BALANCE abstract painting part of a series that make up an art painting installation Russell Hand © ®
A Number of People Have Asked to Know More… I Take it More About Myself and My Art and Other Projects…
1. Mindfulness and Tai Chi should be taught in every school on the Planet, from the earliest age possible. Which will open up the minds of people to process new information, and help them to appreciate life and existence more.
2. People need to be taught to ‘think’, and taught how to ‘think critically’ from as earlier age as possible. Just like they are taught language etc… The assumption that people naturally think in anyway is wrong. They are taught to think but generally in an extremely limited way. Most people think they think, but if they actually learnt to ‘think’ they would realise how limiting their thought processes were before and how much more they appreciate life, and find purpose as their thought processes expand and their ability to process new information does too. Very few people throughout history have produced original thought, which is why they are remembered. Plato, Hypatia, Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci.
3. Women should be legally the equal of men everywhere on the planet. Have the right to believe, dress, think etc how they like.
4. Every person on the planet has the right to think and believe what they want as long as they do not interfere with anyone else or force them to their beliefs. Also not to believe if they want. As at the moment in many countries people do not have that option, and I both suspect and have been told that many particularly the young do not want to be forced to believe in something they do not want to.
5. The world needs balancing as do the people in it.
That is a start, I do think a lot of good causes get hi-jacked by people, opportunists and people doing things through total self interest claiming to be part of a good cause for their narcissistic, egoistic own ends.
“It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare…” Edmund Burke
My art is suppose to raise human consciousness and make people think. I know it does with people that already ‘think’, whether it does with other people I do not know.
This is the beginning of a book I am writing about the time I travelled around the Mediterranean backpacking with a friend which is actually true and what happened, all my stories are true. I have not left the most ordinary life or had ordinary things happen.
Thundering Through the Desert Being Chased by a Pack of Wild Dogs. (Working Title for my book)
“Though the story of my first odyssey around the Mediterranean, it starts with an event so many years later, that is so connected to this story, and so many others through my life…
It was a strange day, standing at the old harbour at Mykonos, then it had been an unusual time on the Greek islands on this journey, a place I was no stranger too. Standing at the old harbour on Mykonos looking across to Mykonos town, the lights reflected in the water, and giving the usual magic to an evening on a Greek island, but with this difference, people coming down to promenade, passing calling out ‘Odysseus’ and ‘Beauty’ to me. It was 2015 though I had been on this and many other islands many times before. I stood there wondering what was happening not for the first time, gazing at the lights and hearing the people call out to me, so many memories drifted through my mind of all the other times I had stood on Mykonos not just on this trip but so many times in the past. Time, and as time ruptured in my mind I fell through space and time to that first time. Again time, that part of space time matter. Then maybe to at least understand the events of that day, something from that first journey long before to being on Mykonos in 2015.
A part from that first journey, an extract from much later in this the story of my first odyssey. So many years before I stood at the old harbour of Mykonos in 2015.
We had been riding along the edge of the desert where it meets the lush growth from the Nile. When a pack of about twenty dogs broke out of the vegetation, wild or feral, who knows, the horses were walking, our guide shouted, and started his horse into a gallop, mine leaped forward from walking to a gallop and I looked behind at my friend, luckily his horse followed suit as he had never ridden before, I saw him grip the saddle with his hands. The dogs were running towards us at a tangent, the nearest were almost on top of us and leaped at our legs saliva dripping from their jaws, trying to pull us from the horses. We headed out into the rolling dunes of the Sahara thundering on, with the pack chasing, my friend swearing and my laughter mixing with the horses breath like a bellows in a blacksmiths forge, feeling the pounding of its heart through my legs, and the snarling of the dogs, laughing with the exhilaration, joy and pure pleasure of existence…
But then even further back, something from before I ever left on any journeys, except maybe the initial one, that of being born, that set my feet upon the road that lead to being called ‘Odysseus’ and ‘Beauty’, though in many ways it still mystifies me, how they would know me, why they should come to see me, before I left the island of Mykonos, that time in 2015 and call to me ‘Odysseus’ and ‘beauty’.
Before I fall many years into the past, through space, time, matter maybe I should mention I have been on many odysseys of different kinds. Also about earlier on that day; I was at the old port, the one I have known since my first time on Mykonos so many years before, though I had landed at the new port. One of the many changes I have seen since my first stay on the island… So near the old port is a café I go to for internet and a drink. The woman working in the bar says “Hello” as I go in and then says “I recognise you, you have been here before” I reply, “I have been on Mykonos before but this is the first time I have been down to the old port on this trip.” She says again ‘I am sure I recognise you’. I am tired and have not slept on the last ship, the one that dropped me at the new port. Also trying to decide whether to stay on Mykonos or go straight onto Athens. As I am sitting out front at the tables, two women keep looking over and I can hear some comments they are making in English… “It is him”.. “He doesn’t like being recognised”… “Should we say something”… I am getting nervous something I am not used too, because of being hassled on some other islands I am thinking it is going to start again here. As well as not generally getting nervous in life, I get paranoid even less if ever. One of the things about travelling, being in strange places and passing through different cultures, not something for someone that either gets paranoid or suffers from paranoia. So there I am sitting in a bar, having a beer, well greek larger. Seeing two women looking over and then talking apparently about me, as those two and myself are the only ones sitting outside the bar at the time and apart from looking over at me they keep referring to ‘him’, me being the only male around. I turn round and say out loud, ‘You should not believe everything you read on the internet’, sure someone or many have spread lies about me which has caused me to be hassled. They start speaking quietly to each other, but I hear them say, “What, is he saying it is not true”. I go into the ticket office next door to the bar and ask about the next ship / ferry leaving, it is a high speed ferry to Athens. I go back to my seat outside the bar thinking do I leave and turn up in Athens late at night or get a room on Mykonos. I have checked online and can get a room on Mykonos or in Athens, another thing that has changed since I was first on Mykonos or even on more recent journeys, online booking. Then while I am sitting there two guys turn up on a motorbike and look over at me smiling. I am beginning to wonder not for the first time what is going on. The guys off the motorbike go into the ticket office looking across and smiling at me as they go in. People smile for many reasons, one thing I have known most of my life, it is not always friendly. Then they leave after about 5 minutes looking over again at me and then ride off. Normally I would have just found it a bit strange, no more than that. After about 10 minutes I decide to book a ticket to Athens leaving that night. I go back into the ticket office and ask the woman behind the desk if the men who came in just now said anything about me, she said “No why ?”, I said “Well they kept looking over at me.” She said “No, do not worry about it.” Then I asked her for the ticket to Athens for later that day or evening as it turned out. She looked quite shocked and said “You are not staying, you are going straightaway ?” I said “Yes, why ?” she said “I am just surprised”. In normal circumstances I would have brushed it off, but it was not so normal, though I have lead an unusual life in many ways, there was definitely a strangeness this time.
Earlier on this journey on Santorini a group of what looked like early retired people had walked past me, staring at me and saying “24 or 28 no more” amongst themselves but apparently about me, something I could say was passing strange as this was 2015, and rather ridiculous. Though one of the reasons I do not always like getting fit and tanned as most seem to think I am much younger than what I am, which might sound good but can cause me problems not of my making. Back to later in the year and Mykonos. So except just how young they were saying I was, not that unusual in my life.
I get the ticket and am leaving Mykonos that evening, I book a hotel in Athens online, The Byron the cheapest hotel I could find in the middle of Athens. Well I do write poetry and Lord Byron was a poet who also loved Greece. People keep coming and going at the old port which is nothing unusual though they all keep looking over at me. It is still 3 hours or so till the ferry comes and I leave. I eventually decide to leave the bar and walk the 100 metres or so to the old port where the ferry will arrive. I head to the old port with my backpack. My backpack, a back to front leather cap, a sleeveless t-shirt and a pair of shorts and a pair of blue aqua shoes. When I first arrive the place is empty, open and quite industrial looking, though on the small scale almost like a bus station. As the sun gradually goes down more people start to arrive and wait at the port, most taking no notice, but others looking at me and talking amongst themselves. The old port is very small and gives a beautiful view across the harbour to Mykonos town. Standing there thinking, looking at that view, Mykonos as a whole, of all the beautiful memories I have of the place and the Cyclades Isles and the many other places they lead me and my friend to on that first journey, that odyssey through a world of wonder. One of those times for beautiful memories to fill my mind. Then as night falls and the Greeks come out to promenade, as they come down to the old port and walk around, looking at me standing there on my own, I can hear them saying and some calling out, ‘Odysseus’ and ‘Beauty’. Now I had started writing a blog on this journey about my first, what can I call it other than my first Odyssey. My blog which is merely extracts from my journey, Odyssey with a friend after leaving the Chelsea school of Art after a year to travel with him, backpacking around the Mediterranean and the adventures we had. So there I am surrounded by people promenading by saying ‘Odysseus’ and ‘Beauty’, looking at me and smiling, thinking that they must know something about my blog but not sure how, as when I checked my statistics for it, it had been viewed by about 2 maybe 3 times /people. Well there are some other things from my life which mentioned beautiful intelligent women, pop stars and a few others, either being in love with me, or at the least interested in me, but just extracts, small pieces of my life from here and there. So when it comes to beauty or beautiful that is subjective. So there I am standing at the old port of Mykonos looking across the harbour to Mykonos town with hundreds of people promenading by many saying ‘Odysseus’ and ‘Beauty’ wondering what is going on, whether they are making fun of me for whatever reason and how do they know who I am. Then the ferry arrives, I board it, the seat I have on the ferry is next to a couple, twenty something, the women who is rather attractive is sitting next to me, talking to her partner then turning around and smiling at me.
