This is one of the WW2 veterans I photographed in Hollywood last week for my photo shoot traveling tour with Belmont Village. Jack was a deep sea diver for the navy and examined ships and submarines that had been blown up. He holds the piece of a Japanese torpedo that had struck a submarine. I'm off to Chicago for four of my permanent show openings. #past #tomsandersphoto #photography #portrait #american #americAnhistory #ww2 #wwII #ww2veteran #war #history #art #artgallery #ArtPhotography #photography #belmontvillage
Empathy and Embodiment Spring 2014
This is the official blog of ARTH 282B at San Jose State University.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Phenomenology of Perception
Phenomenology is the study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the
first-person point of view. The central structure of an experience is its
intentionality, its being directed toward something, as it is an experience of
or about some object. An experience is directed toward an object by virtue of
its content or meaning (which represents the object) together with appropriate
enabling conditions.
Perception
is our sensory experience of the world around us
and involves both the recognition of environmental stimuli and actions in
response to these stimuli. Through the perceptual process, we gain information
about properties and elements of the environment that are critical to our
survival. Perception not only creates our experience of the world around us; it
allows us to act within our environment.
Empiricism
Empiricism regards that perception is based
on experience, not the knowledge. This theory is just the opposite from the
idea of Intellectualism, which regards that perception is come from the natural
intelligence. Human get the information from environment, they are able to
react or perceive that information
The process of perception
The process of perception is from the
stimulation of environment, detected by sensory and then translate the
stimulation into electrical energy and goes to brain via nerves, this is how a “feeling”
to be made. When the perspective of knowledge (could be experiences or the
knowledge which has ever been learned) and the feeling go together, it will recognize
the information and generate the perception. According to this, feeling can be
considered as the foundation of perception.
There are two main objects in a picture,
the size of two objects are the same, we would just say object A is bigger than
object B according to the concept the one at the farther location should be the
smaller one, and the one that is closer should be the bigger one. This is the
general concept in our knowledge, which has already built up from our
experiences.
These
are typical optical illusion examples. Optical illusion is the work base on the
empiricism theory which regards that perception is came from experiences.
This optical illusion example can support
the theory of empiricism. This picture can be two different object—a woman’s
body or a glass. According to the empiricism, adults can see the both, because
both two illusions are already in their experience. However, for children, they
might able to recognize the glass but not the woman body, because they are not
familiar with that illusion. Without the impression or the experience, they are
not able to call out the data base from their brain in order to recognize a
strange illusion.
Intellectualism
“Intellectualism does not talk about the
senses because for it sensations and senses appear only when I turn back to the
concrete act of knowledge in order to analyse it.”
“sense—like ghosts which appear only by
night—they would lack fullness of being and we could not be truly conscious of
them, that is to say, posit them as true beings.’
The
position of two theories(Empiricism and Intellectualism ) is the opposite. They both explained part of ”perception” but
not entirely complete. However, these two point of view are necessary to exist.
Because of these hypothesis, we can know about perception in a more concrete
way.
mirror stage
In terms of Lacan, Mirror stage does not
means the real mirror, it means the mimic motions, the way that reflect
ourselves from others sight. There are lots of mirror stage situations in our
regular life, the way we see others and project that emotion on ourselves,
including the discussions and the interactions with people, the motions we have
during these activities are able to affect the idea that we think about
ourselves. We would choose one mirror stage as a template, when this template
is no longer accurate, which may fail by reality, it will transform into
another that is more appropriate.
The thing that babies do is to know their
selves from mirror. At first, they are not able to know what is that in the
mirror. After a period they realize that all the motion they do to the mirror
can trigger the image in the mirror some movement. This is the first step a
baby to have a concept about themselves, and also a concept of narcissism. Mimic is also the way that babies get to
understand the world and people around them. This motion is for them to
learning all the behaviors from environment.
Mirror neuron is the neuron that triggers
these mimic abilities to happen. “The function of the mirror system is a
subject of much speculation. Many researchers in cognitive neuroscience and
cognitive psychology consider that this system provides the physiological
mechanism for the perception/action coupling (see the common coding theory).
