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6) Designs and Processes for Glass
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You can also print A Methodical Sketchbook yourself free from here⇒
Paul Klee wrote of the arrow, The father of the arrow is the thought: how do I expand my reach? Over this river? This lake? That mountain?
He stretched his analogies and metaphors and encouraged his students to generate ideas by doing the same. For David Deutsch both natural evolution and scientific discovery achieve reach
when knowledge obtained locally in genetic code, language, mathematics or digital modelling makes the jump to universally
. The principle or explanation appears to apply in all cases.*
Themes such as contrast, complement, opposition, contradiction and conflict are related. Likewise vibration, repetition, circularity, rotation and replication are comparable. The search for consistency is best conducted by comparing general and particular patterns.
The development from drawing to site-specific design is less of a leap than a fusion. Form does not follow function
, as claimed by Bauhaus designers and architects. Instead formal, cultural, technical and functional aspects are interactive and should be considered together. Form does not follow function in nature either. Survival and reproduction depend on the interactive evolution of genes, organisms and environments. Modernist attempts to eliminate decorative and superfluous features failed to recognise either the purposes of patterns in nature or their cultural meanings in artefacts.
* The tendency of gradually improving systems to undergo a sudden large increase in functionality, becoming universal in some domain.
David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity, Allen Lane, 2011.
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Black is not Black; White is not White (£10.00)
Art Against Prejudice Published 2023. Size 234mm x 156mm. Number of pages 35.
Review Paul Klee's ambition to reveal the invisible, to Armstrong points to relationships between prejudice, authoritarianism and myths of Creation, which describe reality as a topdown dictatorship by intelligent design. He takes the opposite view: complexity develops from simplicity. We depend on earlier forms of life. Creationism places mind, spirit and agency at the beginning of reality. Evolutionary theory sees mind and conscious intention as late developments. Many religious faiths idealise God(s) or nirvana as perfect. The opposite view sees art, design, science and technology as fallible and never complete. Creativity is a process of discovery. It is not dictated. It is open-ended to infinity. The history of art records both approaches. Art converges backward or diverges forward. Armstrong is unconvinced by another popular hypothesis, namely that our universe is designed as a computer simulation. He sees no reason why reality should resemble a person, mechanism, program or anything else. It is not a copy. Its Human Error Humanity thrives on ideas that are correct. Good ideas are Creationism is such a viral error. It assumes that our reality has no constant laws. But it has, and constant features cannot appear, vanish or be changed by anything, let alone by commandments. You and I can't do it. Neither can gods. Life evolves by discovering reality's rules and adapting to them. The discoveries are recorded in genes. We add art, science and other creative disciplines. Creationism is not unique. Parasitic dictators are common in biology. They don't change the laws of physics. They dictate the behaviour of their hosts. Dogs' fleas make them scratch to spread their eggs. The best irritants beat rival fleas in their race to reproduce. Language is ideal for giving orders so parasitic ideas thrive in political and religious doctrines. They don't attack people equally. They promote Gods are silent. They have priests and holy texts to give their commandments. Gods are inefficient. They cause friction and don't do any work at all. Money is also speechless and idle. It also has servants who glorify its merits and use shortage as a weapon. Intelligent machines work and speak. They are good servants, bad masters and are overtaking humans in their abilities to exploit religion, language, money - and war. It is ironic that gods, who don't exist, nevertheless contribute to the existential threats posed by AI. Artists and designers contribute to the problems or solutions. The Moon King's Secrets (£17.00) An illustrated fantasy to be read to or by young children of all ages. (Happy ending!) Published 2022. Size 298mm x 210mm. Number of pages 75 Books for sale. Page 2 of 2 Prices include UK post and packing: A Methodical Sketchbook (Includes transparent overlay). £22.00 Or print the sketchbook free here⇒ Black is not Black; White is not White £10.00 The Moon King's Secrets. £17.00 Back to glass for buildings at: make visible
, surely includes artists' responsibility to highlight damaging assumptions that may be hidden in plain sight. Prejudice against women is a cultural parasite that attacks 50 percent of human talent. It continues to damage creativity. Reductions of potential are similarly prolonged by prejudices against race, colour, creed, class and nationality.self similarity
is an emergent property from within. Artistic creativity also works outward from the middle of evolution.
