soul: "Consider soul, then, as what we call our own and what distinguishes us from all others. The limbic process combines molecules of meaning and symbolic representations into a model of self--world interaction that exhibits both assimilation and accommodation. This is not a substantial view, an immortal substance separate from a mortal substance, but a functional one. Soul refers to an interpreting, integrating, adapting activity necessary for meaning within each individual and for the species as a whole." J.B. Ashbrook, "Making Sense of Soul and Sabbath." Zygon 27 (1) March 1992. pp.45-6.
Inside the Skull-House: My original inspiration for the title of this project came from Nigel Barley's essay, "The Dowayo Dance of Death." (In, S.C. Humphreys and H. King, Editors, Mortality and Immortality: The Anthropology and Archaeology of Death), as my first thought was to do a project on skeletons. The title, however, led me to the skull, then, inside, to the brain.
hard problem: "It is widely agreed that experience arises from a physical basis, but we have no good explanation of why and how it so arises. Why should physical processing give rise to a rich inner life at all? It seems objectively unreasonable that it should, and yet it does. If any problem qualifies as the problem of consciousness, it is this one." D.J. Chalmers, "Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness." In, J. Shear, Editor, Explaining Consciousness--The 'Hard Problem'. Cambridge, MA., 1997. p.11.
consciousness: "In both art and science now, the
matter of consciousness is high on the agenda. Science is trying hard to explain
consciousness, with distinctly limited success. It seems to pose the most intractable of
problems. For the artist, consciousness is more to be explored than to be explained, more
to be transformed than understood, more to be re-framed than reported."
R. Ascott, "The Shamantic Web: Art and Mind in Emergence."
tropes: A trope is a figure of speech, in this case used to mean a literary technique. The basic trope I use in this project is what I call "invagination." Invaginations appear in the textual body as partial quotes, sometimes within other partial within quotes. They act to stop the reader's mind on its inevitable course to the end of the sentence, leading it to fragments of other discourses, before emerging to continue the sentence. It somewhat mimics the way the brain may make mnemonic connections. They are also tropes in the classical sense of the term: The interpolation of a passage into an authorized text.
paratext: "This fringe, in effect...constitutes, between the text and what lies outside it, a zone not just of transition, but of transaction; the privileged site of a pragmatics and a strategy, of an action on the public in the service...of a better reception of the text and a more pertinent reading." -G. Genette, "Introduction to the Paratext." New Literary History No.2, Spring 1991.
[12:53] <Surd> (Jim Andrews) You're drawing your texts from other works., you said, I think? Using them as materials? Not cut up but something else?
[12:54] <talanM> As an analect...everything is rewritten...to that extent I am a research artist
[12:54] <Surd> What is an analect?
[12:54] <talanM> I am constantly doing research that has no distinct object...analect--a set of texts, references...
Defib Webartist Interview with Talan Memmott. Oct 17, 1999.
http://webartery.com/pastevents.htm