The eight domains of self-integration
September 5th, 2010

From Psychotherapy Networker: "What is a healthy mind? Is it simply the absence of symptoms and dysfunctions, or is there something more to a life well lived? How can we embrace the diversity of behavior, temperament, values, and orientation across a wide range of cultures and still come up with a coherent definition of health? Just as some scientists are reluctant to define the mind, some people say that we shouldn't define mental health at all, because it is authoritarian to do so — we shouldn't tell others how to be healthy. But how do we account for the universal striving for happiness? How do we understand the cross-culturally recognizable ease of well-being? Positive psychology has offered an important corrective to the disease model by identifying the characteristics of happy people, such as gratitude, compassion, open-mindedness, and curiosity, but is there some unnamed quality that underlies all of these individual strengths?

Over the last twenty years, I've come to believe that integration is the key mechanism beneath both the absence of illness and the presence of well-being. Integration — the linkage of differentiated elements of a system — illuminates a direct pathway toward health. It's the way we avoid a life of dull, boring rigidity on the one hand, or explosive chaos on the other. We can learn to detect when integration is absent or insufficient and develop effective strategies to promote differentiation and then linkage. The key to this transformation is cultivating the capacity for mindsight."

Wang Gang-Feng. An Hui Province, 1982. The People's Republic of China.
August 17th, 2010

What is it?
August 2nd, 2010

From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "Friendship essentially involves a distinctive kind of concern for your friend, a concern which might reasonably be understood as a kind of love. Philosophers from the ancient Greeks on have traditionally distinguished three notions that can properly be called love: agape, eros, and philia. Agape is a kind of love that does not respond to the antecedent value of its object but instead is thought to create value in the beloved; it has come through the Christian tradition to mean the sort of love God has for us persons as well as, by extension, our love for God and our love for humankind in general. By contrast, em>eros and philia are generally understood to be responsive to the merits of their objects—to the beloved's properties, especially his goodness or beauty. The difference is that eros is a kind of passionate desire for an object, typically sexual in nature, whereas 'philia' originally meant a kind of affectionate regard or friendly feeling towards not just one's friends but also possibly towards family members, business partners, and one's country at large (Liddell et al., 1940; Cooper, 1977a). Given this classification of kinds of love, philia seems to be that which is most clearly relevant to friendship (though just what philia amounts to needs to be clarified in more detail).

For this reason, love and friendship often get lumped together as a single topic; nonetheless, there are significant differences between them. As understood here, love is an evaluative attitude directed at particular persons as such, an attitude which we might take towards someone whether or not that love is reciprocated and whether or not we have an established relationship with her. Friendship, by contrast, is essentially a kind of relationship grounded in a particular kind of special concern each has for the other as the person she is; and whereas we must make conceptual room for the idea of unrequited love, unrequited friendship is senseless. Consequently, accounts of friendship tend to understand it not merely as a case of reciprocal love of some form (together with mutual acknowledgment of this love), but as essentially involving significant interactions between the friends — as being in this sense a certain kind of relationship.

Nonetheless, questions can be raised about precisely how to distinguish romantic relationships, grounded in eros, from relationships of friendship, grounded in philia, insofar as each involves significant interactions between the involved parties that stem from a kind of reciprocal love that is responsive to merit. Clearly the two differ insofar as romantic love normally has a kind of sexual involvement that friendship lacks; yet, as Thomas (1989) asks, is that enough to explain the real differences between them? Badhwar (2003, 65–66) seems to think so, claiming that the sexual involvement enters into romantic love in part through a passion and yearning for physical union, whereas friendship involves instead a desire for a more psychological identification. Yet it is not clear exactly how to understand this: precisely what kind of "psychological identification" or intimacy is characteristic of friendship? (For further discussion, see Section 1.2.)

In philosophical discussions of friendship, it is common to follow Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII) in distinguishing three kinds of friendship: friendships of pleasure, of utility, and of virtue. Although it is a bit unclear how to understand these distinctions, the basic idea seems to be that pleasure, utility, and virtue are the reasons we have in these various kinds of relationships for loving our friend. That is, I may love my friend because of the pleasure I get out of her, or because of the ways in which she is useful to me, or because I find her to have a virtuous character. Given the involvement of love in each case, all three kinds of friendship seem to involve a concern for your friend for his sake and not for your own.

There is an apparent tension here between the idea that friendship essentially involves being concerned for your friend for his sake and the idea of pleasure and utility friendships: how can you be concerned for him for his sake if you do that only because of the pleasure or utility you get out of it? If you benefit your friend because, ultimately, of the benefits you receive, it would seem that you do not properly love your friend for his sake, and so your relationship is not fully one of friendship after all. So it looks like pleasure and utility friendships are at best deficient modes of friendship; by contrast, virtue friendships, because they are motivated by the excellences of your friend's character, are genuine, non-deficient friendships. For this reason, most contemporary accounts, by focusing their attention on the non-deficient forms of friendship, ignore pleasure and utility friendships."

by The Wolfgang Press
July 25th, 2010

"It felt so good, you know."

by Joe Quirk
July 21st, 2010

"We Homo sapiens are very good at thinking clearly and surviving in a social context, until it's time to trade genes, at which point we go mad. The stupidity of our overwhelming passions comes from a deeper wisdom than anything the wise can control. The definition of passion: when you become animated by an ancient imperative that transcends your mortal life. Passion comes from before you were born, and it reaches out beyond your death. To a gene, your passions are more important than you. We celebrate that ecstatic agony in our art and gossip, because there is no state achievable by humans that is more self-transcendent."

Thanks to William Bennett!

Surrender!
July 18th, 2010

In this life-time you are being asked to release and surrender. Surrender is the opposite of giving up. It is freeing yourself from the desire to be in control, letting go of how you think things should be. Surrender is freedom. You are being invited to release yourself from the bondage of preconceived action, to let everything be all right as it is, so that you can live a more inspired life in the moment!

You are being asked to take action in the process of surrender and release. You are requested to die a symbolic death, to surrender your limiting beliefs. Symbolic death unveils the self by cutting away the outgrown parts of yourself that no longer serve you. In such death, ego structures fall away to reveal the garden of the true self. Look for new ways of being, new people, new ideas, and new directions that will move into the vacuum created through surrender and release. 

Holding on to past patterns and grievances only limits the possibilities. Forgive yourself. Forgive others. Let go. Surrender whatever limits you. Face whatever you are resisting. In the experience of any loss, it is never too late to complete. Through your willingness to walk in the dark forest, insights and revelations will naturally emerge.

Accept the truth of your present situation. Through accepting what is, you are free to go forward. Change and growth become easier and more natural. 

Thanks to Nicola Richer!

Mental hiccup
June 27th, 2010

From ScienceBlogs: "…one of the most impressive talents of the human mind. We don't just know things - we know we know them, which leads to feelings of knowing. I've written about this before, but one of my favorite examples of such feelings is when a word is on the tip of the tongue. Perhaps it occurs when you run into an old acquaintance whose name you can't remember, although you know that it begins with the letter J. Or perhaps you struggle to recall the title of a recent movie, even though you can describe the plot in perfect detail.

What's interesting about this mental hiccup is that, even though the mind can't remember the information, it's convinced that it knows it. We have a vague feeling that, if we continue to search for the missing word, we'll be able to find it. (This is a universal experience: The vast majority of languages, from Afrikaans to Hindi to Arabic, even rely on tongue metaphors to describe the tip-of-the-tongue moment.) But here's the mystery: If we've forgotten a person's name, then why are we so convinced that we remember it? What does it mean to know something without being able to access it?

This is where feelings of knowing prove essential. The feeling is a signal that we can find the answer, if only we keep on thinking about the question. And these feelings aren't just relevant when we can't remember someone's name. Think, for instance, about the last time you raised your hand to speak in a group setting: Did you know exactly what you were going to say when you decided to open your mouth? Probably not. Instead, you had a funny hunch that you had something worthwhile to say, and so you began talking without knowing how the sentence would end. Likewise, those players on Jeopardy are able to ring the buzzer before they can actually articulate the answer. All they have is a feeling, and that feeling is enough.

