an integral part of our everyday reality. Since the advent of the movie, we have changed in the way we see and think about things.
This change in our perceptions, nevertheless, is not yet sufficiently reflected in the character of our architecture. Even today, a static image—the photograph—is the primary medium used for showing buildings and communicating architectural design. Even buildings essentially born from sensibilities and modes of thought fostered by movies and dynamic images are disseminated using static images. This reliance on photography may be one obstacle to needful change.
In truth, that obstacle is currently dissipating, owing to the Internet’s growing capacity for video transmission. This being the case, architecture suiting our perceptions and ways of thinking as people who have lived and fully digested the movie century may soon hereafter begin to appear. Architecture that can only be seen from a moving perspective? Architecture that transcends the architectural diagrams? Architecture as story? What are the possibilities from our perspective as people who have lived the movie century? This competition seeks residential design proposals that respond to that question. (http://www.japan-architect.co.jp/skc9/en/)
Saturday, 26 December 2009
Friday, 25 December 2009
+ Pablo Picasso
Title: "Pablo Picasso"
Photographer: Gjon Mili
Date: 1949
Location: Vallauris, France
Artist Pablo Picasso drawing a centaur in the air with a flashlight at Madoura Pottery. Mili visited Picasso twice – eighteen years apart – and on both occasions, while assigned to photograph the artist, he found himself involved in totally unforeseen creative experiences. One result of the first meeting, at Vallauris in 1949, is the photograph of Picasso drawing the Centaur with a “light pencil.” This spectacular “space drawing” is a momentary happening inscribed in thin air with a flashlight in the dark – an illumination of Picasso’s brilliance set off by the spur of the moment. It was during this first visit in 1949 that Mili showed Picasso some of his photographs of light patterns formed by a skater’s leaps – obtained by affixing tiny lights on the points of the skates. Picasso reacted instantly. Before Mili could utter a word of explanation, Picasso, sparkling with excitement, started tracing through the air one intriguing shape after another with his bare finger. It is interesting to note the affinity between Picasso’s first light image, the Centaur, and the shape of his own crouched body as he starts to draw. Significant, too, is the course of his action as the image progresses from beginning to end. He first describes a small hook and swings upward to delineate the left arm, then the head and horns, the right arm and then the spine; at frantic speed – which is shown by the thinness of the line – he scribbles two wavering hind legs before he slows down, almost to a stop, while drawing the soft curve of the underbelly. As if he suddenly remembers there is more to do, he swiftly shoots straight up to fill in the facial structures and without breaking the flow, signs off with a flourish. The photographic effect was created by opening the camera’s shutter while Picasso was in the dark, crouched over to begin his instant masterpiece – this static pose captured by a momentary flash. Again in darkness after this instantaneous flash of light, Picasso quickly draws his signature image in the air with a “light pencil.” This light drawing is an “instant Picasso” – vanishing no sooner than born, except for what the camera captures. Not unlike a doodle in appearance, this rendering is an unimpeded expression of the artist’s inner vision, and as instinctive as one’s gesticulations in trying to make a point. This “space drawing” highlights better than anything in clay, wood, metal, or paint the automatic link between hand and brain which is basic to Picasso’s creative thrust. (Text adapted from "Picasso’s Third Dimension" by Gjon Mili, published by Triton Press; 1970.)
http://www.vpphotogallery.com/photog_mili_picasso.htm
+ AVATAR 3d
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVdO-cx-McA
2009 sci-fi
written and directed by James Cameron
Plot
The film begins in the year 2154 and focuses on Pandora, an inhabited Earth-sized moon of Polyphemus, one of the three fictional gas giants orbiting Alpha Centauri A. Humans are engaged in mining Pandora's reserves of a precious mineral, while the na'vi, the sapient race of humanoids indigenous to the moon, resist the colonists' expansion, which threatens the continued existence of the na'vi and the destruction of the Pandoran ecosystem. The film's title refers to the remotely controlled, genetically engineered human-na'vi bodies used by the film's human characters to interact with the natives.
2009 sci-fi
written and directed by James Cameron
Plot
The film begins in the year 2154 and focuses on Pandora, an inhabited Earth-sized moon of Polyphemus, one of the three fictional gas giants orbiting Alpha Centauri A. Humans are engaged in mining Pandora's reserves of a precious mineral, while the na'vi, the sapient race of humanoids indigenous to the moon, resist the colonists' expansion, which threatens the continued existence of the na'vi and the destruction of the Pandoran ecosystem. The film's title refers to the remotely controlled, genetically engineered human-na'vi bodies used by the film's human characters to interact with the natives.
Friday, 11 December 2009
Week 9- Stalker, Tarkovski (1979 science fiction film)
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=4947870279914964017&ei=Us0jS7j7MMmb-AamsND8Cw&q=solaris+tarkovsky+full+watch&hl=en&view=3#
The title of the film, which is the same in Russian and English, is derived from the English word to stalk in the traditional meaning of approaching furtively and not related to the contemporary meaning of harassing. In the film a stalker is a professional guide to the zone, someone who crosses the border into the forbidden zone with a specific goal.(1)
(1)Gianvito, J. 2006. Andrei Tarkovsky: Interviews. University Press of Mississippi, p. 50–54,
The title of the film, which is the same in Russian and English, is derived from the English word to stalk in the traditional meaning of approaching furtively and not related to the contemporary meaning of harassing. In the film a stalker is a professional guide to the zone, someone who crosses the border into the forbidden zone with a specific goal.(1)
(1)Gianvito, J. 2006. Andrei Tarkovsky: Interviews. University Press of Mississippi, p. 50–54,
Week 9- Solaris, Tarkovsky (1972 science fiction film)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3370449932379913979#
The film is based on a science-fiction novel by Polish writer Stanislav Lem
Soviet film poster
The film is based on a science-fiction novel by Polish writer Stanislav Lem
Soviet film poster
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
Week 8- The Name of the Rose
The Name of the Rose is a novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory. First published in Italian in 1980 under the title Il nome della rosa, it appeared in 1983 in an English translation by William Weaver.
Along with his apprentice Adso of Melk (named after the Benedictine abbey Stift Melk), the Franciscan friar William of Baskerville journeys to an abbey where a murder has been committed.
As the plot unfolds, several other people mysteriously die. The protagonists explore a labyrinthine medieval library, the subversive power of laughter, and come face to face with the Inquisition. It is left primarily to William's enormous powers of logic and deduction to solve the mysteries of the abbey.
On one level, the book is an exposition of the scholastic method which was very popular in the 14th century. William demonstrates the power of deductive reasoning, especially syllogisms. He refuses to accept the diagnosis of simple demonic possession despite demonology being the traditional monastic explanation. Although the abbey is under the misapprehension that they are experiencing the last days before the coming of Antichrist (a topic closely examined in the book), William, through his empirical mindset, manages to show that the murders are, in fact, committed by a more corporeal instrument. By keeping an open mind, collecting facts and observations, following pure intuition, and the dialectic method, he makes decisions as to what he should investigate, exactly as a scholastic would do. However, the simple use of reason does not suffice. The various signs and happenings only have meaning in their given contexts, and William must constantly be wary of which context he interprets the mystery. Indeed, the entire story challenges the narrator, William's young apprentice Adso, and the reader to continually recognize the context he is using to interpret, bringing the whole text to various levels which can all have different hermeneutical meanings. The narrative ties in many varied plot lines, all of which consider various interpretations and sources of meanings. Many of the interpretations and sources were highly volatile controversies in the medieval religious setting, all while spiraling towards what seems to be the key to understanding and truly interpreting the case. Although William's final theorems do not exactly match the actual events as written, those theorems do allow him to solve the abbey's mystery.
