http://www.learning-org.com/00.06/0113.html
INTAGLIO
Our third master etching," The Knight" is constructed on a double diagonal cross formed
by the rider and the cliff , which is the prolongation of the sword. Between the "strength"
of the castle and the “loyalty” of the dog, watchful in the presence of the devil (on the
right) and death holding an hourglass (on the left), the Christian knight rides towards the
necessity of contrition (Durer).
"The Knight, Death &the Devil" by Albrecht Durer, engraving, 1513, 8"x10", Brooklyn Museum
There are (from one perspective) two kinds snip . The first is somewhat like window snip You
walk past, take note, get the broad picture, snip and walk on. The second snip you cannot
walk past. You just have to go inside, snip Then you have to decide? snip …as if it is a
window full snip to be gazed at. It draws me in. I have to look snip Pick them up, snip
resonate? Your writing is often full of empty spaces, left there on purpose. Like nature your 'empty
spaces' abhors a vacuum. I often have to put an idea down for a while and just walk 0 only to be
drawn back to pick it up once more, like a delicate snip........forgive me....;>) (anon).
•
Dear Anon;-)
...It has been my humble personal experience and rare privilege to know that there are those who not only will walk in the valley of death, but do not hide
from the storms THERE.
In the presence of another, while in the storm THERE they do not hide.
They do not shelter behind some large rock.
Nor do they simply move out, to hold the hand of the 'other' who through some misfortune and/or ignorance has found him/herself there.
Seeing the storm approaching, they move toward the storm and THERE they call out into the heart of the storm for those lost and blinded and damaged
by it. BLINDed themsleves, injured NOW they take into the eye of the STORM.
... and THERE they GUIDE the STORM.
["The Christian Knight follows the right path even with the presence of the devil and death. He's riding through the darkness of the valley of the shadow
of death to reach the City of God in the background. The hourglass in the hand of death symbolizes mortality and the shortness of human life. The snakes
in death's hair are symbols of death and the devil. The dog is a symbol of faithfulness in religion and marriage. The dragon-like lizard is an emblem of
evil and it's going in an opposite direction. Dead tree stump refers to the original sin of Adam. We are certain that the knight will reach his goal because
of the power and assurance we get from the printed image." ]
...turning the page --> "to work with gravity, with heaviness, the way a sailboat works with the wind" ;-) (see recent pdf image from the Guardian, UK.)
An early, but often unconsidered part of Virilio's practice, Oblique Architecture creates a situation in which "Every dimension, every direction of space
becomes a modification of the body" This conception of the built environment, which resonates so strongly "posthumanist" discourses, seeks to engage
the body with the environment at every turn. But taken in the context Virilio's larger concerns with "the contraction of distances" ...(Paul Virilio,
commentary and quotes)...
note, to contemporaries:- in other etchings from this period Durer has compressed the pictorial space in such a way that all kinds of incongruities appear
to the eye on the picture plane, so and for example -- in one a stag-deer stands on the back of the Knight's horse, which of course, in reality ;-) is not
possible...is it?
Angels and Buckets... fitting (Bohm) for a Post Modern LO? Who knows?
"You (Andrew) once quoted Prigogine about the need to encounter the completely amazing or absurd. You seem to do this...this skitting from timeTime,
Beam(ish), Whales, images, here and there...in your pdf you quote Prigogine again, and he points to Huxley and ...(anon)
•
"Paul Virilio: Yes, but when I talk about globalization, I am myself a citizen of the world. It is not about opposing globalization. I am saying that the
globalization of time- to return to what I was saying a minute ago - is a catastrophic event. So, to be sure, the problem is not the globalization of
dialogue among nations. The problem is in the instantaneity and the ubiquity.
Let me give you a simple picture. The Industrial Revolution encouraged standardization. And we know the extent to which this is a loss of the sociodiversity of cultures, not to mention the loss of handicrafts, etc. The Informational Revolution, however, is no longer aiming at the standardization of
opinions, products, and objects but at their synchronization, which is a tyrannical situation like we've never seen. Even Orwell did not foresee this
idea of global synchronization, in other words, the tyranny of real time, and hence that the conquest of real time would replace the conquest of the
North Pole. It is this level of temporality at which my attack is aimed, and not at all... I am repeating myself; with Garry Davis I was one of the
citizens of the world when I was young, and I haven't changed my mind, on the contrary-but I believe that synchronization is a tyrannical
phenomenon whose impact has not yet been fully appreciated.
This is the danger of the new technologies. Like all technologies, they obviously have their benefits. But they conceal an absolute accident which is
the perfect synchronization of the opinions, and emotions, of the world."
i think i discern (know ) from your last monochrome work in the Varela interview ;-) series made in the midsummer of 2001 an insight into some
new storm, some new war....is this in any way connected to your visit to see Ms Sacks at Oxford, who worked with Jospeh Beuys?
