1. SCIENCE IN ART EXHIBITION- A SUMMARY by Gerald Shepherd
2. n DIMENSIONS IN 2D SPACE by Gordon Maggs
3. ESSAY by Sue Birchmore
4. NOTES ON SUE BIRCHMORE'S ARTICLE ON LOST WAX CASTINGS by Jonathan R. Walker
5. A COMMENT ON JONATHAN WALKER'S COMMENT (DELTA ISSUE) by Sue Birchmore
6. NOTES ON "SOUL OF BEING" EXHIBITION BY REBECCA ALSTON
7. NOTES ON THE CATHEDRAL PRINTS SERIES BY Toby Mulligan
8. MISCELLANEOUS RESPONSES TO SARAH MACDONALD'S MISCELLANEOUS REACTIONS TO MANFRED WING' S MISCELLANEOUS NOTES ON ART AND SCIENCE by Manfred Wing

1. COMMENTS by Dr. David G. Dixon
2. COMMENTS by Gerald Shepherd
3. BEYOND ECOLOGY by John Goff
4. FLOATING POINT SCIENCE THEATRE by Steve Mesure
5. LAST WRITES by Gerald Shepherd & Manfred Wing

STEVE MESURE (Scientist, performance artist and sculptor)

Steve exhibited Multi-media art work which illustrated his philosophical theory of 'SCIANOCHY'. A concept which seeks to bring together science and art by removing logic from the former and adding it to the latter.

GERALD SHEPHERD (Painter and graphic artist)

Big Ed exhibited examples of  "IONIST ART'. Paintings and drawings with a sequential and developmental format which often use processes and procedures derived from science.

ROBIN KINGSBURGH (Astronomer and artist)

Robin exhibited graphic work which were based on scientific imagery.

JAYANNE ENGLISH (Scientist and artist)

Jayanne exhibited 'interactive' art work based on organic forms.

KEVIN GRIMSHAW (Painter)

Kevin exhibited acrylic and gold leaf paintings derived from the world of sub-atomic physics.

MANFRED WING (Painter and writer)

Little Ed exhibited oil paintings derived from a mix of science fiction and science fact. "Steps towards a new mythology of science

DON ROUT (Ex marine biologist; performance artist and painter)

Don exhibited graphic work which explored evolutionary processes in art utilizing the photocopier. "Machine Art".

PETER WHITTY (Ex science teacher; sculptor)

Peter exhibited constructions and assemblages based on concepts taken from chemistry and physics which ask fundamental questions about the science that initiated them. A process he calls 'ANALYTICAL CYCLES'.

JONATHAN R. WALKER (Material scientist and poet)

Jonathan exhibited work which combined and contrasted scientific text and poetry.

SARAH MACDONALD (Science graduate)

Sarah exhibited work combining painting and text in the form of a dialogue which asked questions about the role of the scientist and artist in society.

TOBY MULLIGAN (Artist currently studying science)

Toby exhibited prints and paintings/drawings which were concerned with an exploration of space (and form) in art.

SHEILA CLARKE (Painter)

Sheila exhibited sequential abstract paintings which utilized chance systems in their creation.

WENDY HAWKIN (Textile artist and teacher)

Wendy exhibited embroidery which utilized mathematics in their creation.

ALAN HENDRICKS (Metal worker and sculptor)

Alan exhibited metal and mirror sculptures which were concerned with portraying various manifestations of time (and light) in art.

RICHARD DANIEL (Sculptor)

Richard exhibited sculptures and drawings which combined human forms with machines.

SIMON KING (Psychologist and artist)

Simon exhibited work which explored the process of 'automatic drawing'.
 
 

Medicine is a discipline that generally likes to consider itself a science. Which is perhaps one reason why many medics are so hostile to "alternative therapies which don't fit easily into the scientific scheme of things.

I'll admit to being a bit of a sceptic myself. When my husband (a nurse) began cautiously experimenting with aromatherapy, I remained neutral pending evidence.

