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Memes x Holons [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly]
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MEMES x HOLONS
The theme MEMESIS - THE FUTURE OF EVOLUTION immediately invoked in my
mind another event in which we had participated in 1992: Genesis of Human
Inventiveness. "We" are the *.* Group (ASTERISK POINT ASTERISK). *.* is an
abbreviation that stands for "all dot all", or merely "all", or
"anything", adopted by a group made up diverse people playing specific roles
in the execution of complex projects. The group is dynamical, the members
are joined according to the projects and their moment and
affinities. Different proposals join different people, but the group always
join people from Art and Technology. The interdisciplinary projects emerge
from the environments where the people live. Their time is now, technology
their media; more specifically, computers.
The event Genesis of Human Inventiveness was oriented to children,
and aimed to introduce science and technology to children in a friendly way.
It was sponsored by an organization for culture and education of
commercial workers in Brazil, "SESC" Pompéia. Some of the children had
not a place to stay during their school free time and used to go to SESC.
The name of our project was Aurora Beings - in a reference to the planet
Aurora from the story "The Robots of Dawn" written by Isaac Asimov[ASIMOV].
The installation aimed to introduce children at the ages of 7 to 14 - the
Aurora Beings - to a ludic environment, where robotics was presented in a
friendly manner. In this environment they could act as engineers and as
artists, programming choreographs for the robot. The Aurora Beings
consisted of an interactive installation using a PUMA robot, televisions,
a camera, a video-cassette, a computer and synthesizers.
The Aurora Beings installation was an unfolding of a previous one,
the Foreseen Variations, presented at the 21st. International Biennial of
São Paulo. The following equipment was employed in that installation:
1 Puma robot, 10 TV sets, 1 VCR, 1 VHS camera, computers, synthesizers,
loud-speakers, and a PC (Programmable Controller), to execute the system
initialization and power down.
For the Foreseen Variations installation, a video was produced in
which a dancer, performed a dance with the robot. On the TV sets,
the dancer's performance with the robot was shown. At the time, the
intention was to play a joke between reality and artificiality. The dancer,
human, was electronically presented simultaneously in many sets, suggesting
an automation. The robot, a typical element of industrial
automation, presented in a gracious and delicate manner, was the alive
element in the installation. A camera, put in front of the robot, would focus
the robot as well as the audience that was captured in that area, thus
inserting it in the play. The image was shown on a TV which was located
beside the camera.
What for all of this? I think I would like to talk about "unfolding"
since that we talking about "evolution"; how things are connected and
related, and reach the point - here - to introduce some pieces of
Paulo Laurentiz in his book "The Holarchy of Artistic Thinking".
For me, these points are very close to the theme of this conference.
...
The concept of holarchy is introduced by Koestler [Koe81] as
"independent constituent organisms of a higher organism that governs
their actions by integrating them". Holarchy may be understood as a
hierarchy in the holon(1); suggesting complementation and integration of the
parts under a major principle. All
hierarchy is formed by autonomous, self-governing holons endowed with
varying degrees of flexibility and freedom. Every subsystem is a relatively
autonomous organism, but also, at the same time, a component of a larger
organism. Man's exploring impulse aims to understand nature, while his
conquering behavior aims to
dominate nature. Every great artist possesses in himself an instinct of
the explorer. Within this category Koestler observes that art and science
meets, introducing a similar foundation in their behavior for the
formulation of new ideas. Analyzing the structure in this way of thinking,
he says that: "... the scientist's diagram and the artist's painting
employ the same associative technique." In order to define this association,
he appeals to his basic theoretical concept, the holon, and states that:
"... the discovering of science (and thus, of art) do not create anything
from nothingness; they combine, relate and integrate ideas, facts,
associative contexts - mental holons - which already existed, but were
apart, rearticulating the world and the mind in a
new universal holarchic distribution, in a continuous act of "unlearning
or relearning", undoing or redoing, discarding matrixes, recomposing others
in new syntheses; in other words, it is a complex operation of
dissociation and bissociation involving various levels of mental holarchy.
What forms of thought, what cognitive processes go along the artist's
sensibility while he creates? What does the artist think, or, what
thoughts are flowing in the artist's mind, while he senses as he creates?
