Class Study of the Conceptual Grammar of Beauty and Ugliness (and my Goats)

10/4 Darwinian Aesthetics and Evolutionary Psychology

Reading for class on Tues. Oct 4th
1. Read Dennis Dutton, "Aesthetics and Evolutionary Psychology"
2. Watch his TED talk below

Images for Studying the Conceptual Grammar of Beauty

Presentation on New Paradigms of Mind

9/29 • The Conceptual Grammar of Beauty

Exercise for class on Thurs. 9/29:

1. Do this aesthetic preferences exercise - Please email to me at justin@oursanctuary.org by Wednesday evening midnight evening two images. The first image should be the most beautiful image you can find, the second the ugliest image you can find. Use whatever you feel is the most relevant and personally compelling understanding of beauty and ugliness to choose the images.

2. Write in your journal (min. a couple of paragraphs) about your own personal (not googled or wiki-ed) definition (feeling/concept/etc) of what beauty is, and why it is important to human life, or if not, why not.

9/27 • Evidence for an Extended and Interconnected Mind

Texts for class on Tues. 9/27

1. Read: Russell Targ and Jane Katra, "The Scientific and Spiritual Implications of Psychic Abilities"

2. Watch: Interview with neuroscientist Eben Alexander about the Near Death Experience (NDE) he had which changed his view of the soul.

Other Recommended Texts

Russell Targ from Suzanne Taylor on Vimeo.

Blind Art from ART1020 Fall 2016

Kiana Cao video

Alexis Abbotts

Angelis Sanchez

Ashley Beals

Ashley Beals

Chin Rochester

Emma Copeland

Faith Belcuore

Hannah Smaglis

Isabel Pollish

Jessica Santillo

Jing Huang

Kaitlin Ford

Kathryn Hare

Lian Russo

Maggie Hoynes

Nora Villalobos

Samantha Rodriguez

Samantha Rodriguez

Samantha Rodriguez

Sarah Bookbinder

Sheryl Wang

Tori-Marie Lauria

Winsland Lee

Lola Bras-Jorge

Artistic Response to the Blindness Test

My eyes are open. I know my eyes are open. I’m blinking. My eyelashes are batting against each other, I can feel it so i am certain that they are open, but… even though they’re open everything is dark. I breathe heavily as panic settles in. No, calm down. I tell myself. Maybe I can’t see because it is a very late hour of the night so it’s really dark. I’ll just turn the light on. I know my room well enough; my bed is situated in front of my bedroom door and the switch is on the right wall. I have a mental image, I can get there.

Moving out of my bed toward the door I hold my arms out so that I won’t bump my head. I even walk nice and slowly to avoid stubbing my toe. The tips of my fingers touch something solid so I flatten my hand out and slide them across the wall. I find the switch without too much difficulty although it is located slightly higher than i had pictured it in my mind. I flip it on and close my eyes in anticipation to hurting the back on my eyeballs.

Why are my hands trembling?

You know when your eyes are closed and you expect to block out all the light butt here is still that dimness that makes it through your eyelids? You kind of hate it because your parents always woke you up like that when you were a kid, or the sun peeked through the blinds and the dimness would wake you up. I let go of a very cringing laugh that got caught in my throat. I don’t see the dimness. I open my eyes and it is still dark. I flip the switch on and off, and on and off, and on and off. Why? Why why why why?

I lose control of myself and bang on the switch with my clenched fist letting out a scream from the very body of my heart commencing a waterfall of tears. My father comes rushing into my room, but I only know it’s him because when he came in he asked what was wrong. I crumble to the floor and stared downward to what I imagined was the floor, but for all I knew I was looking straight at my father who didn’t know any more about what was going on than I did. All I know is that at this point I am crying, my body is trembling, and my father has one of his hands on my back. Everything else is just blackness.