These feelings of knowing illustrate the power of our emotions. The first thing to note is that these feelings are often extremely accurate."

by John Naughton
June 22nd, 2010

From Guardian: "In spite of all the answers the internet has given us, its full potential to transform our lives remains the great unknown. Here are the nine key steps to understanding the most powerful tool of our age – and where it's taking us."

...and it is not a test.
June 21st, 2010

Colors / Black
June 13th, 2010

From Cabinet: "The contemporary philosopher Giorgio Agamben, following Aristotle, remarks that the fact that we see darkness means that our eyes have not only the potential to see, but also the potential not to see. (If we had only the potential to see, we would never have the experience of not-seeing.) This twofold potential, to do and not to do, is not only a feature of our sight, Agamben argues; it is the essence of our humanity: 'The greatness — and also the abyss — of human potentiality is that it is first of all potential not to act, potential for darkness.' Because we are capable of inaction, we know that we have the ability to act, and also the choice of whether to act or not. Black, the color of not seeing, not doing, is in that sense the color of freedom."

Who says staying at the world's best hotels has to cost a fortune?
June 7th, 2010

Who's taking me?

Bodies are composed of an infinity of infinitely small parts
June 5th, 2010

From the New Shelton wet/dry: "we think we know everything through our mind, but (spinoza:) the human mind has no knowledge of the body.

there are no fewer things in the mind that exceed our consciousness than there are things in the body that exceed our knowledge. (deleuze)

4) other sets of small parts (others bodies) have an effect on me. they can modify or destroy the relation which characterises my body. like the cold water on my skin, the food that i eat, a bullet, etc.

5) there's another kind of relation between bodies. this time it is not about the effect of a body on another body, but about the agreement or disagreement of the relations between two bodies. it's about the composition of the relations between two bodies.
like the water and my body, when i swim.

6) for each kind of relation between bodies, there's a kind of knowledge. (...)

7) wondering what it's like when it gets interesting? look at the relations between people, same as the relations between water and bodies. the beauty of spinoza's mechanism."

Predict.
May 27th, 2010

From The School Of Life: "We like to think of our introspected motivations as predictive facts that will tell us what we will do. However, as Wilson  demonstrates, our inner reflections discover not facts but a story we tell to ourselves about ourselves. These stories tend to be rose-tinted. We see ourselves as more consistent, admirable and steadfast than we turn out to be. We forget contrary behaviour and previous weakness and focus on being better.
(...) Consequently, if we want to know what you will do next, it is often better to ask others than it is to ask yourself. Friends and family can know you better than you know yourself. Even strangers, who can see a situation more clearly than you, can make better predictions. Which also means that, despite our wish to be flies-on-the-wall as negotiations unfold, and our urge to see inside the minds of the protagonists, it turns out we may well know what our leaders will do next better than they do."

From the last draft
May 24th, 2010

At that moment, a great oldie-but-goodie BLASTS from the jukebox.

MIA: I wanna dance.

VINCENT: I'm not much of a dancer.

MIA: Now I'm the one gettin' gyped. I do believe Marsellus told you to take me out and do whatever I wanted. Well, now I want to dance.

Vincent smiles and begins taking off his boots. Mia triumphantly casts hers off.  He takes her hand, escorting her to the dance floor. The two face each other for that brief moment before you begin to dance, than they both break into a devilish twist. Mia's version of the twist is that of a sexy cat. Vincent is pure Mr. Cool as he gets into a hip-swivelling rhythm that would make Mr. Checker proud.

The OTHER DANCERS on the floor are trying to do the same thing, but Vincent and Mia seem to be strangely shaking their asses in sync. The two definitely share a rhythm and share smiles as they SING ALONG with the last verse of the Golden Oldie.

(They had a hi-fi phono, boy, did they let it blast
Seven hundred little records, all rock, rhythm and jazz
But when the sun went down, the rapid tempo of the music fell
"C'est la vie", say the old folks, it goes to show you can never tell)

You Probably Think This Perfume Is About You
May 22nd, 2010

"Come as you are, as you were, as I want you to be.
As a friend, as a friend, as an old enemy.
Take your time, hurry up, choice is yours, don't be late.
Take a rest, as a friend, as an old memory."

And here is the perfume: Black Afgano

"Nothing lasts. You can't count on anything but yourself." Dashiell Hammett
May 8th, 2010

From Wikipedia: "The question regarding personal identity has addressed the conditions under which a person at one time is the same person at another time, known as personal continuity. This sort of analysis of personal identity provides a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for the identity of the person over time. In the modern philosophy of mind, this concept of personal identity is sometimes referred to as the diachronic problem of personal identity. The synchronic problem is grounded in the question of what features or traits characterize a given person at one time."

10 antithetical traits often present in creative people
May 7th, 2010

From Psychology Today: "Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals. If I had to express in one word what makes their personalities different from others, it's complexity. They show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated. They contain contradictory extremes; instead of being an individual, each of them is a multitude."

"It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to." W. C. Fields
May 1st, 2010

From Wikipedia: "Walpurgis Night (Walpurgisnacht) is a traditional religious holiday of pre-Christian origin, celebrated today by Christian as well as non-Christian communities, on April 30 or May 1 in large parts of Central and Northern Europe.
The current festival is, in most countries that celebrate it, named after Saint Walpurga, born in Devon about 710. Due to the coincidence of her holy day falling on the same day as the pagan holiday on which it was based, her name became associated with the celebrations. Walpurga was honoured in the same way that Vikings had celebrated spring and as they spread throughout Europe, the two dates became mixed together and created the Walpurgis Night celebration. Early Christianity had a policy of Christianising pagan festivals so it is perhaps no accident that St. Walpurga's day was set to May 1."

Low-fat vs. low-carb
April 29th, 2010

From Scientific American: "'If you reduce saturated fat and replace it with high glycemic-index carbohydrates, you may not only not get benefits — you might actually produce harm,' Ludwig argues. The next time you eat a piece of buttered toast, he says, consider that 'butter is actually the more healthful component.'"

From The New York Times: "After 20 years steeped in a low-fat paradigm, I find it hard to see the nutritional world any other way. I have learned that low-fat diets fail in clinical trials and in real life, and they certainly have failed in my life. I have read the papers suggesting that 20 years of low-fat recommendations have not managed to lower the incidence of heart disease in this country, and may have led instead to the steep increase in obesity and Type 2 diabetes. I have interviewed researchers whose computer models have calculated that cutting back on the saturated fats in my diet to the levels recommended by the American Heart Association would not add more than a few months to my life, if that. I have even lost considerable weight with relative ease by giving up carbohydrates on my test diet, and yet I can look down at my eggs and sausage and still imagine the imminent onset of heart disease and obesity, the latter assuredly to be caused by some bizarre rebound phenomena the likes of which science has not yet begun to describe. The fact that Atkins himself has had heart trouble recently does not ease my anxiety, despite his assurance that it is not diet-related."

About Women
April 27th, 2010

No. 732: We'll take nice forearms over six-pack abs any day.

Nifty necklace above: Balançoire (swing) from Calourette. 3,5 cm of varnished wood on an 80cm silver chain.

Amor fati
April 24th, 2010

From Wikipedia: "Nachum of Gamzu was a Tanna of the 2nd generation (1st century). In the Talmud he is called Ish Gam Zu (the man of gam zu), and this name is explained as referring to Nahum's motto: on every occasion, no matter how unpleasant the circumstance, he exclaimed gam zu letovah (this, too, will be for the best)."

