It is the six month anniversary of my last rejection for a grant from the Rasmuson Foundation. I am a firm believer that art like gold is where you find it. But I continue to mine this hole regardless.
Anyway...here is my idea for this terms bi-annual rejection...here cruel world:
Title: Barista!
Project Type: photographic essay
The coffee ritual in Alaska has transcended the mundane and become art. It may be because we have longer and shorter days or perhaps more emotional vampires than other locales, but, I believe truth is because the under-class, composed primarily of young single woman who have chosen this profession, have made it “full of art”.
Not so dissimilar to the mythical geisha of Japan, though success is based on raw talent rather than elaborate training and tradition, the Alaskan Barista fills a social and cultural need without which I truly believe Alaskan society would stumble. Obviously, it is not the coffee, a staple available in one’s home, nor the curious and quaint huts and shops, perhaps artistic and worthy of study like the “Doors of San Francisco”, but like those doors, if they could be opened and blossom, would allow the flowing fragrant souls behind them to be seen. We would have a truly valuable insight into the ceremony of daily life. It is the same with the trailers of joe: the enacted sacrament.
We know that the art is no more the java than to a Japanese tea, rather, it is the control and gift of the interaction between patron and patroness. In this project I capture that moment of emotion that our danzarina has tailored for that particular client that leaps across the bar or out the sliding window and fills the brief encounter, much as Mozart fills a measure or Gauguin fills a brush.
As a photographer, my art is indeed secondary, but like grand Henri, to chronicle artistically the artistic interaction (and I have chosen M. de Toulouse Lautrec specifically because the subjects and issues are so related and the faces nearly of the same family!) that a meta-art of intertwining beauty is created.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Infinity, Chaos, Randomness,and, of course, Ignorance
My first hypothetical, the one that has been driving me crazy since childhood is:
Infinity, Chaos, and Randomness
It is my contention that these do not exist except as markers of ignorance, and, that is their only value. In essence, as understanding increases the bounds of infinity are moved to new borders of superstition. There aren’t an infinite number of grains of sand on the beach at Genoa, nor, an infinite number of stars and, doubtfully, an infinite number of angels on the head of a pin.
To accept any of these concepts as mathematical certainties converts the law of “cause and effect”, to theory. Thus, it should be unacceptable in practice in Newtonian, Einsteinian or quantum physics, to refer to these concepts as other than place holders. Only in certain irrational numbers such as Pi is infinity observable in the natural universe and even here intuition holds that a culminating number exists; since we continue to search for it.
Similarly, chaos and randomness can not be observed in nature, rather systems are invariably proven to be sequential results of cause regardless of size or scale, though we may choose to call them random or chaotic for convenience. This may be a disservice to both current and future inquisitors in that accepting such convenience may preclude or ignore reality delaying truth: as in accepting the will of God precluded finding a cause and therefore a cure for Black Death.
Infinity, Chaos, and Randomness
It is my contention that these do not exist except as markers of ignorance, and, that is their only value. In essence, as understanding increases the bounds of infinity are moved to new borders of superstition. There aren’t an infinite number of grains of sand on the beach at Genoa, nor, an infinite number of stars and, doubtfully, an infinite number of angels on the head of a pin.
To accept any of these concepts as mathematical certainties converts the law of “cause and effect”, to theory. Thus, it should be unacceptable in practice in Newtonian, Einsteinian or quantum physics, to refer to these concepts as other than place holders. Only in certain irrational numbers such as Pi is infinity observable in the natural universe and even here intuition holds that a culminating number exists; since we continue to search for it.
Similarly, chaos and randomness can not be observed in nature, rather systems are invariably proven to be sequential results of cause regardless of size or scale, though we may choose to call them random or chaotic for convenience. This may be a disservice to both current and future inquisitors in that accepting such convenience may preclude or ignore reality delaying truth: as in accepting the will of God precluded finding a cause and therefore a cure for Black Death.
What I am gonna do....
I have wondered how to make use of my “blog” and have come up with the notion of publishing my hypothesis.
Now for those of you who don’t know what a hypotheses is…well it’s an unproven argument based on logic or an observation. It is not a theory but all theories start with a hypothesis to which is added a little bit of proof.
Best, a hypotheses is like magic in that they begin with wonder, or that is, I wonder?
I have a lot of hypothetical questions that rattle around in my mind. I can never answer them. But what, like the alchemist of past days, no one else knows the question exists? With out question the path to discovery never begins.
So I’m going to throw these notions out on the world and hope the Stephen Hawking or some other player with the universal balls of string will answer these arguments. At least come forth and tell me why they are silly so that my brain could be put to more useful purposes like weeding carrots in the Matanuska soil.
Now for those of you who don’t know what a hypotheses is…well it’s an unproven argument based on logic or an observation. It is not a theory but all theories start with a hypothesis to which is added a little bit of proof.
Best, a hypotheses is like magic in that they begin with wonder, or that is, I wonder?
I have a lot of hypothetical questions that rattle around in my mind. I can never answer them. But what, like the alchemist of past days, no one else knows the question exists? With out question the path to discovery never begins.
So I’m going to throw these notions out on the world and hope the Stephen Hawking or some other player with the universal balls of string will answer these arguments. At least come forth and tell me why they are silly so that my brain could be put to more useful purposes like weeding carrots in the Matanuska soil.
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