ART & ORGANISM
A SEMINAR on INTEGRATIVE BIOLOGY OF ART AND SCIENCE:
“THE ART AND SCIENCE of ART AND SCIENCE“
| January 21, 2025 | A&O (1) | CANONICAL CONTENT meets PERSONAL MEANING CONNECTIONS! made at many levels within and between us, create MEANING which is much DEEPER than WORDS | ● Check-in (who we are and our interests; 2-3 minutes at most) ● the IDEA of CONNECTIONS ● the PROBLEM with WORDS ● PSYCHO-SEMANTIC WORD MAPS ● Check-out (what ideas stood out for you?) |
| January 28, 2025 | A&O (2) | ART and SCIENCE can tell us satisfying STORIES , best when we utilize multiple perspectives: DEEP ETHOLOGY, where we deal with real animals (not ideals) in the real world and EXISTENTIAL PHENOMENOLOGY real people in the real world | ● Check-in (who we are and our interests; 2-3 minutes at most; comment on what stood out from last week) ● Continue with DEEP ETHOLOGY and the aspects of ART. Check-out (things that stood out this week, by e-mail from your diary notes, taken during class). |
| February 4, 2025 | A&O (3) | GOOD STORIES utilize Bayesian Reasoning to approximate the truth … read A&O notes (including excerpts from Michael Titelbaum’s (2024) essay from PSYCHE on “How to Think like a Bayesian” ) But then, How do we know what to believe? see COHERENCE and CORRESPONDENCE. | traits influence–and are influenced by–other traits (including between llevels of organization) –how does that work? Human development, cultural transmission, “learning to learn” … Bias, congenital and acquired IDEA: Patterns of influence between traits described involve PLEIOTROPY and POLYGENIC traits. |
| February 11, 2025 | A&O (4) | ● discussion about behavior of your choice followed by comments on its DEEP ethology. DEVELOPMENT, BIAS, and learning, ● congenital and acquired bias: how WEIRD we are; The “body bias”–Meaning and the Body | LEVELS of ORGANIZATION are becoming more prominant as a scaffold for new ideas, particularly with respect to EMERGENCE of unexpected traits |
| February 18, 2025 | A&O (5) | EVOLUTION how can we infer the evolution of MIND? that is, COGNITIVE COMPETENCIES [read about the evolution of consciousness from neurology perspective] We survive and thrive when our BIOLOGICAL NEEDS are more-or-less met: READ A&O page on NEEDS | Fitness; Adaptation; Ritualization of traits (e.g., from autonomic reflexes to courtship) |
| March 4, 2025 | A&O (6) | COMMUNICATIONS ; TRANSLATION How can I get away with saying “all life is translation”? | Looking more closely at RESONANCE; look back on EVOLUTION at HOMOLOGY & ANALOGY |
| March 11, 2025 | A&O (7) | PHYSIOLOGY: open with Jill Bolte Taylor’s Stroke of Insight | Begin thinking discursively but surrounding the implicit core theme: galaxy that was thouht to be a star … tight-rope between levels of orgnization, between past & future, real & ideal, memory & imaginagtion (filling in related to prediction?) ECOTONES? for A&O tonight, include what is UNDER the bell curve. Meaning in Life? SONDER |
| March 18, 2025 | SPRING BREAK | ||
| March 25, 2025 | A&O (8) | Check in: compare frisson to sanglot. : ADAPTEDNESS represents the ability to cope with stressors – circumstances that challenge an organism’s ability to meet its needs. BUT COPING WITH STRESSORS is also the disposition that advances us. Take a long, thoughtful look at the STRESS RESPONSE CURVE: https://neilgreenberg.com/ao-figure-stress-response-curve/ and see where you are on that curve at this moment. How does cognitive dissonance fit in to help explain state of mind? filling-in? | |
| April, 1 2025 | A&O (9) | continue in-class progress report on project | |
| April 8, 2025 | A&O (10) | ||
| April 15, 2025 | A&O (11) | Distinguished visitor, Prof BEAUVAIS LYONS (or next week) | |
| April22, 2025 | A&O (12) | FINAL PRESENTATIONS | |
| April 29, 2025 | A&O (13) | FINAL PRESENTATIONS | |
| May 6, 2025 | A&O (14) | FINAL PRESENTATIONS | DEADLINE for Semester Report: (paper or Artwork+artist’s statement) is May 14 (near end of the registrar’s scheduled final exam time) |
| FINAL EXAM and seminar social — DATE to be DETERMINED during exam week (May 9-15) | off campus pot-luck and Final Exam and au revoir! social. | “Be well, do good work, and keep in touch” au revoir! adieu, adios, arrivederci, sayonara | “FINAL EXAM” ? At the time of the “final,” please be prepared to create mind-maps. |