Eco wrote that he liked this title "because the rose is a symbolic figure so rich in meanings that by now it hardly has any meaning left."(1)
The book's last line, "Stat rosa pristina nomine, nomina nuda tenemus" translates literally as "Yesterday's rose endures in its name, we hold empty names". The general sense, as Eco pointed out,(2) was that from the beauty of the past, now disappeared, we hold only the name. In this novel, the lost "rose" could be seen as Aristotle's book on comedy (now forever lost), the exquisite library now destroyed, or the beautiful peasant girl now dead. We only know them by the description Adso provides us — we only have the name of the book on comedy, not its contents.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_the_Rose
(1)"Postscript to the Name of the Rose", printed in The Name of the Rose (Harcourt, Inc., 1984), p. 506.
(2)"Name of the Rose: Title and Last Line". http://www.umbertoeco.com/id-39/UmbertEco_Name_of_the_Rose_Umberto_Eco.html.
Along with his apprentice Adso of Melk (named after the Benedictine abbey Stift Melk), the Franciscan friar William of Baskerville journeys to an abbey where a murder has been committed.
As the plot unfolds, several other people mysteriously die. The protagonists explore a labyrinthine medieval library, the subversive power of laughter, and come face to face with the Inquisition. It is left primarily to William's enormous powers of logic and deduction to solve the mysteries of the abbey.
On one level, the book is an exposition of the scholastic method which was very popular in the 14th century. William demonstrates the power of deductive reasoning, especially syllogisms. He refuses to accept the diagnosis of simple demonic possession despite demonology being the traditional monastic explanation. Although the abbey is under the misapprehension that they are experiencing the last days before the coming of Antichrist (a topic closely examined in the book), William, through his empirical mindset, manages to show that the murders are, in fact, committed by a more corporeal instrument. By keeping an open mind, collecting facts and observations, following pure intuition, and the dialectic method, he makes decisions as to what he should investigate, exactly as a scholastic would do. However, the simple use of reason does not suffice. The various signs and happenings only have meaning in their given contexts, and William must constantly be wary of which context he interprets the mystery. Indeed, the entire story challenges the narrator, William's young apprentice Adso, and the reader to continually recognize the context he is using to interpret, bringing the whole text to various levels which can all have different hermeneutical meanings. The narrative ties in many varied plot lines, all of which consider various interpretations and sources of meanings. Many of the interpretations and sources were highly volatile controversies in the medieval religious setting, all while spiraling towards what seems to be the key to understanding and truly interpreting the case. Although William's final theorems do not exactly match the actual events as written, those theorems do allow him to solve the abbey's mystery.
Eco wrote that he liked this title "because the rose is a symbolic figure so rich in meanings that by now it hardly has any meaning left."(1)
The book's last line, "Stat rosa pristina nomine, nomina nuda tenemus" translates literally as "Yesterday's rose endures in its name, we hold empty names". The general sense, as Eco pointed out,(2) was that from the beauty of the past, now disappeared, we hold only the name. In this novel, the lost "rose" could be seen as Aristotle's book on comedy (now forever lost), the exquisite library now destroyed, or the beautiful peasant girl now dead. We only know them by the description Adso provides us — we only have the name of the book on comedy, not its contents.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_the_Rose
(1)"Postscript to the Name of the Rose", printed in The Name of the Rose (Harcourt, Inc., 1984), p. 506.
(2)"Name of the Rose: Title and Last Line". http://www.umbertoeco.com/id-39/UmbertEco_Name_of_the_Rose_Umberto_Eco.html.
Week 8- The Book of Kells
The Book of Kells, the Book of Durrow, the Lindisfarne Gospels and other Celtic manuscripts were written and decorated entirely by natural daylight. According to Marc Drogin in "Medieval Calligraphy" (Dover Books) the monasteries were so fearful of accidental fire that the use of candles or oil lamps was forbidden inside the scriptoriums (writing rooms) and libraries. The scribe worked from dawn till dusk, stopping only for prayer and meals or his turn at the hoe, working in the fields alongside his brethren.
The use of small red dots in Celtic manuscripts does not (contrary to some modern interpretations) represent the "universal life force", but was in fact a decorative device. The technique, known to calligraphers as rubrication, was borrowed by the Celtic monks from Egyptian Coptic Christian manuscripts brought to Ireland by missionaries in the 5th century. The small red dots were used to outline large initials or to make a particular line of text stand out from the page. In later years, Celtic artists elevated the humble red dot into a high art form, creating complex webs of delicate knotwork and even animal interlace.
Before St. Patrick introduced books along with Christianity to Ireland, the Irish had no useful written language. Ogham, a primitive system of slashes and dots, was used to inscribe names on gravesites and standing stones, but proved too cumbersome for everyday use. So when the Roman alphabet was introduced in the fifth century, the Irish embraced it as their own, and even adapted it for the Gaelic tongue to record their ancient myths and legends.
The production of a single copy of the Four Gospels such as the Book of Kells required that the monks keep a herd of as many as 1200 cattle, which also provided food and milk for the monastery. It has been estimated that the Book of Kells originally was written on the skins of about 185 animals. Paper being then unknown, this parchment was their only source of writing material.
The monks who labored daily over their writing tables, endlessly copying out page after page of text, some of which they could barely translate, often grew fatigued and made errors. Just as modern calligraphers do, the scribes occasionally repeated a word or line, made a spelling mistake, and did not notice the error. In the Book of Kells there are numerous places where the red ink of the editor made later corrections to the Latin text. After a day's work was done, the young scribes often penned short notes, prayers or poems in tiny script in the margins. One later scribe finished copying out a text, noting it as: "...very long, very verbose, and very tedious for the scribe."
http://www.mccelticdesign.com/interesting.htm
Michael Carroll Celtic Design
P.O. Box 1371, Addison, IL 60101 USA
630 - 415 - 0511 Phone
© Copyright 1998-2007 Michael Carroll Celtic Design / All Rights Reserved.
Week 8- Holon
Holon (philosophy)
A holon (Greek: holos, "whole") is something that is simultaneously a whole and a part. The word was coined by Arthur Koestler in his book The Ghost in the Machine (1967, p. 48). Koestler was compelled by two observations in proposing the notion of the holon. The first observation was influenced by Nobel Prize winner Herbert Simon's parable of the two watchmakers, wherein Simon concludes that complex systems will evolve from simple systems much more rapidly if there are stable intermediate forms present in that evolutionary process than if they are not present. The second observation was made by Koestler himself in his analysis of hierarchies and stable intermediate forms in both living organisms and social organizations. He concluded that, although it is easy to identify sub-wholes or parts, wholes and parts in an absolute sense do not exist anywhere. Koestler proposed the word holon to describe the hybrid nature of sub-wholes and parts within in vivo systems. From this perspective, holons exist simultaneously as self-contained wholes in relation to their sub-ordinate parts, and dependent parts when considered from the inverse direction.
Koestler also points out that holons are autonomous, self-reliant units that possess a degree of independence and handle contingencies without asking higher authorities for instructions. These holons are also simultaneously subject to control from one or more of these higher authorities. The first property ensures that holons are stable forms that are able to withstand disturbances, while the latter property signifies that they are intermediate forms, providing a context for the proper functionality for the larger whole.
Finally, Koestler defines a holarchy as a hierarchy of self-regulating holons that function first as autonomous wholes in supra-ordination to their parts, secondly as dependent parts in sub- ordination to controls on higher levels, and thirdly in coordination with their local environment.
General definition
A holon is a system (or phenomenon) which is an evolving self-organizing dissipative structure, composed of other holons, whose structures exist at a balance point between chaos and order. It is maintained by the throughput of matter-energy and information-entropy connected to other holons and is simultaneously a whole in and itself at the same time being nested within another holon and so is a part of something much larger than itself. Holons range in size from the smallest subatomic particles and strings, all the way up to the multiverse, comprising many universes. Individual humans, their societies and their cultures are intermediate level holons, created by the interaction of forces working upon us both top-down and bottom-up. On a non-physical level, words, ideas, sounds, emotions—everything that can be identified—is simultaneously part of something, and can be viewed as having parts of its own, similar to sign in regard of semiotics.
