Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] artists and atoms: fission and fusion

Dear Yasminers, we have new week for our atoms and art discussion.

Jan Pierre, Roger, Ramon, i would like to comment a couple of thinks.

Roger, it is very interesting your thought about how the arts can help to
visualizate another "common sense". We can say that atoms, or more exactly,
humans measures to atomic scales, goes opposite to the normal scale common
sense. So, artists have the chance to help to society to undersatnd and to
elaborate and assimilate this new horizonts arises in atomic science. I´m
sure that this is happening now, but probably this is a very slow process,
and we need time to make this very sorpresive effects part of our dayly
experience. I think it is not only a divulgation or popularizatino task, it
goes directly to create concience of this reality, the reality of the atomic
scales thorught science. I think this is helpfull even to the scientific
society, because lot of times we deal with this controversials experiments
as a vocabulary or simply as a mathematical games. I think just the
scientifics who try to "visualice", or best, represent, this experiences
with some methaporical examples are really go insight, deep to the problem,
and could have more powerfull idea of this new scenario.

Ramon, i have some questions concerning your "cheese" area. When i listen to
you at parpallo conferences, i was very excited of your work and i have no
questions, it is a pitty that we have no ocassion to have more prolongated
discussions, but, anyway, your idea is very powerfull and i really like a
lot. I have one question, or comment, or anything, i think this cheese area,
which is delimited by the range of our senses, it guess that could be not
constant. I think out of our senses is context, and context acts to our
senses. For example, the distance that i can see by my eyes is determined by
the minimum angle resolution of my eyes, but, of course, at the same time by
the context. It is not the same perception of distances by a person who
always lived in a city than a person who always live at the mountains, but
they have the same eyes. For example, curvature of the earth afects
completly to our senses. If we travel to another planet, with different
curvature we have different horizont distance. At the same time, this
change defines gravity and this affects our relation with technology. At the
same time our senses are dynamical, i don´t think we can deffine the
biological senses as a quiet ones, and their magnitudes probably evolve. I
don´t remember the name of this special example of the girl wich live in the
forest along some years from she was born. I think she really could
incorporate some vocabulary and gramma, which is a way to uses her vocals,
but probably she can never use as a child who born in the civilization. At
the same time blind persons use their alternative senses in a way that never
use a non blind person. So, use, which is context at the same time, define
our senses in someway.. At the end senses are all conected to our brain,

I think this is important to the relation of art and science in the context
of atoms. Our senses are not directly related to the most strange quantum
phenomena (quantum tunneling, energy discretization, ...) and we don´t need
quantum explanation to observe phenomena which only are explained by quantum
mechanics (for example: our bodies, laser emission, the sun, ...). Probably
this is the way that common sense don´t understand the first group, because
we don´t have directly experience to them. But art can help to do it, as
Roger explains, and probably the ways is to translate this phenomena to our
senses and to our culture, as Ramon suggest with the Cheese cake model.

Finally i would say few comments from negative and possitive aspects of
fision or fusion energy. Probably to only divide in possitive and negative
is to simply. I´m sure. But i think nuclear power has really differences
form another things and energies. We know that everything is a weapon, we
only need to know the way to use it as a weapon. But nuclear bombs are
designed to be weapons at the first instance and their power creates a new
landscape, the possibility to destroy life and culture in masive way. Some
times psicologic weapons are more destructive than bombs, yes is true, for
example, to use a bomb we need to press the button, and we need a person
that must think that this is correct and we need to do it, so, first of all
this is the problem. But attomic and nuclear bombs creates the lansdscape to
do it, the technology is present, we can feel it. This is the reason from
the panic, and i think this panic has qualitative differences and must be
taked in account. It defines new perspective that never becomes with
anothers technologies. But at the same time, i feel that to only think in
these catastrophic ideas don´help to go to the creative and not military
ones. I think it is interesting to see to the negative ones, to have present
this magnitude but react in a possitive way. Probably all of we see Cosmos
chapter concerning this expamples (i think is the last one, XIII?). I think
society reacts in good way during last decades, as we have this special
poitical meetings and so on, but, having this inside, we can start another
step, which is think in the creative and possitive possible examples. ITER
is good example of it, as it is civil scientific project, and, like all, i
think it could be really interesting to have an artist in residence there,
but i would like to do a question. Why we don´t think in the escenario of
this artistic residence to have more impact in the science an dart research.
What kind of science could be more permeable to this artistic residence, we
need to think in the scientific reasearcher at the same time. Could be
interesting to have a scientific researcher who would be really involved in
art and science interaction to act as a moderator?.

Guillermo.
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.

HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").

HOW TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.