Mind the gap
April 23rd, 2010

Because I Got High
Magic
No Lollipop No Sweet So
It's my Party
That's Life
Friends Will Be Friends

Acceptance and mindfulness
April 18th, 2010

From Wikipedia: "ACT commonly employs six core principles to help clients develop psychological flexibility:
1. Cognitive defusion: Learning to perceive thoughts, images, emotions, and memories as what they are, not what they appear to be.
2. Acceptance: Allowing them to come and go without struggling with them.
3. Contact with the present moment: Awareness of the here and now, experienced with openness, interest, and receptiveness.
4. Observing the self: Accessing a transcendent sense of self, a continuity of consciousness which is changing.
5. Values: Discovering what is most important to one's true self.
6. Committed action: Setting goals according to values and carrying them out responsibly."

Funkadelic "Into You" (1978)
April 17th, 2010

I can't get into the neutron bomb
I can't get into something that will do me some harm
I can't get into a drug addict principle
I can't get into something that would close the door
If it's right, it's all right for you now
If it's right, it's all right for me now, yo-ho
Any night you'll be uptight until you find
That the wrong and the right are within your mind

Into you now
Into you, my people

Into you now
Imagine me
Into you now
Into you
Into you now
My heart
Into you, my people

I can't get into the poisoned land
I can't get into something I don't understand
I can't into a bad romance
I can't get into a love that ends in a chance
If it's right, it's all right with you now
If it's right, it's all right for me now, yo-ho
Any night you'll be uptight until you find
That the wrong and the right are within your mind

Into you now
Into you, my people
And you into me 

Oldies in the morning
March 14th, 2010

Chestnut brown canary
Ruby throated sparrow
Sing a song don't be long
Thrill me to the marrow
Voices of the angels ring around the moonlight
Asking me, said she so free
How can you catch the sparrow?

(from Suite: Judy Blue Eyes by Stephen Stills)

Ten Timeless Influencers
March 11, 2010

From Psyblog: "Conformity is such a strong influence in society that it's impossible to understand human behaviour without it. Psychological experiments show that people will deny the evidence of their own eyes in order to conform with other people. (...)
Understanding when we conform has all kinds of practical real-world benefits, depending on your aims: it can help you understand your own behaviour as well as understand how others will behave under a variety of different situational pressures. Everyone should be aware of these factors and how they affect the most important areas of their social life."

These are the influencers: Group size, Dissent, Are they one of us?, Your mood, Need for structure, Social approval, Culture, Authority, Social norms and Reciprocation.

Natural anti-depressant
March 10th, 2010

From BBC News: "Once nostalgia was considered a sickness - the word derives from the Greek nostos (return) and algos (pain), suggesting suffering due to a desire to return to a place of origin. (...)
Studies by Mr Routledge, along with colleagues at the University of Southampton, have found that remembering past times improves mood, increases self-esteem, strengthens social bonds and imbues life with meaning. (...)
Nostalgia is usually involuntary and triggered by negative feelings - most commonly loneliness - against which it acts as a sort of natural anti-depressant by countering those feelings."

Also, don't hesitate to see Nostalghia (1983) directed by Andrei Tarkovsky - one of my favorite directors of all time.

What Matter Who's Speaking?
March 7th, 2010

the New Shelton wet/dry blog by JC from Brooklyn, New York, is simply brilliant. I am very grateful for its deepness, intelligence and obscurity.

Found the illustration on Sofía Stefanich's wonderful Tumblr site.

Directed by James Frost, OK Go and Syyn Labs
March 5th, 2010

From Dangerous Minds: "Let's face it, with all of the many, many entertainment choices we have facing us, every minute of every single day, when it comes to the matter of what we choose to give our precious attention to, music videos tend to rank pretty low on the totem pole. There's probably a pretty compelling reason MTV is no longer calling itself a music channel. So '80s, isn't it? A three-minute music video? Who has the time?

So when you hear about some cool new music video — maybe your tweeps told you about it — it had, well, better be good. Chicago-based indie rockers OK Go know this. Their 2006 video, Here It Goes Again, featuring the group doing a synchronized dance routine on treadmills, has been viewed by about 50 million people, so the follow-up had, well, better be good too.

Trust me, it's great. I could describe for you the Rube Goldberg-inspired centerpiece of the new This Too Shall Pass video, but since their record company finally relented and allowed the piece to be embedded (I mean, what was that all about?), you can simply press play and see for yourself.

Engineered with help from CalTech and MIT, and built by Syyn Labs, the video — and its kinetic sculpture centerpiece — is nothing short of astonishing. Like its predecessor, it's bound to snag all kinds of kudos and awards."

Also, don't hesitate to review Fischli & Weiss' Der Lauf der Dinge.

or (Radical) Constructivism
February 25th, 2010

From Wikipedia: "Constructivism criticizes objectivism, which embraces the belief that a human can come to know external reality (the reality that exists beyond one's own mind). Constructivism holds the opposite view, that the only reality we can know is that which is represented by human thought (assuming a disbelief or lack of faith in a superhuman God). Reality is independent of human thought, but meaning or knowledge is always a human construction. (...)
Constructivism proposes new definitions for knowledge and truth that forms a new paradigm, based on inter-subjectivity instead of the classical objectivity and viability instead of truth. The constructivist point of view is pragmatic as Vico said: 'the truth is to have made it'. (...)

'And, irrespective of what one might assume, in the life of a science, problems do not arise by themselves. It is precisely this that marks out a problem as being of the true scientific spirit: all knowledge is in response to a question. If there were no question, there would be no scientific knowledge. Nothing proceeds from itself. Nothing is given. All is constructed.' (Gaston Bachelard, La formation de l'esprit scientifique, 1934)

'My hand feels touched as well as it touches; that's reality, and nothing more.' (Paul Valéry)"

Also check out this Radical Constructivism and Daily Life video by Ernst von Glasersfeld.

Nothing at all
February 18th, 2010

From Wikipedia: "The director and producer Alfred Hitchcock popularized both the term MacGuffin and the technique. (...)
A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin) is 'a plot element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction.'
Sometimes, the specific nature of the MacGuffin is not important to the plot such that anything that serves as a motivation serves its purpose. The MacGuffin can sometimes be ambiguous, completely undefined, generic or left open to interpretation."

From The Colombus Dispatch: "The best way to spot a true MacGuffin is to substitute anything else for it and ask whether the movie would change. If the microfilm in North by Northwest were papers or jewels or a safe-deposit box key, would the rest of the movie change? Not at all.
While the MacGuffin propels the story, it shouldn't be mistaken for an essential plot device. The shark in Jaws isn't a MacGuffin but a key character. It has to be a shark, or the story can't be told. (...)
As Hitchcock said of the microfilm in North by Northwest: 'Here, you see, the MacGuffin has been boiled down to its purest expression: nothing at all!'"

Valentine's Day
February 14th, 2010

"Ada's letters breathed, writhed, lived; Van's Letters from Terra, 'a philosophical novel,' showed no sign of life whatsoever."
"Finito! It was now the forming of soft black pits (yamï, yamishchi) in her mind, between the dimming sculptures of thought and recollection, that tormented her phenomenally; mental panic and physical pain joined black-ruby hands, one making her pray for sanity, the other, plead for death."
(from "Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle" by Vladimir Nabokov)

If you are interested in my favourite book, the one above all others, check out this fantastic online resource.

(Painting by Eric Fischl)

by Matthew Hoffman (2009)
February 11th, 2010

at the Philip Johnson Glass House
February 7th, 2010

From Design Observer: "Since it reopened last year, the Philip Johnson Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, has been the venue of a series of intimate conversations. They've been moderated by, among others, Roger Mandle, Laurie Beckelman, Maurice Cox, and John Maeda; the themes have included Breaking the Rules, Transparency, and Design and Civic Leadership."

