Art and the Homeless

Isaac Newton's classical physics has two bodies separated by a certain distance impacting at a certain rate. Newton could not have had a notion of outer space, as we do today, and it's a weakness of his theory. When I first studied Newton's gravity calculations, I amused myself by visualizing in my mind's eye a pair of balls suspended in space, impacting precisely as postulated by Newton. My study of Newton's laws did not prepare me for the modern view of physics -which involves much more than mass. Now, when I imagine two balls in space, they don't impact, but, rather, whirl around one another. Gravity is still in effect. When the two careening bodies reach the furthest possible extent of separation, they return—again and again—until (perhaps) forever. The reason for this ellipsoidal motion is the Three Body Problem. True, only two bodies are involved in my imaginary scenario. Nonetheless, if the Three Body Problem affects three—or more—bodies, it is in effect ...

>what are the implications for art of kire, the Japanese word cut The concept of kire, or "cut" in Japanese aesthetics, has significant implications for art by emphasizing the importance of interruption and continuity. In poetry, particularly Haiku, kireji, or cutting words, are used to separate and link images, creating a juxtaposition that highlights the transient nature of life. This is also seen in traditional arts like flower arrangement (ikebana) and Nõ drama, where the cut-continuation (kire-tsuzuki) structure is used to draw attention to the episodic and impermanent aspects of existence. In contemporary times, the structure of kire serves as an antidote to the uniformity and functionality of modern life, preserving plurality and difference in artistic expression. Kire is written 切れ in Japanese. In the context of Japanese aesthetics, kire has significant implications for art, particularly in the areas of poetry, drama, and visual arts. Kire is seen in the juxtaposit...

 Wabi-Sabi aesthetics is, like the “Found Object,” of Dada art, where you find it. The accent is on “found.” They are both a discovery, as opposed to being made, or created, by the artist, or craftsman. If anything is created, it is created by man; and, therefore, it is an artifact, and thus, to be specific, not a true discovery. This is a scientific definition, not a free-form philosophical topic, to be both objective and open-minded about it. A Found Object is, after all, an “object,” not nothing. In the same instance, according to the Japanese concept of Ma, the intervals of space between  objects constitutes the very thing-ness, or objectivity, of which we are in search (as finders of Found Objects).  The exclusionary rule in the definition which I am establishing, is that the “find” is not an accident, as if it had been made by natural causes. For example; is an intriguing Philosopher's Stone (as the Chinese express it), a true discovery when placed in a Zen garden,...

The subject of my painting is turning-out to be more complicated than I expected when I first took the plunge. The least difficult thing about it is arguing that it is difficult. Everyone agrees about that! At the same time, the very difficulty of my work has spurred my thinking about my own work, and about art in general. Two factors mitigating the difficulty are Far-Eastern aesthetics, and the AI search engine. I find both make it easier to think "out of the box." To this end, I engaged the AI search—and conversation function—to familiarize myself with the Japanese concept of mono no aware, in the context of the Japanese classic, The Tale of Genji . The AI says... The Tale of Genji , written by Murasaki Shikibu around 1000 years ago, is considered the world's first novel. It chronicles the life of Hikaru Genji, the son of Emperor Kiritsubo and a low-ranking concubine, and his journey through aristocratic life in ancient Japan. The novel is renowned for its portrayal of...

 The “conversation” with an Artificial Intelligence search engine (transcribed below) started with a simple question: How many human beings have ever lived? The answer returned was mind-boggling! I simply refuse to repeat the answer. I cannot accept the returned sum, and, because the first rule of testing in mathematics is to show how the right answer was found, I immediately realized that querying the AI on how it got its answer would only lead to more complexity than I, myself, was prepared to deal with.   Instead, I re-phrased my question, asking for a rough estimate of how much time it may have taken the human race to reach the equivalent of today's population, so that I might compare the long, steady climb of the species from 0, to quantity of today's population. The answer returned was approximately 250,000 years ago. While that number is not as mind-boggling as the gross total number of human beings who have ever lived, it is almost meaningless, nonetheless. Quant...