But back, back much further now to the beginning, a beginning, who I am, why my life is unusual and maybe even why on Mykonos they came down to see me off and called out ‘Odysseus’ and ‘Beauty’ to me.
So back to that initial beginning, just after that first journey, that one into the world, my first odyssey. When I could crawl, if left unattended fora moment in the back garden apparently I had a habit of crawling into the coal bunker and eating coal. Now why I could not say as I was a well fed baby with a good diet full of all the minerals and vitamins I needed to grow… Maybe some natural yearning for carbon or charcoal… “
Russell Hand © ® all rights reserved
Yes this all happened… As did everything in the book I am writing…
My friend Peter following behind in the eastern Sahara Egypt, with the step pyramid of Saqqara in the background. After we had been chased by a pack of wild dogs.
I have as I mentioned exhibited my art with world famous artists and photographers. Though I have not exhibited much, I also have my artists book I made in The Tate special archive of artists books… Which one art critic that I have known since art school, who has thought extremely highly of my art to put it mildly, and when I saw them at the end of summer 2017 told me “This is not just an artists book, this is a work of art in its own right” As well as being an artist I have been reading philosophy and ethics both eastern and western since I was 12. I have been told my art is visual philosophy, and I am a philosopher artist on many occasions through my life. I did a contemporary art and technology degree… Though my academic theory / critical thinking / cultural theory is suppose to be at least at PhD level, should probably write one at some stage… Though I was not so up on the technology as I use to be, I am again now, with a particular interest in AI, more AGI as it is now called. Conscious Artificial Intelligence Artificial / General Intelligence among other things… They not confined to that in my thinking or my projects, which are not just art or writing but lots of technology projects as well. Though I want some particular tech for some of my art projects, which is cutting edge technology.
I mention about my level of education. One of my sisters use to be deputy head of research at Goldsmiths University and later both deputy head of research, Nick Deville being head, and head of Goldsmiths Art Department. She actually borrowed a number of my theory books while writing her PhD, she also after gaining her PhD use to supervise people writing PhD’s. And my theoretical structure, theoretical understanding, critical thought and most definitely understanding of technology, history, art etc… Is far more complex, sophisticated etc… than hers… I can ‘read’ art as well as ‘write art’ in all the senses Roland Barthes meant… Why I can tell the difference between rubbish masquerading as art, mediocre art and art for the ages to put it one way… I am a ‘reader’ and a ‘writer’… Which funnily enough means I could advise people on what art to buy as an investment better than both… But I would say buy art you actually love and if the art you bought increases or decreases in price it does not matter…
Interestingly just now I was talking to a mature woman writing her dissertation on child psychology and mentioned some of my ideas too, she seemed to think they were good. I also asked her if she knew or had read any Melanie Klein, she said No. Which surprised me as I had read quite a lot of Melanie Klein when I was 17, when doing psychology among other things… and my understanding was she was one of the foremost child psychologists of the 20th century… Why child psychology well it was part of the course, but also one thing I wondered since I was at school that many of the people I grew up with and were at school with from infants seemed to have the light go out in their eyes, there curiosity about the world and existence disappear and just settled for it being really quite basic and something almost to get through… But psychology in general because of my curiosity about the human condition… Then my work art is about life… all the way from birth to death…
Any feedback is appreciated… And yes all the above is true… I will be linking to my blog that has been attacked, hacked, taken down maliciously so many times… and I have not restored it yet full… Which when restored will talk about a number of people including some rather famous people I have known Alison Goldfrapp out of the band Goldfrapp who I am connected to on LinkedIn… among others….
Rock field Golan Heights working on the Moshav clearing rocks out of a disked field, the first time I travelled around the Mediterranean. I am driving the tractor this day, with the rest working one behind the trailer and two on each wing… In this photo left to right, Kenny who had all his clothes stolen except what he was wearing at the time, and did not get another pair of shorts, hence him working in his underpants, well that was his excuse… He was a lawyer from Scotland… The Mexican, whose name I cannot remember, but was Jewish Mexican, and someone told me not him, the son of the biggest shipping magnet in Mexico city… Then Ramon bending down picking a rock up… Ramon told me he was from Uruguay or was it Paraguay, but had a passport with a 100 pages full of visas and stamps from his travels, worked in a bar in Spain to earn money then went travelling… and his family in South America owned a cattle ranch. Some else told me owning a cattle ranch in south American meant a large lump of the country and millions of head of cattle, well in Ramon’s families case… and all part of my book Thundering Across a Desert Being Chased by a Pack of Wild Dogs… I have several photos of Kenny sitting around and working in his underpants, not that I wanted him sitting around in his underpants but it does still make me laugh… I think I was just born happy, full of curiosity and wonder for the world…
Apparently I am a ‘fuzzy logic’ person art and philosophy… Though I am also a rational logic person… As I also have some maths and sciences thinking… and apparently now a lot of tech companies know they need ‘fuzzy logic’ as well as science and coders…
Now this should be of interest to a lot people both Mindfulness who I have quite a few connected on here… Scientists again with quite a lot on here connected who might not have seen this… Neuroscientist etc… As well as a lot of organisations trying to raise human consciousness… like https://culturalevolutioncenter.org … etc… Which is state of the art cutting edge technology used in the video below… which also illustrates why mindfulness needs to be taught at as earlier age as possible…
http://bigthink.com/videos/gail-saltz-the-brain-differences-of-liberals-versus-conservatives
And this I think everyone on the planet should spend 6 minutes watching, a video talk by theoretical physicist Michio Kaku… The evolution of intelligence… 6 minutes of anybodies time well spent…
http://bigthink.com/videos/the-evolution-of-intelligence
Then looking at South Africa and other countries with drinking water problems and droughts I have no idea why this absolutely beautiful project has never been built and implemented, solar powered, looks like a piece of art and desalinates water using electromagnetism and pumps it ashore… There are a number of projects like this one all designed, and virtually shown in 3D… But not built yet… Why I have not a clue… Maybe you will know as I also have a lot of start up funders and investors in my connections… I would assume it can be adapted if it needs to be to clean river or lake water as well, to purify it to make extremely good drinking water…
I started reading about science and space exploration Apollo missions etc… outside of school curriculums when I was 8 or 9… and though I did not keep up with science so much being more art, have always kept an eye on what is going on and a lot more over the last 10 years again or so… As apart from anything some of my art projects I want to make need a lot of cutting edge technology, another reason why I have added a lot of science people on here, I either need some of your tech or some of your know-how… And want to add others… I do not know how many people know this but Leonardo da Vinci use to consult mathematicians etc… when he did not know the math etc for one of his projects… Not that I think I am Leonardo da Vinci… Though I have never thought inside the box apparently though did not realise though people kept telling me so… Creative imagination ‘fuzzy logic’ etc…
What I find passing strange is I have my artists book in The Tate special archive of artists books, I have had an old friend of and a collaborator of Helmut Newton’s love my fashion photography… Had lots of feed back on it, and people fashion ‘experts’ have told me I am artistic fashion which is the pointy end of fashion… i.e. a the top end and no fashion directors, creative directors, fashion editors have been in touch to commission myself for paid shoots… Now I might be wrong but I doubt there are any other fashion photographers in the world with their artists books in The Tate special archive of artists books… That is without thinking that The Tate has put my artist book in their special archive… and I have informed them that I have another book called ‘100 Art Installations’ of art I have not made yet, but they are not talking to me or offering me a show at The Tate… I am pretty sure that a few world famous artists that I have shown with like Damien HIrst has not got a artists book in The Tate special archive of artists books or did not when I last talked to the director of his gallery The Newport Street gallery… and say Banksy who I have also exhibited with does not and probably never will… O I was talking to the director of Newport Street Gallery because I had dropped and identical book into the Newport Street Gallery on the understanding that it would go to Damien Hirst to look at, it would be returned and nothing would happen to it. Hirst use to say Hello to me off and on before I ever exhibited with him, mutual friends apart from anything… The Newport Street Gallery past the book onto Science Ltd another company of his and I presume toDamien Hirst and it was destroyed… No explanation why or apology or offer of compensation… Now when I was a student and knew a lot of art and cultural critics a number of then even thought my student work was better then any of the YBA’s including Hirst… Strange… Better on every level… So since I was a student I have known I was a world class artists… well according to some and the feedback I have even got from on here would say the same thing… So apart from my ethics and philosophy, I doubt I have any reason to jeopardise anything to do with my future at anytime in my life… As Damien Hirst apart from being one of the most famous artists in the world is merely worth I think £350,000,000 plus… Say for example my sculptor / time based art installation was according to world famous art critics at the time when I was a student far superior to Marc Quinn’s blood head ‘Self’ and Damien Hirst’s 1,000 years… apart from many others by other artists…
Back to an important article that is trying to make the world a better place… Intelligent optimism is crucial to human progress… One of the many brilliant articles by Raya Bidshahri another of my connections on here that I am extremely pleased to be connected with…
“Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genius by the mediocrities.” Oscar Wilde. It was the case with Einstein by many eminent scientist originally, obviously Oscar Wilde why he wrote it and I suspect with many others that are now classed as geniuses. Not that I am saying I am. But according to many people, who are or were some of the most perceptive and brilliant people I have met in art criticism and cultural theory and from the feedback I have had from a few people on here all world renowned in their time or now and many that are not quit so illustrious… I am already an artistic and intellectual genius or so as I said many have told me… Me I never take it seriously but maybe it is time I did as ‘The Good’ of the world have to connect and combine for the bad already have… and the high technology future so many people fear has already happened they just do not realise it yet… It is whether it is controlled by a few people and corporations, or is a diverse and free future for everyone that is at stake now…
“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one…”Edmund Burke
This is something I think everyone should strive towards, this quote by George Bernard Shaw…
“I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” George Bernard Shaw
This is our planet photographed from space, from the International Space Station… stills put together as a video by Michael König. This is our home, our spaceship Earth flying through space… The only home we have at the moment and we are killing it, the ecosystem dies we die, bees die and it would at the moment wipe the human race out… See how beautiful it is, we are the custodians, we should look after our home, our birth place… It is on my blog link at the bottom if anyone has looked or you can watch here… Even if we get to other planets we should look after our birth place… Look how beautiful it is at night with the lights of humanity shining out into space, the Aurora borealis and the lightening at night…
EARTH from Michael König on Vimeo.
