Please Log in to Vote.

4 out of 4 members found this useful.

M.C. Escher

Integral is often described as the ability to hold multiple perspectives at the same time.

As we evolve and experience shifts in our perspective we are forced to leave behind us the illusion of dualistic self-centered experience.

One man who bridged the gap between art and science and demonstrated anything but flatland is the graphic artist M.C. Escher.

Known for his interlocking shapes, transforming creatures and impossible architecture, Escher challenges us to question our perception of reality.

His mathematical approach to the creation of art or put otherwise, his artistic expression of mathematical concepts makes the study of his work fascinating for those interested in integral concepts.

The increasing ability to take perspectives is illustrated in his artwork.

His ability to turn the real into the unreal, to represent infinity on a two-dimensional plane and to demonstrate metamorphosis, makes the study of his work fascinating for those interested in integral concepts and possible integral art.

In Islamic art the spiritual world is reflected through geometry and rhythm.  After his visit to the Alhambra, Escher began to experiment with spatial imagery and symmetry.  He became fascinated with the idea that timeless truths could be found through repeated forms.

He covered an entire surface with geometrical patterns and his artwork can be appreciated for its aesthetics and its symbolic meaning and it can be used for contemplation.

I first discovered Escher when teaching symmetry in my mathematics classes, and recently this fascination was rekindled when visiting the Escher Museum in The Hague.

The concept of reality and illusion took on new meaning as I studied his works.  The illusion of independence was challenged through his metamorphic representations. That emptiness is form and form is emptiness shifted before my eyes.

Here are a few of his works:

 

Are there any other Escher fans out there?

Please Log in to Vote.

0 out of 0 members found this useful.

Up for adoption

Will you adopt me?  I will make you this sort of art, I promise!

Mommy!!

I am not joking btw. My life is to cause.

Please Log in to Vote.

0 out of 0 members found this useful.

Time and Space

 

Within Time and Space:

Sorry Autonomy but that would entail adopting not only you, but Phoenix Heart, Zardoz, Leonardo da Vinci, Einstein, Covey, etc. etc. and that would just be too much for me at this point in time – I know my limitations.

Outside of Time and Space:

Not necessary.

Please Log in to Vote.

0 out of 0 members found this useful.

Double Planetoid

 

In “Double Planetoid” by Escher there are two regular tetradrons which pierce each other as a star tetrahedron and float through space as a planetoid.  One is inhabited by human beings who have transformed their region into an area made up of houses, bridges and roads.  The other tetrahedron is in its natural state, with rocks on which plants and prehistoric animals live.  The two fit together into a whole but seem to have no knowledge of each other.

I have posted this for Brendan and Christophe who are discussing this shape in Wilber 6???

Please note that this work was created in 1949 without any computer aid.

Please Log in to Vote.

0 out of 0 members found this useful.

Way Too Bold of Me

Hi Linda, thanks so much for posting that!  Really interesting...

I don't know if you listened to the interviews between Stuart Davis and Leonard Shlain, but in there they discuss Shlain's book Art and Physics.  I haven't read it but what I gather from the interview is that major advancements in science/physics have often been preceded by a visionary artist doing something new in the realm of art.  I need to read his book but may I be so bold as to suggest the possibility that Escher might be a continuation of this correlation (simply correlation of course) with some of these emerging theories in physics and possibly Lexi Neale's proposal??

Also this brings up another thought but since I am in the mood for making outlandish claims, (this is directed more to you Christophe if you read this) could Alex Grey potentially be correlated with this theory you are linking me to of Haramien's? 

http://www.artofimagination.org/Images/MemberImages/Grey/Transfigurations.jpg

All of this is complete speculation and probably useless but fun to think about!!

Please Log in to Vote.

0 out of 0 members found this useful.

Merkabah

My word, this is all taking an interesting turn.

Following up on the mention of Nassim Haramein (whom I had never heard of before today)and his theories of the interconnectivity of all life based on his study of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life,  I discovered the term “merkabah” and this video.