For those not familiar with the technique, aromatherapy is an alternative treatment based on the aromatic essential oils extracted from plants. You apply them by massage (mixed with a base oil), by inhalation, or by mixing a few drops in bath water. The idea is that both absorption through the skin and by inhaling the vapour, the oils have medicinal effects.

The first thing which struck me about the aromatherapy business was that it's actually enjoyable. Aesthetically pleasing. To one brought up on the spartan attitude that " the nastier the medicine, the more good it does you", the idea that a treatment could be a sensual pleasure is downright astonishing. In some ways, it has more in common with the perfumery s art than the physicians s science.

But does it work? Well, some essential oils are certainly active agents by traditional medical standards. They kill bacteria. But aromatherapists claim a far greater role for their oils than merely a pleasanter, more natural sort of disinfectant. They say that the right combination of oils can help various diseases, and also have direct psychological effects.

I haven't heard of any scientific double-blind testing of aromatherapy, so all I can offer is anecdotal evidence from experience. Take the case of one of Mike's patients — mentally handicapped, with behavioural problems, generally "difficult". Every so often, he would get overexcited and hard to control without drugs. On such an occasion, Mike tried administering a soothing bath with appropriate oils. Result; perfect peace all round.

Following that success, when a friend was suffering from tension and insomnia, Mike recommended the same treatment. He slept like a baby.

And yet — the same combination of oils which seems to have such a powerful effect on one person leaves another cold. Scents have a very personal message, one which operates largely at the subconscious level. Not the type of phenomenon likely to endear itself to a mind which insists on strict reproducibility and scientific rigour. But possibly just what a battered human being needs to soothe the mind-body unit back into harmony.

Smells certainly can affect the emotions with startling directness. Catching a whiff of a familiar scent can trigger instant recall of memories — not just mental pictures, but are experiencing of the feeling that went with it. The scent of violets does that for me. And musty houses. For other people, it will be completely different things.

Certain colours of light can have a similar direct mood-changing effect on me. I wonder if I'm the only one to experience this? I suspect not; stained glass windows in churches seem plausibly to be a way of exploiting the effect to summon up celestial feelings among the worshippers.

I've visited mental hospitals where patients were encouraged to paint as a therapeutic means of self-expression. But I wonder if anyone has tried simply enjoying works of art as therapy? A weekly walk around a public gallery to restore emotional harmony? A daily dose of poetry to calm the mind? The only application I've come across to date is music, in the form of specially designed tapes, supposed to relax, uplift, inspire or otherwise massage your emotional being.

I'd be interested to hear any other arts-as-therapy other folks have discovered.

Statistical studies have shown that keeping pets helps towards lower blood pressure. It would be interesting to do a similar study to find out whether people who regularly enjoy art have lower rates of hypertension and disease. Perhaps the day will come when, as well as a practice nurse and the odd alternative therapist, your enlightened neighbourhood GP will have an artist in residence.
 

A friend of mine has developed a novel form of music therapy for people with psychological problems. Another friend has evolved a complex associative colour theory. Both have promised essays for the Ion Exchange            BIG ED.
 
 

As in Nepal, lost wax casting has been used in Europe since classical times for the production of sculptures, but in recent years has also been used for the production of such engineering components as jet engine turbine blades.

The use of rice husks in the Nepalese moulds is interesting, they can also be utilized by pyrolising (burning under controlled conditions) them to form silicon carbide "whiskers" (tiny fibres a fraction of a millimetre long but twenty to a hundred times thinner). These are immensely strong and are currently being considered as a reinforcing material for plastics and even metals. On the minus side however it is thought that inhalation of these whiskers can lead to lung disease, similar to asbestosis, so one might be a little worried about the possibility that they might be formed during either the baking of the lost wax mould or the subsequent bronze pouring process and released when the mould is broken.
 
 

No, he is not alone in thinking that "the old style engineering had a kind of cheery dignity"! I worked as an engineer for five years at a traditional Black Country metal-basher (manufacturers of springs since 1769 and proud of it), and I miss it. There are still craftsmen who can hand-coil a spring as well as any automatic machine, though they're a dying breed.

"In my artwork, I strive to connect realities between the spiritual and physical", Rebecca Alston says. "My art is about universal discovery".