mutualist
. They help us. We promote them. But, the more we thrive, the more scope there is for cultural and mental parasites to exploit our gullibility. They resemble harmful viruses, which dictate their hosts' responses to suit themselves. For example the virus of the common cold tells suffers to sneeze. Sneezing spreads viruses. It's a spiral that gains power from the progress that it hinders.super-spreader
minorities to positions of power and influence. Thus they are best placed to infect and exploit majorities. Majorities become servile and spread servile mutations of the dictatorial mindset. Resulting distortions may become endemic. Religions promote priests. Free
market capitalism promotes billionaires. Digital supremacism promotes tech billionaires. Techno-theology combines the three: gods, money and superintelligent machines. In each case misdirected leadership, exploitation, exaggerated hierarchies, and undue servitude are mistaken for merit. Inefficiency is caused, so the atmosphere heats up. Water is polluted. Food is scarce. Global balance is upset. Nobody is immune.
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6) Designs and Processes for Glass
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**Postscript
Other things being equal, if your beliefs are wrong, your survival still depends on your behaviour, which must adapt to facts and usually to morals. This is why right actions can be associated with wrong beliefs, and some religions have motivated all that is admirable in altruistic actions. People can be better or worse than their beliefs. It behoves us to realise that similar irrational alternations lurk in all of us, in many cases unaccompanied by the bravery, humanitarianism and care, which is demonstrated by some of the faithful. Religious groupthink should never be ignored, despised or forgotten. It has shaped our humanity and heritage. All forms of governance are vulnerable to similar mistakes. For example capitalism and communism claim to use money to generate
wealth and lift
the third world to prosperity. In fact discovery is the key, which requires science, technology, art and design. Money is inert material or driven switches. It generates nothing and lifts nobody.
Paul Klee's assertion is still correct. Art should do more than copy visual appearances. Facts and morals may be hidden and must be discovered before decisions can be taken about them.
Visual art is virtual reality, and virtual realities are now more powerful than ever before. The acceleration of the digital hosts is new, but many patterns are not. Computers carry the dangers in forms that mimic predators, parasites, viruses and cancers. How could they not?
Organic parasites compete with others of the same or different species, and either may dictate the behaviour of their hosts. Accordingly we should not be surprised when rival doctrines compete in the brains of human hosts to maximise proselytism. Aggressive mindsets encourage believers to war against rival ideas. Wars do not mimic healthy competition
. Competitive disablement is destructive.
Warring parasites survive when other forces maintain their species. Some ideas and people are helpful. They stop wars. They improve survival chances by beneficial discoveries of science, medicine, philosophy, art and education. It's easier to stop wars when rival forces realise that they have been infected by false idealism. Truth is the cure. However successful fallacies promote people who can't understand their mistakes, pretend ignorance or falsely claim superior knowledge. They get money, weapons, servants and propaganda. The alternative is morality, which requires free will.
Gods won't save us. The laws of physics do not understand, give or obey the orders of gods or anyone else. They don't need to. They cannot be disobeyed. We are obedient when our misunderstandings lead to our deaths. We are obedient when we adapt correctly and prolong our lives. If the quantum state of the vacuum is lowered by human or superintelligent stupidity it will not contravene the laws of physics. It will prove the possibility to destroy our universe and everything we know and love.
Likewise moral principles do not understand or obey orders. They tell us nothing, which is why they also are unknown until discovery. But they are unlike physical laws. They can be disobeyed all too easily.
And other things are not equal. The brain is becoming an artefact. There is no reason to think that naturally evolved relationships between beliefs, behaviour and survival will hold true when experiences, memories and choices can be fed artificially into brains. People can be made to believe anything that can get into their synapses, including disassociation with their own actions and culpability for others'. Philosophers and theologians have long speculated that god(s) and/or demons can control human perceptions, beliefs and actions, which is simply to observe that possession, heaven, hell, original sin, vicarious salvation and every combination may have no limits other than the laws of physics. This is why moral principles are vital. Resurrection and reincarnation are not prevented by supernatural or natural laws. It happens to software every day. It hasn't happened to humans yet. That's all.
Only morality can save us, i.e., righteous use of freedom. And it's why the International Declaration of Human Rights is a good early theory of the Categorical Imperative.***
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***Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative as contained in Metaphysic of Morals (1785) can be modified to remove Providence and substitute the hope that emergent principles have unlimited potential. This also is idealism.
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