Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Science, Technology, Art, POETRY

Sorry for the late entry, but I can't let this go unchallenged.

Ramon Guardans said: "science and poetry are also indispensable components
of all massacres, wars and monstrosities that the human group is putting
together today and has in the course of history."

I think this is only to say that culture is not innocent. If it pretends to
*represent* all of human experience--and it does--then it seems to me that
it must *partake* of all human experience, too.

And how can we ascribe innocence to poetry, art, science or any other
cultural manifestation we create if we cannot ascribe it to ourselves? I put
it to you that no person is innocent: however much we attach the symbology
of innocence to babies, women, clouds, souls, poetry or painting, each
symbol and each reality remains stubbornly a part of society as a whole.
There is no innocence apart. There are choices that lead to peace and dialog
and there are choices that lead to lies and degradation, but once we claim
our place in human society there are no choices that lead to innocence, any
more than there are social movements that will take us home to utopia. There
are only choices that will improve our collective lives or make them worse,
and art may lie in helping us to distinguish them.

Art is stained with living--or it isn't very good art.

I imagine that Ernesto Cardenal spoke in this spirit when he declared that
the poet "defends the people through language." Not because he offered
innocence in his poems, but because he was ready to commit to living his
choices through his words.

And this undoubtedly means that art sometimes offers bad choices, aesthetics
of death, celebrations of infamy. I have only to contemplate the several
poetic traditions Ramon Menendez-Pidal gathered in his *Flor Nueva de
Romances Viejas*, a wonderful anthology of medieval romances from Spain, to
realize that there is great art coming out of bitter conflict, and taking
sides in such a way that the hero among the Mozarabes may be the villain
among the Christians, and vice-versa. You may say these poems are only
innocent tales--as though history in any form could be innocent--but may I
suggest that they are both high art and poisoned by murderous, fratricidal
war? They may not stir blood to anger now, but I'd wager once they did.

No, you won't get away with claiming some special innocence for art,
especially if it requires you make distinctions between false and true art.
There is art that reaches out to us, as you say, but there is also art that
intends to stir our rage. Trying to cage it in a "true/false" dichotomy will
not suffice. It is language itself, the very material of which both your
true and false poetry are made, that bears the stain. This holds, too, of
other arts, though they do no operate with words. The compromise with
communication is the compromise to be misunderstood, to be wrong, and to
even to commit criminal acts. Art is many things, but it is not innocent. I
dare say the same of science.

Now, if you ask me whether I believe that artists and musicians and poets
are generally striving for peace and understanding--if you ask me whether I
believe that culture offers a pathway for human beings to learn to live
together--well, I will answer with a resounding YES. But is not at all the
same as ascribing innocence to art.

I think Ramon is spot on when he says that science and poetry are
compromised not only with those aspects of culture that we hold to be
positive, but with the negative as well. That is certainly how I read what
he wrote. I really don't think we can study or perform art or science in all
their depth and breadth without that realization. Without that realization,
our choices of what we believe science and art should do into the future
cannot be made as they must be made--with eyes open.

My apologies to the apologists of innocence if I give offense, but, worthy
people, you are mistaken if you think art or science are innocent.

best regards,

-- Paul

On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 11:07 AM, Jared Smith <smithjrw@comcast.net> wrote:

> Ramon,
>
> Science may take part in the formation of warfare, as for example in the
> creation of some of Leonardo's machines of war. But the scientific process
> itself has never driven war. And certainly poetry in its true definition,
> which includes communication of full thought and not just passionate
> egotism, has NEVER driven war. U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser has said that
> the foremost purpose of poetry is to communicate with people--and I would
> add that it is to communicate in ways that are outside our limited
> commercial language. Probably 98% of the words we say each day equate to
> "what can I buy from you?" or "What will you trade me for...?" Poetry takes
> the vastness beyond those words, yet still contained within our language,
> and uses them to explore other issues that we perhaps feel more deeply
> though we don't discuss them.
>
> False poetry--rhetoric/oratory--may be used to drive armies and false
> ideas. We must as a culture understand, however, that there is a difference
> between false poetry --often passion or hate-driven egotism--and real poetry
> that reaches out to that which is larger. We make that distinction in
> philosophy and have since Plato discussed rhetoricians and philosophers as
> being two different types of people with different goals.
>
> Art--certainly poetic art--is a transcendent and inclusive process
> conducted within oneself and perhaps later shared with others. It does not
> lead to war.
>
> Jared
>
>
>
>
> On 12/2/2010 12:52 AM, ramon guardans wrote:
>
>> One point that sould be noted is that as much as science and poetry
>> interact and overlap in the production of beauty and positive social
>> constructions
>>
>> science and poetry are also indispensable components of all massacres,
>> wars and monstrosities that the human group is putting together today and
>> has in the course of history
>>
>> the construction of spurious certitudes, nationalism and fanaticism rely
>> on wine and poetry, but you can substitute the wine by other substances,
>> the need-use of science and technology to amplify killing power does not
>> need to be ellaborated
>>
>> Is there anything practical that can be said or done about this relation?,
>> One thing i would say is that in the future it might be wise to pay more
>> attention to the unpoetic and very effective stategies of ignorance
>> technology, te deliberate and industrial production of unknowledge,
>> confusion and fear
>>
>> Currently and in history much work, poetic and scientific has been
>> devoted to produce and difuse ignorance, prejudice and confusion, this could
>> be adressed and one way to proceed is by including forms of quality control
>> , sort of cheks on the validity and logic of statements and propositions,
>> science and poetry have proven to be able to do that
>>
>> cordially
>> r
>>
>> --- On Wed, 12/1/10, Jared Smith<smithjrw@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>> From: Jared Smith<smithjrw@comcast.net>
>>> Subject: Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Science, Technology, Art, POETRY
>>> To: yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
>>> Date: Wednesday, December 1, 2010, 4:32 PM
>>> Hi, Vitor and other Yasminers,
>>>
>>> What a fascinating conversation this is developing
>>> into! Your contribution here, Vitor, opens up the
>>> whole question of thought processes in poetry and the
>>> languages that represent those processes. Of course,
>>> on the most basic surface level, some of us may be most
>>> comfortable conversing in Italian or French or English or
>>> any other language native to a particular country or
>>> region. At a somewhat deeper level, we may be more
>>> comfortable conversing in light beams or music or
>>> mathematical symbols All of these symbols are, of
>>> course, just that: symbols that stand for the concrete
>>> statements we make or the meditations we set out upon. And David Morley's
>>> "Mathematics of Light" is a wonderful
>>> example of how one set of symbols may be merged within
>>> another. In our time, especially, one can do this with
>>> images that are complete pictures, as with digital poems and