It seems to connect with Brendan’s idea of the works of visionary artists (Alex Grey and possibly Escher) doing something new in the realm of art before major advancements are made in the field of science or physics.  Or maybe we are rediscovering on a higher level something previously known.

What do you think?

(And may I add as an interesting aside, that this discussion is taking place via China, Germany and South Africa!)

Please Log in to Vote.

0 out of 0 members found this useful.

Fractals vs. Holons

Hello Linda,

wow that's a great piece of Escher's. And yes, it's the same object, isn't it! Maybe we are on to something here?

Brendan, yes that Alex Grey Artwork depicts another Fractal landscape. A Fractal is something like a Holon, or is it. It is self-similar, at the same time the whole and the part of itself (?) Even more speculation, I guess.

I'd love to hear more about this Fractal stuff from an official Integral™ viewpoint. Unfortunately there is very little information about this (As far as I know). In 'Sex, Ecology, Spirituality' Ken only talks about Holons, and tends to subsume the Fractal Worldview as part of the Green Structure Meme (Web of Life) to be transcended by his (Wilber's) own Holism. He kinda promises to go into detail in Volume 2 and 3. This promise is yet to be fulfilled.

In the mean time, those "green" theories have evolved and are now ready to take over the void that Integral™ left behind. Same is true for Continental Philosophy, whose latest developments prove that they go far beyond green and all the way up the structures and tiers. Dismissing the competitioners as green and inferior worked only so far. Now its time for Integral™ to step their game up and to pay back the credit they've been granted.

--

>Five Star General of the Seven Armies, Archon of Atlantis<

Please Log in to Vote.

0 out of 0 members found this useful.

Credit debt...

...that is long, past due my friend Christophe.

Please Log in to Vote.

0 out of 0 members found this useful.

"Fractal stuff"

Hi Christophe

Thought this article might be of interest to you if you have not already read it. It seems to agree with your statement, “This promise is yet to be fulfilled”.

Apparently Escher died before fractals were well known. Here is a speculation of what he would have done if he had known about the formal concept.

Regards

Linda

Please Log in to Vote.

0 out of 0 members found this useful.

Fractals/Taoists/Blah blah blah blah

Don't expect this post to be too integrative but I am just going to toss out some thoughts...

First of all, I find Haramien's Theory to be incredibly intriguing.  With a lot of the Integral stuff, I can check it and follow the theory and all of that but I have to be honest, I can't do that with Haramien's.  Since his model is based so heavily in physics and mathematics that is out of my league.  I would have to wait and see how his theory develops and how it is received by people who can actually follow the science behind it.  But from what I gather from his website and an interview I found with him is that right now his model is most geared towards understanding this from an exterior perspective...the relationship between a white "whole" and a black "whole" as he calls it.  And I know you may not think so Christophe, but I personally think Neale's conception of an AQAL Cube could do for interiors what Haramien's theory may do for the physical world.  I think their models could be quite complementary, they are after all independently coming up with these similar models.  The value of Neale's work seems to me to be that it provides us with the potential to look more closely at the relationship between our "subtle" experience and our "gross" experience.  At least my initial impression is that these models are not exclusive and that they could benefit from each other's work.