Keep those tears hid out of sight, let it loose, let it all come down.
January 29th, 2010

to disengage
to loose
to release
to relinquish
to unclasp
to unhand
to lay so. to rest
to let go
to let loose
to let sth. loose
to loose one's hold on sth.
to lose one's hold of
to release a load

A practice of mindfulness
January 21st, 2010

Jim Gagné: "The practice of mindfulness is growing in popularity among psychotherapists as a means to deal with painful emotion. It consists of deliberately taking the time to notice and acknowledge whatever you're thinking and feeling. You don't do anything with thoughts or feelings; you simply notice them. When you react emotionally, notice that. If you're upset, notice that. Ditto if you're happy or content. When you judge or evaluate your experience, notice that. Notice whatever. (...)
I have a mental image of leaning back in a chair, feet propped up on the desk, munching popcorn as I observe my experience. Kind of like watching a movie. This is a particularly useful image when your experience is upsetting. Maybe it's a horror movie, or a suspense drama!
Whenever you can just hang out with your experience, and with whatever reactions you have to it, the sting of painful memories begins to dissipate. Your judgments and evaluations are just thoughts; actually they aren't any more real than anything else. You don't always have to be right. All those rules you learned from your parents are just that, rules. You begin to appreciate the humor in your self-righteousness. You stop struggling and begin to relax. You no longer feel overwhelmed or pursued. You're alert and present in the moment, not spaced out or numb.
When a particular emotion or experience is particularly troubling, you can address it directly, with an even more powerful technique than mindfulness: what I'm calling radical acceptance. If mindfulness is watching the monster chase you in the dream, radical acceptance is hugging the monster and inviting it for tea. (...)
Strong emotion brings all sorts of cognitive distortions you can learn to recognize and not take seriously.
Radical acceptance is choosing to accept the experience you are having this moment, no matter what. You accept without believing them whatever judgments and evaluations come to mind. Like it, hate it, fear it, whatever happens, you accept it."

by Orson Welles (1915-1985)
January 11th, 2009

From bright lights: "When we get to a late film in Welles' career, the documentary F for Fake (1976), he formulates his most explicit statement about contemporary reality, leaving little room for greatness, let alone tragedy. And if F for Fake seems a superficial film, we will then have experienced the first lesson of postmodernism: playfulness, conscious illusions, and an undisguised reflexiveness about making movies. Put another way, what is seen in the film that seems real is not as real as it appears — but most especially we can't trust the filmmaker Welles himself, he will lie to us and deceive us, if only to get at the heart of the movie's main contention: you cannot trust anyone, especially anyone who asserts his or her authority without any basis or proof." ("F for Fake, The Ultimate Mirror of Orson Welles, In which Welles deflates expectations of greatness — and transcends them" by Robert Castle).
(Thanks to Nina Juric!)

Ten points - Dix point - Zehn Punkte
December 31st, 2009

Coffee In 2009 I celebrated my addiction to coffee. Had the best in Milan, right across from the hotel where I stayed for a week while teaching at NABA. The lady who made it was in her 80s. 7am in the morning, the air clean and the heat still asleep.
Film Keep The River On Your Right is a fascinating movie because its subject is so fascinating. Calm, pleasant, self-deprecating, Schneebaum manages to draw you in to his obsessions and joys.
Insight The results of my Five Factor Model or FFM test. In contemporary psychology, the "Big Five" factors of personality are five broad domains or dimensions of personality which have been scientifically discovered to define human personality at the highest level of organization. Who beats my 97% openness?
Occupation One song, repeat mode, glue, scissors, three scraps of paper.
Quote "When the shadow of your house would be your home, the moment of arrival would determine where home is" by Tomas Schats.
Role model for coming of age Maryanne Amacher (1938-2009) 
Song Murphy's Law, sure out to get you!
Talk "Joseph Campbell - Transformations of Myth Through Time" consists of 14 hour-long programs selected from over 50 hours of Campbell lectures and is introduced by "THE HERO'S JOURNEY," an award-winning biographical film.
TV series Big Love, a fair portrayal of polygamy without being judgmental. The series' theme song is God Only Knows by The Beach Boys.
Website I check out This isn't happiness nearly every day and it nevver fails to surprise, irritate and delight me.

So, here we are... And what is next?

Minnie Riperton performs "Loving You" on Soul Train
December 24th, 2009

Lovin' you I see your soul come shinin' through.

...not to be understood.
December 17th, 2009

Via This isn't Happiness.

songs from the past
December 15th, 2009

Every time I think of you
I feel shot right through with a bolt of blue
It's no problem of mine
But it's a problem I find
Living a life that I can't leave behind
But there's no sense in telling me
The wisdom of the fool won't set you free
But that's the way that it goes
And it's what nobody knows
well every day my confusion grows

Every time I see you falling
I get down on my knees and pray
I'm waiting for that final moment
You say the words that I can't say

I feel fine and I feel good
I'm feeling like I never should
Whenever I get this way
I just don't know what to say
Why can't we be ourselves like we were yesterday
I'm not sure what this could mean
I don't think you're what you seem
I do admit to myself
That if I hurt someone else
Then I'll never see just what we're meant to be

The fixed-schedule productivity
November 23rd, 2009

Just found this helpful ideas via boing boing on how you get meaningful things done using "fixed-schedule productivity". From Cal Newport's, who is a post-doc at MIT, blog Study hacks:

"The system work as follows:
1. Choose a schedule of work hours that you think provides the ideal balance of effort and relaxation.
2. Do whatever it takes to avoid violating this schedule.

This sounds simple. But think about it for a moment. Satisfying rule 2 is not easy. If you took your current projects, obligations, and work habits, you'd probably fall well short of satisfying your ideal work schedule. Here's a simple truth: to stick to your ideal schedule will require some drastic actions. For example, you may have to:
> Dramatically cut back on the number of projects you are working on.
> Ruthlessly cull inefficient habits from your daily schedule.
> Risk mildly annoying or upsetting some people in exchange for large gains in time freedom.
> Stop procrastinating.
In the abstract, these all seem like hard things to do. But when you have the focus of a specific goal — 'I do not want to work past 5 on week days!' — you'd be surprised by how much easier it becomes deploy these strategies in your daily life."

or Le Rayon vert by Éric Rohmer
November 17th, 2009

From Astronomy Picture of the Day: "Many think it is just a myth. Others think it is true but its cause isn't known. Adventurers pride themselves on having seen it. It's a green flash from the Sun. The truth is the green flash does exist and its cause is well understood. Just as the setting Sun disappears completely from view, a last glimmer appears startlingly green. The effect is typically visible only from locations with a low, distant horizon, and lasts just a few seconds. A green flash is also visible for a rising Sun, but takes better timing to spot. A dramatic green flash was caught in the above photograph in 1992 from Finland. The Sun itself does not turn partly green, the effect is caused by layers of the Earth's atmosphere acting like a prism."

From Film - Think: "According to Jules Verne, those lucky enough to see this happen will also for that moment be granted supernatural clarity into their own hearts and the hearts of those around them. Delphine realizes that this sort of clarity is exactly what she has been looking for. She needs just a glimmer of certainty about herself and a companion, just one moment in which she can safely align herself with something other than loneliness. And eventually it happens. She meets a man in the Biarritz train station, and on an uncharacteristic whim, Delphine joins him on the next train out of town. They stand together facing the sea at sunset. They wait as the sun slowly drops towards the distant water. We wait with them. And then it happens.
Rohmer reportedly waited quite a long time until he could actually catch the green ray on film. If he couldn’t actually find the atmospheric conditions at the right time with his camera rolling, then the film wouldn’t have worked. Or else the film would have ended with Delphine never finding that magical moment that Rohmer had so studiously prepared for her. But we wait there with Delphine and her companion, and the sun flashes brilliantly green but for a moment before it vanishes below the curvature of the earth."

Robert Sapolsky's outstanding Stanford lecture
November 11th, 2009

Here is another inspiring talk by this fantastic storyteller. Especially enjoyed the part on dopamine... (around 26'30").
From BoingBoing: "Stanford primatologist and anthropologist Robert Sapolsky scores big with this grad lecture on The Uniqueness of Humans, a humbling, inspiring and sweet 30 minutes on what it is about humans that makes us unique from our animal cousins, and how many of the seemingly unique features of humanity can be found elsewhere."

Weekly visualisation
November 8th, 2009

David McCandless is doing a regular weekly visualisation for the excellent Guardian Datablog, the front-end for an amazing library of statistics and data, lovingly hand-gathered by The Guardian.
Also check out his scrapbook on Flickr.
(Thanks to Claudio Becker-Foss!)