>>> their interfaces, as Jason Nelson has just discussed in his
>>> post. The shadows of Plato's cave wall take on depth
>>> and become more interactive. And perhaps Knowledge
>>> (science) is allowed the chance to become closer to Art than
>>> to Craft--fact and not pretense?
>>>
>>> But the empty page, in any case, is what all these
>>> languages line their symbols down on. I wonder if
>>> there is value to thinking of the empty page as a
>>> scaffolding which symbols of whatever sort that compose a
>>> unity may be laid down. The symbols are
>>> statements. The scaffolding is the blank space across
>>> which those symbols play out--giving them nonlinear depth
>>> and meaning because we don't know how deep that space is or
>>> what its shape is. Nor does the mind try to measure
>>> the size of the paper or its infinitude. The mind does
>>> something else: it experiences the unknown space and makes
>>> of it what it will. It turns the finite into one or
>>> more possible definitions or discoveries of the
>>> infinite. And the poet, then, whether in light rays or
>>> mathematics or the contemplation of immigrants learns to
>>> convey that new possibility and discovery to others in
>>> a valid form. The poem happens, whatever language,
>>> within the mind, drawing from the structure on the page or
>>> visible through other symbols. It provides a setting
>>> for the symbols/data, and a tool for using them to create.
>>>
>>> My Best,
>>> Jared Smith
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 11/30/2010 1:41 AM, Vítor Reia-Baptista wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Everybody.
>>>>
>>>> My name is Vítor Reia-Baptista and I work at the
>>>>
>>> University of Algarve, in South Portugal, where we have a
>>> research centre on Arts and Communication - CIAC (Centro de
>>> Investigação em Artes e Comunicação)
>>>
>>>> http://www.ciac.pt/en/index.php
>>>>
>>>> I do not have anu direct answer to Roger questions and
>>>>
>>> I don't know if they exist in general, but I'm certain that
>>> they apply to many of our human kind situations: we do need
>>> poetry, in different shapes and different states of mind and
>>> materia.
>>>
>>>> So, here are some starting contributes for a
>>>>
>>> discussion maybe also around the way Teknè makes Poietike
>>> possible, through knowledge (Science) made visible by Art
>>> crafts?
>>>
>>>> Dave Morley, author of the poem «Mathematics of
>>>>
>>> Light»
>>>
>>>> <http://www.liv.ac.uk/poetryandscience/poems/mathematics-of-light.htm>;
>>>> wrote:
>>>> «Think of an empty page as open space. It possesses
>>>>
>>> no dimension. Human time
>>>
>>>> makes no claim. Everything is possible, at this point
>>>>
>>> endlessly possible.
>>>
>>>> Anything can grow in it. Anybody, real or imaginary,
>>>>
>>> can travel there, stay
>>>
>>>> put, or move on. There is no constraint, except the
>>>>
>>> honesty of the writer
>>>
>>>> and the scope of imagination-qualities with which we
>>>>
>>> are born and
>>>
>>>> characteristics that we can develop. Writers are born
>>>>
>>> and made.»
>>>
>>>> This contribute may be found in the site of the Centre
>>>>
>>> for Poetry and
>>>
>>>> Science at the University of Liverpool:
>>>> <http://www.liv.ac.uk/poetryandscience/poems/index.htm>;
>>>>
>>>> From another perspective the Poetry Foudation claims
>>>>
>>> that there are (at
>>>
>>>> least) 1875 Poems about Arts& Sciences, such as
>>>>
>>> the «Equation for my
>>>
>>>> Children» by Wilmer Mills:
>>>> http://atirateaomar.blogspot.com/
>>>>
>>>> Best wishes.
>>>> Vítor Reia
>>>>
>>>> Citando roger malina<rmalina@alum.mit.edu>:
>>>>
>>>> Science, Technology, Art, POETRY
>>>>> Opening Statement by YASMIN co moderator Roger
>>>>>
>>>> Malina
>>>
>>>> Poetry in the Asylum:
>>>>>
>>>>> There have been times in
>>>>>
>>>> my life when I have been a voracious reader,
>>>
>>>> and sometime writer, of poetry. Sometimes this
>>>>>
>>>> state is triggered by
>>>
>>>> jet lag. At those times I consume and generate
>>>>>
>>>> poetry as if my very
>>>
>>>> survival depended on it. At other times I am cold
>>>>>
>>>> to poetry.
>>>
>>>> My Czech grandparents were both musicians and