They argue that mirror neurons may be important for understanding the actions
of other people, and for learning new skills by imitation. Some researchers
also speculate that mirror systems may simulate observed actions, and thus
contribute to theory of mind skills, while others relate mirror neurons to
language abilities. Neuroscientists such as Marco Iacoboni (UCLA) have argued
that mirror neuron systems in the human brain help us understand the actions
and intentions of other people. In a study published in March 2005 Iacoboni and
his colleagues reported that mirror neurons could discern if another person who
was picking up a cup of tea planned to drink from it or clear it from the
table. In addition, Iacoboni has argued that mirror neurons are the neural
basis of the human capacity for emotions such as empathy.”
Thus,
once the mirror neuron lost the function of mirror system, it may underlie
cognitive disorders. Autisim is a typical situation that would happen. People
who is Autisim may lack the ability to have communication and learning from the
environment. It may reduce their ability on languages. Even though they are
able to observe their environment around them, the information transfers slowly
when they need to mimic. That makes them hard to have communication with
others.
In terms of Lacan, Mirror stage does not
means the real mirror, it means the mimic motions, the way that reflect
ourselves from others sight. There are lots of mirror stage situations in our
regular life, the way we see others and project that emotion on ourselves,
including the discussions and the interactions with people, the motions we have
during these activities are able to affect the idea that we think about
ourselves. We would choose one mirror stage as a template, when this template
is no longer accurate, which may fail by reality, it will transform into
another that is more appropriate.
The thing that babies do is to know their
selves from mirror. At first, they are not able to know what is that in the
mirror. After a period they realize that all the motion they do to the mirror
can trigger the image in the mirror some movement. This is the first step a
baby to have a concept about themselves, and also a concept of narcissism. Mimic is also the way that babies get to
understand the world and people around them. This motion is for them to
learning all the behaviors from environment.
Mirror neuron is the neuron that triggers
these mimic abilities to happen. “The function of the mirror system is a
subject of much speculation. Many researchers in cognitive neuroscience and
cognitive psychology consider that this system provides the physiological
mechanism for the perception/action coupling (see the common coding theory).
They argue that mirror neurons may be important for understanding the actions
of other people, and for learning new skills by imitation. Some researchers
also speculate that mirror systems may simulate observed actions, and thus
contribute to theory of mind skills, while others relate mirror neurons to
language abilities. Neuroscientists such as Marco Iacoboni (UCLA) have argued
that mirror neuron systems in the human brain help us understand the actions
and intentions of other people. In a study published in March 2005 Iacoboni and
his colleagues reported that mirror neurons could discern if another person who
was picking up a cup of tea planned to drink from it or clear it from the
table. In addition, Iacoboni has argued that mirror neurons are the neural
basis of the human capacity for emotions such as empathy.”
Also,
commercial activities are pretty much use this kind of reaction that people
have in general, they like to do the commercial advertisement with a really
attracted way to attract consumers to project their emotions on their selves
from advertisement. It is a common way to gather lots of people to mimic what
they see or what they want in the advertisement, and then mimicked by other
people.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Response of “Abstraction and Empathy”
“Abstraction and Empathy” is Wilhelm Worringer’s
doctoral dissertation. It has a great signification to contemporary art
history. Generally, art theories rarely appear before art practice. But this
dissertation becomes the guide of Expressionism and Abstract Expression rising
later. Worringer used three basic concepts to analyze aesthetics from
psychology’s point of view. Besides of “Empathy” and “Abstraction”, there is
another one called “absolute artistic volition” that highly influences art
history and art making. Worringer mentioned, “By ‘absolute artistic volition’
is to be understood that latent inner demand which exists per se, entirely
independent of the object and of the mode of creation and behaves as will to
form.” which affirms the independent and self-sufficient spiritual values of
art. He also criticized Semper’s materialistic viewpoint of genesis of the work
of art and established new standards for art valuation, arousing people’s
awareness about the form contend and spirituality instead of just materials and
techniques. In the dissertation, he proposed that art style comes from the
constraint of “the feeling about the
world”, which reveals the national basis of art and then embodies the relation
between art and ethos consequently bestow more historical and cultural values
to art.
Worringer thought that the value of a
work of art, what we call its beauty, lies in its power naturally stand in a
causal relation to the psychic needs which they satisfy. This psychic needs,
decided by “absolute artistic volition”,
can be categorized into “the urge to empathy” and “the urge to abstraction”.
