AULDLANGSYNE's Mailbox

other holiday art:

Santa Claus' Mailbox
ÔSTARA's Mailbox
Sommerzeit's Mailbox
 Avril Poisson's Mailbox
Serling's Mailbox


some image excerpts by Chad Abromovich at Obscure Vermont and by Jamie Wheeler

CHASMS (In 2020 Vision)

Calmly we stand upon our respective arêtes and wonder about the goings-on behind the mind of the other.  Unless we seldom-ever do.
Hubris suspects Einfühlung breathed its soupçon of influence under what’re you thinkin about—just in case I’d fallen back to sleep.
Abstruse thoughts were influencing my contrivance engine:  wondering if a meta poem might-could be real painful going in.
Speech skullduggery; lexicon and vernacular slight-of-hand (eg: arêtes looks like a ridge and Einfühlung breathed).
Mistakes—when 2 cells become 37.2 trillion and 2 parent’s fuck-up for decades—make us great-different people.
Some chasms are unbreachable, some help define where to begin viaduct construction.  Unless we never do.

                                                                                              - In 2020 Vision by Veach Glines

additional poems with accompanying art images:

personal values in a poetic vocabulary lesson

hey there below | moiaq aiayf hau
waod poem

💥 Tingle Power - Memory Tool

          The test for successfully placing something into long-term memory requires:

• A flexible imagination
• A strong desire to succeed (practice)
• Awareness of the ‘tingle power’ test
• An elapse of time (amount will vary)
• A memory-recall trigger
• Answer key (to check your answers)

          Do you have a flexible imagination?   Most children, artists, and everyone who enjoys reading fiction do.  (If you don’t, you can develop a flexible imagination – and a strong memory – with practice.)  You either want to be able to memorize or you don’t.  If you do, you’ll practice – and – if you don’t you won’t.

          Tingle Power:

Safety  Finish  Alligator  Snowflake  X-ray  Sunglasses  Call  Push  Ottoman  Surface  I  Heart  Balance  Cassette  Picnic  Tingle  Power  Shadow  Explosion  Ephemeral

          These 20 example words consist of unrelated nouns, verbs, adjectives, and a pronoun; some are simple to visualize (alligator, sunglasses) others are difficult (ephemeral—something which disappears quickly isn’t easy to picture in your imagination).

          First you need to form a chain of images related to each word.  The more exaggerated and unusual each image is, the easier it will be for your memory to recall.

          Now, in your mind, explain the links until the chain is complete:

          A huge safety pin, with a checkered finish-line flag attached to it, is piercing thru a white alligator which is in-turn biting into a massive snowflake, which fades into the x-ray body of a woman wearing a pair of sunglasses for a bra; in one hand she’s making a call on an old phone while she pushes the safety pin with the other.  Her head is a square ottoman; on every surface of the ottoman there are drawings of eyes on top of hearts.  Above the ottoman is a balanced large music cassette.  On top of the cassette is a picnic table.  The surface of the picnic table is covered with the words Tingle Power in a funky font, as well as the sharp-edged shadow of a nearby explosion which has caused a ring of ephemeral smoke to appear.

          Repeat the mental image from beginning to end.   Focus on the actual words you want to memorize instead of the stand-in words you decided to use in the story (finish-line flag = finish; pushes = push; eyes = I; balanced = balance; picnic table = picnic; ephemeral smoke = ephemeral).   Now—list the words; not the linking story.  Can you do it in reverse?   Having difficulty remembering some words?...maybe one (like surface) isn’t unusual enough; if so, draw attention to how weird-odd that word is (you should think about surface as her-face—her face’s surface.)

          The memory recall trigger can be the first image or (as in the example) the only written words: Tingle Power.

          Wait a few minutes or hours.  Test yourself and determine if you can recall the mental images in order.  Ask someone to help you check your list as you say the words aloud.  Repeat this process in a week.  Do it again in a month.

          Are you accomplished at remembering a chain of single words?  Now try the intermediate level: Memory Tool (62 song titles, released between 1959 and 2020).

 Other essays relating to memory:

Re-collecting Memories (Chapters 1 thru 4)

 When You Ponder Why You're Who You Are, What Happens?
Neither Overwhelmed Nor Underwhelmed

Design Fault

Decide

if you can aesthetically abide

my deconstruction of this visual brew (for which I will-do—epistemically—be your guide).

