Notes on Arts & science by Dolf Reiser

There is the initial period of conscious work, dealing with the problem (input)

Next period where the unconscious takes over (sleep, daydreams, etc.)- and appropriate hypothesis strikes ,

Proof of the hypothesis is worked out.

Children have to learn to see- acquire the ability to recognize objects. Visual perception alone does not convey the full meaning of the object

Artistic vision = expression of a world behind consciousness.

Art Synetics by Nicholas Rookes

Synetics= bringing together

4 classes of analogy

1. logical-

2. affective

3. synaesthetic-

4. paradoxical-

graphic representations

projections- point to point accurate representations

likeness- stylized

surrogate images- symbolic

Personal quest for identity drives us outward & inward

1. Memory mental images

2. Imaginary

3. Hypnagogic- between sleep & waking

4. Dreams

5. Hallucinations

6. Afterimages

Eidetics- photographic memory

Creative imagery

1. synthesis- form unified patterns out of chaotic input

2. simplifications – reduce to basic elements

3. detachment- logical left brain

4. energizing p toward new connections

How to mobilize creative thinking

• Suspend judgment
• Openness
• Take risks
• Intuitiveness
• Reject criticism
• Fantasize

Symbols

1. hex signs- superstitious magic powers
2. signets- ones name in symbolic form
3. fetishes- object with magical power

Myth

1. narrative- stories, entertain
2. operative- validate beliefs, ritual ceremony
3. speculative- life’s origins, functions

render intellectually and socially tolerable that which would otherwise be incoherent

myths never disappear, new ones always take their place

Chuck Palahniuk

Fight Club:

“If you don’t know what you want,” the doorman said, “you end up with a lot you don’t.”
May I never be complete.
May I never be content.
May I never be perfect.
-46

Maybe self-improvement isn’t he answer.
Tyler never knew his father.
Maybe self-destruction is the answer.
-49

Only after disaster can we be resurrected.
“Its only after you’ve lost everything,” Tyler says, “that you’re free to do anything.”
-70

“Getting fired,” Tyler says, “is the best thing that could happen to any of us. That way, we’d quit treading water and do something with our lives.”
-83

Nothing is static.
Everything is falling apart.
I know this because Tyler knows this.
-112

“Recycling and speed limits are bullshit,” Tyler said. “They’re like someone who quits smoking on his death bed.”
-125

He says, “What you have to understand, is your father was your model for God.”
…
The mechanic says, ”If you’re male and you’re Christian and living in America, your father is your model for God, And if you never know your father, if your father bails out or dies or is never at home, what do you believe about God?”
This is all Tyler Durden dogma. Scrawled on bits of paper while I was asleep and given to my to type and photocopy at work. I’ve read it all. Even my boss has probably read it all.
“What you end up doing, “the mechanic says, “is you spend your life searching for a father and God.”
“What you need to consider,” he says, is the possibility that God doesn’t like you. Could be, God hates us. This is not the worst thing that can happen.”
How Tyler saw it was that getting God’s attention for being bad was better than getting no attention at all. Maybe because God’s hate is better than His indifference.
If you could be either God’s worst enemy or nothing, which would you choose?
Unless we get God’s attention, we have no hope of damnation or redemption.
Which is worse, hell or nothing?
Only if we’re caught and punished can we be saved.
-140, 141

…. you’re not how much money you‘ve got in the bank. You’re not your job. You’re not your family, and you’re not who you tell yourself.”
The mechanic yells into the wind, “You’re not your name.
A space monkey in the back seat picks it up: “You’re not your problems.”
-143

“Remember this,” Tyler said. “the people you’re trying to step on, we’re everyone you depend on. We’re the people who do your laundry and cook your food and serve your dinner. We make your bed. We guard you while your asleep. We drive the ambulances, We direct your call. We are the cooks and the taxi drivers and we know everything about you. We process your insurance claims and credit card charges. We control every part of your life.”
-166

“We are the middle children of history, raised by television to believe that someday we’ll be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars, but we won’t. And we’re just learning this fact,” Tyler said, “So don’t fuck with us.”
-166

That old saying, about how you always kill the thing you love, well it works both ways.
-184

How everything you ever love will reject you or die.
Everything you ever create will be thrown away.
Everything you’re proud of will end up as trash.
I am Ozymandias, king of kings.
-205

Movie quotes:
On a large enough time scale, the survival rate for everyone will drop to zero.

This was freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.

This is your life and its ending one minute at a time.

If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?

You buy furniture…. Then your trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.

You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake, You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, we are all art of the same compost heap.

How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?

No fear. No distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide.