RE: [-empyre-] Writing and Pattern Flows

["Jim Andrews" <jim@vispo.com>]

> Hi Jim,
>
> Polyani's field in this case is philosiphy/science and the goal is a
> critique of pure rationality (logical positivism) and a recuperation of
> meaning through myth, art and a spiritual impulse.  Not that he wants
> to break with rationality, but rather integrate it with these other
> modes of knowing and making meaning.  I've found myself increasingly
> interested in this topic myself as I struggle with the clash of
> cultures in an interdisciplinary school (art, design, IT) at our
> university where ideas like these are contested (not that that's
> necessarily a bad thing).
>
> Kenneth.

One of my fave stories in this regard concerns Hippasos, a contemporary of
Pythagoras (circa 500 BC). Pythagoras thought all numbers were rational (the
ratio of two 'natural numbers'). When Hippasos proved that root two is not
rational (is irrational) he was murdered or exiled basically for heresy. The
irrational just won't go away and theories that exclude it exclude dense
portions of the real. After all, the irrational is not so much 'non
sensical' as not constructed according to the usual ratios.

speaking of meaning and writing and recuperation, i thought this was well
done and amusing:
where stories came from:
http://www.lycettebros.com/shocked/wscf.htm

I take it your school is unusual in the proximity at which art and science
are held. Sounds interesting.

I have trouble learning tech stuff. To make it bearable, I ponder the
literary/artistic possibilities. So, like, ponder the literary possibilities
of innerHTML or copyPixels etc. That's what gives tech its 'meaning', to me:
the literary/artistic/communicative possibilities; their possibilities for
delight, mutual understanding and, as you say "Collisions of media modality
in time" much as we ourselves have sensoriums in which there are constant
such collisions, veritable sledgehammers in the fruitcage.

ja
http://vispo.com