ART and ORGANISM

THE DARK SIDE OF CONNECTIONS

CONNECTIONS are central to all meaning and all change: they are a primary existential phenomenon on which our understanding (such as we may be competent) can exist.   

As a biologist the metaphor in the foreground for me derives from neurology.

(the connectome)

but my favorite visual metaphor is Piranesi (1761)

WHAT ARE THE WAYS IN?

INPUT: Stimuli to sense-organs (“bottom-up”)

WHAT ARE THE WAYS OUT?

OUTPUT: Integrative areas to effectors (glands, muscles) (“top-down”)

Pathways? gorgeous in color-coded scientific illustrations,

but a favorite visual metaphor is Piranesi (1761)

The Imaginary Prisons of Piranesi

Posted 26th August 2011 by Carol Hendricks to:

http://arthistoryblogger.blogspot.com/2011/08/imaginary-prisons-of-piranesi.html

and then…

Continuing with our neuronal visual metaphor and with a Piranesi prison in the back of your mind, read about THE CONNECTOME.

Recall that CONNECTIONS emerge during development in a pattern that creates meaning–But connections, like everything else. are most effective in moderation.

In other words, we can have TOO MANY CONNECTIONS.  Ordinarily in the course of development connections are pruned as structures develop and processes change and become re-tasked.  In the absence of pruning excessive  (Get your DEEP biological grounding)

NEXUS

The relationships of ART and SCIENCE to each other, Like all intertwined, co-constituted or mutually affecting constellations of traits, exist and evolve in DIALECTICAL relationship enabled by CONNECTIONS (It appears–and may be true–that, as Walt Whitman put it, “all truths dwell in all things.”)

• • Quotes about Connections;  Plimpton interviews Doctorow (“how to get started”) 
  • CONNECTIONS  in COMPETITION  In the brain, connectivity is determined at first by genetics of growth and apoptosis and then by competition. 
  • The “DARK SIDE” of CONNECTIONS?  We can have too many.  (helps to have biological grounding in the development and dissolution of connections in the developing brain (see the READING on brain-development-and-the-role-of-experience)