First nucleotide -

split in two I will systematically divide

form follows function isn’t always true; as Duchamp’s R. Mutt drew and empirically descried.

This collage is comprised:

amid stickers few, one which dramatically belied

outdoor electric box-junction if circuit blew (and FAULT INDICATOR threw) was, fatalistically, inside.

Unity-service artist (oft chastized),

broad-nib scrawl indigo-blue DESIGN drips “accidentally” applied

required only, was the introduction of eyes askew - then - with no hullaballoo, to end climactically and subside.

aesthetic:   a branch of philosophy focused on the nature of beauty, art, as well as subjective tastes and the creation, understanding, and appreciation of beauty.

abide:  to bear-with patiently, to tolerate or withstand.

deconstruct:  to examine in order to reveal the foundation or composition.

will-do (slang):  informal way of saying ‘plan to accomplish’.

epistemic:   of or relating to knowledge (or to validate the degree of one’s knowledge).

nucleotides form the basic structural unit of nucleic acids such as DNA.

Sullivan's famous axiom, “form follows function” (purpose should be the starting point for design) can be a touchstone for architects, artists and designers.

true (visual definition):  possess ‘correct or proper alignment’.

The artist, Marcel Duchamp, is credited with coining the term ‘found art’ after submitting Fountain to an art exhibition in 1917.  He signed the readymade art R. Mutt.

empirical knowledge is based on observation or experience and not on theory or logical reasoning.

descried:   published, proclaimed.

belied:  disguised, contradicted, a failure to give a true notion or impression.

fatalistic doctrine:  all events are fixed in advance and humans are powerless to change them.

chastized:   punished/ridiculed for misbehavior.

“accidentally” (usage of quotation marks):  to suggest sarcasm, special insight, or imply that the opposite could be true.

askew:  turned or twisted to one side, slightly off-balance.

hullaballoo:  a loud, continued noise, ruckus, mixture of noises, din or cacophony of sound.

climactically:   related to the end or completion, climax (with three letter Cs).

subside:   settling toward the bottom, to become quiet.

Additional articles on the mechanics of poetry and art:

Examining Art and Thinking About What You See

personal values in a poetic vocabulary lesson

Santa Claus' Mailbox

more mailboxes / season art:
Sommerzeit's Mailbox
 AULDLANGSYNE's Mailbox

 ÔSTARA's Mailbox
 Avril Poisson's Mailbox
Serling's Mailbox



image excerpt by Jamie Wheeler

• KEEP CLEAR •

         
          “Scientology propaganda?” my wife replied.  Although I’d formed my own answer even before I asked for everyone’s opinion—I was already glad I asked because:  I’d never have come up with an answer as funny as hers and this was a chance to test some conversation rules (How To Converse, Rule of Thumb #3: Ask Questions; Don’t Make Statements).

          Thinking of ROT#3 nudged me to keep the ask-balloon floating, “Is clear what Scientologists want to accomplish?—or is it a term used by people who’ve escaped them?”

          She said, “I’m confused; I don’t know how it could be an ex-cult-member term.”

          “Unfortunately, I only know about the title Going Clear, which is wedged in my memory without a film or book behind it; so, my imagination has filled that space with an ex-cult-member (How To Converse, ROT#2: Mirror Their Words; Mirror Their Posture”) saying the phrase: ‘I need to get clear of these asshats before they serve Kool-Aid aperitifs’.

          “Ahh, OK” she said with a smirk in the back of her voice, “Clear, as I understand it, refers to their belief that people can rid themselves of engrams, which is their term for unconscious traumatic memories, by holding the sweat-measuring part of a lie detector while being interviewed.”

          Since she didn’t seem to want to elaborate and nobody else was chiming in, I decided to steer the conversation toward more familiar ground (How To Converse, ROT#5: Plot a Familiar Course) by asking, “Are engrams anything like ‘dust’ in Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials?”

          “I can see a similarity—the magisterium thought dust was related to original sin and scientologists think engrams are from trauma, which occur in past lives.”

          My friend, Brian, was becoming uncomfortable (probably not a fan of the topic: reincarnation), so I asked for his opinion, “Hey Brian, what do you think that KEEP CLEAR stencil with yellow side-circles means?”