>>>>>
>>>> music teachers and they
>>>
>>>> raised my father in a home where music was almost
>>>>>
>>>> a basic food. He
>>>
>>>> used to listen to music as he carried out his
>>>>>
>>>> scientific research in
>>>
>>>> the 30s, and later as he created his kinetic art
>>>>>
>>>> works in the 1950s;
>>>
>>>> his seminal work "Jazz":
>>>>> (http://www.olats.org/pionniers/malina/bdd/oeuvre.php?oi=1201)
>>>>> is a visual poem linking sound and image. It was
>>>>>
>>>> during this time that
>>>
>>>> he was at personal risk, pursued by the US
>>>>>
>>>> McCarthy staffers and the
>>>
>>>> US FBI. Then suddenly in his 50s, after his
>>>>>
>>>> political problems were
>>>
>>>> over, he became oblivious to music and painted in
>>>>>
>>>> silence for the rest
>>>
>>>> of his life. Is this a coincidence or a
>>>>>
>>>> connection? What is it that
>>>
>>>> makes poetry vital for survival? We live in a
>>>>>
>>>> dangerous age, do we
>>>
>>>> need a new poetics?
>>>>>
>>>>> In recent decades, much of
>>>>>
>>>> the art connected to science and new
>>>
>>>> technologies has been non contemplative, often
>>>>>
>>>> loud and insistent,
>>>
>>>> un-poetical. But other artists, and poets, as they
>>>>>
>>>> have explored these
>>>
>>>> new terrains have developed new poetic impulses
>>>>>
>>>> that have created new
>>>
>>>> senses of the special and even the sacred.
>>>>>
>>>> Examples come to mind that
>>>
>>>> I would put in the category of poetic arts would
>>>>>
>>>> include:
>>>
>>>> Jeffrey Shaw's "Legible City :
>>>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61l7Y4MS4aU
>>>>> Char Davies "Ephemere": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa_aiw7yhpI
>>>>> David Rokeby's "Very Nervous System" :
>>>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrawKucSSRw
>>>>> Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin's Listening post:
>>>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD36IajCz6A
>>>>>
>>>>> The invited respondents in this discussion have a
>>>>>
>>>> variety of
>>>
>>>> approaches to poetry that connects to the sciences
>>>>>
>>>> and technology of
>>>
>>>> our age.
>>>>>
>>>>> When historian Robert
>>>>>
>>>> Ilbert asked Samuel Bordreuil and I to set up
>>>
>>>> the Art-Science wing of IMERA:
>>>>> http://www.imera.fr/index.php/en/organisation/101.html
>>>>> he named it : ASIL, or the French word for Asylum,
>>>>>
>>>> with the acronym
>>>
>>>> Arts-Sciences-Instrumentations-Language . Indeed
>>>>>
>>>> the connections
>>>
>>>> between the arts, sciences and technology must
>>>>>
>>>> also be mediated by
>>>
>>>> languages both image and word, and in particular
>>>>>
>>>> by art forms that use
>>>
>>>> language as their raw material. We have recently
>>>>>
>>>> issued a new call for
>>>
>>>> residency proposals :
>>>>> http://www.imera.fr/index.php/en/becoming-a-fellow/applications.html
>>>>> and we welcome proposals from poets that need to
>>>>>
>>>> collaborate with
>>>
>>>> scientists or research engineers to achieve their
>>>>>
>>>> artistic vision. We
>>>
>>>> need poetry in the Asylum.
>>>>>
>>>>> Ten years ago poet Tim
>>>>>
>>>> Peterson, a participant in this discussion,
>>>
>>>> led a Leonardo Electronic Almanac project around
>>>>>
>>>> the new poetics :
>>>
>>>> New Media Poetry and Poetics
>>>>>
>>>>>> From Concrete to Codework: Praxis in Networked
>>>>>>
>>>>> and Programmable Media
>>>
>>>> http://www.leoalmanac.org/journal/vol_14/lea_v14_n05-06/tpeterson.html
>>>>> and more recently in the Leonardo Book Series at
>>>>>
>>>> MIT Press we published
>>>
>>>> New Media Poetics: edited by Adalaide Morris and
>>>>>
>>>> Thomas Swiss
>>>
>>>> http://leonardo.info/isast/leobooks/books/swissmorris.html
>>>>> which documents some of the current work in new
>>>>>
>>>> media poetics.
>>>
>>>> In this YASMIN discussion we seek to discuss all
>>>>>
>>>> the many ways that
>>>
>>>> poetry connects to the new sciences and the new
>>>>>
>>>> technologies that
>>>
>>>> underpin so many of the new ways that we are
>>>>>
>>>> becoming human.
>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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