Another link on the possibilities of Universal Basic Income and the future and how some experts in the USA think it could add trillions of dollars to the economy… as jobs are lost… which could obviously if correct apply to other countries as well…
https://futurism.com/experts-universal-basic-income-boost-us-economy-staggering-2-5-trillion/
Michio Kaku and his Evolution of Intelligence Bigthink video apart from thinking everyone on the planet should watch it. I also agree with him on this probably being the most dangerous time in a civilisations development, and maybe why we do not see or have not seen other civilisations in our region of the galaxy, which statistically should exist. The Fermi Paradox, though I also think that the Zoo theory is probably the most realistic to put it one way. Though not necessarily how most people think about it. Entangled Particles… I read an article a while ago where someone was theorising that in the future the whole planet will be covered in sensors… ones the size of dust particles… Now rather than little green men visiting the Earth or tinfoil hats etc… Imagine if one or more alien civilisations had sent their AI’s out to find conscious life on other planets… Sound a familiar idea… Then seeded any planet containing maybe just life, not necessarily conscious life with entangled particles that were also sensors… Theoretically with entangled particles they can communicate or act in an identical way even if separated by the entire Universe… Also with a technology if we could even call it that, say a million years old, they could also make AI or rather AI could make itself that was entangled particles and be anywhere in the Universe it wanted instantaneously… And just the sensors say they left on this planet could block any signal whether of light or radio or anything else from being received by the Earth to indicate that anything else was out there… It is very easy to read up on Quantum Entanglement to understand just these possibilities… Now so we have a number of civilisations or at least AI’s from them combing the Galaxy or Universe for life… They find some that never made it to stage 1 civilisation as Michio Kaku talks about, self destructed civilisations, they also find ones that have but are highly dangerous or will become for various reasons and sanitise the planets of that race but leave the rest ofthe bio-system complete… others they wait to see what way they will go… Study, look watch, see what develops… or that is my theory…Not that I would know… of course… Another thing I have always thought though, it would not make a good film… If an alien race or AI came to the Earth, if they wanted to have the planet or just remove the human race they could without any problem… I mean we have things like CRISPR gene editing… An alien race or alien AI could just target humans with whatever technology they have and the whole human race or a part could be broken down to it basic molecules… Just cover the planet in a targeted substance that would break the molecular bonds in human DNA… The idea there would be a resistance or they would want the human race as slaves etc… I mean any civilisation or its AI that could make it here could manipulate Space Time Matter and make whatever they wanted from any molecules anywhere, change one thing to another… What would they need slaves for… Though as I said would not make a good Sci-Fi film… and just my theory…
Then we seem to be doing a good job of self destruction without any world war or outside intervention… 15,000 scientists issue a warning to humanity…
http://bigthink.com/stephen-johnson/15000-scientists-from-around-the-world-issue-warning-to-humanity
When I first studied psychology, it was known that the psychological structure and personality of a person was formed by the time they were 5 years old… I do not think most people are aware of this… I did talk socially to a neuroscience student yesterday and remembered to ask them if this is still valid… They said O Yes… I said why are not more or all people taught this… And people wonder why the world is in the mess it is in today… well many reasons, but this is a contributing factor… By the time I was 5 I was incredibly polite, genuine manners, not for any other reason than it is how I was and brought up to be… Considerate of other people, extremely helpful, honest and loved dinosaurs and reading about them as well as fossils, trilobites in particular, and strangely in many ways I have not changed since as that was my basic psychological structure and character… And since I had no major traumas growing up or generally in life the is no reason for it to change… I alway have loved passing on real authenticated information to other people and trying to help them expand their horizons, in fact I got into trouble for that in junior school when I was 10years old. Informing the rest of my class about dinosaurs, fossils, ancient Greek and Egyptian history and myths… As well as about the Apollo missions and science… O the reason I got into trouble, well my classmates use ot really listen to me, were fascinated by what I said, and I was a terrible distraction for them and their academic work… As my Headmistress told me non to gently ‘they have to study and work hard to learn’ etc… ‘They are not like you that can just do exams and pass them with the highest marks in the class or nearly always…’ I obviously felt terrible about this and stopped talking to them about all the wonders I leant reading books outside school… Though I still have such wonder for things and still want to pass on what I know and learn so other people can see the wonder of life and existence… I think children should grow like a flower opening to the sun in the morning, and as an adult carry on that odyssey of knowledge and thought… and have fluid brains, or a psychologist or neuroscientists would call it very high brain plasticity or neuroplasticity… to assimilate new information not to past tests but actually to really absorb information and restructure the brain with the knowledge that is taken in…
This is another Michio Kaku on string theory, his particular expertise, though he has many… About harmony, vibrations etc…
http://bigthink.com/videos/the-universe-is-a-symphony-of-vibrating-strings-2
This is one of my poems / poetic text from my poetry book, written in 2011 well that is what this file says I would have check, to see if it was not earlier…
The Song the Universe Sings
Imagine a song, or music, a symphony,
a symphony of existence, a music of being,
a dance of the stars, the planets, atoms,
each with a resonance, a note, a musical note,
each oscillating and singing, singing a song,
singing a song of being,
patterns coalesce then dissolve, a fluidity,
things of things, shape form colour sound thought,
thought as a note, ideas imagination each with a part in a song,
a symphony of joy an exuberance of being,
something a deaf Beethoven heard,
Bach with his cello and clavichord,
Copernicus, Galileo, Newton,
a dance of the stars, a music of matter,
It caught Leonardo´s ear,
and broke Van Gogh’s heart with its poignant beauty,
didn’t they all hear a part,
the smallest part of the symphony,
the song the universe plays,
music and math isn’t that what Einstein understood,
the dance of the stars and atoms.
A vast symphony that matter makes,
impartial indifferent the universe sings,
repetitious and random fluid liquid notes,
screaming whispering shouting talking,
matter dense-matter dark-matter anti-matter,
an exuberant joy of being,
it’s in the brush strokes of a painting,
the numbers of math,
the chisel marks of a sculpture, the words on a page,
the smallest fraction of the music the universe sings.
A song of dreams and imagination,
the moon and the sun, of oceans and rivers,
if you listen.
A song a music to resonate deep in your chest,
a music in the pulse of your blood,
a music to lift your heart and thought, open your mind.
The whisper of grains of sand, a child’s call, a mothers love,
a lovers kiss, the beat of a heart, a butterflies wings,
cicadas at night, the rumble of thunder,
a beautiful song, a savage music,
to rip you apart and make you whole,
the dance of the stars, the song the universe sings…
The Song the Universe Sings Russell Hand 2011 © ® All Right Reserved for the whole articles.
