In art, truth and reality begin
when one no longer understands
what one is doing or what one knows,
and when there remains an energy
that is all the stronger
for being constrained,
controlled and compressed.
- Henri Matisse
In new media production as in all art, I find myself restructuring and reordering information to form a continuity of idea. The process of memory-retrieval, performed subjectively is both psychoanalytic and highly personal, and is a way to reconstitute desired events selectively to organize a new whole. The Phoenix Bird is a conceptual work then, which ideally, gives insight into how an artist deals with these arenas of process and value.
Recently I have been inspired by a re-examination of William Gibson's book "Burning Chrome" in which memory, data, and simulations form much of the basis of human information "trafficking", emotional or otherwise, ultimately resulting in a blurring of flesh and machine. Gibson's later assertion of "the tamagotchi gesture" referring to the Japanese toy (a small digital creature housed in an amulet in need of daily feeding, love and sleep) has additional resonance with an artist's interests in self-formation and development.
Topic:
PRIORI
A priori versus a posteriori as a method of learning and the possibility of genetically inherited abilities.
"A priori" is a term used to identify a type of knowledge which is obtained independently of experience. A proposition is known
a priori if when judged true or false one does not refer to experience. "A priorism" is a philosophical position maintaining that our minds gain knowledge independently of experience through innate ideas or mental faculties. The term
a priori is distinguished from
a posteriori, which means knowledge gained through the senses and experience. These are the two most common ways in which philosophers argue that humans acquire knowledge.
For Aristotle, "a priori" referred to something which was prior to something else. By "prior" he meant that some thing's existence was caused by the existence of another. Aristotle argued that to have knowledge of a prior thing, then, was to have knowledge of a
causal relationship. He argued that we can establish a causal relationship between things through
syllogistic logic. Descartes used the term "a priori" in his quest for the foundation of all knowledge. For Descartes, knowledge of our own existence was
a priori because (a) denying it leads to a contradiction, and (b) we do not need to rely on our experiences to ponder our existence.
Kant believed that
a priori truths could be found in the two areas; mathematics and the categories which organize the material of experience and science. Kant divided
a priori truths into two categories: the synthetic and the analytic. Traditionally, mathematical propositions were seen as both analytic and
a priori. Kant, however, classifies both mathematics and the categories as synthetic
a priori. Math is synthetic
a priori because it depends on the pure intuitions of the elements of time and space. Kant argued time and space were central intuitions to mathematical knowledge, and were thus the reasons for his grouping mathematical truths in the synthetic
a priori. The categories are identified as synthetic
a priori because denying them does not lead to a contradiction. On the other hand, these categories are central to experience. Kant used the example of causality, in the "Second Analogy" of the
Critique of Pure Reason, to demonstrate that the concept of an "event" having a "cause" must be connected before we can give apply either notion. This connection can only be a synthetic one, since it is not
tautological.
At this point, I question whether artistic abilites come from a so-called instinctive sense of what it takes to create beauty, or indeed are motivated and willful intentions to create things (as art), as an expression of the desire to articulate what seems to be beauty "in the eye of the beholder". Primitive artforms were known to function both as an expression of respect and awe for primal forces (such as representations of the deities that had power over the forces of nature) and as not-so-simple expressions of creativity by the artists who created them. Obviously art had a value to the people who created it, and also to the people who had the benefit of knowing about it (the audience). Participation in community art forms, such as decorating the environment (cave paintings), became a way of establishing a creatively expressed signal to non-community members that territorial imperative was being declared. Hence decorations were in order to make the same claim to outsiders that the territorial markings signify to hunting predators. "Stay away from my established area or deal with a defensive consequence". This is a survival mechanism, which must be deeply ingrained into the primitive lower levels of brain function. Termed as instinct, it may be easier to comprehend as programming on the level of the "wiring of brain circuits" as adverse to the genetically blue-printed instructions that are left from the previous experiences generated when survival was assured in the ancestor gene material, and those lessons learned while the life form survived it's personal threats were passed along as "talents" that could be inherited by descendants who would then benefit with the increased level of survival abilities which insured success as a species type. It is possible that creative problem solving in the breeding stock sub-species eventually became more evolved creative pathways to enhance personal experience with a sense of appreciation of the beauty in life.
Being able to record high quality audio on a desktop or workstation is great, but has its limitations in spite of my high expectations. And recording a live performance with existing technology, based on today's type of box-type PCs with the typical noise being generated by hard-drives and fans, is actually NOT desirable. Yes, I could use a minidisk, but I want a decent quality, live recording. At least two tracks --for the left and right stereo channels-- would be my minimum requirements. Beyond that, if I am using my DAW (digital audio workstation) for its software synths, real-time FX processing and other creative capabilities (algorythmic composing?), I'm sure I don't want to risk taking my entire PC or MAC to the show with all of my precious data on it. A laptop DAW would be the answer, but in order to turn a regular laptop into a digital audio workstation, I'd need an audio and/or MIDI and/or SMTPE generator, etc...interface. Unfortunely, there is a smaller selection of audio / MIDI cards to choose from in the PCMCIA market than there is in the PCI / USB markets.
Silent Computers!
Props go out to Ray Bronk (
who will be prominently featured in upcoming posts) for turning me on to
NorhTec. NorhTec is going to raise some eyebrows. Not only are they about to release some exciting designs, but they are doing it in a way that will be beyond most of the standards that are prevalent today, and at a price that is, simply put...
within my budget. These computers are lighter and smaller, use less energy, produce less noise and generate less heat than anything I've EVER heard about.
NorhTec's Panda PC is the ideal platform for my project requirements, in fact I can predict that I'll be using these from now on for nearly ALL of my computing needs. The Panda PC will sell for $495.00. This includes 20GB 2.5 inch hard disk, 256 MB RAM, and slim DVD/CDRW. And there's more...
NorhTec Microservers can be configured as firewall, gateways, application servers, video teleconferencing servers, bridges and laptop replacements. The advantages are:
- Energy Efficient
- Small Footprint
- Portable
- Cross Platform Compatibility
- Reliability
- Low Heat Dispersion
- No Cooling Fan !
- Pricing
Good news indeed.