Whatever happened after that is a blur, as if my mind had been shut off. The noises that had surrounded me we are just jumbled chaos, a background making my own thoughts get engulfed and then spat back out. My mother had been crying, my father had been getting the car, that was as much as I knew on their end. As for me, my mind had shut off. Actually, that’s not entirely true, my mind hadn’t fully shut off, but I know that I only thought about 3 things: I am blind. What will I do for school? What time is it?

Sitting in the hospital waiting room my head droops over and my body feels numb. I can hear a few things going on around but I cannot get a clear picture of my surroundings. Both my parents had to help me to actually take a seat. I can’t even sit my butt down at the right place anymore. I can hear my father speaking to what I assume to be a nurse that must be behind one of those glass wall protected desks. My mother is crying although I know she is not sitting right next to me I cannot situate her in the space around me. Her sobbing is like an echo in the darkness that now is my vision. I try to picture the room as much as I can. I have never been to the hospital but I want to know what it looks like. I want to know where I am. I never thought I would want to know what the inside of a hospital looks like, but I felt dizzy not knowing.

You should give it up. A raspy masculine voice like that of a heavy smoker who survived to the age of 70 rang in my head.

“Who said that?” I say as I shoot my head up and look around out of habit.

“Sweetie,” my mother spoke and then her arms were around me. I was startled by the sudden physical contact especially since  had no way to anticipate it. My mother showered my head with kind kisses to reassure me, “You will me okay. Everything is going to be okay.”

I am sure she intended to make me feel better but I felt like a large part of what she said was for her own comfort.

I would recommend not responding to me outloud. No one else can hear me. The voice spoke again.

What the heck is going on? I thought to myself.

Well you’re blind. Again the same voice spoke.

You heard me think? Who are you?

I am Blindness. He responded. Well, to be more accurate, I am your Blindness.

But I don’t want to be blind. I began to cry and my mother rocked me back and forth as she held me tight.

You can cry and you can deny it, but it won’t change the fact. Once you have accepted it and are ready to see, let me know.

“See!? What do you mean?” I shouted in the hospital.

“Sweetie calm down.”

I pushed my mother off of me and stood up. There was no point in me standing. Blindness was in my mind and it wasn’t like I could go anywhere in my condition.

Eyes are not the only way to see. He was back! And by the sound of his voice I could tell he was smirking or that he was amused.

“Blindness!” I shouted again and started pouring my eyes out.

Yes young lady?

“Please help me see.”

3/15 • The Hard Problem of Consciousness

Reading for class on Thurs. 3/15
Oliver Burkman, "Why can't the world's greatest minds solve the mystery of consciousness?





Other recommended texts

1. David Chalmer's seminal 1995 paper "Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness"

2. And Chalmer's TED talk on the same issue.

Presentation on Models of Consciousness

Presentation on New Paradigms in the Philosophy of Mind

Cleve Backster's famous experiment with his plant:

Mythbusters confirms his results!

Another option for your Final Project: 
The Intention Experiment 

Replicate Masaru Emoto’s Rice Experiment - Saying “Thank you” and “You fool” to Rice Everyday

1. Place equal amounts of freshly cooked rice in two identical containers. Seal the containers.

2. Label each container. One with “Thank You” (or some combination of positive messages) and the other with “You Fool” (or some combination of negative messages.

3. Place the jars in separate paper bags or some other covering so you can not see the results until the end of the experiment (NO PEEKING)

4. Every day for 30 days “talk” to the rice in each jar with corresponding positive and negative messages (about one minute each jar twice a day). For instance you might yell “I hate you” at the negative jar or say “I love you” to the positive jar.

5. Make sure your are putting as much emotion as possible into your words and your messages. You really need to FEEL the love or the hate you are directing toward the rice. Also, make sure the jars are in similar environmental conditions but separated from each other by enough distance so the messages can be clearly directed to one OR the other.

6. After the 30 days is over, take some photos of the jars. It does not matter what the results are. All results are valid and helpful. Do not abort the experiment if you think it is not working. 