As far as the holon question goes, I think there is still a lot ot be thought out here.  I mean, Wilber's holonic descriptions help explain the relationship between the physiosphere, biosphere, noosphere, etc., but that doesn't mean we fully understand any of those levels.  For example, may it be possible that a fractal type thing-y-ma-bob functions as the rules of the physiosphere?  This doesn't negate that then within a particular realm of the physiosphere that a holonic hierarchy could emerge.  If a fractal type thing exists in the physiosphere, it doesn't mean that there is an end to the bottom or an end to the top but rather that as we think about the universe in terms of a fractal there is no bottom and is no top.  Then, if we could imagine placing ourselves at a different holonic level than we exist, how things would look, well some things like atoms might not look so small or things like the universe might not seem so big.  But if we could imagine what it looks like at the level of being the entire universe as we sit it, does it feel so big as we tend to think of it?  I am not really sure where I am going with this and finding words to describe these relationships is hard as it is a very visual thought process but I guess I just think there is a way for fractals and holons to mesh together.  I think Wilber usually stops when he says, the "turtles all the way" up and down thing.  I don't necessarily think he is wrong but I think there is potential value in trying to think about what it looks like from both lower down and higher up.  I think it is true that we live in an infinite space and if there really is no bottom or no top, what exactly is transcended and included by things at the microscopic level?  Our own universe might be some sort of whole for example that is completely transcended and included by an entirely different universe, where, possibly, our universe looks about the size of an atom or quark.  No matter how the physiosphere functions, I think the holonic relationship between noosphere and the earlier holons could still be true.  Noosphere transcends and includes the biosphere and physiosphere in the sense that it is an emergent and the fact that we can conceptualize the physioshpere is how it is transcendent.  This of course doesn't lock the physiosphere into a holonic relationship necessarily between micro and macro, I think a fractal type relationship between micro and macro in the physiosphere can be trancended and included by holonic emergences anywhere in the physiosphere.  I am just thinking of like Horton Hears a Who or something.  I always used to think about what it must feel like to be an ant when I was a kid and my thinking was primarily imaginative (in a magic sense) and unrealistic but maybe it is time we try to use some of our increased noospheric and pnuemaspheric (is that a word??) capacities to entertain that side of the imagination again.

One last thing, the various founders of all these theories may or may not be giving other fields of thought enough attention, but either way, it doesn't prevent the rest of us from taking a look at these things.  In my opinion, the value of the Integral Model is its adaptability and I think we at least can try to think about how and if all of these things may fit together.  I truly think the age of exclusivity amongst different approaches is over and I think this one may be a bit more daunting to integrate because of the true span these theories are starting to get into but I don't think we should ignore the confluence between these things, even if it doesn't pan out in the end.  So while I agree that Integral the company may not be giving some of these things the time they deserve, I just think we should be careful about using that to project our own laziness and shortcomings onto.  If Integral the company doesn't go far enough in our view, well then we have the ability to include the value that it does offer as well as the value other approaches offer.  One truth that Wilber does point out that I think we often overlook is that "Second-tier" and Integral and all of that is not something he created but is something that is really out there.  Well if we fancy ourselves being some of this territory he is mapping then I think we have the ability as the actual territory to do much more than any theory ever could.  It truly is just a map and I don't think we should forget that.

Please Log in to Vote.

0 out of 0 members found this useful.

Whoops!! Forgot the Taoist Part...

Just one other possible confluence to note...

In Neale's article, he mentions a concept in Taoism that was helpful (or something) to "rasing the AQAL Square" into his cube.  Linda's link to the Kabbalahist wiki mentions that it has similarities to Taoist philosophy.  If Haramien's theory has to do with this Kabbalahist interpretation, there may be another link here.

Also, Chris, do you know what aspects (or a link or something...) of Ancient Egytpian philosophy that you had mentioned on the other blog that Haramien is referring to?  I am just curious if this is at all similar to this Kabbalahist and Taoist stuff...

Anyways, here is the quote from Neale, let me know if it sounds like another possible confluence or just me entirely pulling ghosts out of thin air...

"The Two Domains Of Consciousness In Cultural History

My hypothesis differentiating the Empirical and Intuitive Domains continues with an attempt to include other cultural references to their existence as autonomous Domains, as well as being levels in the Great Chain of Being. Without question the Taoist tradition regarded the two polarities of Life (Gross, Ming) and Consciousness (Subtle, Hsing) as equal opposites to be reconciled. In the ancient and anonymous Taoist treatise “The Secret Of The Golden Flower”, Ming and Hsing are given the polarities Earth and Heaven respectively. The same polar-equality is held by the Yaqui/Maya sorcerers, made famous by Carlos Castaneda." (He goes on to mention other cultures and then goes into his look at the language aspect to this...)

As a side note about the fractal type stuff...Aronofsky in The Fountain filmed cell bacteria I think it was to create the effects for his macroscopic type scenes...more possible correlations (I'm good at finding those, causal relationships, ba haha).  

