Bottling Miraculous Creativity

Re–blog from the Morning News.

Watch this beautiful video of Elizabeth Gilbert’s lecture held at TED. Here she questions the western cultures egocentric view on the creative spirit. Her anxiety drove her way back into history and the ancient view of the genius.

I often talk about the Roman Genius with friends. Few know about it but everyone appreciate it. It seems many creative people find comfort in of these type of myths and I gladly promote them.

I first read about it in the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s collection of essays Profanazioni. It’s a really good book and I really recommend it.

And I really recommend any creative person to take a closer look on the ancient view about the Genius. I’m sure it will help you through some rough times.

Why Men Can’t Handle Money (Part I)

Re–blog from the Chronicle.

Here’s just my personal experience. Many women actually seek out this adventurous boys to nurture and foster. I can’t say I have the whole picture even though I can think of many probable reasons. To be honest I’ve kind of taken advantaged of it. I never met or dated so many good looking bright women as when I gambled the most. Not to mention that I often met them in the company of dangerous men…

Enlightenment, Porn, and Worse: Studying Human Cruelty

Re–blog from the OUPblog.

I totally agree: we are in great need to understand human cruelty. The media landscape and the availability of, in lack of a better word, negative news has changed our perception of violence, war, etc. I often speak about our — that being the global — culture as pornographic. It all reminds me of Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others.

Smoke Screens

Re–blog from AIGA.

It’s a good article with some interesting thoughts. But I advise everyone, including Angela Riechers, that feel anxiety about how technology is changing our perception and way of living to read up on the worlds leading urban theorist Manuel Castells’ research. Most of us aren’t using technology the way Angela thinks — or even worse, do her self.

Video Games are Good for Children – EU Report

Re–blog from the Guardian.

Finally some scientific proof of what my intuition told me all along. Most people in my generation – born in the 80’s – has grown up playing video and computer games, and most of us turned out all right. As a matter of fact I think it did us good, or as the paper has it:

Video games can stimulate learning of facts and skills such as strategic thinking, creativity, cooperation and innovative thinking, which are important skills in the information society.

The Primitive Appeal of The Color Red

Re–blog from the Situationist.

There is more to Valentines Day then finding the right gift. To dress proper is of equal importance, at least if you want to please your desire…

The Many Faces of Pablo Picasso

Re–blog from the Guardian.

A very well written article by Peter Conrad on Picasso. It’s quite long but well worth the read. Whenever I read about Picasso I come to think about the French philosopher Michel Serres’ book the Parasite. The parastitic as metaphysics, as a necessity of human existence.

Glitches Adding Authenticity

Re–blog from c.oncio.us/ly.

Glitch art is a big interest of mine. I’ve done a lot of glitch art myself — both visual and audio — that I will be present to you as soon as I get the money to fund the Web gallery project.

This was posted on Iman Moradi’s blog, one of the authorities on visual glitch art. What grabbed me wasn’t the post but the title: That glitches add authenticity. I’ve never thought about it but of course it can! Mind though that it’s a dangers business, as the case with the fake photo of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il shows.

Why Television Still Shines in a World of Screens

Re–blog from NY Times.

Randall Stross finds his idea that people prefer screen–based media over print–based media because it’s passive speculative. It’s not the first time I’ve heard that one, so in my world it’s more kind of the old, classic argument. And frankly I’ve never read one scientific paper that backs it up. So here’s a more speculative hypothesis for you.

People prefer screen–based media over print–based media because it’s more active. But how could that be? One must realize that human beings are embodied. And we have the ability to understand that others feel, think and act and why they do it. This is in large part what defines us. And of course our ability to do this increases with animation.

These are well known facts in the scientific community and it has tons of research to back it up. The Theory of Mind plays a large role in developmental psychology and theories of embodiment has been around since the 1940’s. It’s a shame that authorities like Mr. Stross isn’t aware of this.

It would make me happy and the world a better place if the type of pseudo–scientific fact like reading being more active then watching would stop flourish in the popular media. And hopefully the acknowledgment of Theory of Mind and embodiment can help the print–based media companies to come up with more productive solutions to their problems then the ones now being implemented.

You find more information about the Theory of Mind on Wikipedia and these two videos with well known American philosopher Hubert Dreyfus is a good introduction to embodiment.

You Think That is Romantic?

Re–blog from Cognitive Daily.

Valentines Day is just around the corner. Professor of Psychology Greta Munger and writer Dave Munger latest survey try to answer the question which romantic gift most women would prefer. Hopefully this can help you in your search for that perfect gift.