It's both I think, how these things are assimilated, but also what they mean personally; for me there's no ultimate value in either, but different sorts of values (and interests). I'm personally interested in the relationship of consciousness to these complexities (and have written on that also). I'm not sure 'well intentioned' applies here; one might comprehend with all sorts of intentions as well. - Alan
On Sun, 28 Jun 2009, Simon Biggs wrote:
I have recently written a chapter on just this subject for a new book coming out later this year on creative arts practice and research. I could quote it here, but from prior experience I know that it is not a good idea to quote yourself from a pending publication. Generally I agree with Alan?s position, although I might use the word apprehension rather than comprehension. Nevertheless, we have to look carefully at the social value of these activities and phenomena. Our own personal understandings of these things are all well and fine, very likely well intentioned and thought through. However, it is how these things are socially assimilated and instrumentalised that really matters. An important arena for the debate here is sociology, not just epistemology. Regards Simon Simon Biggs Research Professor edinburgh college of art [email protected] www.eca.ac.uk www.eca.ac.uk/circle/ [email protected] www.littlepig.org.uk AIM/Skype: simonbiggsuk From: Alan Sondheim <[email protected]> Reply-To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity <[email protected]> Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:21:00 -0400 (EDT) To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Internet of Things....Research OpportunitiesonEPSRC funded Project] I tend to think that science produces knowledge about the world, but this knowledge is inherently abstract - string theory, for example, where mathesis becomes almost autonomous. Art relates directly to reception, to consciousness - the experience of negatively curved space for example. The boundaries are indeed blurred, but are there. The problem (and interest) for me lies with science and cosmology; the universe appears increasingly 'alien' without the potential for modeling on a perceptual level: what does it mean to comprehend, say, our cosmos, if comprehension occurs only on the register of mathematical abstraction - and abstraction which may be inherently other (I'm thinking even of such things as the computer solution to the 4-color problem - issues of inelegance and ungainliness in physics/mathematics). - Alan | Alan Sondheim Mail archive: http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/ | Webpage (directory) at http://www.alansondheim.org | [email protected], [email protected], tel US 718-813-3285 ! http://www.facebook.com/alan.sondheim _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC009201
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