Bring your children up to think not believe…
To raise human consciousness, thought knowledge and critical thought… So people love life, existence and being… Cooperate to make the world and existence the best it can be for as many people as possible… To expand to other planets, as Elon Musk is well aware of, so all our eggs are not in one basket… To not be scared of life but embrace it as the wonder it is… That is what so many through time have dedicated their life too… And been killed for it like Alexander the Great, Hypatia and so many others… Prometheus in myth stole fire from the gods so humans could have fire and light… Literary have fire and light, but also the light and passion for knowledge… To improve the human condition and life… Not as a sacrifice but as a gift… Aristotle got somethings wrong as we all have through time… But the general ethos has always been towards what Plato calls The Good… Not a god or gods but The Good and potential in all… Some people might be born in Plato’s sun, with thought and talent… But even the ones that are strive and struggle everyday to be better people, a better person than they were the day before… A more tolerate, articulate,, thoughtful caring and knowledgeable person… To combine to help raise everyones consciousness… The George Bernard Shaw quote I love is what should be… As we all should be in love with the world of ideas, thoughts, knowledge, not ‘ourselves’ in a narcissistic, vain, egotistical, arrogant way… Well should have a more ‘beautiful mind’ tomorrow than we did today… That is the celebration of life and existence… to have fluid minds that open the world up and learn new things… From the myth of Prometheus to the person that the myth is based on, who once learned how to make fire… not just capture it from lightning… A process of evolution that has been going on for millions of year… and whether physically or mentally should and will continue… as it should…
As I have mentioned before the psychological structure of a human being is formed by the time they are 5 years old, but even siblings raised the same way and sharing much of the same DNA can vary drastically, depending on what genes are turned on and what are turned off. You can have identical twins, with almost identical DNA one can be born a psychopath, or a sociopath and one can be born incredibly well balanced and have no or hardly any psychological defects… O psychopathic, sociopathic pathological etc.. personalities are born, not developed… Yes you get babies and many more than people realise that are psychopaths… etc… What I find amazing is much of this basic psychology I read at 17 years old. Some is no longer valid from then but much is, and obviously I have read much more since and still do. Now say people having children, I mean if I was I would find out as much as possible, not just about say allergies, but psychological structures, child psychology, the best ways to rear a child and in fact learn how to be a parent, as in training, not trial and error. Especially with all that we know now, including neuroscience. Why of the reasons I said all children should do mindfulness and Tai Chi as early as possible… Tai Chi is meditation in motion more much more than a martial art, and connects the mind and body. Mindfulness should open the mind, like a flower to the morning sun and help the mind be more fluid. So that it can process and assimilate / absorb new information, not memorise it but actually absorb it so it becomes knowledge that is not only retained but both expands and restructures the brain and it neurones. Hence a brain with high plasticity if mindfulness and Thai Chi was taught as said as early as possible. Though probably not its ‘foundation’ structure, but the right process would mediate and mitigate extreme unbalanced and sometimes dangerous psychological structures.
This an article about what the future or one of them could be… Interesting… No privacy, no ownership, nothing owned literary and virtually everything is free… Though when it comes to privacy even now that is an illusion… Which is not like this future vision where there is no need or wish for privacy because everything works so well… Where the facilities one needs to make a positive contribution for humanity and the planet are made available as and what is needed…
https://futurism.com/welcome-2030-nothing-privacy-life-better/
As they say at the end of the article it is not a utopia or dream of the future… It is a possible future for better or worse with the technology… It depends if it is a controlled future by a few people or corporations or a free future… Also what it does not make clear is that some people will need much greater facilities for their work than others… If you think about some of the technological advancements even AI will have humans working with it, by AI I mean fully conscious AI or AGI as people now refer to it… People may think this is impossible but it is not… Neuroscience is already finding there are different levels of ‘consciousness’ in various animals on the planet not just humans… AI would just be another much higher level of consciousness… Then through the history of the human race some have had a much higher level of consciousness and intelligence than others… The whole notion of ‘genius’ or people with exceptional abilities have made this very clear… Whether one would class them as anomalies as they are rare in a population, but Aristotle, Archimedes, Hypatia, Alexander the Great, Plato, Leonardo da Vinci, Homer, Newton, Faraday, Tesla, Marie Curie, Beethoven, Socrates, Bach, MichelAngelo, Einstein… etc… why their names are remembered thousands of years later in some cases… People not just brilliant for their science maths art etc… but also highly creative, imaginative and producers of original thought… And in a good future… Or a future that Plato’s idea of The Good is ascendent… A time when most people have left Plato’s Cave and learned to live in the Sun… A time when humans can learn to access their full potential or make a start too… With or without technology… As humans have far to go within themselves… As well as the stars which is also our future in a good future… Collaborating, cooperating, working together for the best of each other and to bring the best out of each other…
“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one…” Edmund Burke
Though now when bad people, both men and women, combine, the good, both men and women must associate; else they will fall one by one…
On woman, girls and how empowering them as full equals to men in every sense will help the world… Rather than some of the strange things people and organisations have been doing… I give you the General-Secretary of Unesco Irina Bokova… After all best a woman says this and explains as she does very intelligently and articulately… And some want her to be the next General-Secretary of the United Nations… Which listening to her I can understand…
http://bigthink.com/videos/irina-bokova-on-girls-education-eradicating-poverty
Then an article by Venessa Bates Ramirez; ‘Why Empowering Women is the Best Way to Solve Climate Change’
And one more by a woman Kate Raworth and her ‘doughnut Economics’ theory… Kate Raworth is a senior visiting associate researcher at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute… A TEDx Talk…
And then another TED talk by Rutger Bregman…
Then so much has been written and so much said through the history of the human race, including these rather brilliant links and video I have put here… and more to come… But as Einstein said…
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” Albert Einstein
And maybe the one from Bertrand Russell that someone sent me the other day, being a wonderful person… Though I did already know, as I do much of his writing / books among many other writers, thinkers, poets, fiction writers etc…
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” Bertrand Russell
Then something about people calling out ‘Odysseus’ at the old harbour on Mykonos Island in Greece to me, when I was waiting for a ferry to leave… and yes that did really happen… Odysseus according to the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer was the wisest and most just man among mortals… thought that by the gods of ancient Greece and mortals… And though I am not always wise I am just… Not that I think I am Odysseus, but interesting that they called that out to me along with the other rather flattering word… Well both were…
What I think is a funny and beautiful story about my parents and myself from my childhood…
I am 12 years old… My parents tell me I am very mature for my age… ‘I am thinking I am only 12’… My parents say to me we trust you… ‘I am thinking I am only 12’ My parents tell me they think I am very self responsible… ‘I am thinking I am only 12’… My parents tell me I can do what I think is OK… ‘I am thinking I am only 12’…. My parents tell me they trust me to go where I want… ‘I am thinking I am only 12’… My parents tell me we know you will not disappoint us… ‘I am thinking I am only 12’… I started going out clubbing and drinking when I was 14, locally, then clubbing in amazing small clubs in Soho in central London when I am 16… People always thought I looked older, when I was 15… more like 20 or 22… My parents brought me up to not be scared of the world… and to enjoy living… I still try to be a better person everyday and also not to disappoint their memory as they are both dead now…
Now Elon Musk and his Mars colony idea is not alone… or Joe Brewer etc… With contingency plans in case of a collapse, or catastrophe hitting civilisation… As this article says many of the richest people in the USA have their contingency plans…
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich
Though it is not just super rich Americans but the super rich generally world wide, and of course all governments… And as I said Elon Musk with the Mars colony… and various others…
About abstract art, particularly Rothko, or the Rothko room at The Tate… and a piece of Susan Sontag…
Chelsea school of art;
I didn’t understand abstract painting when I went there, and talking to several people, one of the women there, another student, asked me to go to the Tate with her, I say the Tate because then there was only one, before the Tate modern, which is now called The Tate Britain, which is also The Tate that my artist book, in the Library Britain in their special archive of artists books . She took me to the Rothko room, it was there originally and actually I think it worked better there, and it might be I prefer it there because it is where I first saw and began to understand it. Anyway, we sit and talk and then in silence for hours, until we are totally saturated by the paintings, until I begin to understand the work, she asks me something like do you understand it now, and I said something like, I think so, or I begin too. And we left. I was a case of not just allowing the works to saturate one, but to surrender to the work… to give one self up to the work, give up preconceptions and interpretation, to give ones self to the work and allow it to ‘talk’ to you…
“Of course, I don’t mean interpretation in the broadest sense, the sense in which Nietzsche (rightly) says, “There are no facts, only interpretations.” By interpretation, I mean here a conscious act of the mind which illustrates a certain code, certain “rules” of interpretation. Directed to art, interpretation means plucking a set of elements (the X, the Y, the Z, and so forth) from the whole work. The task of interpretation is virtually one of translation. The interpreter says, Look, don’t you see that X is really—or, really means—A? That Y is really B? That Z is really C? What situation could prompt this curious project for transforming a text? History gives us the materials for an answer. Interpretation first appears in the culture of late classical antiquity, when the power and credibility of myth had been broken by the “realistic” view of the world introduced by scientific enlightenment. Once the question that haunts post-mythic consciousness—that of the seemliness of religious symbols—had been asked, the ancient texts were, in their pristine form, no longer acceptable. Then interpretation was summoned, to reconcile the ancient texts to “modern” demands. ”Excerpt From: Susan Sontag. “ From the essay ‘Against Interpretation’ Against Interpretation and Other Essays (Penguin Modern Classics).”
Then one could liken the engagement with art or new knowledge to what Roland Barthes talks about as the ‘little death’ which though in relation to sex, is about a surrender of the self to the actual experience.
Lovely woman, though I never spoke to her as much as a lot of the others. Then that is another thing I remember about the Chelsea school of art, all of us helping each other in the ways we could.