Laurentiz [Lau91] found three stages or moments of the artistic thought:
insight, operation, evaluation. From the definition of holarchy itself,
these three moments are independent from each other. Meanwhile, they have
a hierarchical link that makes the interpretation of thought be as a
possible integrated whole, allowing the understanding of the artistic
thought as the result of complex, self-structuring operations. The first
instant finds the human being as a daydreaming being, under the power of
imaginative forces which make him see what is not yet in front of his eyes.
The second instant finds homo-faber (2) who interacts with the world's
matter, spending and restoring vital energy in the making of objects which
transform the face of things. Finally and the third instant finds the
human being as a reflexive, inquiring, evaluating being and, for this
same reason, able of redoing, correcting, transforming and
advancing [Sant88].
The holarchy that directs the artistic thinking involves the world,
the mind and the actions of the artist. The facts of the world, as they are
understood as being natural or cultural manifestations, instigate ideas
in the artist's mind that are translated into "insights". The artist tries
to operate the available material, aiming to transfer to the art work
qualities that express feelings similarly to the insight that promoted that
action. Therefore, insight and operation are considered independent and
regulators of the artistic thinking.
A third moment, part of this holarchy, arises when the artist reads,
interrogates his own work, evaluating the realized piece of art; comparing
the effects aroused by it and relating them to the feelings that
promoted his act. These three moments could be summarized in three
particular questions: what we wanted to do; what we could do and what we
managed to do, or obtained.
...
For me, holons and memes, as in Stocker opening statement, are very
related concepts:
"memes describe cultural units of information, cognitive behavioral
patterns that propagate and replicate themselves through communication"
Am I wrong? I would like very much of reading your comments about.
For those who were confused about memes and memetics, I have
introduced two knew concepts: holons and holarchy. I hope I haven't
complicated.
Laurentiz was supposed to participate in the Foreseen Variations
project, which name was suggested by him, but he has passed a few months
earlier. His book was post published, in Portuguese, which certainly
isn´t the most spoken language in the world. When the invitation for this
conference arrived, I was just finishing a paper in which I described what
would be the "Aurora Beings in the Cyberspace".
From the experience that I had with both the projects mentioned
above, I could talk a lot: what was to the dancer - human - to realize a
performance with the robot
(For the dancer this was a completely new experience. More limited in some
aspects (the robot could be compared to an arm linked to a trunk), and more
powerful in others (its arm could make arches of more than 180º in
different directions or turn its wrist in 270º), the robot introduced a
new language for the dancer. The movements surpassed what was known.
For a human dancer everything is light and the difficulty is to attain
a maximum of amplitude. For the robot the opposite is true. )
, the reaction of the public to that unexpected environment
(Foreseen Variations), our experience in synchronizing the movements of
the robot with the music, the experience of the children (Aurora Beings) in
doing the same, what was to them to interact with the robot, and so on,
until this point, here.
The artist and the scientist do not create anything from nothingness;
they combine, relate and integrate ideas, facts, associative contexts and
by cycles of insight, operation an evaluation they evolve.
The Evolution of the Future? For me, a continuous unfolding,
inquiring, redoing, correcting, transforming and advancing; now, in the
Cyberspace. And, from the experiences tried, a relearning, a
redoing, a transforming and unfolding, sometimes advancing.
(1) hol- or holo- comb form [Gk, fr holos whole - more at SAFE]
1: complete : total <holohedral> 2 : completely : totally <holandric>
(2) homo- [NL Homin-, Homo, genus name, fr. L, man] (H. faber) : maker
References:
[ASIMOV] Asimov, I. "The Robots of Dawn"
[Koe81] Koestler, A. "Jano", São Paulo, Brazil, 1981.
[Lau91] Laurentiz, P. "A Holarchia do Pensamento Artístico", Editora da
UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil,
1991.
[San91] Santaella, L. "Preface", [Lau91]
--
Artemis Moroni
CTI - Fundação Centro Tecnológico para Informática
Rod. D. Pedro I, km 143,6 - 13081/970 - Brazil
Fax: 55-192-402029
Email: artemis@ia.cti.br
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