17 February 2013
13 January 2011
Two Artists' Works That I Believe Will Never Stop Impressing The Crap Out Of Me No Matter How Long I Live
Robert Morris' felt sculptures
Steven Parrino
11 January 2011
Maps of How We Perceive Color
I had the luck to study photo color theory with MJ Toles in undergraduate school at CIA. It was so meaty I took the course twice to get to digest it better, and one of the perks was the chance to take the rare "Farnsworth-Munsell 100 Hue Color Test for the examination of Color Discrimination" pigment test. Rare only in the fact that this beautiful kit costs over seven hundred dollars and must be taken only in pristine daylight lighting conditions to truly be accurate. "If natural daylight is used, the test should be given near a window illuminated chiefly from the north sky, lightly to moderately overcast." Color is tricky.But there was a point to the specifics, as it was an experience that not only was a color test for your vision, but also functioned as an experiment where the only variable became your BRAIN and how it perceives color. I'm still so awestruck by this map of how my brain perceives color hues-- I seem to get fuzzy with cool tone green hues, and warm toned blue greens, but not enough to not be considered well within the norms of a very good and average discriminator of color. Imagine that! Your orange-red could be a different orange-red to me, but my blue green is a different blue-green to you. And this isn't colorblindness, but within the norm of about 70% of the population. (There is only about 16% of the population that has "Superior Discrimination" or, a perfect circle in the smallest ring, and about 16% of the population could have significant difficulties to be considered some degree of color blindness.)
12 December 2010
Notes from a book called "Quantum Psychology: Steps Toward A Postmodern Ecology of Being"
I did a heavy room clean today and found notes from this book I was slowly digesting during my fifth year of undergrad. After reading these notes from a book written by the psychologist Stephen DeBerry, I realized that this really started a breaking point of my earlier undergrad work to the substances I worked with after these notes and continue to work from now.
Here are some favorites from these rediscovered notes:
Our Universe-> from isolated arena of fragmented and seperate objects to an ecological network of interconnected possibilities. From people as a collection of separate symptoms to a holistic concept of what it means to be alive.
"The first step is to measure whatever can be easily measured. This is okay as far as it goes. The second step is to disregard that which can't be measured or give it an arbitrary quantitative value. This is artificial and misleading. The third step is to presume that what can't be measured easily isn't very important. This is blindness. The fourth step is to say that what can't be easily measured really doesn't exist. This is suicide" - Daniel Yankelovich
IT IS EXPERIENCE, NOT THEORY, THAT IS MOST MEANINGFUL AND MUST COME FIRST
"A quantum approach entails a system of probability in which all possible outcomes are considered. This does not mean that clusters or patterns do not develop from the experience of one's upbringing... patterns reflect general possibilities of tendencies of behavior, where as symptoms reflect specific events. Patterns are dynamic and interactive, whereas symptoms are static and discreet.
Psychological patterns, like waves and particles in the physical universe are interactive; they do not manifest themselves unless certain conditions exist. Interestingly enough, these conditions depend on what we are looking for as well as the methods we employ."
CONSCIOUSNESS PLAYS A ROLE IN CONSTRUCTING REALITY.
The everyday world in which we live clearly follows a Newtonian, classical cause and effect paradigm that is implicated in one of the central paradoxes that quantum psychology inspires. THE PARADOX IS THAT THE COMMONSENSE, ORGANIZED CASUAL WORLD WE INHABIT IS BUILT ON A STARTINGLY MYSTERIOUS, SUBATOMIC, QUANTUM WORLD. In some clandestine manner, it is the interaction of these levels of reality that results in our world being.
Epistemic dualism: a method of reasoning that distinguishes between what in principle must be true and what in reality can be accomplished.
Some concepts:
1. Complementarity "The universe can never be described in a singular, unitary matter, but rather, must be understood through multiple, overlapping reality and perspectives. Such layers of reality sometimes complement one another, but often, they are paradoxical." Niels Bohr
2. Consciousness: "If consciousness cannot affect matter, then it is the only scientific example where one system (matter) can effect another system (mind) without being affected itself." E.P. Wigner
3. The interaction of systems.
4. Non-linearity and non-locality.
Schizoid Phenomena: Indicates a division or split within the mind, and therefore are, in every general way, related to the problem of consciousness.
Psychological dimensions that are affected by schizoid conditions are:
Here are some favorites from these rediscovered notes:
Our Universe-> from isolated arena of fragmented and seperate objects to an ecological network of interconnected possibilities. From people as a collection of separate symptoms to a holistic concept of what it means to be alive.
"The first step is to measure whatever can be easily measured. This is okay as far as it goes. The second step is to disregard that which can't be measured or give it an arbitrary quantitative value. This is artificial and misleading. The third step is to presume that what can't be measured easily isn't very important. This is blindness. The fourth step is to say that what can't be easily measured really doesn't exist. This is suicide" - Daniel Yankelovich
IT IS EXPERIENCE, NOT THEORY, THAT IS MOST MEANINGFUL AND MUST COME FIRST
"A quantum approach entails a system of probability in which all possible outcomes are considered. This does not mean that clusters or patterns do not develop from the experience of one's upbringing... patterns reflect general possibilities of tendencies of behavior, where as symptoms reflect specific events. Patterns are dynamic and interactive, whereas symptoms are static and discreet.