Filled with resonant energy and utilizing a palette of saturated hue softened into a blend of subtle values and intensities, Rebecca Alston's work is an expression of her quest for building connections between the spiritual and physical realities of the 1980's and 90's. In her art, she seeks to clarify the extreme points in life and their relationships.

"We live in a society filled with different consciousness", says Rebecca Alston. "The structures found in my work represent these vast divisions of attitudes".

A former professor of environmental and multi-disciplinary design at the College of Architecture and Design at Kansas State University, Rebecca Alston is an expert in the field of architectural renovation and restoration and has designed the reconstruction of a number of turn-of-the-century historic buildings in New York.

"The approach to creating and locating points of discoveries within the structure of arts and architecture are quite similar", says Rebecca Alston. "The physical parameters inherent in renovating large-scale structures result in the expression of complete discovery in my art, which greatly enrich it

A native of Missisippi, Rebecca Alston received her Bachelors of Fine Arts degree at Auburn University and a Masters of Architecture at Kansas State University. She has exhibited extensively in the United States and Europe.
 
 

In the spring of 1988 I spent two months drawing in Gloucester Cathedral. The following spring, after almost a year of travelling, I returned to the subject of the Cathedral through a series of drawings, monotypes and etchings. I had never printed before and I think it was partly this which allowed me to experiment freely with ideas, allowing the evolutionary nature of etching to influence my drawing.

Now, six months on, I realize my preoccupation is with space and form and how to represent the two simultaneously. The Cathedral and figures, I use life-drawing as a constant discipline, have become the object over which I develop my understanding of space and form.
 
 

I would be happy to include information on the work, working methods etc. of artists working in the Science-Art (or Technology-Art) area      BIG ED. Ditto information relevant science and technology             LITTLE ED
 

MISCELLANEOUS RESPONSES TO SARAH MACDONALD'S MISCELLANEOUS REACTIONS TO MANFRED WING' S MISCELLANEOUS NOTES ON ART AND SCIENCE

I was most interested to read Sarah Macdonald's reactions (Delta issue) to my science—art notes (Gamma issue). I think she made some very interesting and relevant points. I would like to make the following comments, both in reply to some of the points Sarah made and to extend the debate.

Like my original miscellaneous notes, these comments should not be considered finished or final statements. Many? — Most? — All? have invisible question marks.

Art is a less sophisticated and more immature response to the world about us than science. Art is by necessity anthropocentric (its main weakness), ambivalent (its main strength) and undisciplined. Science is the only human activity (apart from procreation!) that has universal significance.

Paradoxically, I would imagine that artists are far more sophisticated and mature than scientists.

Art is nature through a personality. A distorted picture! In this context, science can be seen as a renormalisation procedure. It removes the human derived distortions!

Science is principally concerned with making verifiable statements about the world. It doesn't attempt to make definitive statements. Not even scientific laws are sacrosanct. Although they are rarely superseded, merely supplemented.

The Scientific Taboos: human emotions and perceptions (more properly, preperceptions? — preconceptions!) do not lend themselves to rational scrutiny or scientific research; being subjective and not readily quantifiable. This is likely to change of course with the growing use of computer neural networks, which allow a greater insight into the workings of the brain.

Indeed, if the computer power (and time!) were available, every complex human action (including the creation of art!) could/would be analyzed in simple behaviouristic terms.

Indeed (2), "Man-chines" will soon be creating works of art themselves.

Art is about the making of maps — little models of reality. Maps rely on convention and distortion. People use maps to find the shortest route between where they are and where they want to be. If you do not know where you are in the first place a map can be, at best useless, at worst dangerous.

Science seeks, in the long term, to find the starting place; one reference point for one reality. Science seeks (2) , in the short term, the places where you can see furthest, see clearest or see most, irrespective of what you see and how uncomfortable the viewing position might be.

Art is a pleasant diversion, a comfortable position or a nice view.  Science seeks the truth regardless of how unpalatable it might be. Art is a fussy eater!