And if there is a painting art installation, though it wouldn’t have been called that when Rothko did the paintings, I think the Rothko room the way it was set up at The Tate, now Tate Britain and still at the Tate Modern, would be a painting art installation, surrounded, immersed, saturated by his paintings. Though when we went there from Chelsea, it was just the two of us in the room most of the time and quiet. I don’t know if you would be able now get the same experience, since the few times I have been there, The Tate Modern is very busy.
This is a quote from Susan Sontag, that is relevant to this idea, though I read Susan Sontag later after my time at Chelsea and the Rothko room;
Susan Sontag on the difference between erotica and pornography
“Approving or disapproving morally of what a work of art “says” is just as extraneous as becoming sexually excited by a work of art. (Both are, of course, very common.) And the reasons urged against the propriety and relevance of one apply as well to the other. Indeed, in this notion of annihilation of the subject we have perhaps the only serious criterion for distinguishing between erotic literature or films or paintings which are art and those which (for want of a better word) one has to call pornography. Pornography has a “content” and is designed to make us connect (with disgust, desire) with that content. It is a substitute for life. But art does not excite, or, if it does, the excitation is appeased, within the terms of the aesthetic experience. All great art induces contemplation, a dynamic contemplation. However much the reader or listener or spectator is aroused by a provisional identification of what is in the work of art with real life, his ultimate reaction — so far as he is reacting to the work as a work of art — must be detached, restful, contemplative, emotionally free, beyond indignation and approval. It is interesting that Genet has recently said that he now thinks that if his books arouse readers sexually, “they’re badly written, because the poetic emotion should be so strong that no reader is moved sexually. Insofar as my books are pornographic, I don’t reject them. I simply say that I lacked grace.” Quote from ‘On style’ (1963) Susan Sontag
I was thinking the same way as engaging with the Rothko room, not only to do with art, but when I wander in ruins, or in fact knowledge, well I am talking about the historical sites of the world, since I love history and myths, Greece especially, but Egypt as well, which I started reading outside of school when I was 7 years old or so, and many others over time. They saturate me as I wander through them, and it’s almost like they come to life, or I can feel the past, empathy, sympathy. Then that is probably why I am or was suppose to be very good at ‘reading’ art, other peoples art, though my own as well, but that is more difficult. It’s not just all the theory, it’s the feel for things as well, empathetic, sympathetic, towards art, places, people, events. I suppose in a way an understanding of things. People though, understanding people is a lot more difficult. Then maybe why with art or cultural theorists and art critics, I use to get on with some and not others. As it’s not just knowing the theory but having an empathy, a feel for it, not memorising theory, but understanding it, absorbing it, so it becomes part of the structure of ones brain. Talking to a neuroscientist or 2 they have said I have very high ‘brain plasticity’ or as I have always thought about it, having a fluid mind.
Then on personal observation, I have had sex with a number of women that wanted to have sex with me, and in to Roland Barthes’ ‘little death’ and pornography… and a surrender of the self, to the experience and one could term it in ‘the realm of the senses’. One thing I have noticed, that the women that told me they had watched a lt of pornography and related to sex through their pornographic ‘viewing’ seem to ‘perform sex’ as a performance, where as women that did not watch so much pornography or any, and / or did not relate their ‘viewing’ of pornography to the sexual act… were much more able to surrender themselves to the experience and enjoy it… where 2 people surrender themselves to each other and the sexual encounter and both loose themselves in the realm of the senses and mutually pleasure each other… As good sex should be… a mutual pleasure and a desire to want to be with each other… apart from Roland Barthes and his notion of ‘the little death’ there is another quote from Susan Sontag that is highly relevant… and again does not just relate to sex, but an intellectual eroticism, the enjoyment of life in all its beautiful varied, diverse aspects, and the ‘beauty of being’…
“What pornographic literature does is precisely to drive a wedge between one’s existence as a full human being and one’s existence as a sexual being—while in ordinary life a healthy person is one who prevents such a gap from opening up. Normally we don’t experience, at least don’t want to experience, our sexual fulfillment as distinct from or opposed to our personal fulfillment. But perhaps in part they are distinct, whether we like it or not.” Susan Sontag have to check with my book where this quote is from…
I should mention that I have never watched pornography as such or a little bit, and have never found it erotic or sexually stimulating, partly due to watching other people does nothing for me… and obviously being with a living breathing intelligent woman that wants to be with one, is the best aphrodisiac… and form of intellectual eroticism… Which bring me to a really interesting article on ancient Greek art and the intellectual eroticism and idea for being… as opposed to those they thought of as ‘barbarians’… Why Greek sculptures have small penises as opposed to say Etruscan that have ones bigger in some cases than the male figure… It also explains, which I never understood that women are continually harassed by men… as I was told by several art models coming to work with me… and another reason I always offered them a lift home in my car… Then some women seem to like it but many do not… And the other day I was talking to 3 women who were giving me cigarettes who when I said, ‘Most men need a good kick in the balls’ all burst out laughing and agreed…
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-ancient-greek-sculptures-small-penises
Now a few other things to do with this… At school lots of guys liked to try to keep themselves slightly engorged, their penises that is. A number of woman that have talked to me through life and do not understand what has happened in their relationships… I have said this to them… ‘Let me guess they chased you, romanced you etc… and then 6 moths or a year later, they are sitting on the sofa having a beer, wine or cup of tea… asking where their dinner is and have you washed their clothes…’ They have replied “How did you know ?” I know men and their bullshit… Got a woman by any means and then treats them probably how they treated their mothers… Or expect their girlfriends or wives to be their mothers… Now on a personal note to do with the ancient Greeks, the Hellenes of the classical age and their attitude to penis size on their sculptures and attitude towards sex… It was not that they had smaller penises than other races… But had an intellectual eroticism towards sex… and thought that men that went around semi-engorged were barbarians… Now one can have the most beautiful stunning women dry humping you… which I have, on my back with a stunningly beautiful woman jumping on top of me and rubbing against me, turned her on, just made me sore… but does not want to have sex until she is sure you are the one… and it will not turn one on at all… Where as someone maybe not quite as beautiful but wants to rip ones clothes off and you find them attractive and into the realm of the senses… for both of you… Yes I have experienced this in real life… Also I have had sex been in relationships with women that have before and after had sex with men with 10″ penises or 8″ penises that are well above average… But they much preferred having sex with me and found me much more erotic… Though one of my loony ex’s did use to text me saying I had a tiny penis, though to the best of my knowledge I am average… As she was sleeping with a man afterwards that had a 10″ penis… She did eventually apologised when she realised that he had a rather unusually large penis… Though has done other things since to mess my life up, because as she said; “You hurt me and deserve all this”… Though she dumped me… She meant hurt emotionally… by the way… Then I joked with a woman the other day… Saying guys buy a BMW or Ferrari or maybe just rent one for a while and seem to think they have larger penises, which she agreed with and laughed so much about… And talking about sex, penises or vagina is neither disgusting, dirty or obscene… Unless one has a problem with life or being human…
Something from the Greek Island of Delos and a story from Crete… On Delos which was the holist island of ancient Greece, where many temples were built and the seer lived if I remember rightly. The Oracle of Delphi, who was consulted by Greek kings and the Senate of Athens… Spoke of Delos… There is a stone plaque dating to antiquity… The classical period of ancient Greece and before… It says something like… “Could the pig farmers not let their pigs shit on the temple steps and could people not urinate in the public drinking well”… And a story that is true from when I was on Crete in 2008,… I was staying at a seaside town, in a house, was there for about 6 weeks… Now I use to eat and drink in many bars and restaurants, as well as cooking for myself in the house… One evening I in a Taverna, having a a late supper… surrounded by lots of Greeks with all their families… And 3 vehicles drove into town, a pick up and 2 cars… with loud exhausts and started skidding around the junction near the taverna and using the street to sort of drag race or what they thought was… All the Greeks apart from the very young children turned around and virtually all together said “Malakas” which really made me laugh as I knew what it meant… After the stupid performance by the malakas… a older Greek man turned around ot me and apologised… I said not to I know what malaka means and thought it was funny and perfect to describe them… He said no not that, I am apologising for the malakas… They come from up in the mountains and an embarrassment, especially in front of guests to the island from other countries, and you are a good guest, and I am sorry you saw that… That is not us. I said I realise that you have always treated me very well here… Every time I have been on Crete… You are good people… The Greeks I have often found to be incredibly nice, tolerant of other people and rather ‘stoic’… Then that would not be too surprising as the stoic philosophy they did invent… among others… and do seem to have a very good sense of humour as a race… Another thing that is very interesting I read in an artice recently is, scientists managed to extract DNA from some Mycenaean bodies, the Mycenaean period was pre-classical Greece the time Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey were set… and compared it to modern Greek DNA… The modern Greeks were a 90% to a 95% match… from what I can remember, so the modern Greeks are the direct descendants of the Mycenaean Greeks and the Minoan Greeks as well as the classical Greeks and the Hellenes… It is also suspected that they were the ‘Sea People’ mentioned in ancient Egyptian writing, and that they were as the sea people, some were eventually employed as mercenaries by the Egyptians in there territories including what is modern day Lebanon, Israel and various others, and that the Danites were in fact the sea people mercenaries… Greeks which would be interesting as Samson was a Danite and often compered to Hercules… Similar exploits… and physical strength… A recent Danite city was excavated in Israel, the archeology, artefacts etc… were of Greek origin and or similar manufacture… And to be honest I have as I have said earlier been reading of ancient Greece, their history and myths, and love the Greek islands… one of my favourite places on the planet Earth… To walk among the descendants of Homer, Plato, Archimedes, Aristotle, Hypatia though an Egyptian Greek… etc.. Just makes it all the more wonderful… And as for them and others to call out to me ‘Odysseus’ amazing…
