[Xmca-l] Re: Notes on Blindness

[mike cole]

All seems relevant to the imagination thread to me!
mike

On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 12:36 PM, Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Larry,
> (if you'll allow me this reduction of your post)
>
> Brilliant expansion!
>
> -greg
>
> On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 12:47 AM, Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Greg,
> > Memory as requiring the process of reduction of the manifold of
> experience
> > does seem to an interesting question which may offer a possibility for
> > further expansion. I mean this metaphorically as a reciprocal "dance" of
> > reduction and expansion.
> >
> > The "reciprocal" awareness that possibly not only memories but also our
> > theories and our conceptions may be relying too much on the processes of
> > memory [after the fact] and therefore loosing sight of the multi-modality
> > of experience as it unfolds.
> > Greg as you point "out" - to be seen is to be made (cf. Bakhtin's notion
> > of "consummation").
> > Your insight where you say that filling the whole of the audible
> > environment is an experience of beauty, which has something to do with
> the
> > complexity of the image  in  motion, alive, moving, unfixed, with shades
> > and textures constantly
> > changing.
> > Instead of being isolated, cut off, preoccupied, internally, you are
> > presented with a world. You are related to a world. You are addressed by
> a
> > world.
> > Robert Nichols in exploring the meaning of freedom and recognition  says,
> > "To stand in a 'free' relation to the world, to oneself and one's ethical
> > commitments, is to know that one's standpoint does not exhaust the total
> > range of meaningful, viable, and worthwhile possibilities."  For Robert
> > beauty as 'being-in-the-world' depends on the "extent" to which we
> actually
> > "embody" the world through receptivity, fragility, indeterminacy, and
> > interconnectivity. [similar sentiments to the notion of "surrender" or
> > "acceptance" as an ethical commitment]
> > Robert Nichols perceives an ethical commitment that emerges within an
> > awareness of how one cares for the world and how one has an "attachment"
> to
> > existence.
> >
> > Greg, is it possible that memory, and theory "about" how one re-members
> and
> > re-cognizes and re-presents and re-duces and then articulates the world
> as
> > the "truth"  contributes to being isolated, cut off, preoccupied.  The
> > world foreclosed.
> >
> > Requiring that "we" once again  turn [or re-turn] to being within the
> world
> > as situated presence. The musical resonance of "attunement" within the
> > world prior to re-collecting and re-ducing the world through memory which
> > highlights the salient features.
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Jan 22, 2015 at 8:20 PM, Greg Thompson <
> greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Annalisa,
> > > Yes, you said it very well, much better than I did in my prior post
> which
> > > was a bit intellectually garbled (and I missed the article that went
> > along
> > > with it, so thanks for pointing that out!).
> > >
> > > But I do think that there is an interesting point to be made about the
> > > importance of the reduction of the manifold of experience that is
> > essential
> > > to memory.
> > >
> > > I once assembled a paper that argued that forgetting should be seen as
> a
> > > tool of ethnography since when one reduces one's experience to what is
> > > remembered, one has gotten to something that was somehow important.
> > > Reviewers thought it was just an excuse for doing lazy ethnographic
> > > research. Perhaps it was...
> > >
> > > What ever happened to that paper?
> > >
> > > I can't remember...
> > > -greg
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Thu, Jan 22, 2015 at 3:00 PM, Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Greg!
> > > >
> > > > Yes the piece is really great and well produced!
> > > >
> > > > If you read the article that accompanies the video on the Times page,
> > the
> > > > writers indicate that over time as he adjusted to blindness, he came
> to
> > > > revel in the other senses to the point that when he was helping with
> > the
> > > > movie, he'd forgotten that he'd gone through that painful time, and
> > > > apparently wasn't happy to revisit the memories. I think that is the
> > > point
> > > > of the last scene with the rain (inside), to show that he began to
> > "see"
> > > > differently, with sound. Maybe? At least, that is how I interpreted
> it.
> > > >
> > > > I also thought, as you, it was remarkable that he remembered
> > photographs,
> > > > maybe these map in memory differently? Like you say because of
> > reduction
> > > of
> > > > modality?
> > > >
> > > > What also seems significant is that if we don't use those organs of
> > > > perceptions we lose memories of those perceptions. Which may mean
> that
> > > > memory is something that must be reconstructed with the organ
> somehow,
> > > even
> > > > if we aren't using the organ to perceive externally while retrieval
> of
> > > the
> > > > memory? I'm not sure I explained that very well…
> > > >
> > > > Kind regards,
> > > >
> > > > Annalisa
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> > > Assistant Professor
> > > Department of Anthropology
> > > 880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> > > Brigham Young University
> > > Provo, UT 84602
> > > http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
> > >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> 880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> Brigham Young University
> Provo, UT 84602
> http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
>



-- 
It is the dilemma of psychology to deal with a natural science as an object
that creates history. Ernst Boesch.