Technology satisfies a demand (real or imagined) , although the Japanese in particular, seem adept at reversing this process and make a demand satisfy new technology!

Most art also satisfies or creates demands, especially the art cultured in the Hype-market of the big dealers, pop and cinema.

True art makes both the message and its language. False art merely tells a story with borrowed words.

Painters are problem creators. Paintings are problem solvers. Unfortunately, painters are rarely realistic and paintings are rarely relevant. This is a problem (I am a painter!).

The more one observes, the less one perceives.
An art that relies on observation is a craft (or a science!).

I suspect art is seldom static. Innovations occur even in the stunted impersonal art of despotic regimes and religion.

Art is the safe weapon but can still be dangerous. For example, art used for propaganda. Propaganda need not be overt to be potent. What of the portrayal of woman in art? Isn't pornography propaganda? Aren't icons propaganda? What of the portrayal of animals in art?

Humans do not appear very good at communicating with each other, whether they use the agency of art or not. We are the ultimate anti-social social species! (more correctly a social species in an anti-social environment).

As in all human activities, art is inherently schismatic. Like crystals, stylistic cliques soon form in the apparent ferment of artistic exploration. Soon artists busy themselves with defending their position and attacking the position of others,— More art is produced, less progress is made.

Good artists make bad critics! Judging all art in relation to their own
— or how they feel their own should be!

Art is also a form of escapism. Artists are inveterate dreamers. Addicts of the imagination! Art is their fix!

Artists are also generally shy and retiring. Social skills are a dubious asset anyway. Happy socialites do not contribute much to the march of civilisation. Black holes are all extroverts!

Directness is the trouble with artists too! Once a stylistic niche is opened (by them or more often, for them) artists, consciously or unconsciously, cocoon themselves within it.

Art is the great mythologizer. All myths are obviously humanity centred. They are comfortable clothes, and clothes must fit the man. But when compared to the universe, man is a matter of moments. Universal reality (shapeless, simple structured or unfathomably complex) extends before and beyond manes conscious awareness of it. Science is on the trail of
it. Science will always be on the trail of it, irrespective of who (or what!) is practicing this science.
Science will always be uncomfortable clothes!
 
 

My natural reaction is to defend science and scientists in response to several comments in recent issues, notably those pieces/comments by Rosemary Healing and Sarah Macdonald. This I shall try to do but first I would suggest that few scientists or artists fully understand the mechanisms which motivate them and allow them to pursue their work. Certainly, only a few scientists of my acquaintance bother to discuss the scientific method and the philosophical questions raised by scientific research. Even then, the process can be little more than turning the handle to get results. This, I suspect, can also be true of the artistic endeavour.

A few specific points:

"Yet the rigidity of science is a myth", Sarah Macdonald.

The only rigidity is the inability to cheat. Theories are discarded whenever necessary due to better observations. No theory is complete anyway and an awareness of what we don't know is always present. A scientist must always be an imaginative sceptic.

"Art delves beyond materialistic science to describe scientific taboos like human feelings and perceptions", Sarah Macdonald.

There are, in fact, no taboos in science. It is perfectly true, however, that science has nothing to say about emotions. These may be of supreme importance to humans but are of zero importance to the universe. It is precisely here that the artist can take over from the scientist.

"Art is more observational     ..", Sarah Macdonald.

The most fundamental aspect of science is observation. Observation, experiment and hypothesis form the basis of science. The description of the observed phenomenon is certainly different. Both art and science seek to describe the world; the way we go about it is, I suppose, the basis for all this discussion.

In the context of creativity people can be divided into two types: Visualizers and Verbalizers.

Speaking as a scientist, I have come across people whose perceptions of the world are mechanistically quite varied. The way a situation is perceived seems to affect the scientific discipline chosen. Many scientists find it easy to visualize a state but this can be a positive hindrance when one is dealing with situations beyond normal experience (eg. 24 dimensions). Alan Turing apparently thought of things in terms of differential equations!

"The development of an individual scientist' s work is determined by his peers and the perceived interrelationship with them", Manfred Wing.  "Utter rubbish'", Rosemary Healing.