Gazebo: I Like Chopin
November 4th, 2009

Tell me where's my way
Imagine your face
In a sunshine reflection
A vision of blue skies
Forever distractions

(Illustration by Gizem Vural)

Murphy's Law, sure out to get you
October 25th, 2009

I need a reminder: Today is... Bangle by Hong Kong designer Yellowgoat and available at esty. 

Fantastic Gifford Lectures by Michael Gazzaniga
October 22nd, 2009

From The University of Edinburgh's College of Humanities and Social Science: "The fourth in a series of Gifford Lectures by Professor Michael Gazzaniga. Recorded 19 October, 2009 at the Playfair Library Hall, the University of Edinburgh.
So what does free will mean? It has become a catch-all term and means several things.
In many ways the concept is fundamental to human thought and societal institutions.
For example, our system of justice is built on the idea that we are all practical reasoners, working in a normal brain environment to produce coherent and ethical behaviours.
We are held to be personally responsible for those decisions. Questioning the core concept, free will, necessitates rethinking many cherished notions of human institutions."
Watch the fourth lecture here.
(Thanks to Mary DeBlois!)

by Sylvester (1979)
October 18th, 2009

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Black bird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
all your life
you were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Listen here

♥ ♥ ♥
October 13th, 2009

From Wikipedia:
1. syād-asti – "in some ways it is"
2. syād-nāsti - "in some ways it is not"
3. syād-asti-nāsti - "in some ways it is and it is not"
4. syād-asti-avaktavyaḥ - "in some ways it is and it is indescribable"
5. syād-nāsti-avaktavyaḥ - "in some ways it is not and it is indescribable"
6. syād-asti-nāsti-avaktavyaḥ - "in some ways it is, it is not and it is indescribable"
7. syād-avaktavyaḥ - "in some ways it is indescribable"

From Tender is the night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940): "The drink made past happy things contemporary with the present, as if they were still going on, contemporary even with the future as if they were about to happen again."
(Archival pigment print by Clifton Burt)

...you still don't understand about yourself
October 6th, 2009

From British Psychological Society's Research Digest: "The Digest editor has invited some of the world's leading psychologists to look inwards and share, in 150 words, one nagging thing they still don't understand about themselves. Their responses are by turns candid, witty and thought-provoking. Here's what they had to say"

In case you have been wondering too
September 30th, 2009

From BBC: "...marketing psychologist, Paul Buckley, of the Cardiff School of Management, said there was no evidence that subliminal messages work in the real world: 'From a practical point of view this probably doesn't reflect what would happen in real life. Certainly lots of countries around the world have legislation to ban subliminal messages being used on television and nobody has yet been able to point to any instance where a subliminal message has worked.'" (via boingboing)

by Peter Russell
September 29th, 2009

"A human being is a part of the whole called by us 'Universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest. - A kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." (Albert Einstein)
Despite the weird soundtrack watch the movie here or read the book.

It's yesterday once more.
September 27th, 2009

Always wondered why I enjoy train rides so much. Have been taken to a very special location last night: Kind of a secret train museum in Cologne. Never heard of it before. People were dancing between those old industrial trains and it was so dark that I could hardly recognize any of the faces. Later, walking back to the car in the middle of night on some old tracks outside of the city I recognized that those tracks are the answer. Trains do never get lost. And sometimes they even pass adorable little fir trees.

Big five
September 21st, 2009

Had a wonderful day co-teaching 25 students with Ralf Neubauer at Basel's prestigious Hyperwerk. On this first day of the workshop we looked at various kinds of self-portraits and on Friday the students will present their final considerations in an exhibition.
Here is my contribution seen through the lens of the Big Five personality traits:
Openness - appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, curiosity, and variety of experience: 97%
Conscientiousness - a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; planned rather than spontaneous behavior: 91%
Extraversion - energy, positive emotions, urgency, and the tendency to seek stimulation in the company of others: 67%
Agreeableness - a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others: 16%
Neuroticism - a tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, or vulnerability; sometimes called emotional instability: 21%

by Mike Radcliffe
August 19th, 2009

From Eye blog: "First of all, view your initial contact as the opportunity to get a meeting, nothing else, just a meeting. Once you have the meeting then it's your responsibility to win over your interviewer with your wit, charm and amazing portfolio. But before you get the meeting, I would create the simplest and most effective CV to send out, and a small work presentation to send out with it; don't mess up before you've even got in there. Personally, I think CVs are an exercise in cutting the information back to the bare minimum, especially if you are a graphic designer. . (...) All we need to know is where you've been, what you've done and if there was anything significant that happened along the way to make you employable! It's your job as a designer to make information clear, accessible and enjoyable to read."

Television drama and further
August 3rd, 2009

Had an intense weekend with Big Love - amongst other things. Left me stunning. What an amazing script or is just my perspective on the story - and some wild associations?
From Wikipedia: "The show was co-created by Mark Olsen and Will Scheffer, who also serve as executive producers. Olsen and Scheffer spent almost three years researching the premise of the show, with the intent of creating a fair portrayal of polygamy in America without being judgmental. The series' theme song is "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys; the musical score for the series is composed by David Byrne."

which means "to stroll"
July 27th, 2009

From Wikipedia: "There is no English equivalent for the French word flâneur. Cassell's dictionary defines flâneur as a stroller, saunterer, drifter but none of these terms seems quite accurate. There is no English equivalent for the term, just as there is no Anglo-Saxon counterpart of that essentially Gallic individual, the deliberately aimless pedestrian, unencumbered by any obligation or sense of urgency, who, being French and therefore frugal, wastes nothing, including his time which he spends with the leisurely discrimination of a gourmet, savoring the multiple flavors of his city. (Cornelia Otis Skinner, Elegant Wits and Grand Horizontals, 1962, Houghton Mifflin, New York)" 

To be combined
July 13th, 2009

Awesome conglomeration of pictures found on the web. I go there nearly every day and it nevver fails to surprise me...
And if you are looking for quotes to go along with or reinterpret those images, read Tom Stafford's challenging blog idiolect.
For the image above I chose: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." by Samuel Beckett.

A Stanford lecture
June 6th, 2009

From boingboing.com: "Stanford's Robert Sapolsky, one of the most interesting anthropologists I've heard lecture, gives us 90 minutes on the evolutionary basis for literal religious belief, 'metamagical thinking', schizotypal personality and so on, explaining how evolutionarily, the mild schizophrenic expression we called 'schizotypal personality' have enjoyed increased reproductive opportunities."

via boingboing.net
May 10th, 2009

record envelopes
old 45s
vanguard covers
inspired by blue note
knockoff project
lp cover lover
worst album covers
cover heaven
museum of bad covers
unusual cover art
bizarre records
sleeveface

The object of desire which we seek in the other
May 3rd, 2009

From Wikipedia: "In the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, objet petit a (object little-a) stands for the unattainable object of desire. It is sometimes called the object cause of desire. Lacan always insisted for it to remain untranslated 'thus acquiring the status of an algebraic sign.' (Écrits).
In 1957, in his Seminar Les formations de l'inconscient, Lacan introduces the concept of objet petit a as the imaginary part-object (see Melanie Klein), an element which is imagined as separable from the rest of the body. In the Seminar Le transfert (1960-1961) he articulates objet a with the term agalma (Greek, an ornament). Just as the agalma is a precious object hidden in a worthless box, so objet petit a is the object of desire which we seek in the other. (...)
Slavoj Žižek explains this objet petit a in relation to Alfred Hitchcock's MacGuffin: '[The] MacGuffin is objet petit a pure and simple: the lack, the remainder of the real that sets in motion the symbolic movement of interpretation, a hole at the center of the symbolic order, the mere appearance of some secret to be explained, interpreted, etc.' (Love thy symptom as thyself)."

by Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn
April 4th, 2009

From their website: "The Graveyard is a very short computer game. You play an old lady who visits a graveyard. You walk around, sit on a bench and listen to a song. It's more like an explorable painting than an actual game. An experiment with realtime poetry, with storytelling without words. Buying the full version of The Graveyard adds only one feature, the possibility of death. The full version of the game is exactly the same as the trial, except, every time you play she may die."
Sit on the bench and listen carefully to the beautifully strange lyrics!

