Specular Reflection

Jerry Orter
October 2014

SPECULAR REFLECTION

The stick as an extension of the fingers enables the meal. The stick is also an extension of the mind via an applied concept; a basic technology, the utilization of something that extends beyond the individual biological capacity to obtain an objective result. The ability to employ the twig as a “tool” is the ability to first perceive the problem and then conceive the solution.

Kant

Comparison

the likening or differentiation of mental images to one
another in relation to the unity of consciousness.

Reflection

going back over different mental images; how they
can be comprehended in one consciousness

Abstraction

segregation of everything else by which the mental
images differ.

Hair

An effective way to manage long hair is to gather it together and bind it. Another way is to gather it into three equal parts, braid it and then bind the end. Hair treated this way is less likely to gather dust, become matted, or impair the field of vision.

Braiding requires the concept of three units, and the utilization of a system, much like rhythm; the counting of conceived space within a specific unit of time.

Hunters and Gathers

1.

A troop of early humans forage through the vegetation, picking and eating as they go, scavenging an occasional fish or clam or a bit of carrion. Hunting is a sophisticated extension of gathering. Scarcity of vegetation or carrion is a threat to survival and will require the enormous effort of physical prowess, the capacity to deceive through stealth, and most importantly, the ability to organize.

An extension of the body is necessary to obtain prey. A healthy bird cannot be grabbed by hand. A deer cannot be felled without an implement. Technology is essential for human survival.

2.

In the season when the fruit, or snails or mollusks are abundant and more is available than can be carried by the hands or arms, large leaves can be used to gather, bind and carry. Large leaves to create a clean floor to lay the fruit or sleep on. Large leaves to fan the fire, to shield the head from rain or hot sun. To fan the face to cool it or shoo away the flies.

Palm leaves can be fitted together if they are first organized then interlocked, much like the braiding of hair. This primal form of woven leaves have a longer lasting utility than individual large leaves and can produce larger items; mats, roofs, trays, baskets, fish traps. The same concept is used with grasses and fibrous plants to produce bindings, nets, bows and fabric.

The technique of weaving requires higher intelligence, concept, planning, systems and math. The process becomes rote through repetition.

Levites

Levi, Levy, Lev, Halevy, Levai, Levay, Levita, Leviyev, Lewiki, Levic, Levit, Levitt, Lewit, Lewitt, LeWitt, Lewita, Levitan, Lewitinn, Lewitanski, Lewinsky, Leyvi, Leyvik, Levitch, Levicz, Levis, Lewitz, Lewis, Levitsly, Lefite, Lafitte, Lowe, Lowes, Lowen, Lowenthal, Lowenstein, Loewy, Lowi, Levin, Lavin, Levine, Lavine, Levinson, Levinthal

The Labyrinth

Every seven years, seven youths and seven maidens were sent to the island of Crete to be placed in the labyrinth and devoured by the Minotaur as tribute to King Minos. Theseus went to Crete to kill the minotaur and thus end the bloody contract. On the island Theseus seduced Ariadne who provided him with a ball of yarn to be unraveled as he made his way through the confusing passages of the Labyrinth. Theseus found the Minotaur and beat him to death with his bare hands, then followed the thread and successfully exited the Labyrinth.

The ancient Greek word for a ball of yarn is klew    from which the modern English word clue is derived.

The myth of Theseus and the Minotaur is an illustration of concept and application, the organizing and making soluble the convolutions of the unfamiliar.

Weave

Verb

1.  To interlace threads into cloth.

2.  To construct by interlacing or
interweaving strips or strands
of material.

3.  Combine elements into a complex whole.

The Industrial Revolution

By organizing and exploiting the labors of enslaved or paid workers the economy, social structure and individual psyches of most of the world were transformed; a revolution.

In the late 18th century certain innovations were to eventually change the way we live. It was primarily the mechanization of the production of textiles. First, the process of spinning, which was a cottage hand craft, was replaced by water powered mills. Then carding and weaving were replaced as home industries and became mill products. Cotton replaced wool as the fabric of choice. It was more practical, lightweight, soft, easy to dye and print, and easy to clean.

With the increased demand for cotton came the need for more slaves in the American South, as cotton was a labor intensive crop. Plantations that had once produced tobacco or sugar were converted to the highly profitable cotton, and a much larger slave population was used to till, plow, plant, weed, harvest, deseed, bale and ship to England or to the Northern states. In the North, cotton mills were set up along rivers and creeks. Mill owners recruited young farm girls to work the mills. Farm girls were preferable; they would be paid much less than a man since girls were not as important to farm work as were men. Farm families encouraged their daughters to work the mills and earn cash. Though the girls were required to work 12 to15 hours per day at the mill, the prospect of independence outside of the male dominated family farm was the attraction.

Cake Walk

By 1860 Britain was the world’s most powerful country due in great part to the industrial revolution and its textile industry. 75% of all the cotton supplied to their mills came from the American South. All labor from slaves.

New York City had become the “Capitol of the South” mainly because of its dominant role in the cotton trade. New York received 40% of all domestic cotton revenue by providing insurance, shipping and financial services.

With the ever growing demand for cotton and the possession of slave labor, the cotton plantation owners became fabulously wealthy. They built huge mansions which were tended by house slaves who cooked, cleaned and served the master’s domestic needs. These house slaves prepared, served and tended the guests at the plantation galas.

“Us slaves watched white folks’ parties where the guests danced a minuet and then paraded in a grand march, with the ladies and gentlemen going in different ways and then meeting again, arm in arm, marching down the center together. Then we’d do it too, but we used to mock ‘em every step. Sometimes the white folks noticed it. I guess they thought we couldn’t dance any better.”  

Griffin the Fiddler

Its origins are in Southern slavery. It was developed from the “prize-walks,” “chalk-line walk” or the “walk around.” With much bowing and bending, the house slaves mocked the aristocratic mannerisms of Southern high society. Slave couples would line up to form an aisle and each pair would take turns promenading in a high stepping performance down the aisle, each competing to outdo the other. The cake walk was held at the master’s house, where he was the judge, the master of ceremonies and the master of the joke; if the master is in on the jokes that mock him, the jokes don’t reduce his standing and reinforce his authority as the master.

Eadward James Muybridge
April 9, 1830-May 8, 1904

Born:      Edward James Muggridge
1850       Edward James Muygridge
1867       Edward James Muybridge
1875       Edwardo Santiago Muybridge
1882       Eadward James Muybridge

In 1878 Muybridge studied the horse at gallop by using a series of cameras set up along the edge of a race track, each camera triggered as the horse passed through a thread that was stretched across the path and attached to the shutter. The resulting series of photographs was the forerunner of motion pictures.

In the 1880’s the University of Pennsylvania provided Muybridge with funding to research a study of motion in animals and humans. Subjects were photographed while moving before a series of cameras which were shuttered in sequence and a measured grid pattern as a background. Organizing isolated segments of motion sequentially allowed for the analysis of motion. Muybridge answered the question: when a horse gallops, do all four feet leave the ground?

ex-is-ten-tial-ism
Noun

A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness of the individual and the importance of personal experience as a free agent in an indifferent, hostile and seemingly meaningless universe.

The Nature of Being

•What it is                       essence
•How it is                         quality
•How much it is            quantity
•Where it is                    relativity