The acceptance of results can be affected by peer pressure. Sad but true. All will come right in the end, of course.

Generally, though, I think that scientists and artists both have a very similar objective: to describe the universe. Since the universe would exist and function without us (this may, of course, be open to discussion!) I think the scientist is on the better course. The scientist is powerless to discuss human affairs and emotions in an emotional sense and relies on the artist to do this. Scientists only describe 'how', not 'why'. At least we both have "higher" aims for which we should be thankful.
 

There are two points which I would like to raise:

1) Scientists can make lucid and appreciative comments on pieces of art. Artists cannot comment on the results of scientific research. Does this just make scientists fortunate or:

2) Is art specialist at the level of audience/viewer? Do the artist and audience have to have the same appreciation of the work?

Concerning the points David raised:

Certainly the specialist words which have to be used for convenience make the presentation of scientific research difficult to understand. However, I wonder if there need be a gap between science and the interested public (if there is such a thing!). Mechanisms probably exist (or should do!) to disseminate the results of scientific research in an acceptable way.

A slight digression: It is interesting that when scientists (and artists!) are groping for the right words to explain new phenomena they often borrow words from other area which, initially at least, seem inappropriate. Colour in music for example. In science, Quarks (fundamental particles of matter) come in various colours'. They also come in different flavours! Something music doesn't aspire to! (the mind boggles!!!).

The artist/audience relationship is difficult to assess. Someone seeing a work for the first time can be remarkably astute. Often seeing more than the artist who has grown up with the work (sometimes literally) guided by his/her subconscious. However, in my experience everyone sees a different work when they look at a painting. The only person who can really understand a painting is the artist but usually only for about five minutes after he/she has completed it!

Because of the unusualness and complexity of my work I have to write explanatory texts for each painting or drawing when they are exhibited. Looking back at the statements I have written for a specific work I often notice that they are all different!

GERALD SHEPHERD

This "essay" — the product of an ongoing stream of thought whose process is more necessary than its product!! — will exist later as a Hypermedia product, so that it can be read non-linearly — the reader is welcome to cut it up into different sections and read them side by side or in any order whatsoever

The emerging "Green" consensus negates the new nature of global culture — the ecology of the human-machine interface.

A new nature emerges, a Techno-Ecology. The various organic, mineral, technological worlds collide forming new syntheses. The great stochastic processes of Nature (see Gregory Bateson — "Mind & Nature") , ultimately open ended, generate permutations, connections. And for some of us, the evolution of a new kind of Science Fiction — one in which the abstractions of science are used to produce an imagination not necessarily based in the genre excursions of narrative fiction — (An example of using a scientific abstraction may be, for instance, the use of CHAOS — iterative functions ("loops") to produce images, stories etc.). The following skeletal notes seek to outline some of the themes of such a Science Fiction. The likely media forms through which this fiction will emerge in the 90s are Interactive Multimedia and Multi-Author/Reader Networks of various kinds. Conversation Theory may become an essential enabling tool for such communication.

An Electronic Essay for The 199O's and Beyond
 

1) PSYCHOTECHNOLOGY

The Purpose of all Art and Technology is to help augment, structure and amplify human experience.

In such a view, Mind is seen as the Virtual Product of the human Neuro-Linguistic structure.

The technologies that augment the production and construction of human experience are called Psychotechnology.

These are Tools to Construct Minds and their Experiences with.

The ultimate purpose of these tools is to allow us to explore our psyches and to connect and link our minds together thus producing a variety of Transpersonal Patterns.

The process of exploration is not one of unearthing some truth but of reconstructing the present in order to produce a state of Extraordinary Differentiated Ecstasy and to open channels of effective communication.
 

2) TELEMATICS AND DROMOLOGY

The 20th century has been characterized by the mass production of voyeuristic relationships — to see at a distance is to control through the agency of fantasy. Impotence of the Will. The non-synchronicity of Rage and the Body. The century ends in a paroxysm of Body Horror as the imagination and the body try to fuse through an endless mutation of mediations.

First the Cinema and then Television are characterized by a set
of relations based around
Distance, Image, Identification, Reification and Fetishisation. Television = Seeing at a Distance.