The article about modern Greek DNA, and how close it is to Mycenaean and Minoan DNA…
Now I have mentioned lots of things, and I have mentioned this before to a number of new technologies people a book that I read just after it was published… By in my opinion one of th greatest thinkers of his time… The book The Inhuman: Reflections on Time by Jean-Francios Lyotard… Now I read this book just after it was published in English, which was 1992… It talks about the past the present and the future.. It also I think it is one, that explains that there is nothing intrinsic about being human, except DNA what genes are turned on and what are turned off basic psychological structure. It explains that people have to be taught language, perception, thought, and just about anything else… It also talks about AI artificial intelligence… I presume most people would agree about being taught language… Knowing a language and teaching it to their children, like they teach many things including their biases… Thought should be taught properly but most people are never taught how to think in the sense that many would understand… Nor do they acquire the skill, critical thought etc… Another thing I find interesting, is have any of you ever looked at my art installation ‘Smiths Empire’, it is about the past present when it was made and the future… The future we now find ourselves in… I conceived it in 1991 and made it between 1992-1993… It is why a lot of people thought I was brilliant, including world famous art critics and cultural theorists… It is how good I am, artist / philosopher is why my artists book is in The Tate special archive of artists books.. Not just because of ‘Smiths Empire’ but all examples of my art, writing, photography and thought that is in my artists book… I am not being arrogant or rude… Just honest… Now I could be very angry because I have had people stopping me being able to work on my projects since I was a student… and it is still going on… By idiots… I have work about growing up and how children should, the wonder of life and some about just before dying… One is called ‘The Bridge of Lost Dreams and Forgotten Desires’ which is about how many had dreams when they were young and then forgot them and then realise they are going to die soon, remember them and realise they will never do them… Whatever it was, walking in a desert… driving through Paris in the rain in a convertible with the top down… Backpacking around the Mediterranean when young rather than older… Why when I did with a friend, Peter, so many people helped us… because we were doing something that people dream about doing at 18 or 19 or 20 but never do… and never do it the way we did… and it was irrelevant that we were not , jewish or muslim or christian they loved us for who we were and what we were doing… and helped us… Now someone called J G Ballard wrote 2 books in the 1960’s I first read when I was about 20 years old… one is called ‘The Drought’ and one is called ‘The Drowned World’ both about ecological disasters that are possible… And when I was 12 or 14 I read as Elon Musk has ‘The Foundation Trilogy’ among many other books… Though think he read it at 10 or so… Not that I have met him but should… In fact I have partial booklist here most of which I had read by the time I was 16 and many more than once… I have read I do not know how many books…
http://russellhand.com/Russell-Hand.com/Booklist.html
In fact I was incredibly saddened to hear Ursula Le Guin died recently a incredibly brilliant writer… And only found out the other day that another one of those brilliant minds died the other day… Stephen Hawking…
My friend Peter coming off the ferry across the Nile on our way to the Valley of the Kings… photographed by myself… Well thought you might be interested in seeing the friend I travelled with around the Mediterranean backpacking that first time… as the one of him following in the Sahara you can not see him so well…We had driven around France and into Italy, well Pete was driving, when we were 17.
And myself in case you were curious, in The Golan Heights near no mans land and the border with Syria, though also classed as occupied territory…
And a shot taken on Pete’s camera earlier in our travels… On Mykonos… Pete on the left, Swedish couple next then me in the middle and 2 English women I seem to remember on the right… Who is taking the photograph, actually cannot remember…
Watched a video article / talk by a psychologist the other day that says people that find each other attractive tend to be of the same attractiveness… Which sounds about right… Then if that is the case and with the women that have found me attractive or hit on me or I have been in relationships with and loved me… That is quite amazing in some ways… As I always think I am just me… But 1 have had 2 world famous pop stars… I cannot remember how many fashion models, which include some stunningly beautiful ones… some actresses, and generally assorted beautiful intelligent women hit on me in life… Quite a considerable number… and probably much more than I realise… also I do like talking and think of talking as just that… Then I have known women that have told me, they got burned by someone like me so then went out with someone a lot less attractive than them, thinking it would work out better… Thought them saying someone like me was a bit unfair as I have generally called wonderful by women I am in relationships with… until it does not work out, then they seem to prefer the idea of me dead or never in a relationship with someone else… Not all my ex’s hopefully but definitely some… Bit sad really… I always hope my ex’s are happy and doing well… after all I do still care about them… Why would I not I loved them… Not being arrogant just honest… Then these days with social media probably made money out of trying to fuck up my life and lying about me… and get others too…
Then did not Orwell put it simply and succinctly…
“In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” George Orwell
I am truthful and honest among other things… and if people do not want the truth they should not lie…
Then when it comes to attractiveness most people recognise what they are and level of attractiveness… Can see that some people are more attractive, but that is usually pretty people… which tends to be pretty bland… Beauty or beautiful people… are not alway seen as such… some are some are not… why say you can have a stunningly beautiful woman with a man and many people do not understand… that the man is actually beautiful as well… As well as being called ‘Odysseus’ at Mykonos old harbour… They did also call ‘Beauty’ to me as well… and considering the amount of beautiful, really real beautiful women that have hit on me without ever talking to me… There must be something in it… But then surface beauty without content and internal beauty is is a pretty parcel nicely wrapped up but when you open your present you find the box is empty…
Machiavelli…
“Albeit the jealous temper of mankind, ever more disposed to censure than to praise the work of others, has constantly made the pursuit of new methods and systems no less perilous than the search after unknown lands and seas; nevertheless, prompted by that desire which nature has implanted in me, fearlessly to undertake whatsoever I think offers a common benefit to all, I enter on a path which, being hitherto untrodden by any, though it involve me in trouble and fatigue, may yet win me thanks from those who judge my efforts in a friendly spirit. And although my feeble discernment, my slender experience of current affairs, and imperfect knowledge of ancient events, render these efforts of mine defective and of no great utility, they may at least open the way to some other, who, with better parts and sounder reasoning and judgment, shall carry out my design; whereby, if I gain no credit, at all events I ought to incur no blame.” Niccolò Machiavelli
The last quote in my artists book in The Tate special archive of artists books… is…
“Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend” Albert Camus
As I always come in peace… and friendship…
One can talk to someone over years and know something that they do not know, but they might find a vital piece of information… but how would you know that… After all how does one know what one knows that some one else does not, and or of what importance it might be to them or other people… Though I do not know much as far as I am concerned, I acquire more knowledge as a matter of course everyday… Though do not know what I know that other people do not…
Then I have been talking with all different kinds of people for much of my life… before Chelsea school of art and after… O Chelsea… well this…
My student card from The Chelsea School of Art… or what is left of it… and a funny photograph of me, well I think so… Then I have never photographed well… and look different in different photographs… Though my fellow students, some, did use to say it was like the sun coming into the room when I walked in… Why I do not know…
A piece of writing by myself that is in my artists book that is in The Tate special archive of artists book…
“Didn’t we dream of some kind of acceleration of the mind, where the mind accelerated & the world slowed. Now we have to live in a world where culture is accelerated to the point meaningless, constant repetitious cycles ever faster, and people wonder why they are lost, why they struggle to make meaning out of meaningless…” Russell Hand
Then we live in a world well people think they know things where they actually know very little or virtually nothing… or as this says so succinctly… and though it says he, it also applies to she…
“He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything…” George Bernard Shaw
Which is very sad really… I mean me, I know I know very little… and can always learn more…
Now one thing I am not sure people know generally is Leonardo da Vinci, when he needed to know some mathematics he did not know went to see a mathematician, also if he needed to know something about say fluids, he would go talk to an alchemist, basically if he did not have the specialist knowledge he needed he would go, find it and ask… Which brings me to this rather interesting article… and fuzzy logic…
https://www.sciencealert.com/creative-people-could-just-have-better-connected-brains
And this one is rather fascinating when it comes to consciousness…
On creativeness, imagination, thought, art, ideas. I have mentioned in various places online at different times technical skill is acquirable, many just take and patients if one is needed for a particular project I can acquire it… On art and technical skill this is a very interesting piece… AI algorithm, 3-D printing and oil paint… But it is not creative it is copying though producing a ‘new’ Rembrandt !… Once someone has done something ‘original’ which is much rarer then most people think, in fact as rare as original thought… it is easy to do something in the style of say Carravaggio or any painter once they have done their original piece… But that does not make it art, merely a copy and / or in the style of… As people that say that are forgers or copyists, rather than people who do the same and call themselves artists… Art is about ideas, even Renaissance art was… why people like Dürer wrote 5 books on theory / ideas of aesthetics and art…
https://futurism.com/classic-rembrandt-painting-recreated-machine-learning-algorithm/