          “Maybe it’s just the equivalent of ‘Post No Bills’ since it is on an outdoor bulletin board.   I’m pretty sure it would, normally, have fishing regulations and notices for docking boats stapled to it, but because the lake is beginning to freeze-over, all that's been removed for the year.”

          I said, as I turned toward Sharon, Brian’s wife, “Interesting! He thinks it was intentionally put there by the park.” Then, nodding toward my wife (who'd walked away from us and closer to the sign), “She thinks it was put there by a graffiti-artist. What do you think?” (How To Converse, ROT#6: Stir the Pot).

          Sharon replied, “I’m leaning toward put there by the park but, instead of ‘Post No Bills,’ I think it’s more likely it’s intended to prevent people from blocking the view of the board; more than no standing and no parking, I think it's to say: ‘don’t leave your big-ass trailer in front of here’ - but you’re smiling in a knowing way that makes me think it's time to hear what you think.”

          “Ever seen the movie The Fifth Element?” I asked.   After noticing everyone’s reply (to the affirmative) I continued, “The scene where police arrive at Bruce Willis’s apartment building and he’s required to put his hands against an interior wall…?   Inside two yellow circles?  Anyone?  Anyone?”

Xmas Cat

Examining Art and Thinking About What You See

          Let's assume you're someone with whom some work of art once inflicted gloom, caused the pace of your heart to bloom, or screamed until your (no longer wavering) attention was totally consumed.  Is that you?...Ohh, Good.

          If you're unfazed by my directness (still reading), obviously your eye has at least once in its life enjoyed a gaze sufficient to overwhelm—then—I intend to use this amazing Diamond Warrior as my example for navigating the beautifully crazed imagination of the artist Michael Parkes.  Stop reading, take another look (below): where did Mr Parkes force your focus?...Ahh yes...as he intended it should.

          My eye.  It bumps down into the distant horizon near the bottom (where both the rump of the warrior and the [uncomfortably too-near] edge of the painting are found)—peering in—I'm surprised to discover: pyramids on fire and clumps of smoke resound (no rising-sun cliché caused those yellow clouds); and back my focus goes to breasts and a posture slumped against the chest.  Is that the profile-face of a captive slave at rest?...Orr, no...I now see two contemplating conquerors (as Parkes expected I would).

          What detail brought that conclusion to the forefront of my mind, which your eye sought but failed to find?  From breasts beautifully defined—nipples tight, skin-taught and unconfined—my attention traveled to behind: her wings of white (he and she're one-of-a-kind!)  And, then, down-past his framing grey wings with her pale body entwined: are her hands gloved in his same-color skin or am I colorblind?...I'mm not...It's grey gloves which rest over her maidenhood.

          So it's his adornment I—now—focus on; for assumptions mis-made and conclusions drawn:  It's probably not skin but (instead) head-to-toe chiffon which provided protection as he burned the distant pantheon; also, it's not the hilt of a blade jutting out-upon his masculinity's shouldered brawn, but the scabbard of a diamond-powered cremation baton (obviously capable of rivaling the dawn); and what of his helmet's two white fronds?...Err, adjustable antenna (to keep the eye moving bottom-right to top-left is understood).

          We've spent many long minutes staring at two beings who can fly like linnets.  One wearing a egyptian-blue lady's favor (tiny stars within it); the other bearing an expression of contentment or disdain or—you decide what she exhibits.  Hopefully you paused to wonder about one incongruous tenet:  If the artist intended to enforce—like a martinet—a constantly angled swirl-sweep of our eyes across his palette, why add, on her head, that single indigo pinnate?)...Mmm, to claim the warrior is looking anywhere but at that purplish gem would be a falsehood.
          

Other essays on aesthetic philosophy and thinking about thinking:
Design Fault

tang.abstract.houghts

A Simple Exercise in Rational Thinking 

When You Ponder Why You're Who You Are, What Happens?  

Chewed Beech Tree - What Say You?

Do you query what I think’d gone thru the beaver’s mind?

Might the theory just be link’d to hew that river’s wynd?

Or feel cheery as wood plink’d in-lieu of dreamer’s grind?

‘Insist peering!’ (poem inked) ‘unto dam-weaver’s blind!’

‘Commandeering!’ (author thinked) ‘undo demeanor’s kind!’

‘Empty clearing!’ (muskrat winked) ‘bayou designer’s find!’’

cul-de-sac graffito