Metamophosis part 1

My esoterical/atrological element is supposedly water. Water is also the first natural habitat for the embryonic child, thus a very familiar place indeed, suitible to begin my Metamorphosis-project.

My work so far has taken me across a 1 kilometer body of water. Not much, but my stamina is in a far worse shape than I had previously imagined. Anyway, this is just one of many tools for y metamorphosis. Another tool I will use is the principles of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, here in Gothenburg.

Fire, water, earth, wind and void.

The "Output" is right now some heads of clay. Not much, but it is allways a start. I´m thinking about making a golem?

NOTE TO SELF: I must borrow a camera soon!!

Märk Världen: I still have not read, but it is a must-do.

Interactive Shapeshifting

We constantly shapeshift electronically and socially. And if we lack something in our life, we need an experience of some sort, we simulate it. Or in other words: Play it. And by this simulated experience, we learn, grow and prosper.

There are many kinds of games that are available to us today. Here are some examples of interactive gaming, with explainations from wikipedia:


RPG
Role playing games (RPG) are fundamentally different from most other types of games in that they stress social interaction and collaboration, whereas board games, card games, and sports emphasize competition.
Both authors and major publishers of role-playing games consider them to be a form of interactive and collaborative storytelling. Like novels or films, role-playing games appeal because they engage the imagination. Interactivity is the crucial difference between role-playing games and traditional fiction. Whereas a viewer of a television show is a passive observer, a player at a role-playing game makes choices that affect the story. Such role-playing games extend an older tradition of storytelling games where a small party of friends collaborate to create a story.
While simple forms of role-playing exist in traditional children's games such as "cops and robbers", "cowboys and Indians" and "playing house", role-playing games add a level of sophistication and persistence to this basic idea with the addition of numeric rule sets and the participation of a referee. Participants in a role-playing game will generate specific characters and an ongoing plot. A consistent system of rules and a more or less realistic campaign setting in games aids suspension of disbelief. The level of realism in games ranges from just enough internal consistency to set up a believable story or credible challenge up to full-blown simulations of real-world processes. Popular examples are Dungeons and Dragons and the World of Darkness series.


VIRTUAL WORLDS
A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars. These avatars are usually depicted as textual, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional graphical representations, although other forms are possible. Popular examples are Second Life and IMVU.

MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a genre of computer role-playing games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world.
As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a fictional character (often in a fantasy world),[1] and take control over many of that character's actions.[2] MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player RPGs by the number of players, and by the game's persistent world, usually hosted by the game's publisher, which continues to exist and evolve while the player is away from the game. This is often reffered to being offline, or AFK (away from keyboard). Popular examples are World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online.

DIRECTION! AT LAST! or?

After mapping my thoughts down on a paper several times, it is obvious to me that play is something fundamental for me. I have never stopped playing, wich is I might have an easygoing attitude and people can consider me as unseriuos.

It is playing that has made me this person of constant change that I now can define my self (NOTE: not myself, but MY SELF) as.

I am right now playing through Homo Ludens by Huizinga.

I think I´m going to focus on the interactive or abstract playing. With this I mean roleplaying games (rpg) and computer games.

“Play is older than culture, for culture, however inadequately defined, always presupposes human society, and animals have not waited for man to teach them their playing.”
-Johan Huizinga, Homo ludens

I have come to the conclusion that my project is all about play as a method of learning even for grown ups. In a world where our attention is not misdirected to 24/7 fear through media, be it fear for stock market crashes, pandemic outburst, terrorism, global tyranny, unemployment, starvation and so on and so forth, then what do we do?
Well, the answer is very quite simple: We grow. We grow because all the energy that creates the chemicals in our arms and legs that makes us ready to fight or flight (reactions to fear) goes back to the brain, and the torso, centers for growingboth mentally and physically. And how do we grow best? Well, let´s just look at the masters of the subject of growing and learning: The human infant. How does she/he learn? Of course.
Through play.

Why would it be any different for a so called "growned up"?
I have chosen to critisize the term "growned up", since it describes a static state of being the no longer evovles. This I think is one of the most catastrofic mindsets of the modern man.
You constantly grow up, but you will never be a grown up.

Continued work

Oh my good what an unproductive weekend. I haven´t still figured out what my project is all about, only maybe was it isn´t. But I DO have found some major guidlines:

All knowledge emanates from the same centerpiece. Einstein hinted at this, though he could never find what he called "the ultimate equation". Earlier scholars and mystics, known as alchemists, searched for the Wise Stone, an reaction that could, among other characteristics strangely similiar to Einsteins "ultimate equation", transform any element into another. All of this was the foundation to what top scientists today call "the string theory".

Asuming there is something that everything emenates from, one should not cast aside anything.

(...) To be continued.

Wake the world

We are all tiny dots, connected to one another, connected to the whole.

I´ve been so locked inside my brain, that I´ve totally forgotten that the rest of my body is as big part of me as my face, my thoughts and my oppinions. So yesterday I began exploring my physical capabilities and my spatial/room-awereness. My friend L teached my to climb, run and wrestle outdoors. I think I reached and passed what I thought was exhaustion.

For me, this is a part of my transformation, and transformation is self-awereness, which is pedagogics in its truest form. Tomorrow, me and L will be out again, exploring my lilimts. In essence, I wish to download myself into the physical world, thus eliminating the debris between thought and action.

As for my project, this is essential. Learning-envoironments are everywhere. For me and L, it´s a playground/backyard somwhere near Chalmers.

Here is a link to one of the greatest contributors to my thoughts:
http://www.thevenusproject.com/

Är utopisk lärandemiljö en utopi?

Jag ska nu påbörja mitt arbete om ett framtida alternativ till dagens samhälle, en miljö där det ständiga lärandet pågår. Institutioner så som klassrum har upplöst i det dagliga livet.

Denna miljö kommer i form utav en självförsörjande skola som närmast kan likna ett eget samhälle. De estetiska ämnena sätts in i vetenskapliga studier, och vice versa.

Undervisningen i en sådan miljö har som grund att allting hela tiden utvecklas, inga fasta dogmer går längre att finna. Undervisningen syftar till att ge individuell förståelse för nuet.

Hur går då detta till rent praktiskt?

Sokratiska samtal var sjunde dag i samband med en workshop, film eller annan aktivitet. Detta för att stärka individens förhållande till denna samtalsform och göra sig fri från tidigare uppfattningar för att ge plats åt nya.

Bloggande, eller någon annan form av offentlig dokumentation, är också central. Detta skapar ett nätverk av idéer, offentliga och fria för alla att diskutera.

Mycket av arbetet i övrigt är (hittills) inspirerat Jaques Frescos Venus Project, och jag kommer länka i framtida blogg inlägg.


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Den personliga sfären:
Begravning igår. Det var jättefint! N hade gillat det. Jag saknar honom, att en så ung och till synes glad människa slutar leva så tvärt är obegripligt. Han lämnar efter sig ett stort oåterkalleligt tomrum.

I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes

-Rolling stones Paint it black