At the very least this whole discussion is entertaining...

Please Log in to Vote.

1 out of 1 members found this useful.

Fractals, Turtles, Pyramids

Hello Brendan,

yes me too I enjoy this discussion :-)

What you say about Physiosphere, Biosphere and Noosphere sounds like a good idea. It intuitively makes sense to place the Fractal Geometry Part into the Physiosphere, and the more meditative and psychological approaches (like the Kabbalah, Yoga, AQAL Cube etc.) into the Bio- and/or Noosphere. Holons emerging out of Fractals? Hm.

I think your description of the Fractal Worldview is very accurate. There's no bottom and no top, Turtles all the way up, all the way down. And Turtles within Turtles, too. Fascinating, no? It really opens up imagination. It's also a bit scary.

Concerning the Egyptian Philosophy, that's a bit difficult. Since it is 'officially' secret knowledge, you'll have to digg your own way to find it. The O.T.O. knows about these secrets, but I'm not authorized to tell anything about them, so I won't. You could try this resource here, they have an article about the Egypt Code in their latest issue.

And finally, yes you are probably right that I project my own laziness and sloppiness on Wilber, but that does not mean that he has none of these qualities himself. And then, I never claimed to explain everything in future Volumes of my trilogy; the tension is still on the Integral ™ side, to provide the Theory of Everything they promised. Or to re-name it the 'Theory of Almost Everything'. That would be honest at least.

Greetings,

Christophe

--

>Five Star General of the Seven Armies, Archon of Atlantis<

Please Log in to Vote.

0 out of 0 members found this useful.

??? Haha

Yeah that is how I would intuitively place those things.  I wouldn't ordinarily include this in a discussion but since you are providing links to secret societies, what the hell.   This all intuitively makes sense based on certain phenomenological experiences I have had both on and off psychedelics.  That is why I have the feeling these two "things" (fractals and holons) somehow go together.

What I meant by holons emerging out of fractals was that if the physiosphere does run on some sort of fractal type physics, than anything else must still arise out of the physiosphere.  This corrseponds to Wilber's description of lower "levels" in a holoarchy being more essential or fundamental.  This makes sense; no matter what physics runs the physiosphere, the biosphere wherever it emerges still relies on the physioshpere for the material with which to come into being.  The biosphere then reorganizes (that is the trancend and include part) the physiosphere in biospheric ways, and so on up through the holarchy. 

What I am interested in now is how would the noosphere and pneumosphere relate to a fractal "ordered" physiosphere, particularly right now I am thinking about the pneumosphere.  I will just throw this out there...is it possible that at the higher ends of the noosphere and then into the pneumosphere, though still "trapped" or included in the biospheric body that gave rise to it, that a noospheric or pneumospheric being (i.e. human) could at that point "see" the entire universe (here I mean all universes if there are multiple) and how it runs?  I mean we have to account somehow for the fact that theories like Haramien's even exist.  And I think these unified physiospheric theories may be as a result of tapping into our pnuemaspheric potential; in the Haramien interview I listened to, they discuss how Einstein tried to think like God and Haramien seems to relate to this...

Anyways, yes I find this very fascinating and it certainly does open up the imagination, in scary as well as in exciting ways.  By the way, what is it that is above the pneumosphere?  I mean maybe this is a stupid question that humans really can't even grapple with but for the sake of enjoyment, I am going to try.  I at this moment can envision two sort of things, one would tie back into this fractal type stuff we are talking about, one would be a more simple reading of a holoarchy. 

I'll start with the second: At the pneumosphere, I would just imagine that the levels of understanding just keep getting bigger and wider, transcending and including more scope.  So god turns into God turns into GOD turns into GAWD turns into GAWED and blah blah blah...

I suppose my first thought isn't so much different than that theory, but a closer look at how that might actually happen.  So just for the sake of argument, let's pretend that I was right, that in the pneumosphere, we have the ability to "see" the entire universe.  Still, we have done this on a path up through the physiosphere, biosphere, and noosphere.  This means that our pneomospheric vision or whatever you want to call it (and of course we are talking about individual holons here) has been enabled by a specific noospheric being which was inhabiting a specific biospheric being, not to mention that the biospheric and noospheric being from whence it came was the result of a specific evolution starting at the physiospheric level of the specific universe from which we came.  So even if the pneumosphere here can be possibly be described as "world soul", it is still "world soul" through a specific filter or set of eyes.  Now how can a pneumospheric being trancend and include itself?  The only way forward that I can imagine is by understanding or "seeing" as it were, through a new set of eyes.  Could death and rebirth possibly be the method of transcend and include at the pneumospheric level?  If this is the case, it seems that holarcies may also be "fractal" in some sense.  Does it make sense that death could be a transcendence and then birth a new inclusion?  I think maybe it does.  I mean the potential for a pneumospheric "enlightenment" has existed since the beginning of time (not that there was a beginning but in the sense of the evolution of our own particular biosphere/noosphere out of the physiosphere).  That doesn't necessarily mean or not mean that there has always been "enlightened" pneumospheric beings but that it only makes sense to me that evolution is the activation of a field of infinite potentials.  At the point in a fractal where macro becomes micro or vice versa, it seems to me that infinity is "simply" swallowing infinity,  where trancend and include is actually still happening, though maybe not in the way we would normally think about it.  The emergent of total oneness seems to me to be individuality containing that oneness in a unique way and then the emergence in the individual (individual here meaning individual at any holonic level) is a greater realization of the "oneness of inifinity" that it contains.  Fractal turtles all the way up, fractal turtles all the way down??? I dunno...maybe?

I must admit I am pretty skeptical of the Egyptian links you are sending me, though another part of me is intrigued.  I still don't understand how they could have built the pyramids...but I must be honest, I am not going digging through these cult like magazines, if the information comes out to the public someday, I will give it an honest listen, particularly if something like Haramien's theory starts to become accepted.  Thanks for the links and I hope my attitude doesn't disappoint.

By the way, the proposition that we might be projecting onto Wilber was not merely directed at you (though it certainly was in part) but myself as well.  And believe me, I share many of the feelings and hopes that Integral could and should do more.  Additionally, I didn't say that to get anyone to stop criticizing the shortcomings (well maybe I said it way but I don't mean it that way...) but rather that if we are going to point out what we see as shortcomings, why not get off (or onto..hmm) our lazy asses and provide a better alternative.  If we do actually identify shortcomings in Integral the company's approach, and we both point this out and then start working out our own solutions to those shortcomings then it will either die out because we were wrong, die out because we have no friends, force the company to rethink things, move things forward because we were wrong and someone bought it, move things forward because we were right and someone bought it, etc. etc. etc.  My point is, why not try a little bit more?  Do we have what it really takes to actually do something to this world?  (I won't say for since that implies my contribution would be positive lol)  Anyways, I think it is worth a try, if only for the sake of entertaining ourselves. 

Anyways......

Please Log in to Vote.

0 out of 0 members found this useful.

Great Entertainment

"If we do actually identify shortcomings in Integral the company's approach, and we both point this out and then start working out our own solutions to those shortcomings then it will either die out because we were wrong, die out because we have no friends, force the company to rethink things, move things forward because we were wrong and someone bought it, move things forward because we were right and someone bought it, etc. etc. etc.  My point is, why not try a little bit more?  Do we have what it really takes to actually do something to this world?"

Who deleted my post under Autonomy's post, "Welcome to My World"? Whoever did it can censor me here, but not on the WORLD WIDE WEB. Does little Integral Life really want an internet war?

Hmmm, it does sound like great entertainment...

 

 

Please Log in to Vote.

0 out of 0 members found this useful.

Re: HaHa

Oioioi there's a lot going on in your post. I'll add some random thoughts myself.

Yes, I see what you mean with the pneumatic being. It should be possible to transcend and include the Structure of the Bio- and the Physiosphere and to see the Universe as a whole, all this while in a deep meditative trance-like state, when we drink the ocean with one gulp etc. pp. And yes, probably Wilber is elightened enough to know about this, and even having experienced it himself.