Since a holon is embedded in larger wholes, it is influenced by and influences these larger wholes. And since a holon also contains subsystems, or parts, it is similarly influenced by and influences these parts. Information flows bidirectionally between smaller and larger systems as well as rhizomatic contagion. When this bidirectionality of information flow and understanding of role is compromised, for whatever reason, the system begins to break down: wholes no longer recognize their dependence on their subsidiary parts, and parts no longer recognize the organizing authority of the wholes. Cancer may be understood as such a breakdown in the biological realm.
A hierarchy of holons is called a holarchy. The holarchic model can be seen as an attempt to modify and modernise perceptions of natural hierarchy.
Ken Wilber comments that the test of holon hierarchy (e.g. holarchy) is that if a type of holon is removed from existence, then all other holons of which it formed a part must necessarily cease to exist too. Thus an atom is of a lower standing in the hierarchy than a molecule, because if you removed all molecules, atoms could still exist, whereas if you removed all atoms, molecules, in a strict sense would cease to exist. Wilber's concept is known as the doctrine of the fundamental and the significant. A hydrogen atom is more fundamental than an ant, but an ant is more significant.
The doctrine of the fundamental and the significant are contrasted by the radical rhizome oriented pragmatics of Deleuze and Guattari, and other continental philosophy.
Types of holons
Individual holon
An individual holon possesses a dominant monad; that is, it possesses a definable "I-ness". An individual holon is discrete, self-contained, and also demonstrates the quality of agency, or self-directed behavior. The individual holon, although a discrete and self-contained is made up of parts; in the case of a human, examples of these parts would include the heart, lungs, liver, brain, spleen, etc. When a human exercises agency, taking a step to the left, for example, the entire holon, including the constituent parts, moves together as one unit.
Social holon
A social holon does not possess a dominant monad; it possesses only a definable "we-ness", as it is a collective made up of individual holons. In addition, rather than possessing discrete agency, a social holon possesses what is defined as nexus agency. An illustration of nexus agency is best described by a flock of geese. Each goose is an individual holon, the flock makes up a social holon. Although the flock moves as one unit when flying, and it is "directed" by the choices of the lead goose, the flock itself is not mandated to follow that lead goose. Another way to consider this would be collective activity that has the potential for independent internal activity at any given moment.
Applications
Ecology
The concept of the holon is used in environmental philosophy, ecology and human ecology. Ecosystems are often seen as holons within one or many holarchies. Holons are seen as open subsystems of systems of higher order, with a continuum from the cell to the ecosphere.
Philosophy of history
In the philosophy of history, a holon is a historical event that makes other historical events inevitable. A holon is a controversial concept, in that some reject the inevitability of any historical event. A special category of holon is technology, which implies a perspective on how technologies have the potential to dictate history.
Psychology and Human Development
Holonics is a generic term in psychology that refers specifically to the theory of spiral dynamics. In this context it refers to the development of cultural value systems which are discrete in themselves (memes) and also part of a larger value system ("memeplex"). A simple characterisation which is familiar to some is Maslow's hierarchy of needs in which a basic value system is "I must eat", which once satisfied remains, but is added to with "I want friends".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holon_(philosophy)
A holon (Greek: holos, "whole") is something that is simultaneously a whole and a part. The word was coined by Arthur Koestler in his book The Ghost in the Machine (1967, p. 48). Koestler was compelled by two observations in proposing the notion of the holon. The first observation was influenced by Nobel Prize winner Herbert Simon's parable of the two watchmakers, wherein Simon concludes that complex systems will evolve from simple systems much more rapidly if there are stable intermediate forms present in that evolutionary process than if they are not present. The second observation was made by Koestler himself in his analysis of hierarchies and stable intermediate forms in both living organisms and social organizations. He concluded that, although it is easy to identify sub-wholes or parts, wholes and parts in an absolute sense do not exist anywhere. Koestler proposed the word holon to describe the hybrid nature of sub-wholes and parts within in vivo systems. From this perspective, holons exist simultaneously as self-contained wholes in relation to their sub-ordinate parts, and dependent parts when considered from the inverse direction.
Koestler also points out that holons are autonomous, self-reliant units that possess a degree of independence and handle contingencies without asking higher authorities for instructions. These holons are also simultaneously subject to control from one or more of these higher authorities. The first property ensures that holons are stable forms that are able to withstand disturbances, while the latter property signifies that they are intermediate forms, providing a context for the proper functionality for the larger whole.
Finally, Koestler defines a holarchy as a hierarchy of self-regulating holons that function first as autonomous wholes in supra-ordination to their parts, secondly as dependent parts in sub- ordination to controls on higher levels, and thirdly in coordination with their local environment.
General definition
A holon is a system (or phenomenon) which is an evolving self-organizing dissipative structure, composed of other holons, whose structures exist at a balance point between chaos and order. It is maintained by the throughput of matter-energy and information-entropy connected to other holons and is simultaneously a whole in and itself at the same time being nested within another holon and so is a part of something much larger than itself. Holons range in size from the smallest subatomic particles and strings, all the way up to the multiverse, comprising many universes. Individual humans, their societies and their cultures are intermediate level holons, created by the interaction of forces working upon us both top-down and bottom-up. On a non-physical level, words, ideas, sounds, emotions—everything that can be identified—is simultaneously part of something, and can be viewed as having parts of its own, similar to sign in regard of semiotics.
Since a holon is embedded in larger wholes, it is influenced by and influences these larger wholes. And since a holon also contains subsystems, or parts, it is similarly influenced by and influences these parts. Information flows bidirectionally between smaller and larger systems as well as rhizomatic contagion. When this bidirectionality of information flow and understanding of role is compromised, for whatever reason, the system begins to break down: wholes no longer recognize their dependence on their subsidiary parts, and parts no longer recognize the organizing authority of the wholes. Cancer may be understood as such a breakdown in the biological realm.
A hierarchy of holons is called a holarchy. The holarchic model can be seen as an attempt to modify and modernise perceptions of natural hierarchy.
Ken Wilber comments that the test of holon hierarchy (e.g. holarchy) is that if a type of holon is removed from existence, then all other holons of which it formed a part must necessarily cease to exist too. Thus an atom is of a lower standing in the hierarchy than a molecule, because if you removed all molecules, atoms could still exist, whereas if you removed all atoms, molecules, in a strict sense would cease to exist. Wilber's concept is known as the doctrine of the fundamental and the significant. A hydrogen atom is more fundamental than an ant, but an ant is more significant.
The doctrine of the fundamental and the significant are contrasted by the radical rhizome oriented pragmatics of Deleuze and Guattari, and other continental philosophy.
Types of holons
Individual holon
An individual holon possesses a dominant monad; that is, it possesses a definable "I-ness". An individual holon is discrete, self-contained, and also demonstrates the quality of agency, or self-directed behavior. The individual holon, although a discrete and self-contained is made up of parts; in the case of a human, examples of these parts would include the heart, lungs, liver, brain, spleen, etc. When a human exercises agency, taking a step to the left, for example, the entire holon, including the constituent parts, moves together as one unit.
Social holon
A social holon does not possess a dominant monad; it possesses only a definable "we-ness", as it is a collective made up of individual holons. In addition, rather than possessing discrete agency, a social holon possesses what is defined as nexus agency. An illustration of nexus agency is best described by a flock of geese. Each goose is an individual holon, the flock makes up a social holon. Although the flock moves as one unit when flying, and it is "directed" by the choices of the lead goose, the flock itself is not mandated to follow that lead goose. Another way to consider this would be collective activity that has the potential for independent internal activity at any given moment.
Applications
Ecology
The concept of the holon is used in environmental philosophy, ecology and human ecology. Ecosystems are often seen as holons within one or many holarchies. Holons are seen as open subsystems of systems of higher order, with a continuum from the cell to the ecosphere.
Philosophy of history
In the philosophy of history, a holon is a historical event that makes other historical events inevitable. A holon is a controversial concept, in that some reject the inevitability of any historical event. A special category of holon is technology, which implies a perspective on how technologies have the potential to dictate history.