Someone mentioned the ‘Abyss’ to me the other day… They meant the psychological ‘Abyss’ existentialist alienation… Now as soon as a human being realises it is separate from their mother they are alienated… Separate / alienated / alone / singular… They become ‘aware’ they are an individual. Some continue this alienation through life… What percentage of the entire human race I do not think anyone knows… Now one of the wonders of existence is that we are all connected not just with each other, the entire human race, but with every living thing on the planet… quite literary… We share DNA with everything that lives… in varying percentages, a blade of grass, a seagull gliding over head, a raven, a fish, ones pet dig or cat etc… Everything, so we are at once alienated, the ‘Abyss’ or ‘Void’ yawns and connected with everything that lives… separate and not… Now there is a choice here one anyone can make… Whether to be connected with everything that lives and grows or whether to choose the ‘Abyss’ and ‘alienation’, though that choice may vary in the same person from time to time… or to stand with a foot in the void and everything… split between two… and the abrasion of either choosing the ‘Abyss’ alienation or standing astride or standing in the ‘Sun’ Plato’s idea of the ‘Sun’ and everything, totally connected to everything… To stand in the full glare of the sun rather than Plato’s Cave or the Entrance astride both the ‘Abyss and the Sun’… To stand or exist in the Sun is maybe the most difficult and of all choices for many reasons… Even to be aware one might stand on the brink of the ‘Abyss’ or entirely in it… one would have to be aware there is another kind of way of being and existing… A higher level of consciousness, thought, being… Very few people are ‘born’ in Plato’s Sun… But some are… It is they that through time have raise human civilisation… and taught others how to at least stand astride both forms of existence… But as well as every human being sharing DNA with every other living thing on the planet… We all are made up of ‘stardust’ quite literary every living human being has stardust as part of their intrinsic physical nature… Just to illustrate the point another link…
We are connected with everything living thing on Earth and even the stars… Is that not a wonder…
It is interesting just how ignorant people are… some seem to think a lot of this article is opinion as such… even with the links corroborating what I am talking about… Or that it is insane or I am… When actually I am perfectly sane, neither on drugs or drunk… One of the things is that I really have lead the life that I talk about, known the people and events I talk about… and have not just the theory but the intellect and fluid mind to absorb and process the information… And because most people do not lead anything other than rather normal lives… Seem to think everyone thinks the same, lives the same kind of lives, interacts with existence the same way… Which causes so many problems not just in the world but raising or even trying to human consciousness… The seem to think without knowing virtually anything that they have reached the pinnacle of existence, experience and being… I could mention I use to see and say Hi to Brian May, the guitarist out of ‘Queen’ and his wife Anita Dobson… And most would think ‘O of course you did… Actually he and Anita use to regularly hang out at the bar at The Riverside Studios… in 1999 2000… Perfectly true and though I doubt if they would remember, we did use to see each other regularly there, smile and say hello to each other… Then since I use to go to most of the theatre openings, gallery openings, shows, dance performances at The Riverside Studios I use to meet and talk to actors / actresses that performed there who were with The Royal Shakespeare Company… Also use to act for television and film… and many others… See most people have no idea about the arts… and if one is invited to things… Gill the first woman I lived with worked after a time at Riverside Studios in the press office, so not only was I invited it was her job and the other people in the press office to interact and talk to the performers on press nights… Which generally meant as I was hanging around quite a lot of people use to come up to me and talk… Baby Spice in 1998 though that was slightly different… though an amazing story… Then many years later at a opening I was at at The Serpentine Gallery Helen Miriam was walking around with some people and nodded and smiled as she walked past me… That was sometime in the 2000’s… All pretty normal for my life when I use to go to a lot of openings and for whatever reason people use to talk to me or smile at me at them… Then most a little later became more corporate, and did not have the same feel… Corporate sponsorship… corporate people… Less arts and media people at openings… Last few Serpentine Gallery openings I went to in the late 2000’s, the proper private views by invite only, were not the same… people with money rather than… artists so much except ones that were showing… not the actors and even the fashion people that use to be at them… Then that is just one of the many things that changed with funding changing in the arts and corporations sponsorship taking over, or the change of corporations and how the worked within culture/s… Then that back in 1999/ 2000 was back before I returned to art school… But then even sitting in a coffee shop where I am, I talk to attractive women, that run their own charities, are very good architects, computer scientists that work with among others NASA, Kate a woman in her sixties who is so full of energy and enthusiasm for life and the future, an editor, writer, mentor, coached someone for the TED talks, public speaker and much more… Neuroscientists, actors, dancers… etc… In fact one actor / actress, women who has been in Netflix production said she had never met another actor / actress in here then had 3 sitting next to her… I said well I know at least 2 others I talk to a man and a woman… Woman has been on TV etc… and the man got his first stage role after I met him… A philosophy lecturer on sabbatical finishing a section / chapter of a book for the Cambridge University… And lots of other interesting people and that is sitting in a semi-suburban coffee shop in London, let alone some of the openings I use to go too many years ago… Though as I said they are not the same now…
And to be honest I have never been a ‘celebrity fan’ person or anything else, just an artist who enjoys talking to interesting people… and they seem to enjoy talking to me… Just my life… Just me…
Then since I have been reading about dinosaurs and fossils since I was 5 years old… I also apparently have a very different concept of time to most people… I think in 100’s of millions years in the past and sort of a long way into the future, trajectory of culture, patterns through history that allow one to work out projections of possible futures, theory, critical thought etc…
I am a stranger in a strange land, struggling to get home, but then home is not what one thinks it is and is not there when one arrives… it seems to be the city of illusion… except of course my home is everywhere… My home is this Planet Earth, Gaia, hurtling through space, time and matter… Singing its own song and vibrating with the universe… and of course 2 references in there to books I read when very young…
Talking to a woman the other day, a biomedical university student just finishing university, I was surprised that she turned round and said “Can I quote you on that ?” Natasha, as that was who it was, was referring to me saying; ‘Of course humans emit a eltromagnetic field’ in fact all living things do… This has been known for a long time and that other electro-magnetic fields can interfere with human ones… There have been many articles on why living near electric sub-stations or overhead high voltage power cables is not healthy. some people also say ‘ley-lines’ can be good or bad to live near depending on what kind, frequencies… It has been argued that ‘ley lines’ are electro-magnetic or gravitational variations, that they are produced by areas that are ‘fault’ lines similar to faults in the tectonic plates, lines of variance in the electro-magnetic field or gravitational field… Others have postulated that they are energy lines for the planet, Gaia so it can ‘breath’, and that interfering or breaking them can ‘damage’ the ‘health’ of this planet Earth, Gaia… and that the Earth, Gaia is in fact a living breathing organism with all life being part of it… String theory which says all things ‘vibrate’ at different frequencies, by all things, I mean space time matter in the whole universe, like the strings on a violin or cello… Which would indicate that not just people by everything on the planet and the planet itself has its own frequencies, so not only are we connected to every living thing by DNA, but also electromagnetic fields and frequencies… Their is actually an page on the wikipedia on bioelectromagnetics; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioelectromagnetics
Neuroscientists are currently learning more and more about how the brain and body ‘work’ using the latest scanning technologies, and can now view neuron activity in the brain when different stimuli are provided, also for the body, as they interact in a much more complex way than was originally thought… One could theorise that variation in ‘frequency’ their electromagnetic field could cause different problems in people, physical or mental illnesses, and a human vibrating near optimum would be much healthier and their electromagnetic field would be more complete… Some of this might sound ‘mystic’ but it is one of the things about exponential advances in new technologies, how they are applied and thought… Why so many neuroscientists, a neuroscientist is someone that has usually studied psychology and is a scientist as well who uses technologies to scan, monitor and measure the body and brain, as I was saying why so many neuroscientists are extremely interested in mindfulness… both from a psychological point of view and a measurable scientific one, to do with how mindfulness does seem to promote better more open, adaptable balanced minds, and bodies… What surprised me about what Natasha said was her being a bio-medical student, she I thought would know the science know of this, and surprised that she was surprised that I said, yes humans have electromagnetic fields… cells do… Natasha is one of a number of wonderful people I have met by chance in a semi-suburban coffee shop in London, she also happens, apart from studying an extremely interesting subject, being an intelligent woman, to be a beauty queen, Miss Uganda 2015/2016… Mindfulness is not a religion…
“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” Arthur Schopenhauer
Came back to where I have just moved into and a number of bricks were thrown through the glass door, and the front windows of the downstairs front window of the house… and a police car across the road, policeman were pleasant but saying it could just be random… Really… I do not think so… I think it might be to do with a number of people telling lies about me and it is not working as well as they hoped… Now I do happen to be one of the greatest artists on the planet… Ideas… one of the greatest fashion photographers and a brilliant writer… Maybe some of you would disagree… Then I suggest you actually look at my work… and rethink… apart from the feedback I have been given through life… since I was 16 years old up to some of you on here… recently… apart from the bricks why am I not getting commissioned for paid photographic editorial shoots… and offered exhibitions around the world ? I mean The Tate should be all over me to exhibit…. I am slightly better than anyone they have shown in a long time… I was told by people with worldwide reputations when I was a student that I was a greater artist than any of the already world famous artists coming out of Britain which would include Damien Hirst, Rachel Whiteread etc… etc… and an old friend of Helmut Newton who was also someone that styles 2 of his books said to me when I was shooting fashion that they had already seen everything until they saw my fashion photography… Neither my art or my photography or my writing is bland or contentless… though the bland and contentless seems to be the ‘new genius’ work in this time and place… Really… Mediocre images in fashion or anywhere else like mediocre art… makes mediocre mentalities and mediocre minds… which is not good for the future… most work is generic at best, mine is not… world world and what future do people really want… mediocracy will just mean a slow slide into oblivion… Rather than raising human consciousness and building a world we can all live in and enjoy… I do realise many of you have your own agendas… but does that disqualify brilliance… ?