The industrial productivity of the century enters the fields of communication and transport. Speed. The perceptible comes to ride on an intangible velocity. The visible is annexed by a structure of control based on the linearity of the digital computer. We enter the Telematic Age. And the Retinal becomes an index of Chaos.

However.

Cause and Effect, Action and Result, Feed and Back become simultaneous. Distance is annexed as an index of Immediacy.
 

3) HYPERMEDIA

Hypermedia is born with the recognition that the computer completes the circuit of eye and hand externally and by so doing makes their relationship as a function of the mind explicit.

Thought is doing. And doing is a process of arrangement or design. The function of exploration is coded as a screen, a metamirror of the mind —which writes only the visible of thought whilst unseeing its sources. Interaction is the "source" of the visible. In other words: no source, no cause, no. effect. But. An ongoing construction of models, metamodèls and intraworlds.

Brain and Hand. Ergonomics and Erotogenics of the human/machine interface. Synthesis of the Virtual Mind. Interactivity. Interaction through anonymous donors. Polarity transcended by Pattern. Beyond the Brain through the Brain. The symbiosis of Hardware, Software, Wetware and Groupware, Ecology, Techno-Ecology. System supplants Language as Neural Networks learning from human instructors flicker into consciousness and loin in the conversation.
 

4) SIMULATION: VIRTUAL WORLDS, LUCID DREAMS

The Evolutionary Imperative of Humankind has to move beyond its present state and into one more becoming of its dreams.

Yet, we have yet to see emerge a truly mature SCIENCE OF THE IMAGINATION.

The functional importance of Hypermedia is as an aid to the development of such a Science of the Imagination.

By a Borgesian twist, Humankind cannot prove that it has emerged from a universal sleep. A dreamer within a dream dreams the dreamer is dreaming. Or alternatively. Humankind is caught in a Time Loop. Destiny is continually rearranged as it bootstraps it's own causality.
 

5) HYPERREALISM

The 4 Realisms: Naturalism, Surrealism, Superrealism, Hyperrealism.

The invention of perspective was simultaneously the invention of the Real. The Real was something existing separately to the consciousness that constructed it! Nature ceased to exist as an idea in the Mind of God and became the de-sanctified territory of representation. When the Real is born so is Representation. And we enter the world of the Looking Glass. The imaginary becomes a reality but one available only at a distance (romanticism) or through an aberration of or transgression against The Real. A tension is set-up between the Real (believed to be external) and it s image. This tension, this dichotomy drives the development of western art. Into the modern era, and psychological interiority becomes a territory that is nevertheless external — its representation produces it as the Real. A representation cannot exist except in these terms of inversion. Which is why Representation and the Real disappear as we enter the era of Simulation.

The Real as an "idea" evolves through 4 stages — not necessarily consequently but actually contiguously as cognitive styles or matrices. These are I) Realism or Naturalism: the attempt to mimic or copy the real
— in fact to idealize it and produce relatively invariant rules of representation. 2) Surrealism: into the Looking-Glass World of the imagination, it's laws are randomless, metaphoric and metonymic displacements, disarrangement, disorder, erotic charge — but it is a sur-real, its reality is its (non)radicality. 3) Superrealism —perception that the representation is more real than reality or is rather the new reality, ultimately the success of the photographic, the triumph of the gorgon and the loss of all interiority, the world as a series of surfaces, in this case the real is stretched to the limit. 4) Hyperrealism, turned inside-out, representation creates the world, the picture becomes the source of the world rather than the world as the source of the picture
— the triumph of the Imagination and its Science — but this is a transcendence, there is no longer any real — reality and representation fuse — culture becomes nature, nature becomes culture — we transcend the infinite-regress of the reflexive dichotomy of reality and representation:
the anxieties produced in Escher's pictures, the humours of Magritte and the ironies of Borges. The fecundity of the Hyperreal marks it out as a special condition of Chaos.
 

6) NON-LINEAR INFINITY, CHAOS AND LOGIC-CONTROL PARADIGMS

The emergence of the Science of Chaos has thrown old concepts of order and disorder into question.