Psychology and Human Development
Holonics is a generic term in psychology that refers specifically to the theory of spiral dynamics. In this context it refers to the development of cultural value systems which are discrete in themselves (memes) and also part of a larger value system ("memeplex"). A simple characterisation which is familiar to some is Maslow's hierarchy of needs in which a basic value system is "I must eat", which once satisfied remains, but is added to with "I want friends".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holon_(philosophy)
Monday, 7 December 2009
Week 8- Scribe and scrivener
Scribe
.jpg)
Jean Miélot, a European author and scribe at work
A scribe is a person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession and helps the city keep tracks of its records. The profession, previously found in all literate cultures in some form, lost most of its importance and status with the advent of printing. The work could involve copying books, including sacred texts, or secretarial and administrative duties such as taking of dictation and the keeping of business, judicial and historical records for kings, nobility, temples and cities. Later the profession developed into public servants, journalists, accountants, typists, and lawyers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scribe
Scrivener
Telling a problem to a public scrivener. Istanbul, 1878.
A scrivener (or scribe) was traditionally a person who could read and write. This usually indicated secretarial and administrative duties such as dictation and keeping business, judicial, and history records for kings, nobles, temples, and cities. Scriveners later developed into public servants, accountants, lawyers and petition writers, etc.
Scriveners remain a common sight in countries where literacy rates remain low; they read letters for illiterate customers, as well as write letters or fill out forms for a fee. Many now use portable typewriters to prepare letters for their clients.
The word comes from Middle English scriveiner, an alteration of obsolete scrivein, from Anglo-French escrivein, ultimately from Vulgate Latin *scriban-, scriba, alteration of Latin scriba (as scribe).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrivener
.jpg)
Jean Miélot, a European author and scribe at work
A scribe is a person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession and helps the city keep tracks of its records. The profession, previously found in all literate cultures in some form, lost most of its importance and status with the advent of printing. The work could involve copying books, including sacred texts, or secretarial and administrative duties such as taking of dictation and the keeping of business, judicial and historical records for kings, nobility, temples and cities. Later the profession developed into public servants, journalists, accountants, typists, and lawyers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scribe
Scrivener
Telling a problem to a public scrivener. Istanbul, 1878.
A scrivener (or scribe) was traditionally a person who could read and write. This usually indicated secretarial and administrative duties such as dictation and keeping business, judicial, and history records for kings, nobles, temples, and cities. Scriveners later developed into public servants, accountants, lawyers and petition writers, etc.
Scriveners remain a common sight in countries where literacy rates remain low; they read letters for illiterate customers, as well as write letters or fill out forms for a fee. Many now use portable typewriters to prepare letters for their clients.
The word comes from Middle English scriveiner, an alteration of obsolete scrivein, from Anglo-French escrivein, ultimately from Vulgate Latin *scriban-, scriba, alteration of Latin scriba (as scribe).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrivener
Week 8- Palimpsest/ Decipherment in Architecture
n.
A manuscript, typically of papyrus or parchment, that has been written on more than once, with the earlier writing incompletely erased and often legible.
An object, place, or area that reflects its history: "Spaniards in the sixteenth century . . . saw an ocean moving south . . . through a palimpsest of bayous and distributary streams in forested paludal basins" (John McPhee).
A palimpsest is a manuscript page from a scroll or book that has been scraped off and used again. The word "palimpsest" comes through Latin from Greek παλιν + ψαω = (palin "again" + psao "I scrape"), and meant "scraped (clean and used) again." Romans wrote on wax-coated tablets that could be smoothed and reused, and a passing use of the rather bookish term "palimpsest" by Cicero seems to refer to this practice.
The term has come to be used in similar context in a variety of disciplines, notably architectural archaeology.
Extended usages
The word palimpsest also refers to a plaque which has been turned around and engraved on what was originally the back.
In planetary astronomy, ancient lunar craters whose relief has disappeared from subsequent volcanic outpourings, leaving only a "ghost" of a rim are also known as palimpsests. Icy surfaces of natural satellites like Callisto and Ganymede preserve hints of their history in these rings, where the crater's relief has been effaced by creep of the icy surface ("viscous relaxation"). They are characterized by fast projectile which penetrates the cold, icy crust. Inward flow of slushy surface causes the surface to retain this upflowing of water from the past.
In medicine it is used to describe an episode of acute anterograde amnesia without loss of consciousness, brought on by the ingestion of alcohol or other substances: 'alcoholic palimpsest'.
The term is used in Forensic science or Forensic engineering to describe objects placed over one another to establish the sequence of events at an accident or crime scene.
Several historians are beginning to use the term as a description of the way people experience times, that is, as a layering of present experiences over faded pasts.
Palimpsest is beginning to be used by Glaciologists to describe contradicting glacial flow indicators, usually consisting of smaller indicators (i.e., striae) overprinted upon larger features (i.e., stoss and lee topography, drumlins, etc).
During the opening credits of the film version[1] of The Name of the Rose, it is described as "A palimpsest of the novel by Umberto Eco".
Gore Vidal titled his 1995 memoir "Palimpsest".
Decipherment in architecture
Example of an architectural palimpsest in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Architects imply palimpsest as a ghost —- an image of what once was. In the built environment, this occurs more than we might think. Whenever spaces are shuffled, rebuilt, or remodeled, shadows remain. Tarred rooflines remain on the sides of a building long after the neighboring structure has been demolished; removed stairs leave a mark where the painted wall surface stopped. Dust lines remain from a relocated appliance. Ancient ruins speak volumes of their former wholeness. Palimpsests can inform us, archaeologically, of the realities of the built past.
Thus architects, archaeologists and design historians sometimes use the word to describe the accumulated iterations of a design or a site, whether in literal
layers of archaeological remains, or by the figurative accumulation and reinforcement of design ideas over time. An excellent example of this can be seen at The Tower of London, where construction began in the eleventh century, and the site continues to develop to this day.
Archaeologists in particular use the term to denote a record of material remains that is suspected of having formed during an extended period but that cannot be resolved in such a way that temporally discrete traces can be recognized as such.
Egyptologists use the word for texts and representations inscribed in stone that have been scraped away, either completely or partially, often with a plaster filling being applied, and then a new inscription carved on top.
http://www.answers.com/topic/palimpsest
Week 8- Moire pattern
Blue Caribbean Vibration by Pip Dickens
oil on canvas, dimensions 152.5 cm x 152.5cm.(www.pip-dickens.com)
copyright Pip Dickens
copyright Pip Dickens
Pattern Information
Moiré patterns are often an undesired artifact of images produced by various digital imaging and computer graphics techniques, for example when scanning a halftone picture or ray tracing a checkered plane (the latter being a special case of aliasing, due to undersampling a fine regular pattern).[1]
The drawing on the upper right shows a moiré pattern. The lines could represent fibers in moiré silk, or lines drawn on paper or on a computer screen. The nonlinear interaction of the optical patterns of lines creates a real and visible pattern of roughly parallel dark and light bands, the moiré pattern, superimposed on the lines.[2]
More complex line moiré patterns are created if the lines are curved or not exactly parallel. Moiré patterns revealing complex shapes, or sequences of symbols embedded in one of the layers (in form of periodically repeated compressed shapes) are created with shape moiré, otherwise called band moiré patterns. One of the most important properties of shape moiré is its ability to magnify tiny shapes along either one or both axes, that is, stretching. A common 2D example of moiré magnification occurs when viewing a chain-link fence through a second chain-link fence of identical design. The fine structure of the design is visible even at great distances.
Geometrical approach
the patterns are superimposed in the mid-width of the figure
Let us consider two patterns made of parallel and equidistant lines, e.g., vertical lines. The step of the first pattern is p, the step of the second is p+δp, with 0<δ<1.
If the lines of the patterns are superimposed at the left of the figure, the shift between the lines increase when going to the right. After a given number of lines, the patterns are opposed: the lines of the second pattern are between the lines of the first pattern. If we look from a far distance, we have the feeling of pale zones when the lines are superimposed, (there is white between the lines), and of dark zones when the lines are "opposed".
