Scenes
First pass on scenes today. Next chapter of Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy on Friday, probably? — Current Trajectory Grounding: (as in “common ground”): collection of mutual beliefs and assumptions between people (and also the act of amassing this collection) Scenius, an introduction by Kevin Kelly Presumably, accepting people are biological (and cognitive) assemblages, it is plausible that larger complexes more »
Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy I
These are notes on Manuel De Landa’s Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy, which is a refactoring of Gilles Deleuze’s ontology (specifically, it’s intended as an introduction to Deleuzian thought for analytical philosophers or scientific-minded readers unfamiliar to Deleuze and his very continental methodologies: this dude has two very different, very important concepts called “differentiation” and “differenciation”. That’s more »
The Arcane in Two Aeon Articles
I’m done for the week. Now that my winter break surplus is expended, I think I’ll try to reduce my output back to two posts per week. That’ll also give me more time to edit, which is a skill I really ought to be honing a bit (I’m a bit of a gunslinger with the more »
The Lives of a Cell
I’m flying to and from Orlando these weeks, guaranteeing several hours of undisturbed reading. I read Lewis Thomas’ book of essays in the air last week, The Lives of a Cell: Notes from a Biology Watcher (1974) [pdf]. It was quoted by a friend-of-a-friend on Facebook, and I recognized something in the quote and began reading the more »
Report: 13 January
My weekly progress post, to help keep me focused and honest. It’s later than it should be but I need to keep posting or else the purpose for doing it is subverted. I’m on a new project at work, and the first week demanded a lot of time/energy, including on this past weekend. Despite that, more »
Make-Believe
The best article I’ve read on Ebert’s response to “Are Games Art?”: An Apology for Roger Ebert. It is clear, it is elegant, and you don’t have to ‘buy’ it to see that the negative argument can exist in the absence of curmudgeonly ignorance. — There’s no need to delay my answer to the question, especially more »
Mulling: Potential
Yesterday’s post cites far more practitioners than theorists, which was maybe why it sounded wildly more obvious and applicable. My current unfinished post is on “Games/Art”, bouncing off of the next book on my list, Imaginary Games. Soon I’ll break from the games studies (to restock) and publish some notes I’ve been scribbling on some more »
Unnecessary Obstacles
Caillois introduced a spectrum from paidia (“play”, improvisation) to ludus (“games”, ordered, rule-bound, requiring skill or effort). To play a thing (or play with a thing) is to explore it in some sense. As I’ve noted before, to game a thing (eg. gaming the system) is more directed and manipulative. The relationship between play and more »
Man, Play and Games
Roger Callois’ Man, Play, and Games (1961) is a direct response to Johan Huizinga’s Homo Ludens, and largely builds off of it while editing a few key tenets. The quotes immediately below are from an article I read for context on Callois’ background (Thomas Henricks, “Man, Play and Games- An appreciation and evaluation” [pdf]). It was hugely helpful more »
Patterns, Moods, and Scenes
A not-quite-coherent ramble on a few disparate ideas that I suspect should be related. I haven’t connected all of the dots satisfactorily yet, and maybe there’s not much too it after all. I haven’t decided. Publishing it anyway! I. When I write, I might sometimes play a certain kind of music to change my more »