I like it when you say "At the point in a fractal where macro becomes micro or vice versa, it seems to me that infinity is "simply" swallowing infinity,  where trancend and include is actually still happening" YES! Exactly. Human beings are the connection between the Macro and the Micro, and we are messengers between these two realms. We breathe in, breathe out. Metabolism. That's we are.

You are a clever young girl, are you. If I'm not very very careful you will talk me into revealing even more secrets, now will you ;-) He he, do a little Google Search about Egyptian Mythology, that's a good start already. And yes, of course you can simply wait until it is gets to the surface, but that might take some time.

HaHa, yes we should try all a little harder, and not expect others to do the work for us. I totally agree with you here. And, you know, Brendan, I criticize the Integral Movement because I love it so much and expect so much from it. Things like the AQAL Cube make me think sometimes that it will be just another Brick in the Wall , HaHa. Maybe I worry too much about all this. I hope so.

Be well,

--

>Five Star General of the Seven Armies, Archon of Atlantis<

Please Log in to Vote.

0 out of 0 members found this useful.

Doing My Best

Haha, yes I am trying my darndest to coax this out of you...(perhaps this method will prove fruitful???)

I have done some searches on Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Secrets and Egyptian Secrets of the Universe and I have to say, there are several types of skepticism coming up for me.

One is the obvious; if people have these great secrets of the universe, why the fuck are they being kept secret if they could be doing so much good for humanity??? (Excuse the language but I'm just being honest here) I suppose this line of criticism depends on what nature these secrets are; i.e. if these are secrets about the internal side of humanity, maybe they are kept secret because who would believe them? (which is fair because I honestly probably wouldn't)  Or else these are secrets about the external nature of the universe which is both intriguing and a bit of a stretch for me to say the least.  Here I am talking about some of the "secrets" I found in my search about Egypt being linked to Atlantis...this is where my curiousity does honestly come up, not because I necessarily believe in Atlantis but because I just don't know that we have accounted for the construction of things like the Sphinx or Pyramids.  But (and this is possibly my Intergal indoctrination if you want to call it that) I am highly skeptical of these romantic lost Paradise type theories. 

The other skepticsm I have is more of a historical skepticism I suppose.  I am talking now about the fact that during the fall of the Roman Empire, a large number of cults, many of them Egyptian in ideology, started to spring up.  I personally don't think the U.S. is necessarily about to fall like Rome but I think we are reaching a crisis point where we will either transform or regress...and we do seem to have a rise in cult-like behavior, i.e. Al Qaeda  (which I consider a cult as opposed to Hamas, etc...) and many others of course, not all violent.  Anyways, cults aren't automatically a bad thing as many of our early Presidents may have been part of some, but I am still skeptical of their claims. 

So I guess my position is that unless I come across these "secrets" freely through either searching the internet (which I continue to do) or through someone directly telling me these secrets (hint, hint) I am not going through any cult like initations or subcriptions or one time payments to magazines to go searching for these secrets.  I am at this point prepared to die happily not knowing these secrets, I will just pursue the secrets of the universe which are universally available as all good worldcentric secrets should be (lol naughty worldcentric secrets, hiding in secret societies...ahhh here is another serious possibility...do these organizations (Masons, etc.) understand that you need to be at least world-centric to healthily employ these secrets they possess??  Hmmmmm...still sounds too cultish to me).  

Anyways, I may be making light of all of this stuff now but after reviewing the evidence, I seriously am not shut off to possibilities here, so please don't take this personally.  I certainly agree that Integral is not truly a theory of EVERYTHING.  Like I said, we still haven't accounted for Egyptian construction.  Whether Integral Theory is compatible with these other things remains to be seen. 

I don't doubt how much you care for Integral, and I don't mean at all to challenge your views of its shortcomings.  I personally care for Integral in so much as it does something to help us get through certain problems we are facing today.  But at some point, I think Integral will just become another brick in the wall, at least in its current form.  But when it comes down to it, as much as I joke around on here and say how we might as well just try for fun, another part of me knows that what Integral is talking about is serious and I share your desire to ensure it does its best.  At some point, though we are tied into collective groups, I think it is still the case that we can only control our own actions.  That is what any "critique" I have offered is truly directed at.  And it opens up a serious look at how we can influence collective groups with our individual behavior.  Which is what I have been trying to get at (sorry I always talk in circles)...that if we want Integral to change, sure we should throw our criticisms at its flaws but I think it is best we too lead as examples, and if Integral (the company) isn't being "integral" enough in our view, I think we should approach that problem integrally which I see as both throwing the direct criticisms that we feel but also doing our own part to explore ways forward.  I am not accusing you of anything because in many ways, I think that is what we are doing right now.  But I honestly just get tired of people (I'll be open, I am talking about "embrace" now) just trying to bait the company into a corner as a means to force transformation.  I say this without any particular love for the company but out of love for this universe, that the more we all sit around complaining about how not "integral" everyone else is without ourselves providing routes up and out and forward, the more time we waste.  I hope this will be recognized as a critique of both other subscribers to this site, a critique of myself, AND a critique of the company.  I just hope none of us forget that while part of this is all abstract and a game that from another perspective, things are serious and I just hope we can all do our best going forward. 

Having said that, I suppose I should go do something so as not to be too much of a hypocrite...

 

Please Log in to Vote.

2 out of 2 members found this useful.

Mosaic II

Mosaic II

Mosaic II


I first found Escher's Mosaic II when reading Douglas R. Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.

One afternoon when I had a few friends at my house, I projeted this image on my wall and began to hand-out artist's pencils so we could "make our mark."  As the shapes began to burn into the wall via graphite and charcoal, I read aloud from GEB the “Sonata for Unaccompanied Achilles.” This is a dialogue between Tortoise and Achilles about figure and ground: how, by defining one subset of a given set, you implicitly define another subset of that same set -- the part that is not included in the first subset. In the visual arts, this is best exemplified by Escher's Mosaic lithographs, where the shapes that form the background for a group of black “phantasmagorical beasts” define another set of figures, in white. The musical example that Hofstadter uses is Bach's Sonatas for Unaccompanied Violin, where the listeners' imagination fill in “between the notes” as the violin plays, and one often imagines hearing the accompanying piano. But the form of the dialogue pulls the very same trick, as the reader can easily imagine the Tortoise answering Achilles at the other end of the line!
(excerpted from http://tal.forum2.org/geb)

Our we-space was enveloped by image and action--a breathing holograph... and the scar was left on my wall to greet me each day thereafter.

 

 

Please Log in to Vote.

0 out of 0 members found this useful.

Figure and Ground

Hi Robert

Thanks for sharing your breathing holographic experience.  I loved the way in which art and dialogue was incorporated. Here's the music you mentionedI have only recently while researching Escher come across the book you mention but I have not read it as yet.

Escher’s art often plays around with figure and ground in interesting ways.  When looking at such art one’s eyes often seem to switch between the two as one sees first the one and then the other.  Apparently some people have great difficulty with this switching and it is suspected that it has something to do with the functioning of the right brain hemisphere.

Here are two more examples of the play with figure and ground in Escher’s work:

 

 

Regards

Linda

Please Log in to Vote.

0 out of 0 members found this useful.

Relativity

“That means that the phenomena brought forth by various types of human inquiry will be different depending on the quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types of the subjects bringing forth the phenomena.” (from Excerpt B: The Many Ways We Touch -Three Principles Helpful for Any Integrative Approach by Ken Wilber)

As seen in Escher's "Relativity" we can all walk around the same place, but we will all look in different ways often incapable of seeing what others see.  Remember too, that the viewer of "Relativity" will have yet another perspective and will be able to see something of the structure that could be invisible to its occupants. 

 

Sounds rather like the concept of “Kosmic addresses” (i.e. altitude + perspective) wouldn’t you say?