This is an interesting TED talk by one of the people that made the worldwide web happen… When I returned to art school, I originally chose a new technologies contemporary art course… Caerleon, Newport art school, Gwent, University of Wales, though transferred to London as I ‘missed’ my hometown… Apart from the many things we studied, one of many things was theory of technology from the birth of the industrial revolution onwards… also how all this technology could ‘alienate’ people… and how it could go wrong… worse case scenario to best case scenario, apart from all the books, philosophy theory I had read since I was 12 or so… including ‘The Inhuman: Reflection on Time’ by Jean-Francois Lyotard… So all this has been known for a longtime… Also I am not convinced that there was not intent with many of this… Though Jaron Lanier says not… But… You find good and bad people everywhere across all classes, races, genders and religious groups…
I have talked about mind control in other places in the past… Jaron Lanier uses the term ‘behavioural modification’ though they amount to the same thing…
I have a lot of things / ideas in common with Elon Musk, but disagree with him on AI (artificial intelligence) AGI (artificial general intelligence) He thinks it will destroy mankind, I think it is the only thing that will guarantee that we make it to a type one civilisation, a world civilisation and let us reach the stars. That is as long as it is produced with an ethical bases by the right people and taught by the right people… I also disagree with him on augmenting humans, I think that is a highly dangerous idea… by augmenting I am referring to giving everyone ‘neural nets’ to increase their intelligence and physical augments to make them super strong or fast etc… Any human augmented would have to pass a serious of clinical psychology and ethical tests to make sure they would not abuse their new ‘powers’ as I believe augmenting humans would be far more dangerous, than building ethical conscious artificial intelligence. You should not give humans ‘super powers’ or ‘super abilities’ until their consciousness is raised to a higher level a higher emotional intelligence, in fact a higher intelligence across all forms of human intelligence… Which would mean they in many ways would be augmented already…
This article has been read and the additions have been read by some psychologists and Mindfulness people… Some of who have liked, loved or found it of great interest… and will be read by more I am sure including clinical psychologists and neuroscientists… and by many other people around the world…
Intelligence… I think the most important thing is to have a good heart… But intelligence I have absolutely no idea how intelligent I am… People have told me I am the most intelligent artist they have ever talked too… Others have said the most intelligent person… And by people I mean people that are classed as intelligent in the world… I once had a person that seem to think they could estimate my IQ at over 220+… Now that just amused me, as IQ is only 2 parts of a cube of say a 10 x 10 so 2 parts of a 100… Also I have et so many people that have high IQ’s and they do not do anything of any particular interest except maybe polish their egos… It is about what someone actually does… Then my estimated IQ was on my work art etc… and verbal abilities… speaking etc… I think I have mentioned this but 2 people with an IQ higher than Einstein’s should in theory be able to do far more than him… or say Leonardo di Vinci… but it really does not work like that… Maybe for computers… Me I am just me… Recently I had to have a psychological evaluation… Not for any other reason except I found myself homeless and an organisation that helped me sort that out had to do one as routine… Not that I minded at all… The result as they and I already knew was no problems… and also very sane, maybe too sane for this somewhat ‘psychotic world’ extremely intelligent… and highly stable… The only question that stood out was why was a brilliant artist… as in not only world class, but an artist that is timeless in that situation… Now by timeless that means not just world class now… but through time… Surely a very good question…
This might sound a bit insane to a lot of people, but I have been so many places, met so many people… and had such an unusual life… that well for a while it was fun and interesting… And after all one of my favourite British authors did live and write ‘Down and Out in London and Paris’… That would be George Orwell by the way in case you did not know…
Maybe I forgot to mention I probably know how to ‘make’ ‘build’ ‘produce’ Artificial General Intelligence’ and know it would not ‘hurt’ me… Or destroy humanity at the worst it would leave the planet in disgust with humanity… Maybe I could persuade them to stay and help… Maybe… As we sure need it…
O I need a group of experts in their various fields to work with me… Sort of why I have been asking some of you to connect… Leonardo da Vinci went to people expert in their field for assistance when he needed it… Not that I am saying I am him… But I do find it funny when I ask someone to connect and they do not… Think it says more about their ego than me…
After all I am just me… Someone that turned up at the old harbour on Mykonos and 100’s of people, Greek and others, walked around and called ‘Odysseus’ and ‘beauty’ just your everyday thing…
Then in my life it sort of is your everyday thing… Which is why I have ex’s, wannabes, and the kind of people that do not really make a mark on space time matter… or existence… Lying about me so they think they matter in history or sort of exist… Which sadly they do not… If I was to be asked about say my ex’s, let alone anyone else… I would say… Well I said from the start do not lie to me… it does not matter how beautiful you are, I am sort of use to that… I am with you because I chose to be… And lying to me… even with things you might think might want to make me be with you more… Is much more likely to make me want to leave… and if you upset because you are stunningly beautiful, and I do not believe your lies… Just go find some sad fuck to be be with… Which I think most of them have done… That is without the truly sad that were never with me but just lie about me as I Never wanted to be with them… Life… Maybe not yours but mine… And for all those truly sad people that want to fuck my ex’s and think they are wonderful and tell the truth… All I can say… Is yes some of them were stunningly beautiful by my standard which is higher than anyone I have ever met… I mean I do not rate most super models… But the reason we are no longer together and they hate me… Is because I would not believe their lies… and I can tell you unless you are a truly wonderful human being… or rich or famous… my ex’s or most would not give you the time of day… and after me… they decided to go for rich and or famous… because they were too insecure to go for wonderful human being as they felt inadequate with me… Which was them not me… After all I am just me… and merely loved them, was in love with them and cared about them…
Then when I was at school lots of my teachers kept on about me being a ‘natural born leader’, which I never really got… though many people use to treat me well and seem to want to do things for me… A bully or a ‘big mouth’ is not a natural born leader, nor is a manipulator, I do know that… A natural born leader is someone that asks people to do something and they do… or more often than not people just offer to do things for… Then me, I am just me… and never wanted to lead anyone… why this is one of my favourite quotes from Camus…
“Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend” Albert Camus
Come walk with me in the ‘Sun’…
Something that will make more people unhappy than happy but what can I say… I do not make people what they are… I am trying to lift human consciousness… More people are probably petty, jealous or just do not understand that everyone does not have their minds in a tiny shoebox and actually has a life and lives… But maybe there is more reason than most people realise why their minds are so limited… Though they do seem oblivious to this fact…
Then maybe the idea a virus from cats makes people more stupid… is just an excuse… It might be that most people are far more stupid than thought… Or as some scientific seems to point the human race is devolving because stupid people have more children than anyone else… Or maybe as has been hypothesised there is a evolutionary split currently happening…
Here are 2 articles on research that postulates human are getting more stupid…
https://www.medicaldaily.com/research-suggests-humans-are-becoming-more-stupid-243475
I did see it has been suggested thousands of years ago there would have not been someone with the intellectual capacity of Stephen Hawking or Einstein but that is wrong… Hypatia a woman who was the head of the Neo-Platonist school in Alexandria Egypt, a brilliant mathematician and some attribute her as the inventor of the astrolabe… Before she was killed she was probably the ‘brightest’ mind in the world… Which is also why she was killed… There have always been ‘geniuses’ through the whole history of the human race… Few maybe but intellect and creativity is what built all civilisations on Earth.
An article on space time matter, quantum mechanics, quantum entanglement… Or Seagulls (Herring Gulls), Ravens & Pigeons…
https://www.sciencealert.com/this-quantum-theory-predicts-the-future-might-influence-the-past
Adding a LinkedIn link but if you are interested in connecting please add a note to explain who you are and why we should connect… I have everything from NASA scientists, to senior members of the United Nations, psychologists, clinical psychologists, neuroscientists, Mindfulness to art and fashion people worldwide… Plus lots more… Including the wonderful Alison Goldfrapp of the band Goldfrapp… But I connect for a reason… LinkedIn
O There is a great and true story about the time Baby Spice hit on myself at the ICA in 1998… Sure you music editors and journalists will like it, especially as it is true… I might do it as a separate article on LinkedIn as well, what do you think ? Blog link below… Obviously she could deny it but it did happen, and since I already have another world famous pop star I knew and am connected with on LinkedIn so why would I need to make it up… That would the wonderful and very cool Alison Goldfrapp… of the band Goldfrapp… After all the people at Mykonos old harbour did call out to me ‘Odysseus’ and ‘Beauty’ in 2015 and they had their reasons…
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