Art and the Homeless

The worst nightmare of a painter is over-working paint to the point of becoming mud. When two colors are mixed the color mixture can vary from one side to the other. Too blue? Add a different color. When a third is added to the mixture of two you have two mixtures mixing at the same time. It is an impossible equation. In practice, nevertheless, it is done all the time. The "gray area" is where three colors overlap. It is important to remember that painting is not the science of light, of the spectrum of colors produced by a crystal prism, “refraction” as scientists say. When the three primary colors of the visible spectrum are projected so as to overlap, white results, where the three combine.  Not so, when the three primary colors are combined as oil paint. Where three primary oil paint colors overlap the result is literally gray, in the sense of neutral. The maximum strength of each paint hue neutralizes that of the other. Because two of the three primary colors (of paint)...

The Turing Test, originally called the “imitation game” by Alan Turing in 1950, is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human. If we cut to the chase and replace “test,” with “proof,” the result is a concept which has implications for art. Granted, if a computer—or any machine for that matter—can do what a human does, it (the computer) is effectively human. The reverse also applies, that if a human can do what a machine does, it (the human) is, effectively, a machine.  What a ludicrous inference! The true inverse analogy is when a human cannot do what a machine can do the human is only human. I viewed, today, a one-person art exhibit of beautiful Celadon ceramics -all of which had been formed on a potter's wheel. Although the pieces were of the highest technical competence the entire exhibit had one noticeable defect. Each and every piece looked wobbly, wiggly, unbalanced-in-profile, a "noisy...

Current developments in Artificial Intelligence technology yield dividends for understanding how data is used in visualization. Data wants to be visualized. To that end computing expands conventions of graphing that give form to data. Shape is meaning is concept. Like geometry, seeing is believing, that is, proof. The Bell Curve familiar to everyone is but a slice of the data pie chart. Imagine the Bell Curve as a profile view of a literally bell-shaped object having three dimensions or an x, y, and z axis. In engineering design such a “slice” is called a Section view. Viewed from above through the y axis, the Bell Curve appears to be concentric circles -like a bullseye. The center circle, or “eye” of the bullseye, defines the mean distribution of data. The outer circles define standard deviations.  If the combination of section view and overhead view are viewed through the z axis the body of data becomes a 3-dimensional object. Again, like a literal (brass) bell rocking and ringin...

Dereliction blog is extending its scope to “deviance,” or more specifically, to “deviation.” It is the difference between rhetoric and objectivity. You say you didn't know homelessness is a matter of style? I am admitting it's not only art. Looking unflinchingly at the homeless's sorry state inevitably leads (back) to statistics -the logical starting point. We always were operating under assumptions about numbers, just, that is, without actual numbers. We didn't have any primary data -and still don't; We can, however, establish thresholds. Re-read my blog of August 13, 2022, under the title “The Dweller on the Threshold.” It was a struggle, at first, to establish a metaphorical dialog with homelessness. Now, progressively, we intend not to concentrate on homelessness as a comment of the Human Condition (only), but define what, and who, a homeless person is.  I can't give that comprehensive definition, yet. It is a work-in-progress. I think of homeless people as ...