Perhaps the most popular image of this new science is the Fractal Geometry of the Mandebrot Set.

Chaos is — logically — a special condition of INFINITY. But an infinity that does not proceed linearly but rather by endlessly opening detail.... the union of Micro and Macro.

Chaos resembles one of those dreams in which one is forever running or searching without coming to an end — without finding resolution — the concept of resolution itself being incapable of resolution — our whole culture going through some great Godelian neo-Loop in which foundations disappear but we don't fall through the floor — there never were any foundations in the first place, there was nowhere to fall to — space as such being non-existent — a paradox dissolved in Mahayana Buddhism by the doctrine of Shunyata or"Emptiness" — in which non-being or the lack of any actually existent substratum to the phenomenal universe is not replaced by idealism or consciousness as the substratum (which is fundamentally the religious approach and its humanistic and phenomenological derivatives) —

but rather the non-existent of consciousness is posited also — resolution of paradox is negated — paradox ceases to be a problem because duality is transcended — there is nothing, appearance is what is(n't) — with the cessation of the Real, Representation ceases also — the production of consciousness is direct in its prostheses and appearance is directly (non)existent requiring no real to explain it... .The Fractal Geometries explain nothing, they are non-explanatory — the age of Analogy is over and the apparatuses of interpretation stand idle and corrode. . . . There is an argument that Science is a super metaphor for a whole set of perceptions/ conceptions which ordered-together form a culture. Yet it is through Science ultimately that the idea of the Real rides — and it is through Science that the peculiar form of (non)representation called Simulation is produced — yet the success of realism is formed in its own looking-glass
—Science spawns Chaos — yet Chaos goes nowhere — rather it is an enigma in which old concepts of space, time, dimensionality, etc. dissolve.
 

7) RECURSIVE EVOLUTION

Von Neumann Machines, Cellular Automata, Self-Replication, The Game of Life — Self-reflexivity that doesn't produce an infinite regress but rather produces a third term, an emergent condition — this condition may be unstable or actually open out a new dimension — consider Time-Loops = problems of Necessity, Destiny and Will, Dream-Loops = problems of subjectivity, of self-reflexive awareness — Recursion demands a LAW and a SURFACE —  Bohm's concept of an Implicate and an Explicate Order — the computer as the interior logic of our culture....

Infinite Regress = a special condition of Chaos.

Emergent Dimension = a special condition of infinite regress.
 

8) PURE POLITICS = CYBERAESHETICS

Stripped of its CONTENT, Politics is a set of communications PROCESSES.

Exploitation is just such a process.

ANYONE can be exploited by ANYONE!

In order to transcend exploitation, you must transcend politics — by mastering COMMUNICATION!

CONSPIRACY is the structure of telematic politics and terrorism is its order — the terrorist is the politician as an image!
 

9) ECO-INDUSTRIALISM

Control ceases to be a paradigm for moral or political concern — rather it becomes a structural environment!

The relations between culture and nature change over again. Technology is seen as the latest emergent feature of a nature understood as implicate pattern rather than as manifestation of the organic. There is thus a nature implicit in the technosphere we inhabit. This is to understand nature in a taoistic fashion — as inherent order.

As planetary ecocide works through its logic — the necessity of industrially producing organic nature becomes manifest. The primary —and perhaps only symbolic — tool for this new phase of "Industrialization" is Genetic Engineering. The concept of terraforming — coined by NASA scientists to describe the production of earthlike sustainable environments on other planets is applied to the earth — takes over various sectors — becomes an architecture on a massive ecological scale.
 

10) TECHNO-EROTICS

Imagination has always been essential to sexuality. Imagination is, at its simplest, an extension of the senses.

The simulation of Erotics is emerging through computerised Strip-Poker Games, Telesex-Nets and Dating Agencies. The augmentation and amplification of sexualities through computer-based biofeedback and human self-programming is yet to come. ARTIFICIAL SEXUALITY FOR ALL!
 