Note to self
March 28th, 2009

From William Bennett's blog: "I'm not a nothing thing and neither are you, and I want you and not some thing you have, people do things with me and not to me, any thing is possible and crossing the barriers in between is always exciting."

Another view on the 100 best fonts
March 11th, 2009

From the Behance site: "As with traditional periodic tables, this table presents the subject matter grouped categorically. The Table of Typefaces groups by families and classes of typefaces: sans-serif, serif, script, blackletter, glyphic, display, grotesque, realist, didone, garalde, geometric, humanist, slab-serif and mixed. (...) The final overall ranking was achieved depending on how many lists the particular typeface was presented on and it's ranking on the lists..." (via Design Observer)

by Adam Curtis
February 27th, 2009

Been watching this excellent BBC documentary with the students of the Motion Design program at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg yesterday. From Wikipedia: "Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, changed the perception of the human mind and its workings profoundly. His influence on the 20th century is widely regarded as massive. The documentary describes the impact of Freud's theories on the perception of the human mind, and the ways public relations agencies and politicians have used this during the last 100 years for their engineering of consent. (...) The Century of the Self asks deeper questions about the roots and methods of modern consumerism, representative democracy and its implications. It also questions the modern way we see ourselves, the attitude to fashion and superficiality."

by Emily Oberman and Bonnie Siegler
February 23rd, 2009

From New York Times: "There's an Oscar for pretty much every aspect of filmmaking, except one: the title sequences. Titles, though, have always played a significant part in motion pictures. They may have started out as simple black-and-white cards. But in the days before sound, they already did more than identify key players: they communicated dialogue and advanced plot. And as filmmaking evolved, so did title design. Titles have become wonderful bridges from reality into the cinematic world and back out again. At their very best, they are themselves innovative, emotional experiences, microcosms of their movies."
Until April 19th the Berlin KW host an extensive exhibition on the subject. Read the review (German) in art magazine.

Music
February 11th, 2009

From Thomas Geissmann's Gibbon Research Lab: "All species of gibbons are known to produce elaborate, species-specific and sex-specific patterns of vocalisation often referred to as songs. Songs are loud and complex and are mainly uttered at specifically established times of day. In most species, mated pairs may characteristically combine their songs in a relatively rigid pattern to produce coordinated duet songs. Gibbon song vocalisations are typically of pure tone, with the energy concentrated in the fundamental frequency. Depending on species, the fundamental frequency of song vocalisations ranges between 0.2 and 5 kHz." Go to the sound gallery and listen!

Dropular
February 6th, 2009

"Dropular is a media bookmarking service loosely based on the idea of a droplet contributing to a pool, filling it ever-so slightly one by one. This amazing tool lets you discover, remember and share images, videos and links - all in one place." Dropular is in it's early beta, but already worth checking out. Thanks to Hans C. Schultheiss!

Another archive
February 3rd, 2009

The Journal of Urban Typography (TJOUT) is a wonderful documentation and study of signs, word fragments, and typography created with utilitarian intent in urban environments. (via Design Observer)

Note to self
January 13th, 2009

William Bennett: "My own definition is a relatively simple one, yet within it there is incredible potential for creativity and exploration. It's the realisation (or actualisation if you prefer) of something you used to think was utterly impossible and unachievable. That's it.
Doesn't sound like much, except the more you begin to contemplate those words the more you begin to come to terms with how very much that truly encompasses. How many pleasures have you never experienced because you thought you never would? And indeed, how much of it can or could you stand? What in fact are your limitations?
Wherever you choose to set that is the boundary between the you and magic. And that's where I want to go."

...to save yourself from messing up your life
January 11th, 2009

"1. Stop taking so much notice of how you feel.
2. Let go of worrying. It often makes things worse.
3. Ease up on the internal life commentary.
4. Take no notice of your inner critic.
5. Give up on feeling guilty.
6. Stop being concerned what the rest of the world says about you.
7. Stop keeping score.
8. Don't be concerned that your life and career aren't working out the way you planned.
9. Don't let others use you to avoid being responsible for their own decisions.
10. Don't worry about about your personality."
See the full text by Adrian Savage.

Yes.
January 8th, 2009

i LOVE TYPOGRAPHY, a stimulating blog and amazing archive, selected their favourite Typefaces of 2008.

Psychotronic Titles 
January 2nd, 2009

"Mr. Bali Hai has compiled a fair-sized gallery of B-movie opening titles. I've seen a few of these movies, and it's probably safe to say that the titles are the best parts." (Mark Frauenfelder on boingboing.net)

Ten things - because it is a tradition I affirm.
December 31st, 2008

Book Tough topic, but if I had to pick one, it would probably be Austerlitz - for the concept.
City Cologne, indeed.
Concert DAF - it was such an energetic flashback.
Film Death Proof - by one of those men who understand women. And for everybody who disagrees, check out William Bennett's inspiring movie reviews.
Perfume Patchouli Patch, recommended by the fabulous blog of Theresa Duncan - RIP.
Present Silver necklace - yes, we do like to see feelings materialize.
Song O Superman - for all coincidences, which sometimes made me wonder if they were really coincidences and then pushed me to realize that, yes, they are just coincidences. Starting to enjoy it!
Talk Isabel Allende on Tales of passion.
Unsorted The six kilometres along the canal in rain, fog, snow, sun, wind, heat, light, dark and any other fucking weather condition, over and over again - thanks for keeping me company, Eva!
Website "UbuWeb was founded in November of 1996, initially as a repository for visual, concrete and, later, sound poetry. Over the years, UbuWeb has embraced all forms of the avant-garde and beyond." A goldmine. 
So, here we are... And what is next?

The more I see you
December 24th, 2008

Video from 1966 with wonderful music (via my daily treat: boingboing.net). Happy holidays!

Scientists extract images directly from brain
December 12th, 2008

Most of the people I know disagree with me on this one. For me Wim Wenders' Bis ans Ende der Welt (Until the end of the world) was a discovery that shook my feelings and perception fundamentally - back in 1991. I still listen to the soundtrack and watch the movie once in a while.
And today I found this quote on Pink Tentacle: "Researchers from Japan's ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person's mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people's dreams while they sleep." This is exactly what the film was about. What an accuracy of forecast. Imagine watching the dreams of your next of kin. 

Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network
December 7th, 2008

Quote from the British Medical Association: "People's happiness depends on the happiness of others with whom they are connected. This provides further justification for seeing happiness, like health, as a collective phenomenon, say James H Fowler and Nicholas A Christakis in a longitudinal analysis over 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study."

A workshop
December 5th, 2008

What would be your three favorite cover art works of all times? Wondering about mine and the criteria I am applying. Christian Schäfer and I have been considering a three-days-workshop on visualizing music into the square format of a vinyl cover for some time now. It would involve the students and us presenting and defending those three. Will the one above make it on that list?

My favorite flower
December 3rd, 2008

They also call Camomile plant doctor... and there are so many - we can play the prophecy game over and over and over. Right now, I just want to be sleeping in the middle of a friendly Camomile field.

by FontShop
December 2nd, 2008

Well, students keep asking. For starters and unfortunately only in German: Here are the 100 best fonts. Thanks Fabian!

in Le Mépris
December 1st, 2008

"Death is no conclusion", says Fritz Lang in Godard's Le Mépris - pan shot - slowly - the strings, the orchestra: swelling - and there it is - at 01h19 - for the first time we can see it, although it had been talked about all the time: Malaparte's villa on Capri. What a monster. How brutal and insistent.
This spring I read The Skin by Curzio Malaparte and tried to see as many pictures of the building as I could find. And only now the time came to see this disturbing masterpiece from 1963 starring breathtaking Brigitte Bardot.
As one review on imdb.com puts it: "One of the great masterpieces of the 20th century, a supreme synthesis of form, content and performance. Arguably the most beautiful too, with its found locations, sets, colour, lighting, music, decor and costume. The straightforward elegance of Godard's shooting masks a story of great complexity and formal rupture, but underneath the philosophy, semiotics and allusion is a portrait of marriage and its decline. The tension between icy irony and resigned emotion results in Godard's most perversely moving film. It is also very funny, which is too little remembered."