The difference between these two urges is from the different object of aesthetic experience. One is to “find
its gratification in the beauty of the organic” and the other is to “find its
beauty in the life-denying inorganic, in the crystalline or in all abstract law
and necessity”. At the beginning of
Renaissance, the happiness arousing from organic forms is always an end instead
of a means. When time moves to High Renaissance, people begin to take realism
as the indispensable means instead of the ends. The relation between art and
real life gradually becomes inseparable which finally results in the birth of
“the urge of abstraction”. What we can see in that is the urge to get rid of
dependence on life and the pursuit for eternity and the consequence is embodied
in “the approximation of the representation to a plane” and “the suppression of
the representation of space and exclusive rendering of the single form.”
When we take a
look at Egyptian frescos, we can easily find that the characters always have a
posture with their heads turning aside and bodies turning forward. These
graphics give us an impression of geometric abstraction.
Such techniques used in these
paintings will avoid the optical depth that might be generated by specific body
parts, like nose, toes, etc. This pursuit of flatness may originate from an
inner sense of security.
However, there are limitations to
Worringer’s abstraction theory. In a wider sense of abstraction, “the urge of
abstraction” doesn’t follow what Worringer elaborated – the pursuit of
crystalline beauty (abstract beauty). Instead, it tries to go back to the
spirit of early Renaissance which takes
“happiness of organic forms” as the highest goal. But this time, it no
longer uses figures and concrete images but organic lines, colors or stroke
itself.
In a conclusion, I think that abstraction always
bonds with empathy, but which one is in the dominant position may vary. Just
like every painting is composed with basic abstract elements such as points and
lines, and is empathized by the artist himself more or less whether it is a
Response of “Virtual Bodies and Flickering Signifiers”
In N.Katherine
Hayles’s “Virtual Bodies and Flickering Signifiers”, she is mainly discussing
about the transition from the concept of “absent/present” to
“pattern/randomness” under the era
of the information and cyborg age. But why
it is so important to emphasize the shift? For me, the shift itself may generate a debate in embodiment theory. Does
it initiate a new experience of
embodiment or completely deny it?
Generally
when talking about embodiment theory, the first thing come to mind is
the coupling of cognition and human body. Here the body is no longer a shell purely
executing the instructions from
brain. Instead, it plays an essential role actively determining the formation of cognition. However, things changed
a lot when technology is developed at a breathtaking pace. Without the
need of physical forms, we need to take a fresh look at embodiment theory.
Combining with the content in the article,
I’d like to firstly summarize and analyze the differences and similarities
between before and after the shift in three different aspects. The most obvious
difference is from the relationship between the body (the material substrate)
and the message (the codes of representation). Hayles makes a very
interesting analogy between the human body and traditional printing media, such
as books and newspapers. “Like the human body, the book is a form of
information transmission and storage that incorporates its encodings in a
durable material substrate.”, once the relation between texts and media is
built, these two separate things would coexist
as a symbiont and can hardly be changed, this can also be applied to the human
body. To be short, the relationship is anti-dualistic,
integrated and stable. On the contrary, the link between the media and digital
information is not that closely tied. In some cases, the physical entities are
even no need to exist. As for the information (e.g. digital texts), although it
can be exported into hard drives for permanently storage, you will find that
there are no fixed correspondences between the media that are used for
visualization (like monitors) and the content. For example, when you are
reading an e-book, once you turn to another page, the previous one is no longer
there. In other words, what information technologies create is just a temporary
mapping relationship.
Secondly, I will talk about the inner
interpretations between the body and the message. Unlike digital platforms, the
contents of the cognition are supplied by the media when dealing with
traditional media and human bodies. According to Lakoff and Johnson’s concept, human’s
abstract thinking abilities are built on metaphors. For example, the rose is
often a metaphor for love because of the similarities of the beauty and danger.
People tend to interpret unfamiliar and obscure things with the aid of what
they already understood. Thus, it’s not difficult to find out that the human
body is the most familiar thing for people. There are a lot of concepts
originally perceived by our bodies, like temperature, distance, etc. With these
raw concepts, people then extend them into more advanced and abstract ones.
Similarly for books and newspapers, since the printed texts and the paper cannot
be separated as a whole, the contents composed of realignments of alphabets are
indeed supplied by the media. However, precisely because of the peculiarity of
transiency, digital media itself doesn’t rely on such direct mechanism. Even
so, we still cannot ignore the similarities. The process of encoding from
machine language to high-level language exactly simulates the way that people
interprets abstraction from metaphors.