11) NEOTECH ECONOMY

As PsychoTechnology produces sustainable coherence in human consciousness
— and this coherence is applied to business relations and human exchanges and transactions of all kinds we find emerging a set of economic relations based on the production of ecstasy. The competitive spirit is refrained within an idea of co-operation with inherent order or process! These Neo-Tech skills form the genotype for a digital social order....
 

12) INFORMATION VILLAGES

Decades of communications revolution has broken down geographical parochialism without taking account of the human need to belong. The speed of communications and travel means it is no longer necessary to live near one's friends and colleagues. At the same time the massive quantity of information produces more and more knowledge-based applications
— people can live in information villages. The Global Village differentiates into an ever increasing network of information villages.
 

13) SOLAR ECOLOGY

The migration into space and the terraforming of other planets produces an awareness of an ecology based on the solar system.
 

14) SYNTHEISM

The Godhead is produced through evolution and is not the first cause...........................to be expanded!
 

Floating Point Science Theatre Company was established in 1987 to encourage the imaginative appreciation of science and technology in schools using physical theatre.

The material for the first show was written when the national curriculum was being drafted and the needs of support and encouragement for teaching became clear while touring schools. The company showed that the performances could be educationally intensive, promote positive images of the scientist and the engineer while maintaining a high level of fun for the children at the same time.

The company's performers use mime and physical theatre to demonstrate and express the physical phenomena and mechanisms of every day science and technology bodily.

All the shows involve a great deal of audience participation by repeating the actions in the show and by contributing to the development of the show by suggesting solutions to the problems.

The scientific expertise of the performers means that they are able to interact with the audience and discuss new ideas introduced by them.

Floating Point works with groups of teachers in workshops to help them to discover the imaginative use of mime and physical theatre to explore and teach science and technology. Teachers have found these techniques particularly useful when exploring abstract ideas and very large or very small mechanisms enhancing their enjoyment of science and their own confidence.

Floating Point write and perform 'street theatre' style shows for the general public for festivals, carnivals and exhibitions. Dramatized information on science and technology in the form of fun, off-the-wall or spectacular performances are used to promote career stands or to pass on important facts on subjects like energy conservation.
 

EXAMPLES OF CURRENT SHOWS

'HARNESS THAT ENERGY' — For children aged 5—12 years

Two gunslingers from the wild west discover oil, energy and energy conversion, they develop their own internal combustion engine to drive their wagon and then recruit design engineers from the audience to finish the vehicle.

'IT'S ELECTRIC' — For children aged 8—12 years

The light goes off in the lighthouse. The two lighthouse keepers construct a circuit using a giant battery and bulb. By experimentation they discover that some circuits work while others do not; how to make a switch; and that some materials are conductors of electricity while others are insulators. Safety with electricity is discussed before the keepers discover that mains electricity comes from power stations where it is generated in many different ways.

'WHAT A GAS' — For children aged 4—Il years

King Plasma's son and daughter are charged with trying to find out why one half of the kingdom is cold and dry and the other, hot and dry. On their travels they find that the small amount of water left in their possession changes from a liquid into either a solid or a gas. The properties of each state are explored and how to measure the capacity of the water in its different states. King Plasma leaves a giant thermometer as an extra clue.

'THE CONSTRUCTION SHOW' — For children aged 12—15 years

This show consists of a series of sketches about design and construction, interwoven with practical problems for the children on design, structures and communication
 

I WOULD BE HAPPY TO INCLUDE ANY INFORMATION ON SCIENCE—ART IN EDUCATION BIG ED
 

Towards a definitive definition of Science-Art Fusion!

Science—Art Fusion is a device for broadening one's perceptual responses to ones s environment. Environment equals everything outside of the Self. For example. When one looks at a flower (as an artist), one sees it in terms of colour and form. But what about the flower's function, chemistry, mechanical structure and evolutionary history? All these are the concerns of the scientist, but knowledge of them would enhance an individual's appreciation of the flower — or any other object!

Ionism is a device for widening the presentation of one's perceptions of one' s environment.

Ionism increases the range of methods and materials with which an artist can make relevant statements about the world.
 

GERALD SHEPHERD/MANFRED WING