Photo above © Brian Dettmer
November 30th, 2008

Having a cold is something I very much dislike. Who doesn't ? Especially, since I was looking forward to a rare treat - one of the parties at Cologne's African Drum this weekend.
However, one gets more time than usually to catch up with books, films and research that have been piling up around the house. Feverish brainstorms included. And one stimulus for those was Philip Roth' short novella The Dying Animal. I read it in one sitting and it reminded me of the deep appreciation I have for the genius of Vladimir Nabokov - who has also been an entomologist and a synesthete.

The art of the title
November 25th, 2008

Been collecting title sequences for a long time. Here is another wonderful collection which I enjoy every other day...

Jaana Parviainen and Marja Eriksson
November 22nd, 2008

Last week 'unlearning', the value of failure and legitimate errors were part of almost all my conversations. My fellow student, excellent consultant and challenging strategic thinker Michael Dodt recommended this extremely inspiring paper by Jaana Parviainen and Marja Eriksson. They explain and discuss the new idea and term of Negative Knowledge.
"'Negative' is concerned with 'the reflective turn', which sees unlearning skills, bracketing knowledge, doubt, having failures and making errors as meaningful for expertise, not just as signals of ignorance or the lack of expertise. We have identified four features by which we describe negative knowing. First, we are usually aware of our own competence, but we must also know what we do not know. Second, we must know what we must do, but also know what not to do. Third, negative knowledge involves 'unlearning' or 'bracketing' skills and knowledge. The fourth aspect in negative knowledge is that in doing things, we have to regard the value of failures, disappointments and frustrations. (...) Knowing negatively is related to a new sensitivity at work. Through negative knowledge we may gain a 'reversal' path, which consists of seeing unconventional ways to face our problems in the organisation. As a non-deterministic, deconstructive process, negative knowledge calls upon cognition, but it also asks questions to which there are no answers at all or questions that are not accessible through knowledge. Thus, it goes beyond cognition itself towards intuition, experimentation and creativity. It beckons to give us understanding about which there has previously been no understanding. When we face difficult, problematic situations to which there is perhaps no simple answer, we should think about the limits of our cognition with a reflective turn. The reflective turn requires that we face up to our own attitudes and positions towards things and people to question our own fixed patterns of behaviour."

Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
November 12th, 2008

"As the afternoon drew to a close I walked through the park, and finally went to see the Nocturama, which had first been opened only a few months earlier. It was some time before my eyes became used to its artificial dusk and I could make out different animals leading their sombrous lives behind the glass by the light of a pale moon. (...) The only animal which has remained lingering in my memory is the raccoon. I watched it for a long time as it sat beside a little stream with a serious expression on its face, washing the same piece of apple over and over again, as if it hoped that all this washing, which went far beyond any reasonable thoroughness, would help it to escape the unreal world in which it had arrived, so to speak, through no fault of its own. Otherwise, all I remember of the denizens of the Nocturama is that several of them had strikingly large eyes, and the fixed, inquiring gaze found in certain painters and philosophers who seek to penetrate the darkness which surrounds us purely by means of looking and thinking. I believe that my mind also dwelt on the question of whether the electric light was turned on for the creatures in the Nocturama when real night fell and the zoo was closed to the public, so that as day dawned over their topsy-turvy miniature universe they could fall asleep with some degree of reassurance."
(Photo © Christian Schäfer)

Steely Dan
November 8th, 2008

Son you better be ready for love
On this glory day
This is your chance to believe
What I've got to say
Keep your eyes on the sky
Put a dollar in the kitty
Don't the moon look pretty
Tonight when I chase the dragon
The water may change to cherry wine
And the silver will turn to gold
Time out of mind
I am holding the mystical sphere
It's direct from Lhasa
Where people are rolling in the snow
Far from the world we know
Children we have it right here
It's the light in my eyes
It's perfection and grace
It's the smile on my face

Sign of the horns
October 25th, 2008

ALICE "Only as sure as I am that the reality of one night, let alone that of a whole lifetime, can ever be the whole truth."
BILL "And no dream is ever just a dream." (Stanley Kubrick, Eyes Wide Shut)
And in the original text:
"So gewiß, als ich ahne, daß die Wirklichkeit einer Nacht, ja daß nicht einmal die eines ganzen Menschenlebens zugleich auch seine innerste Wahrheit bedeutet." "Und kein Traum", seufzte er leise, "ist völlig Traum." (Arthur Schnitzler, Traumnovelle)
"If Eyes Wide Shut has a theme song, it is the lilting "Waltz 2 from Jazz Suite" by Dmitri Shostakovich, which is heard under the opening credits, in the Harfords' apartment as they get ready for the Christmas ball, in the transitional scenes that portray the everyday activities of Bill and Alice, and again under the final credits. According to Chion, the "ternary rhythm" of Eyes Wide Shut can be seen as Kubrick's final homage to the film-maker he admired most of all, Max Ophuls, and especially to the waltz in The Earrings of Madame de . . . (165). In Eyes Wide Shut the waltz leads us back into the fin de siecle Viennese milieu of Schnitzler and Freud and, as far as the relationship of the doctor and his wife is concerned, into the world of the subconscious where the demarcation blurs between dream and reality." (Charles H. Helmetag, Dream Odysseys: Schnitzler's Traumnovelle and Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut)

Albrecht Dürer: Melencolia I
October 22nd, 2008

Seems that I know a lot of people who celebrate their birthday in the zodiac sign of Libra. And it might only be a coincidence that the subject of ambiguousness came up several times in the last few days. As much as I enjoy multiple layers of meanings in artwork, it is just another thing in personal relationships.
"The Oxford English Dictionary defines a double entendre as especially being used to 'convey an indelicate meaning'. In these cases, the first meaning is presumed to be the more innocent one, while the second meaning is risqué, or at least ironic, requiring the hearer to have some additional knowledge. Double entendres can also be a more deliberate form of an ambiguity." (Wikipedia)

Last words
October 17th, 2008

The last two days I found myself discussing this mind-blowing last film by Stanley Kubrick. Here is an elaborate review by Tim Kreider, who notices, "In the film's upbeat but dissonant denouement, the Harfords have taken their daughter Helena Christmas shopping, but they respond to her wishes only politely, distracted by their own inner children. Like many reviewers, they're still wrapped up in psychology and sex, missing the sociological implications of what's onscreen. But, as in so much of Kubrick's work, the dialogue is misdirection; the real story is being told visually. As poor Helena flits anxiously from one display to the next (already an avid little consumer) every item she fondles associates her with the women who have been exploited and destroyed by her father's circle. Helena's Christmas list includes a blue baby carriage (like the blue stroller seen twice outside Domino's apartment), an oversized teddy bear (next to a rack of tigers like the one on Domino's bed) and a Barbie doll (reminiscent of Milich's daughter) dressed in a diaphanous angel costume just like the one Helena herself wore in the film's first scene. She herself has already become a doll, a thing to be dressed up with cute costumes and accessories. Another toy, conspicuously displayed under a red ring of lights, is called "The Magic Circle"; the name is an allusion to the ring of ritual prostitutes at the orgy, and the bright red color of the box recalls the carpet on which they genuflected to the high priest, as well as the felt of the pool table over which Bill made his own bargain with the devil."