Rotated patterns
Moiré obtained by the superimposition of two similar patterns rotated by an angle α
Let us consider two patterns with the same step p, but the second pattern is turned by an angle α. Seen from far, we can also see dark and pale lines: the pale lines correspond to the lines of nodes, that is, lines passing through the intersections of the two patterns.
If we consider a cell of the "net", we can see that the cell is a rhombus: it is a parallelogram with the four sides equal to d = p/sin α; (we have a right triangle which hypothenuse is d and the side opposed to the α angle is p).
oil on canvas, dimensions 152.5 cm x 152.5cm.(www.pip-dickens.com)
copyright Pip Dickens
copyright Pip Dickens
Pattern Information
Moiré patterns are often an undesired artifact of images produced by various digital imaging and computer graphics techniques, for example when scanning a halftone picture or ray tracing a checkered plane (the latter being a special case of aliasing, due to undersampling a fine regular pattern).[1]
The drawing on the upper right shows a moiré pattern. The lines could represent fibers in moiré silk, or lines drawn on paper or on a computer screen. The nonlinear interaction of the optical patterns of lines creates a real and visible pattern of roughly parallel dark and light bands, the moiré pattern, superimposed on the lines.[2]
More complex line moiré patterns are created if the lines are curved or not exactly parallel. Moiré patterns revealing complex shapes, or sequences of symbols embedded in one of the layers (in form of periodically repeated compressed shapes) are created with shape moiré, otherwise called band moiré patterns. One of the most important properties of shape moiré is its ability to magnify tiny shapes along either one or both axes, that is, stretching. A common 2D example of moiré magnification occurs when viewing a chain-link fence through a second chain-link fence of identical design. The fine structure of the design is visible even at great distances.
Geometrical approach
the patterns are superimposed in the mid-width of the figure
Let us consider two patterns made of parallel and equidistant lines, e.g., vertical lines. The step of the first pattern is p, the step of the second is p+δp, with 0<δ<1.
If the lines of the patterns are superimposed at the left of the figure, the shift between the lines increase when going to the right. After a given number of lines, the patterns are opposed: the lines of the second pattern are between the lines of the first pattern. If we look from a far distance, we have the feeling of pale zones when the lines are superimposed, (there is white between the lines), and of dark zones when the lines are "opposed".
Rotated patterns
Moiré obtained by the superimposition of two similar patterns rotated by an angle α
Let us consider two patterns with the same step p, but the second pattern is turned by an angle α. Seen from far, we can also see dark and pale lines: the pale lines correspond to the lines of nodes, that is, lines passing through the intersections of the two patterns.
If we consider a cell of the "net", we can see that the cell is a rhombus: it is a parallelogram with the four sides equal to d = p/sin α; (we have a right triangle which hypothenuse is d and the side opposed to the α angle is p).
Week 8- Bramante`s anamorphic perspective
Santa Maria presso San Satiro in Milan
(http://cmuarch2013.wordpress.com/author/pgarcia05/)
Bramante's first significant church was Santa Maria presso San Satiro, Milan (begun c.1481), where he erected the first coffered dome since Antiquity, made the shallow east end appear as a deep chancel by means of theatrical perspective techniques, placed a barrel-vault over the nave (influenced by Alberti), and reworked the C9 chapel of San Satiro as a drum (embellished with pilasters and niches).
(http://www.answers.com/topic/donato-bramante)
(http://cmuarch2013.wordpress.com/author/pgarcia05/)Bramante's first significant church was Santa Maria presso San Satiro, Milan (begun c.1481), where he erected the first coffered dome since Antiquity, made the shallow east end appear as a deep chancel by means of theatrical perspective techniques, placed a barrel-vault over the nave (influenced by Alberti), and reworked the C9 chapel of San Satiro as a drum (embellished with pilasters and niches).
(http://www.answers.com/topic/donato-bramante)
Week 8- Dazzle pattern
dazzle:
1-[T] If light dazzles you, it makes you unable to see for a short time
I was dazzled by the sunlight.
2-[T usually passive] If you are dazzled by someone or something, you think they are extremely good and exciting
I was dazzled by his charm and good looks.
(http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=19792&dict=CALD)
WHAT IS DAZZLE
The father of camouflage, Abbott Thayer described animal coloration as a way to conceal or disrupt an object. Dazzle is disruptive (think of a zebra). French artists developed military camouflage in World War I. Ships were hard to camouflage against U-boats because the sea and sky were always changing and of the smoke they produced. Norman Wilkinson, a marine painter who was in the Royal Navy, is credited with being the first to develop dazzle camouflage for ships. The Royal Navy allowed him to test his idea. When the test went well Wilkinson was told to proceed, however, he was given no office space. So he went to his alma mater the Royal Academy and was given a classroom. Wilkinson hired Vorticist Edward Wadsworth to be a port officer in Liverpool, England and oversee the painting of dazzle ships. In 1918, Wilkinson came to United States to share his dazzle plans. 1,000 plans were developed through this partnership.
Did it work? Dazzle and the convoy system were implemented about the same time, so it is hard to say. However, crews on dazzle ships were very proud of the bedazzled camouflage. It was definitely a morale booster. The British and the Americans fully adopted dazzle because at the time they found it to be effective and inexpensive.
(http://www.risd.edu/dazzle/)
1-[T] If light dazzles you, it makes you unable to see for a short time
I was dazzled by the sunlight.
2-[T usually passive] If you are dazzled by someone or something, you think they are extremely good and exciting
I was dazzled by his charm and good looks.
(http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=19792&dict=CALD)
WHAT IS DAZZLE
The father of camouflage, Abbott Thayer described animal coloration as a way to conceal or disrupt an object. Dazzle is disruptive (think of a zebra). French artists developed military camouflage in World War I. Ships were hard to camouflage against U-boats because the sea and sky were always changing and of the smoke they produced. Norman Wilkinson, a marine painter who was in the Royal Navy, is credited with being the first to develop dazzle camouflage for ships. The Royal Navy allowed him to test his idea. When the test went well Wilkinson was told to proceed, however, he was given no office space. So he went to his alma mater the Royal Academy and was given a classroom. Wilkinson hired Vorticist Edward Wadsworth to be a port officer in Liverpool, England and oversee the painting of dazzle ships. In 1918, Wilkinson came to United States to share his dazzle plans. 1,000 plans were developed through this partnership.
Did it work? Dazzle and the convoy system were implemented about the same time, so it is hard to say. However, crews on dazzle ships were very proud of the bedazzled camouflage. It was definitely a morale booster. The British and the Americans fully adopted dazzle because at the time they found it to be effective and inexpensive.
(http://www.risd.edu/dazzle/)
Sunday, 6 December 2009
Week 8- Morphic resonance
INFORMATION AND THE CODES OF LIFE
Western philosophers, from Plato to Aristotle to Alfred North Whitehead, have promulgated the ideas that form exists independently of substance and that there are perfect, unchanging forms in an eternal domain beyond the reach of human senses. This idea can be likened to the architect's blueprint which exists independently of and prior to the building of the house. It is the blueprint which informs the builder where to place what type of materials.
"Blueprint" is the role that DNA and its messenger RNA play. But are they the complete information system for creating the human mind/body? Rupert Sheldrake, biological scientist, believes there is another information system of equal important to DNA-RNA.
MORPHIC RESONANCE
Sheldrake proposes that higher-level fields organize and coordinate the various lower-level fields of which they are composed.
According to the organismic theory, systems or 'organisms' are hierarchically organized at all levels of complexity...These systems as morphic units...or *holons, are defined as a self-regulating open system which display both the autonomous properties of wholes and the dependent properties of parts. At each level the *holons are wholes containing parts, which are themselves wholes containing whole *holons, and so on. The following diagram could represent subatomic panicles in atoms, in molecules, or in crystals, for example; or cells in tissues, in organs, in organisms. (1) (See diagram below.)