...Let me answer you from the same Paul Virilio paper (that 'anon' sent me) that i only received last night (13th July 2004) because it links with other
matters that are, well, let's say backgrounded in the way senge speaks of drama, theatre and foregrounds, ...those spotlight;-)
"Derrick de Kerckhove: I wanted to ask your opinion about the extraordinary correspondence between the different stages of the event on 9-11 and
the principle elements of Greek tragedy as they have been developed by Aristotle and others. What I am about to tell you is going to sound pedantic,
I'm sure, but in the end it will be worth it since, after all, we have kept Greek tragedy alive throughout Western history-it was not for nothing, and
maybe it's useful. First I want to point out how 9-11 is all about important families in a unified world, just like in the Greek world represented by the
tragic drama, in which the whole Greek world is involved. The Greek world of tragic drama is total reality. Similarly, for us, what is happening
today is clear, Paul perfectly explained it to us, it is unified world reality.
Who is in this reality? First and foremost it is the number one man, the big boss. Tragedies always involve important characters because these
important characters have the power to act on the rest of the world. And today we are under their thumb.
Now who are these important families? They are the big oil families. These influential families have their finger on the new nerve of war, which is
oil. One could prove it in every conceivable way. So I would like you to say something here precisely to expose the dynasty, the affiliation of the
father and son in this story which puts two important characters on the stage, Osama Ben Laden on the one side and George W. Bush on the other.
Paul Virilio: If you don't mind, first it just so happens that before working on the text for Ars Electronica's catalogue, I read over again Nietzsche's
Birth of Tragedy. Really important. There are two books we should re-read right now: Freud's Culture and its Discontents and Nietzsche's Birth of
Tragedy. Now Nietzsche says something really positive about tragedy which people have underrated. There are the heroes you mentioned and those
we talked about, Bush senior and junior. But there is also the ancient chorus. The ancient chorus is the city. The city is democracy, we are the city.
Somehow the question of the ancient chorus has not been raised today. The heroes speak, but the ancient chorus remains silent. Hence the
importance of a Johannesburg of civil peace. Because let me remind you that terrorism does not threaten so much the international peace as world
civil peace.
What is threatening us at the moment is not the Third World War, it's the first global civil war. New York is the equivalent of Sarajavo in the first
European and world war. "
Now last night, just before anon. sent me the words above i was back in 1996 with At and his correspondents - a small chorus, then as now...
•
Replying to LO10778 -One feature of Julian's excellent summary of SFI's (Santa Fe Inst.) complexity work
(integrated with the work of others) missed an important feature for
the topic of creativity. From the depth of Julian's cover of the
subject, I suspect it was missed due to length rather than anything
else.
That is the feature of the "genes" or "bits" or "threads" to remain
in existence in some largely unused form and to resurface as part of
new threads which are created. This is one of the features of
Holland's work on recombination.
Ideas (or threads) which appear to be part of an earlier chain lurk
in the background and resurface when new threads provide new
opportunities. The "old" ideas often occur as new when recombined
with the new thread.
In genetic algorithms, this is generally referred to as rules which
are less effective - sometimes even "wrong" or detrimental - in
earlier threads being used in later ones to positive effect EVEN
THOUGH THEY ARE STILL WRONG. That is, the evolution of genetic
algorithms - or of nature - occasionally uses less effective "rules"
or else they might as well not be saved.
It is also clear that this saving and use of less effective
components is part of the system's continuing evolutionary pattern.
That is, the patterns are not seeking optimum but seeking viability
in many circumstances - robust survival possibilities. Holland uses
the example of the human sexual reproduction patterns are not
attempting to find optimum individuals --snip-- and
attempting to make many copies of them. Their genes just go into the
pool and mix with others for other options being developed.
This implies that ideas do not die out even though, as Julian pointed
out, the pathways of the ones which are effective deepen or
strengthen with use. But, then they too lose strength or "die out"
and still remain in the background to resurface."
SNIP
Michael McMaster 1996
...is there much time left, Andrew?
dear anon, there is NO time ;-) left, right, wrong or otherwise
http://www.learning-org.com/02.07/0079.html
SNIP.
(To see Durer's 'Knight' and his 'faithful dog' please open my PPt file -- the design over the head of whom is At's original composite
artwork on leadership's complex nature, i simply tu(r)ned in into its own storm. You may think you see in it at the edges there repeated
Durer's Knight's Doggy's head, right to his nose and ears...BUT that would be too astonishing...so do not believe what you see
done...but...then not believing will you see the storm coming.)
PS. anon. Please extend my sword hand to your 'Christian Knight', it is free;-) and by way of ''becoming-being'' Eternal.
love,
andrew
Footnotes to previous pages: The large detail (above left) comes from the sculpture of the tomb
of Lorenzo de’ Medici in Rome, sculpted by Michelangelo. The animal is indeterminate but
looks familiar to me ;-) it is carved onto a money box, on which Lorenzo is resting his arm.
Michelangelo had intended to place the form of a mouse, the symbol of a gnawing time. He left
a piece of marble free for that mouse, but it was never carved ;-) (Condivi)
Detail of the tomb of Lorenzo de’ Medici in Rome, by Michelangelo.