Last but not least, information technologies
alter the relation of signified to signifier. This shift is due to the multi-layer
hierarchy of computer system. The two ends of the hierarchy need to talk to different
objects and they also need to communicate with each other through a series of
dynamic interpretations. There is actually no strict boundary between the two.
Hayles summarized
these differences into the shift from “absent/present” to “pattern/randomness”.
I have to say that the new relation of “pattern/randomness” indeed deviates
from the embodiment theory and we all need to admit a possibility that it will
completely dominate the world. I
understand the fear of abandon of materiality because people have already been
living for millions of years in physical world. From the embodiment theory, I
personally can realize humans’ complex of their physical bodies. Pure immateriality
may make them question their self-existence. For me, I don’t think if there is
a way to combine pattern and presence as complementary rather than antagonistic
unless they redefine what pattern, presence, embodiment means. Or maybe in the
distant future, “posthuman” will get used to it and will not have that complex
anymore.
Postscript on the Societies of Control
Deluze was a French
philosopher friend and scholar of Focault, also influences by the work
of Boudelair and Gides. He was one of the first to register the events of may 1986 in conceptual terms (in response to the students's uprising). Deluze also worked with Félix Guattari, and produced texts such as Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Anti-Oedipus (1972) and A Thousand Plateaus(1980). He wrote on authors-more or less known and on films by approaching each author and work with a constructivist attitude.
Deleuze dedicated his work to the creation of new philosophical concepts. He was concerned with, the position of the social and political at the core of being, and the difference of transcendental hierarchy. And worked with the nature of thought, identity and time, through the disruption of the canonical
tradition of philosophy.
Postscript on the society of control
Deleuze
discusses Focault distinction and shift between disciplinary societies to
societies of control. Focault analyze these environments of
enclosure-especially the factory and the transition from this productive model
(of production and of control to other productive models).
He starts with an historical background to illustrate how this shift has happened.
Disciplinary societies were a model of production and control typical of the 18th and 19th century, that because of crisis of values and institutions from the second world war this model is shifting to the current one: of society of control.
Disciplinary societies had at their time came as a substitution for a previous production model, the societies of sovereignty at the hand of Napoleon. The role of these societies of sovereignty was to tax, rather than to organize production, and to rule on death, rather than to administer life.
The new phase of control of production given by disciplinary societies, organised and controlled production through various areas of confinement, consisting in the factory, the school, the prison, the hospital, and the barrack (which was the home). The factory was the most important of these areas of confinement because used to be the place where production happened, and the control over the productive process was exemplified. The enclosed environment of the factory was based on the analogical model of the prison: where you went to work, you were contained for a certain amount of hours, you then clocked out, left and were free until the next day (the action of you physically clocking out is important).
The logic by which these control systems operate: in disciplinary societies is that all the different spaces of enclosure are different from one another. For example, the factory is a space of enclosure, when you go home you stop being controlled by that environment and you get into the space of enclosure of the home (barrack). When you are finished with in the space of enclosure of the school, you return the one of the barrack and then, and only after you get to the one of the factory, from which you return to the barrack every night. The control from one space of enclosure does not extend to the next, but nevertheless they are inseparable and together they form a system. The control system of the
school helps you get to the factory, that then
controls you being able (gives you the ability) to be in the home-barrack (pay rent), and so
on-and this is comparable to a system of geometry, variable and numerical. (depending on the school comes a different factory, and the type of activity of the factory gets you different numbers- or positions that allows in different types of barracks (the factory is intended as the work place and not necessary-A factory in the actual sense).
In this scenario enclosures are
molds but controls are modulations- the
various environments (molds) shape the controlled individual- shape the
production and the mean of production- which is the individual himself. These
are modulated by the degree and nature of control exercised in each- and the control is what will change this cast.With the switch from disciplinary societies to societies of control there is drastic change in the nature of the organism of control and in productive models.
The enclosed entity of the factory (workplace) of disciplinary societies is replaced by the corporation in societies of control (gaseous and immaterial). Changes of productive modes where productivity obtained through modulation of wages in the factory, is replaced by the modulation of salaries operating through challenges, contexts, and comic group sessions in the corporation (see home depot for example). This change in productive modes implies the switch from the internal control of internal forces: combination of high production and low wages to the productivity model of the corporation based on the modulation of salaries which raises in accordance to rank and merit, and operate through challenges, contexts, and group sessions.