Thus, morphogenetic fields have a dynamic, interactive relationship with their physical counterparts and are ever changing and evolving fields of information for form, behavior and mental activities. In addition, the fields are passed from generation to generation just as the genetic code is passed from parent to child.
Hereditary behavior, like hereditary form, is influenced by genes, but is neither "genetic" nor "genetically programmed." Under the hypothesis of formative causation, characteristic patterns are organized by morphic fields, which are inherited by morphic resonance from past members of the same species. (2)
Thus, from the Point of view of the hypothesis of formative causation, there is only a difference of degree between instincts and habits: both depend on morphic resonance, the former from countless previous individuals of the same species, and the latter from past states of the same individual. (3)
Here we can see that the personal morphogenetic field is a memory bank for behavioral programs, beliefs, feelings, operational rules and the designs of the physical form "which interacts with the nervous system and plays a role similar to the program or software in the computer." (3)
With Sheldrake's allusion to the programming of a computer (see diagram below) we have come full circle to our introduction and to our suggestion that the techniques of Geotrantm are capable of eliminating and correcting self-destructive behaviors, thoughts and feelings by changing the information in the personal morphogenetic field.
The most important qualities of fields to Circles of Life are as follows:
a field is a state of space rather than of matter;
a field generates matter;
a field connects events in space;
a field organizes growth and determines form;
a field can store memories, behaviors, beliefs and feelings;
a field can be reprogrammed.
(http://www.i-can-soar.com/sum.htm#ref-14)
(1)Sheldrake,R. The Presence of the Past. p. 90. Park Street Press. Vermont.
(2)Sheldrake,R. The Presence of the Past. p. 155. Park Street Press. Vermont.
(3)Sheldrake,R. The Presence of the Past. p. 211. Park Street Press. Vermont.
*holon:A holon (Greek: holos, "whole") is something that is simultaneously a whole and a part.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holon_(philosophy)
Western philosophers, from Plato to Aristotle to Alfred North Whitehead, have promulgated the ideas that form exists independently of substance and that there are perfect, unchanging forms in an eternal domain beyond the reach of human senses. This idea can be likened to the architect's blueprint which exists independently of and prior to the building of the house. It is the blueprint which informs the builder where to place what type of materials.
"Blueprint" is the role that DNA and its messenger RNA play. But are they the complete information system for creating the human mind/body? Rupert Sheldrake, biological scientist, believes there is another information system of equal important to DNA-RNA.
MORPHIC RESONANCE
Sheldrake proposes that higher-level fields organize and coordinate the various lower-level fields of which they are composed.
According to the organismic theory, systems or 'organisms' are hierarchically organized at all levels of complexity...These systems as morphic units...or *holons, are defined as a self-regulating open system which display both the autonomous properties of wholes and the dependent properties of parts. At each level the *holons are wholes containing parts, which are themselves wholes containing whole *holons, and so on. The following diagram could represent subatomic panicles in atoms, in molecules, or in crystals, for example; or cells in tissues, in organs, in organisms. (1) (See diagram below.)
Thus, morphogenetic fields have a dynamic, interactive relationship with their physical counterparts and are ever changing and evolving fields of information for form, behavior and mental activities. In addition, the fields are passed from generation to generation just as the genetic code is passed from parent to child.
Hereditary behavior, like hereditary form, is influenced by genes, but is neither "genetic" nor "genetically programmed." Under the hypothesis of formative causation, characteristic patterns are organized by morphic fields, which are inherited by morphic resonance from past members of the same species. (2)
Thus, from the Point of view of the hypothesis of formative causation, there is only a difference of degree between instincts and habits: both depend on morphic resonance, the former from countless previous individuals of the same species, and the latter from past states of the same individual. (3)
Here we can see that the personal morphogenetic field is a memory bank for behavioral programs, beliefs, feelings, operational rules and the designs of the physical form "which interacts with the nervous system and plays a role similar to the program or software in the computer." (3)
With Sheldrake's allusion to the programming of a computer (see diagram below) we have come full circle to our introduction and to our suggestion that the techniques of Geotrantm are capable of eliminating and correcting self-destructive behaviors, thoughts and feelings by changing the information in the personal morphogenetic field.
The most important qualities of fields to Circles of Life are as follows:
a field is a state of space rather than of matter;
a field generates matter;
a field connects events in space;
a field organizes growth and determines form;
a field can store memories, behaviors, beliefs and feelings;
a field can be reprogrammed.
(http://www.i-can-soar.com/sum.htm#ref-14)
(1)Sheldrake,R. The Presence of the Past. p. 90. Park Street Press. Vermont.
(2)Sheldrake,R. The Presence of the Past. p. 155. Park Street Press. Vermont.
(3)Sheldrake,R. The Presence of the Past. p. 211. Park Street Press. Vermont.
*holon:A holon (Greek: holos, "whole") is something that is simultaneously a whole and a part.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holon_(philosophy)
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Week 7- Etymology of Perception
(http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=perceptionperception )
1483, "receiving, collection," from L. perceptionem (nom. perceptio) "perception, apprehension, a taking," from percipere "perceive" (see perceive). First used in the more literal sense of the L. word; in secondary sense, "the taking cognizance of," it is recorded in Eng. from 1611. Meaning "intuitive or direct recognition of some innate quality" is from 1827.
(http://dictionary.cambridge.org/)
perception noun (SIGHT)
1)[U] the quality of being aware of things through the physical senses, especially sight
2) [U] someone's ability to notice and understand things that are not obvious to other people
1483, "receiving, collection," from L. perceptionem (nom. perceptio) "perception, apprehension, a taking," from percipere "perceive" (see perceive). First used in the more literal sense of the L. word; in secondary sense, "the taking cognizance of," it is recorded in Eng. from 1611. Meaning "intuitive or direct recognition of some innate quality" is from 1827.
(http://dictionary.cambridge.org/)
perception noun (SIGHT)
1)[U] the quality of being aware of things through the physical senses, especially sight
2) [U] someone's ability to notice and understand things that are not obvious to other people
Week 7- The Allegory of the Cave
The Allegory of the Cave
1.Plato realizes that the general run of humankind can think, and speak, etc., without (so far as they acknowledge) any awareness of his realm of Forms.
2.The allegory of the cave is supposed to explain this.
3.In the allegory, Plato likens people untutored in the Theory of Forms to prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. Behind them burns a fire. Between the fire and the prisoners there is a parapet, along which puppeteers can walk. The puppeteers, who are behind the prisoners, hold up puppets that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see these puppets, the real objects, that pass behind them. What the prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects that they do not see. Here is an illustration of Plato’s Cave:
4.Such prisoners would mistake appearance for reality. They would think the things they see on the wall (the shadows) were real; they would know nothing of the real causes of the shadows.
5.So when the prisoners talk, what are they talking about? If an object (a book, let us say) is carried past behind them, and it casts a shadow on the wall, and a prisoner says “I see a book,” what is he talking about?
He thinks he is talking about a book, but he is really talking about a shadow. But he uses the word “book.” What does that refer to?
6.Plato gives his answer at line (515b2). The text here has puzzled many editors, and it has been frequently emended. The translation in Grube/Reeve gets the point correctly:
“And if they could talk to one another, don’t you think they’d suppose that the names they used applied to the things they see passing before them?”
7.Plato’s point is that the prisoners would be mistaken. For they would be taking the terms in their language to refer to the shadows that pass before their eyes, rather than (as is correct, in Plato’s view) to the real things that cast the shadows.
If a prisoner says “That’s a book” he thinks that the word “book” refers to the very thing he is looking at. But he would be wrong. He’s only looking at a shadow. The real referent of the word “book” he cannot see. To see it, he would have to turn his head around.
8.Plato’s point: the general terms of our language are not “names” of the physical objects that we can see. They are actually names of things that we cannot see, things that we can only grasp with the mind.
9.When the prisoners are released, they can turn their heads and see the real objects. Then they realize their error. What can we do that is analogous to turning our heads and seeing the causes of the shadows? We can come to grasp the Forms with our minds.
