- Hans Reichenbach (1891 - 1953)
The Direction of Time
Wednesday, November 08, 2023
The Direction of Time
Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Portals of Consciousness
it follows us at every instant;
all that we have felt, thought
and willed from our earliest
infancy is there, leaning over the
present which is about to join it,
pressing against the portals of
consciousness that would
fain leave it outside."
- Henri Bergson (1859 - 1941)
Thursday, May 20, 2021
Withered But Still Strong
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
The crownless again shall be king."
- J.R.R. Tolkien (1892 - 1973)
The Fellowship of the Ring
Monday, May 17, 2021
And He Built a Crooked House
- Robert A. Heinlein (1907 - 1988)
And He Built a Crooked House
Sunday, May 16, 2021
A Borgesian Window
- Maria Kodama (1937 - )
Mr. Borges’s Garden
Saturday, May 15, 2021
A Mere Door
becomes in the world of
the spirit when an object,
a mere door, can give
images of hesitation, temptation,
desire, security, welcome
and respect. If one
were to give an account
of all the doors one has
closed and opened,
of all the doors one
would like to re-open,
one would have to tell the
story of one's entire life."
- Gaston Bachelard (1884 - 1962)
The Poetics of Space
Friday, May 14, 2021
Entropic Melodies
- Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882 - 1944)
Postscript. One of the first major publications that some of my work was featured in was Black & White magazine, way back in issue #41 (Feb 2006). The images were from what I called my "entropic melody" series. But the "melody" part applies equally to the images (as in "living melodies of otherwise visibly decaying parts") as it does to the - still ongoing - process of creating them (on a vastly different space and time scale). Though I like to think of my "synesthetic landscape" series as my longest "in progress" portfolio, the truth is that - having started "only" in 2009 - it takes a back seat to something I believe I'll never tire of: finding "life" in lifelessness. And so, on a recent "long weekend" vacation with my wife and youngest son (also a photographer), and armed with this spur-of-the-moment self-reflection, I found my eye and lens trained not (entirely) on the natural beauty in the West Jefferson area of North Carolina (of which there is plenty to be had, to be sure!), but rather on the regions' splendors of human-created and now neglected decaying beauty. Looking over the 30 or so "keeper shots" I returned home with, no less than 25 of them are of nothing but "withered but beautifully decrepit" sentinels - and occasional palimpsests - of times past. And, for the photographer, a glimpse of a longer-term "melody" playing out in an always evolving aesthetic landscape. I will be featuring a few of my favorites from this short-much-too-short trip in the coming days.
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Continuous Cloth
big continuous cloth, no?
We habitually cut out
pieces of time to fit us,
so we tend to fool ourselves
into thinking that
time is our size,
but it really goes
on and on."
- Haruki Murakami (1949 - )
A Wild Sheep Chase
Saturday, March 13, 2021
Entropy Curve
for the existence of a unique
direction of total time;
whether there is only
one time direction,
or whether time
directions alternate,
depends on the shape
of the entropy curve
plotted by the universe."
Monday, January 25, 2021
Life & Entropy
that's the end result of entropy,
the heat-death of the universe.
The more things go on moving,
interrelating, conflicting, changing,
the less balance there is -
and the more life."
Tuesday, October 08, 2019
Remains of the Day
Saturday, January 19, 2019
Palimpsests and Dreams
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Our Quixotic Purpose
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Particles, Fragments, and Entropy
he realized,
process of
entropy."
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Hypostatized Information
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Passage of Time
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Time's Arrow
Friday, July 15, 2011
Evidence of Mutability
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
The Castle
'This village is Castle property, anybody residing or spending the night here is effectively residing or spending the night at the Castle. Nobody may do so without permission from the Count. But you have no such permission or at least you haven't shown it yet.'
K., who had half-risen and smoothed his hair, looked at the people from below and said: 'What village have I wandered into? So there is a castle here?'
'Why, of course,' the young man said slowly, while several peasants here and there shook their heads at K., 'the Castle of Count Westwest.'
'And one needs permission to spend the night here?' asked K., as though he wanted to persuade himself that he hadn't perhaps heard the previous statements in a dream.
'Permission is needed' was the reply, and this turned into crude mockery at K.'s expense when the young man, stretching out his arm, asked the landlord and the guests: 'Or perhaps permission is not needed?'
'Then I must go and get myself permission,' said K., yawning and pushing off the blanket, as though he intended to get up.
'Yes, but from whom?' asked the young man.
'From the Count,' said K., 'there doesn't seem to be any alternative.'
'Get permission from the Count, now, at midnight?' cried the young man, stepping back a pace.
'Is that not possible?' K. asked calmly. 'Then why did you wake me up?'"
Saturday, December 18, 2010
If the Doors of Perception..."
But I can only show you the door.
You're the one that has to walk through it.
- Matrix (1999)
"If the doors of perception
were cleansed every thing
would appear to man as it is, infinite.
For man has closed himself up,
till he sees all things thru'
narrow chinks of his cavern."
- William Blake (1757 - 1827)