Resistance to control also changed: the one to one confrontation of production against control in disciplinary societies (resistance externalized by the mass resistance of the union), in societies of control is dissipated by portraying rivalry as an healthy form of emulation, motivating forces and putting people in competition with one another, because it seems that productivity is enhanced this way (productivity and not production, because production has ceased to exist). This new externalization of productivity help avoid revolts that were based and built on solidarity-and the modulating factor is salary according to merit.
All phases that in earlier disciplinary societies where distinct containment, in societies of control are all integrated, and the method of control has adjusted .
A similar condition translates to education and training replaces schooling (we don't study theories but we operationalize methods), and continuous control replaces the examination. System of control have become integrative and while with disciplinary societies on one was always starting over and went through different phases, from the school to the barrack, and from the barrack to the factory. In societies of control the process is continuous and integrated.
Resistance to control also changed: the one to one confrontation of production against control in disciplinary societies (resistance externalized by the mass resistance of the union), in societies of control is dissipated by portraying rivalry as an healthy form of emulation, motivating forces and putting people in competition with one another, because it seems that productivity is enhanced this way (productivity and not production, because production has ceased to exist). This new externalization of productivity help avoid revolts that were based and built on solidarity-and the modulating factor is salary according to merit.
All phases that in earlier disciplinary societies where distinct containment, in societies of control are all integrated, and the method of control has adjusted .
A similar condition translates to education and training replaces schooling (we don't study theories but we operationalize methods), and continuous control replaces the examination. System of control have become integrative and while with disciplinary societies on one was always starting over and went through different phases, from the school to the barrack, and from the barrack to the factory. In societies of control the process is continuous and integrated.
The trial by Kafka-the disciplinary system
Disciplinary system has also changed and it has switched from the disciplinary system of apparent acquittal to the unlimited postponement of societies of control. The case of Amanda Knox in Italy is an example of how a misunderstanding of apparent acquittal (by counselors operating in a society of control) has led to a conviction for murder. Kafka describes the juridical system reflecting this type of formation in "the trial." In the unlimited postponement the individual is accused of something (he is unaware of what this is). The matter is investigated but he does not know the progress. He is never prosecuted but he is nevertheless punished-with the exclusion from society.
Monday, May 12, 2014
Poetics of Lace
After creating a porcelain lace rabbit house, I became more
curious of Bachelards’ Poetics of Space, and the idea of the house being a
metaphor for humanness. In the first part of the reading, concerning the nest,
he describes the phenomenological similarities between the nest and the home, while
reminding us that verbs describing the idea of retreat, relate to animal
movements (Balk, flee, burrow, “chicken out”…), thus implying animal qualities
that exist within humans.
In designing my performance/ installation, Nikoukira (The
homemaker), the idea of building a house structure out of the methodological
movements of rolling out porcelain clay onto lace press molds, was in many ways
similar to the primitive movements of how an animal creates its nest. Using my
own hands to laboriously and repeatedly press clay into the molds to create
hundreds of tiles can be considered a primitive gesture.
Bachelard brings to our attention Van Gogh’s paintings of
cottages and nests and how, “for a painter, it is probably twice as interesting
if while painting a nest, he dreams of a cottage and while painting a cottage,
he dreams of a nest.” (98) I’m interested in this sort of reflectiveness that
coincides with ones lived experience and how as humans, we can’t help but
project our emotions onto our relationships with objects and our experience. Similar
to Visher’s philosophy on empathy in our earlier readings, phenomenology seeks
to project ourselves and give meaning into the objects and spaces of our
environment.
I was also struck by his statement, “dreams of a
garment-house are not unfamiliar to those who indulge in the imaginary exercise
of the function of inhabiting,” for the mere fact that I have essentially made
a “garment-house” if one considers the traditional use of lace. This brings up he notion of the function of
inhabiting in our cloths and in our bodies.
He also brings up the notion of the house/ nest as a
protective enclosure and introduces the home of snails and crustaceans— the
shell. If one considers the course shell like structure of my porcelain tiles,
one can be reminded of the inhabitants of seashells and mollusks. Or —more
accurately in reference to my work—of one who makes a home out of broken
shells. This, and Bachelards idea of how when we discover a nest, it takes us
back to our childhoods, or a childhood we wish we had….and that “ if we return
to the old home as to a nest, it is because memories are dreams, because the
home of other days has become a great image of lost intimacy.” (100)
Finding moments of humanness, even when not depicted in the
literal representation of a house, is an integral component in this reading, and
generally, what triggers many people the desire to create art.
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