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Cybernetics poetics

Written By: Lance Nizami on August 13, 2010 5 Comments

Cybernetic conference

Each person an arc of a circle

Some greater, some lesser, all now simply joining;

A plane full of circles

That hold, then fragment

Into so many arcs, some greater, some lesser,

All minds reconfigured

Transformed by refreshment, now newly made persons

Each person an arc of a circle.

5 Responses to “Cybernetics poetics”

  1. Mark Johnson says on: 14 August 2010 at 5:42 am

    Thanks Lance,

    It was great to talk to you – whether we were part of a circle or not! (Some of my circles were more ’spirally’ I think…). It was the best conference I’ve been to for a long time.

    Mark

    • Claudia Westermann says on: 14 August 2010 at 6:19 am

      Yes, I agree, it was an exceptional conference.
      Regarding the spirals — I would not be too surprised if you became suspicious about a circle too smooth to be true :) — and perhaps therefor for you the spiral presented your wish while for Lance it was perhaps the circle.
      Lev has made this great video which we saw in an almost finished state at the end of the workshop. There is a truly funny spiral from you inside there. We had to laugh a lot. Hope the video becomes available soon somewhere here or so.

      Best wishes from Vienna,
      Claudia

  2. Lance Nizami says on: 14 August 2010 at 7:13 am

    Circles to spirals? A very good point
    For this weighty matter, my muse I’ll appoint.

    Good-day.

  3. Mark Johnson says on: 15 August 2010 at 4:35 am

    Actually for a more dystopian (and rather bleak) image of spirals, Yeats occurred to me… “The Second Coming”

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

    Claudia – I’m intrigued (and slightly anxious) about the video…

  4. Claudia Westermann says on: 15 August 2010 at 3:01 pm

    fortunately we’ve got spiraled circles also:

    The Vico road goes round and round to meet where
    times begin. Still onappealed to by the cycles and onappealed
    by the recoursers, we feel all serene, never you
    fret, as regards our dutyful cask…. We only
    wish everyone was as sure of anything in this watery
    world as we are of everything in the newlywet fellow
    that’s bound to follow . . . (Joyce, Finnegans Wake)

    Hey, the video is just fine. Nothing to be anxious about. Can you remember the presentation you made for the second group after its first session? It was a good one. The funny part is how you drowned ‘abstractions’ completely.
    There are some more funny parts in the movie.
    Overall, when I saw the video I was impressed with it looking so much more avantgardian than my memory of the event. Truly interesting to see it kind of from outside.
    There was a plan to make the video available soon — we might need to ask Tom or Lev.

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