10.Plato’s aim in the Republic is to describe what is necessary for us to achieve this reflective understanding. But even without it, it remains true that our very ability to think and to speak depends on the Forms. For the terms of the language we use get their meaning by “naming” the Forms that the objects we perceive participate in.
11.The prisoners may learn what a book is by their experience with shadows of books. But they would be mistaken if they thought that the word “book” refers to something that any of them has ever seen.
Likewise, we may acquire concepts by our perceptual experience of physical objects. But we would be mistaken if we thought that the concepts that we grasp were on the same level as the things we perceive.
(http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm)
1.Plato realizes that the general run of humankind can think, and speak, etc., without (so far as they acknowledge) any awareness of his realm of Forms.
2.The allegory of the cave is supposed to explain this.
3.In the allegory, Plato likens people untutored in the Theory of Forms to prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. Behind them burns a fire. Between the fire and the prisoners there is a parapet, along which puppeteers can walk. The puppeteers, who are behind the prisoners, hold up puppets that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see these puppets, the real objects, that pass behind them. What the prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects that they do not see. Here is an illustration of Plato’s Cave:
4.Such prisoners would mistake appearance for reality. They would think the things they see on the wall (the shadows) were real; they would know nothing of the real causes of the shadows.
5.So when the prisoners talk, what are they talking about? If an object (a book, let us say) is carried past behind them, and it casts a shadow on the wall, and a prisoner says “I see a book,” what is he talking about?
He thinks he is talking about a book, but he is really talking about a shadow. But he uses the word “book.” What does that refer to?
6.Plato gives his answer at line (515b2). The text here has puzzled many editors, and it has been frequently emended. The translation in Grube/Reeve gets the point correctly:
“And if they could talk to one another, don’t you think they’d suppose that the names they used applied to the things they see passing before them?”
7.Plato’s point is that the prisoners would be mistaken. For they would be taking the terms in their language to refer to the shadows that pass before their eyes, rather than (as is correct, in Plato’s view) to the real things that cast the shadows.
If a prisoner says “That’s a book” he thinks that the word “book” refers to the very thing he is looking at. But he would be wrong. He’s only looking at a shadow. The real referent of the word “book” he cannot see. To see it, he would have to turn his head around.
8.Plato’s point: the general terms of our language are not “names” of the physical objects that we can see. They are actually names of things that we cannot see, things that we can only grasp with the mind.
9.When the prisoners are released, they can turn their heads and see the real objects. Then they realize their error. What can we do that is analogous to turning our heads and seeing the causes of the shadows? We can come to grasp the Forms with our minds.
10.Plato’s aim in the Republic is to describe what is necessary for us to achieve this reflective understanding. But even without it, it remains true that our very ability to think and to speak depends on the Forms. For the terms of the language we use get their meaning by “naming” the Forms that the objects we perceive participate in.
11.The prisoners may learn what a book is by their experience with shadows of books. But they would be mistaken if they thought that the word “book” refers to something that any of them has ever seen.
Likewise, we may acquire concepts by our perceptual experience of physical objects. But we would be mistaken if we thought that the concepts that we grasp were on the same level as the things we perceive.
(http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm)
Week 7- The notion of belonging-Social Identity
(http://www.sirc.org/publik/belonging.pdf)
Research Comissioned by The automobile Association.July,2007.
Summary and highlights
This report focuses on the theme of 'belonging' in 21st century Britain.The
notion of belonging, or social identity, is a central aspect of how we define who we are. We consider ourselves to be individuals but it is our membership of
particular groups that is most important in constructing a sense of identity.
Social identity is a fundamental aspect of what it is to be human.
In Britain today there is public debate suggesting that we are losing this essential sense of belonging — that globalization, for example, far from bringing people closer together, is actually moving us apart. We hear that our neighbourhoods are becoming evermore impersonal and anonymous and that we no longer have a sense of place. But is this really the case? Are we losing our sense of belonging, or are we simply finding new ways to locate ourselves in a changing society? This report seeks an answer.
Research Comissioned by The automobile Association.July,2007.
Summary and highlights
This report focuses on the theme of 'belonging' in 21st century Britain.The
notion of belonging, or social identity, is a central aspect of how we define who we are. We consider ourselves to be individuals but it is our membership of
particular groups that is most important in constructing a sense of identity.
Social identity is a fundamental aspect of what it is to be human.
In Britain today there is public debate suggesting that we are losing this essential sense of belonging — that globalization, for example, far from bringing people closer together, is actually moving us apart. We hear that our neighbourhoods are becoming evermore impersonal and anonymous and that we no longer have a sense of place. But is this really the case? Are we losing our sense of belonging, or are we simply finding new ways to locate ourselves in a changing society? This report seeks an answer.
Week 7- Physiognotrace
(http://projectionsystems.wordpress.com/2009/09/10/physiognotrace)
Thomas Holloway, renowned British engraver, is among the first to devise a mechanism to draw profiles with a shadow. Contemporary with Hawkins and Chretien, Holloway publishes the following image in 1792:
Strangely, this “machine” is not particularly mechanical. It removes pantographic arms in favor for a simple translucent screen to catch a subject’s shadow. The artist would then only need to trace the shadow with a pencil (however difficult this may have been considering the light source was a flickering candle). Its mechanism is a refinement on the pantograph because it uses existing projectors nature provides. The light emits the invisible lines that pass a solid’s edge and leave that mark on the screen as the shadow’s edge.
A 20th century version uses some mechanism for alignment, but is virtually unchanged from Holloway’s model:
Taken together, there was a clear alignment of interests in the late 18th, early 19th centuries that brought projection systems to the foreground. A burgeoning Neoclassicism looks to ancient stories, finding a tale of the origin of painting. Physiognomy arrives on the scene, also inspired by ancient philosophy. The sudden loss of interest in the method occurs around 1840, immediately in the wake of the invention of photography. The chemical processes used by Daguerre and Niepce in France, and by Henry Fox Talbot in England, were almost simultaneously and independently achieved. The fact that several people can claim the invention of photography is probably an indicator that the interest in mechanical imagery was waning and that true fidelity, in the form of light captured on paper, was willed into existence.
Thomas Holloway, renowned British engraver, is among the first to devise a mechanism to draw profiles with a shadow. Contemporary with Hawkins and Chretien, Holloway publishes the following image in 1792:
Strangely, this “machine” is not particularly mechanical. It removes pantographic arms in favor for a simple translucent screen to catch a subject’s shadow. The artist would then only need to trace the shadow with a pencil (however difficult this may have been considering the light source was a flickering candle). Its mechanism is a refinement on the pantograph because it uses existing projectors nature provides. The light emits the invisible lines that pass a solid’s edge and leave that mark on the screen as the shadow’s edge.
A 20th century version uses some mechanism for alignment, but is virtually unchanged from Holloway’s model:
Taken together, there was a clear alignment of interests in the late 18th, early 19th centuries that brought projection systems to the foreground. A burgeoning Neoclassicism looks to ancient stories, finding a tale of the origin of painting. Physiognomy arrives on the scene, also inspired by ancient philosophy. The sudden loss of interest in the method occurs around 1840, immediately in the wake of the invention of photography. The chemical processes used by Daguerre and Niepce in France, and by Henry Fox Talbot in England, were almost simultaneously and independently achieved. The fact that several people can claim the invention of photography is probably an indicator that the interest in mechanical imagery was waning and that true fidelity, in the form of light captured on paper, was willed into existence.
Week 7- The Origin of Painting and Robin Evans
(http://projectionsystems.wordpress.com/2009/09/06/the-origin-of-painting)
As a follow-up to the below post, I thought it useful to expand a bit on Pliny the Elder’s account of the origin of painting. In his Natural History (circa 77-79AD), Pliny attempts to make the compendium of information for his time. In Books XXXIV and XXXV, he discusses metallurgy, sculpture, and painting.
In Chapter 5 of Book XXXV, he writes, “We have no certain knowledge as to the commencement of the art of painting, nor does this enquiry fall under our consideration. The Egyptians assert that it was invented among themselves, six thousand years before it passed into Greece; a vain boast, it is very evident. As to the Greeks, some say that it was invented at Sicyon, others at Corinth; but they all agree that it originated in tracing lines round the human shadow [...omnes umbra hominis lineis circumducta].“
Later, in Chapter 15, he tells the now-famous story of Butades of Corinth. “It was through his daughter that he made the discovery; who, being deeply in love with a young man about to depart on a long journey, traced the profile of his face, as thrown upon the wall by the light of the lamp [umbram ex facie eius ad lucernam in pariete lineis circumscripsit].“
From the mid-to-late 18th century until the early 19th century, The Origin of Painting was a mildly popular sub-genre, depicted by artists under titles such as “The Origin of Painting”, “The Art of Painting”, “The Invention of Drawing”, and “The Corinthian Maid”. Some examples:
Jean Baptiste Regnault, Origin of Painting, 1785
David Allan, Origin of Painting, 1775
Joseph Benoit Suvee, Invention of Art of Drawing, 1793
Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Origin of Painting, 1830
Some recent interpretations of Pliny’s story:
Francine van Hove, Dibutades, 2007
Karen Knorr, The Pencil of Nature, 1994. (The title is a mixed metaphor, as it is the title of Henry Fox Talbot's 1844-46 account of his invention of the photographic process)
Architecture Historian Robin Evans, in his essay “Translations from Drawing to Building”, makes an astute observation regarding the Schinkel version shown above. In comparing it to David Allen’s rendition, he notes that Schinkel, an architect, is the only of his contemporaries to depict the shadow as cast by the sun. Allen and others use the point source of a lamp. Evans uses this discrepancy to explain the two major paradigms of projection: parallel (orthography) and centric projection. The artist uses the converging lines to make enlargements and reductions in the scale of the image, by changing the physical relationships between light, subject, and wall. The architect requires precision in scale for transmission of information. The sun provides this control, so it doesn’t matter where the subject is; the sun’s rays are parallel, guaranteeing a precise same-scale reproduction when the shadow reaches its screen.
As a follow-up to the below post, I thought it useful to expand a bit on Pliny the Elder’s account of the origin of painting. In his Natural History (circa 77-79AD), Pliny attempts to make the compendium of information for his time. In Books XXXIV and XXXV, he discusses metallurgy, sculpture, and painting.
In Chapter 5 of Book XXXV, he writes, “We have no certain knowledge as to the commencement of the art of painting, nor does this enquiry fall under our consideration. The Egyptians assert that it was invented among themselves, six thousand years before it passed into Greece; a vain boast, it is very evident. As to the Greeks, some say that it was invented at Sicyon, others at Corinth; but they all agree that it originated in tracing lines round the human shadow [...omnes umbra hominis lineis circumducta].“
Later, in Chapter 15, he tells the now-famous story of Butades of Corinth. “It was through his daughter that he made the discovery; who, being deeply in love with a young man about to depart on a long journey, traced the profile of his face, as thrown upon the wall by the light of the lamp [umbram ex facie eius ad lucernam in pariete lineis circumscripsit].“
From the mid-to-late 18th century until the early 19th century, The Origin of Painting was a mildly popular sub-genre, depicted by artists under titles such as “The Origin of Painting”, “The Art of Painting”, “The Invention of Drawing”, and “The Corinthian Maid”. Some examples:
Jean Baptiste Regnault, Origin of Painting, 1785
David Allan, Origin of Painting, 1775
Joseph Benoit Suvee, Invention of Art of Drawing, 1793
Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Origin of Painting, 1830
Some recent interpretations of Pliny’s story:
Francine van Hove, Dibutades, 2007
Karen Knorr, The Pencil of Nature, 1994. (The title is a mixed metaphor, as it is the title of Henry Fox Talbot's 1844-46 account of his invention of the photographic process)
Architecture Historian Robin Evans, in his essay “Translations from Drawing to Building”, makes an astute observation regarding the Schinkel version shown above. In comparing it to David Allen’s rendition, he notes that Schinkel, an architect, is the only of his contemporaries to depict the shadow as cast by the sun. Allen and others use the point source of a lamp. Evans uses this discrepancy to explain the two major paradigms of projection: parallel (orthography) and centric projection. The artist uses the converging lines to make enlargements and reductions in the scale of the image, by changing the physical relationships between light, subject, and wall. The architect requires precision in scale for transmission of information. The sun provides this control, so it doesn’t matter where the subject is; the sun’s rays are parallel, guaranteeing a precise same-scale reproduction when the shadow reaches its screen.
Week 7- Brunelleschi's Perspective
This is an interesting application of digital projection technique, as the computer calculating the overlay needs to establish realtime vanishing points, camera angles, and optical precision. In a way, it is the fulfillment of a promise made by the earliest of perspective demonstrations. In the early 15th century, Filippo Brunelleschi “proved” his method of drawing realistic perspective using a mirror and his painting of the baptistry of Florence:
The painting’s vanishing point was drilled out, allowing the visitor to peer through the point from behind the panel. The viewer stands in front of the real Baptistry with a mirror in between the scene and the panel. Moving the mirror was to demonstrate the perspective’s fidelity through the virtual overlay, through the lack of change between image and the real. Brunelleschi used silver leaf in the sky of the panel, to reflect the sky in a luminous manner, rather than paint static clouds. The demonstration, with the precise alignment of painting and real, with algorithmically derived projector lines to simulate perceptual geometry, is a great leap in the history of virtuality. The addition of the real clouds mirrored in the specular finish, to blend aspects of the real with the virtual simulation, belongs to the ancestry of what would become augmented reality. (http://projectionsystems.wordpress.com)
Week 7- Belonging
Etymology of belonging:
Belong
mid-14c., "to go along with, relate to," from be- intensive prefix, + O.E. langian "pertain to, to go along with." Sense of "to be the property of" first recorded late 14c. Related to M.Du. belanghen, Du. belangen, Ger. belangen. Replaced earlier O.E. gelang, with completive prefix ge-. (http://www.etymonline.com)
Belongings
"goods, effects, possessions," 1817, from belong. (http://www.etymonline.com)
Description of belonging:
1)to be in the right or suitable place. 2) to feel happy or comfortable in a situation. (http://dictionary.cambridge.org)
Maslow's hierarchy of needs:
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory of motivation, whereby people must meet certain biological and psychological needs before they can desire self-actualisation.
The level in the hierarchy at which a person is operating may change from time to time. For example, once having ascended to the level of esteem, a person may temporarily regress to the level of the need for belonging if he or she no longer feels loved and accepted by others. The lower level needs must still be met even when someone is functioning at one of the higher levels.
(Kirby, S. 2009. http://psychology.suite101.com/article.cfm/abraham_maslows_hierarchy_of_human_needs.)
Belong
mid-14c., "to go along with, relate to," from be- intensive prefix, + O.E. langian "pertain to, to go along with." Sense of "to be the property of" first recorded late 14c. Related to M.Du. belanghen, Du. belangen, Ger. belangen. Replaced earlier O.E. gelang, with completive prefix ge-. (http://www.etymonline.com)
Belongings
"goods, effects, possessions," 1817, from belong. (http://www.etymonline.com)
Description of belonging:
1)to be in the right or suitable place. 2) to feel happy or comfortable in a situation. (http://dictionary.cambridge.org)
Maslow's hierarchy of needs:
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory of motivation, whereby people must meet certain biological and psychological needs before they can desire self-actualisation.
The level in the hierarchy at which a person is operating may change from time to time. For example, once having ascended to the level of esteem, a person may temporarily regress to the level of the need for belonging if he or she no longer feels loved and accepted by others. The lower level needs must still be met even when someone is functioning at one of the higher levels.
(Kirby, S. 2009. http://psychology.suite101.com/article.cfm/abraham_maslows_hierarchy_of_human_needs.)
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