Love and the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism
October 12th, 2008

"Since the early 1900s, advertisers have tied the purchase of beauty products, sports cars, diet drinks, and snack foods to success in love and happiness. Illouz reveals that, ultimately, every cliche of romance - from an intimate dinner to a dozen red roses - is constructed by advertising and media images that preach a democratic ethos of consumption: material goods and happiness are available to all. Engaging and witty, Illouz's study begins with readings of ads, songs, films, and other public representations of romance and concludes with individual interviews in order to analyze the ways in which mass messages are internalized."
The author of this important study, Eva Illouz, teaches sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is the Academic Director of the Program of Cultural Studies as well as a member of The Center for the Study of Rationality.

and hell's gate.
October 12th, 2008

The 20-year-old Franz Kafka, in a letter to his friend Oskar Pollak in November 1903: "We are as forlorn as children lost in the woods. When you stand in front of me and look at me, what do you know of the griefs that are in me and what do I know of yours? And if I were to cast myself down before you and weep and tell you, what more would you know about me than you know about hell when someone tells you it is hot and dreadful? For that reason alone we human beings ought to stand before one another as reverently, as reflectively, as lovingly, as we would before the entrance to hell."

by Edith Sitwell
October 11th, 2008

Said the Lion to the Lioness - "When you are amber dust -
No more a raging fire like the heat of the Sun
(No liking but all lust) -
Remember still the flowering of the amber blood and bone,
The rippling of bright muscles like a sea,
Remember the rose-prickles of bright paws,
Though we shall mate no more
Till the fire of that sun the heart and the moon-cold bone are one"

Said the Skeleton lying upon the sands of Time -
"The great gold planet that is the mourning heat of the Sun
Is greater than all gold, more powerful
Than the tawny body of a Lion that fire consumes
Like all that grows or leaps... so is the heart
More powerful than all dust. Once I was Hercules
Or Sampson, strong as the pillars of the seas:
But the flames of the heart consumed me, and the mind
Is but a foolish wind."

Said the Sun to the Moon - "When you are but a lonely white crone,
And I, a dead King in my golden armour somewhere in a dark wood,
Remember only this of our hopeless love:
That never till Time is done
Will the fire of the heart and the fire of the mind be one."

"Edith Sitwell was most interested by the distinction between poetry and music, a matter explored in Façade (1922), which was set to music by William Walton, a series of abstract poems the rhythms of which counterfeited those of music. Façade was performed behind a curtain with a hole in the mouth of a painted face and the words were recited through the hole with the aid of a megaphone." (answer.com)

Milton H. Erickson
October 5th, 2008

Watzlawick, Weakland and Fisch (1974) describe the gentle art of reframing thus: "To reframe, then, means to change the conceptual and/or emotional setting or viewpoint in relation to which a situation is experienced and to place it in another frame which fits the 'facts' of the same concrete situation equally well or even better, and thereby changing its entire meaning."
Highly recommended in this context: "My Voice Will Go with You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson" edited and with commentary by Sidney Rosen.

Lesson learned
October 3rd, 2008

"In the fields of neuropsychology, personal development and education, Learning is one of the most important mental function of humans, animals and artificial cognitive systems. It relies on the acquisition of different types of knowledge supported by perceived information. It leads to the development of new capacities, skills, values, understanding, and preferences. Its goal is the increasing of individual and group experience. Learning functions can be performed by different brain learning processes, which depend on the mental capacities of learning subject, the type of knowledge which has to be acquitted, as well as on socio-cognitive and environmental circumstances." (Wikipedia)
"A cure is a substance or procedure that makes a sick or diseased person well. A cure can be a medication, a surgical operation, a change in lifestyle, or even a philosophical mindset that helps a person heal." (Wikipedia)
"Healing, assessed spiritually, emotionally, mentally or otherwise, is a process which involves more than just the action of cells." (Wikipedia)
Amongst others, thank you Alexander Shulgin.

...because we can not understand each other.
September 29th, 2008

The last few days I have been reminded of this quote ("Wir müssen kommunizieren, weil wir uns nicht verstehen können.") by my teacher at university, Bazon Brock.
Check out the passionate and compelling TED Talk video lecture by Wade Davis and learn about the rapidly continuing loss of languages. As one comment puts it: I am amazed and challenged to my core.

Jacques Lacan in Hollywood and Out
September 26th, 2008

Slavoj Zizek: "When a fantasy object, something imagined, an object from inner space, enters our ordinary reality the texture of reality is twisted, distorted. This is how desire inscribes itself into reality, distorting it. Desire is a wound of reality. The art of cinema consists in arousing desire, to play with desire, but at the same time keeping it at a safe distance - domesticating it, rendering it." (THE PERVERT'S GUIDE TO CINEMA)
Joseph Campbell: "People say that we all are seeking for the meaning of life. I don't think that this is what we are really seeking. I think what we are really seeking is an experience of being alive." (The Power of Myth)

lacanian ink magazine
September 5th, 2008

In this video the brilliant Josefina Ayerza, founder and editor of lacanian ink magazine, introduces philosopher Slavoj Zizek. lacanian ink's issue 21 was on love and Zizek's vivid talk on the subject is worth every minute. Is love evil as he suggests? Guess I have to think about this a bit longer...

Researching
August 2008

In the Guardian Andrew G. Marshall stated: "Every popular song is about it, half our books and films obsess over it, everybody wants it. But when we come to ask what love is, we are overwhelmed by a myriad different ideas and experiences. (...) Scientists have been trying to define love according to their frame of reference for a very long time."
Limerence, as posited by psychologist Dorothy Tennov is "an involuntary cognitive and emotional state in which a person feels an intense romantic desire for another person. The concept is an attempt at a scientific study into the nature of romantic love."(Wikipedia)
In her book Love and Limerence Tennov recognized that the term taboo could appropriately be used in connection with the study of romantic love - maybe because no one feels entirely comfortable with the subject. "It can be dangerous to stick your neck out on the subject of love - dangerous to your self-esteem and to your reputation. The existence of an irrational state that affects thinking, mood, and action among persons otherwise sane would lead to precisely the effect observed - a good deal of confusion and of logically incompatible descriptions."
Love has been called a madness and madness implies loss of control and inspires fear. "In its involuntariness, limerence conflicts with the fundamental position of the Judeo-Christian philosophy, which holds that human beings are free, rational, and therefore, responsible creatures." The "acceptance of normal 'insanity', of involuntary irrationality as an inherited pattern of thought and performance, has an unacceptable flavor. It is an idea so subversive to traditional belief systems that this may be an important reason why limerence and nonlimerence were not isolated and defined sooner. Visible as both states are in fiction and poetry, their existence in poetry and fiction does not force resolution of the philosophical problem they pose."
It has been reported that approximately 85% of popular music concerns love. The relationship between love and music is strong for most of us. Also, it is financially profitable to hold limerence as an ideal, not only for the music industry.
So, I am asking myself, what is the relationship between music and limerence? Started my research with three books as shown above. More to come...

Video Compilation
July 2008

Spent the week in Berlin. At tea time with an old friend we watched the DVD compilation "The Heart Of Germany" by Atatak. Early 80s music videos by Der Plan, Andreas Dorau and Holger Hiller. Intelligent concepts, wonderful craftsmanship and German humour at its best. Also, check out Palais Schaumburg's clip for "Wir bauen eine neue Stadt". 25 years old and still contemporary, imagine the CK logo in it... - thanks Titus!

Observatory Hoher List, Germany
June 2008

Have been invited to a private tour by enchanted astrophysicist Michael Geffert at the observatory near the town Daun on the 551 meter high Hoher List. It was almost a time travel to the 50s - furniture, smell and technology. Learned about the Bonner Durchmusterung and had an inspiring conversation with Michael Geffert, Carsten Görtz and Marcus Schmickler in the observatory's archive about the telephone book of the universe. Left with a photographic glass plate from 1902 that shows a negative image of the moon - friend in the distance.

Blog entry on their first on air design
January 2008

Read this charming article (German) about the 1993 version of VOX' on air design on Fernsehlexikon. It's been quite a while since I worked for VOX and produced with an international group of outstanding designers the audiovisual identity for the launch in January 1993. Thanks Stefan!