7. Write a 4 page paper reflecting on the experiment.

Note: If you choose this option for your final project, you must begin at least 30 days before the end of the semester.

9/13 • Philosophy of Perception and Blindness

Readings for class on Tues 9/13:

1. Oliver Sacks, "The Mind's Eye"

2. Oliver Sacks, "To See and not to See" (Note: This second paper is a bit longer. If you don't have time, just read the first couple of pages.)

Recommended: Talk by John Hull, the theologist from Oliver Sack's essay "The Mind's Eye" who speaks of "whole-body perception."

Recommended: 
If you want more information from Oliver Sacks about the diversity of ways we can perceive reality.

Blind Perception Project due Thursday, Sept. 22nd

Blind Meditation Project

Those things that nature denied to human sight

she revealed to the eyes of the soul.
                   Ovid

Please email me at justin@oursanctuary.org 

 your artistic component of your project by Wed, Sept 21st midnight so that I can post to our blog.

Components: 1. Blindness Experiment, 2. Creative Blindness Expression, 3. 3-Page Paper

Purpose:  This project is an experiment which aims to defamiliarize the student to the experience of sight in order to understand better its question-ability. In this experiment, you must blindfold yourself, ask yourself certain questions about the experience, relate it to topics discussed in class, and express its meaning to you in some creative fashion.

What is it like, to see? What is the experience like? What is the difference between your sense of place, location, and spatial layout when you can see as opposed to when you are blind? 

How do your non-visual senses change when you cannot see?

This experience raises many interesting philosophical, psychological questions!

Instructions: 1. Blindfold yourself for a min. 4 hours. The longer, the better response you’ll get. 6-8 hours is ideal. Locate your self in an environment that is very visually familiar to you, some place like your dorm room or living space that you know very well. If you work with a partner, then you can walk around and do some exploring.

2. Spend the first three hours of the experiment just trying to be receptive to your new condition. Think about the ways your other sense experiences change when you cannot see. Try to get into the strangeness of it.

3. After at least 3 hours, while still in a state of artificial blindness, you must perform a specific set of memory observations. You must record as many details about the visual look and contents of the space you are familiar with as you can remember. Try to think of everything you remember about what you can ordinary see and notice about the space, such as for example: photographs or images you have on the wall, the colors of surfaces, objects, odd visual details you customarily notice. Make a list of observations.

4. After the time is up, take off your blindfold. Now look over your list and check it with what you can now see. Record any differences, distortions or omissions.

5. Create a visual or non-visual artwork which explores/expresses some aspect of the experience of blindness or sensory deprivation or reorganization.

6. Your paper (3 pages min.) should do three things: 1) It should focus on one main question, 2) It should draw from your own personal experience, using whatever interesting things you experienced as data-points for what you say, and 3) It should bring in at least two references to ideas or arguments or questions we discussed in class.  

Dear class, this is the event I mentioned in class. Check out this link for more information or to buy tickets. It's going to be a very special happening if you can make it. All ages. :) 

More information about Burning Woman at the Sanctuary.

(4) 9/8 • Introduction to Buddhism & Meditation

Introduction to Buddhism and Vipassana Meditation
Readings for class on Thurs. 9/8:

1. Interview with Thich Nhat Hahn.
2. Introduction to Vipassana Meditation by Ralph Steele

Recommended

This insightful speech by jazz-funk legend Herbie Hancock on Buddhism, jazz and living a creative life. Check this out if you have time, it's very inspiring and on point in his interpretation of Buddhism.

Presentation on Plato's Cave and the Shamanic View of Art

Presentation on Plato's Cave and Epistemology

(3) 9/6 • How to leave the Cave - Defining "Truth" and "Realism"

Reading assignment for Tues. 9/6

1. PLATO'S CAVE: a selection from the beginning of Book 7 of the Republic, Allegory of the Cave.

Presentation on Plato's Theory of Art (poesis)