Psychological patterns, like waves and particles in the physical universe are interactive; they do not manifest themselves unless certain conditions exist. Interestingly enough, these conditions depend on what we are looking for as well as the methods we employ."
CONSCIOUSNESS PLAYS A ROLE IN CONSTRUCTING REALITY.
The everyday world in which we live clearly follows a Newtonian, classical cause and effect paradigm that is implicated in one of the central paradoxes that quantum psychology inspires. THE PARADOX IS THAT THE COMMONSENSE, ORGANIZED CASUAL WORLD WE INHABIT IS BUILT ON A STARTINGLY MYSTERIOUS, SUBATOMIC, QUANTUM WORLD. In some clandestine manner, it is the interaction of these levels of reality that results in our world being.
Epistemic dualism: a method of reasoning that distinguishes between what in principle must be true and what in reality can be accomplished.
Some concepts:
1. Complementarity "The universe can never be described in a singular, unitary matter, but rather, must be understood through multiple, overlapping reality and perspectives. Such layers of reality sometimes complement one another, but often, they are paradoxical." Niels Bohr
2. Consciousness: "If consciousness cannot affect matter, then it is the only scientific example where one system (matter) can effect another system (mind) without being affected itself." E.P. Wigner
3. The interaction of systems.
4. Non-linearity and non-locality.
- Non-linearity: Chaos: "The irregular, unpredictable behavior of deterministic, non-linear dynamical systems and dynamics freed at last from the shackles of order and predictability... systems liberated to randomly explore their every dynamical possibility... exciting variety, richness of choice, a cornucopia of opportunity." Gleick
- Non-locality: the ability to comprehend something like the actuality of 1 billion people or god
"Questioning makes one open, makes one sensitive, makes one humble. We don't suffer from our questions, we suffer from our answers. Most of the mischief in the world comes from people with answers, not from people with questions." -John Needleman
- Can be thought of as emotional triggers
- Represent sensitive configurations of consciousness that are often below our level of awareness (prelinguistic)
- Resonate in and activate unconscious or split-off parts of early perverbal emotional memories
Schizoid Phenomena: Indicates a division or split within the mind, and therefore are, in every general way, related to the problem of consciousness.
Psychological dimensions that are affected by schizoid conditions are:
- Behavior– becomes inconsistent and situational
- Emotions- represented primarily as a psychological process affected by schizoid phenomena (split off from awareness)
- Thoughts- thoughts and emotions are two complimentary modes of processing information
- Sensations
- Imagery
11 December 2010
Less Seriously
Allowing myself to not take myself seriously has made the world of a difference, and I owe a lot of it to the wise words of George Carlin found on YouTube, on The View no less.
To see the entire video click here. Below is a translation of him speaking from 3:55 to 4:33. I highly recommend watching all of it, though. Its chock full of excellence on his part.
"When I first changed the kind of stuff I was doing in the late sixties–– I had been a suit and tie comic out of the fifties and I had short hair and all that–– and I realized I was doing the wrong thing for the wrong people and I let myself change into more of a freer (if you would use the word hippie) look and attitude and I realized that, um, I said to my wife at that time when I changed I said, "You know even if I only filled coffeehouses three days a week for the rest of my life I'd be happy doing that." And when you let go of goals and stuff, I mean the attachment to goals–– that's when things come to you. You should have an end point, but not a thing like that."
To see the entire video click here. Below is a translation of him speaking from 3:55 to 4:33. I highly recommend watching all of it, though. Its chock full of excellence on his part.
"When I first changed the kind of stuff I was doing in the late sixties–– I had been a suit and tie comic out of the fifties and I had short hair and all that–– and I realized I was doing the wrong thing for the wrong people and I let myself change into more of a freer (if you would use the word hippie) look and attitude and I realized that, um, I said to my wife at that time when I changed I said, "You know even if I only filled coffeehouses three days a week for the rest of my life I'd be happy doing that." And when you let go of goals and stuff, I mean the attachment to goals–– that's when things come to you. You should have an end point, but not a thing like that."
24 July 2010
Loss of Magic
I've been thinking about how things deeply affect you at a certain point in your life, and then as age and knowledge progress the effects in relation to the same thing is diminished. Not just in respect to art but in respect to practically everything and the loss of magic when
knowledge is gained
romance is lost
ability conquers desire.
The distinct thing that attracts the current you and can override age and wisdom is when a certain aura of a thing resonates with you, undeniably a visceral reaction that cannot be overruled by any logic. Art and landscape can have the most profound power in these terms, however it seems to change over time what those specific things are–– because you and your world are constantly changing, which in turn changes relationships between yourself and something that is commonly perceived as static.
What remains a constant is that certain alchemical reaction that creates magic. However the elements-- you and a certain thing (place/object/situation), are the variables in the setting of time. The same object, therefore, ten years from before might not create the same reaction anymore because you are chemically a different being. Your relationship to this certain thing now has a history. You cannot perceive it without a deep remembrance of a previous exchange and therefore the reality of the current relationship is now defined through remembrance instead of presence, unless the “same” thing can generate something new to your new self with the right chemistry to create magic.
29 March 2010
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