Alex Head - Here Comes Trouble - Art, Magic and Madness
Establishing the framework of Deviation
• Phase transition is a way to model deviant behaviour. For example, when water changes from liquid to solid, it changes phases and molecules that behave outside of the expected models are labelled as deviant.
• Feedback loops allow for systems to self-regulate
• when you look for the perverse or deviant, i.e. the aspects of a system that are thrown out by the self-regulated system, you can see how these aspects relate to the norm.
• deviancy exists in a space between state changes inside a system
• deviancy can be seen in terms of transforming between two states as well as within a relationship to stability; within behaviour that doesnt cohere to given standards
• Key question: What is the role of deviancy as systems approach stable states?
• Alternative forms of knowledge production are not necessarily deviant, but the focus hones in on the role of production where deviancy can be found, for example if a process produces nothing in particular.
• Deviancy has certain sociological references that dictate it from the norm that vary across societal constructions.
• In much eastern philosophy and religion, thought itself is a deviant transgression against the flow of universal knowledge that inhibits access to the true spiritual data, a surface that represents the mortal mind
• Fear is generally linked to deviancy, particularly in terms of society and culture, but deviant knowledge production has the capacity to become much more ambiguous and reflexive like the morphological reality in that we live
• In judeo-xian philosophy knowledge comes at the expense of paradise. Xenophobia comes from a belief that belonging is a cultural, nationally identifiable trope threatened by interlopers, while in reality global markets exploit cultural differences for profit, affecting cultural tropes much more than anything else.
• Deviancy is historically linked to 'othering'. Unlinking deviancy from negative sociopolitics is key to finding how it works.
• Entropy comes from the greek words "energy" and "transformation" -- best described as a measure of uncertainty about a system
• entropy exists within information theory, with a higher amount of information the degree of error becomes greater
• pure science and art tend to view abstraction as being separate from nature, with no thought given to change or temporality of the mundane world
• abstraction finds truth in a fictional void where time does not exist, revealing disillusion with the treatment of finite resources on the earth
• when considering minimalism, it is key to recognise the presence of the moment involved in the contemplation. infinite time expands from either side of this moment, so the only relevance exists in this crucial now.
• existence consists of the possibility of energetic movement (matter) and the finite condition of life (entropy) . energy v. entropy
• equilibrium refers to the overall sameness of a group of entities. entropy is the process by which matter succumbs to equilibrium over time.
• laws of entropy are only relevant to closed systems
• Open systems are chaotic with energy and matter flowing throughout. Attempts to model these systems based on data often obfuscate the deviant aspects of the system through abstraction and generalisation. By ignoring the entropic aspects of an open system, models are often problematic, idealistic, and ultimately become prophesizing.
• Entropic bugs exist throughout history and society and are often left out of the modelling process.
• Systems theory and computational economics exists as a huge detriment to our planetary ecology.
• The author posits that by liberating systems theory from the agents of capital and equipping the deviant aspects of society with it, coupled with a non-linear view of history, a better understanding of events and agents can be discovered.
Scale Parallax
Foucault, DeLanda, & Federici offer alternative views on the history of western society that can be related to thermodynamics and entropic agents. They develop ideas with which to understand complex relationships with a holistic view of events interwoven with fear, greed, and repression.
Paradigm shifts in historical events can be seen through thermodynamic relationships where material resources, human labour and fuel-energy transfers disrupt an equilibrium that result in diverse linear and non-linear historical outcomes. New materials, fuels and technologies trigger events as deviant agents in the societal spectrum.
Western economic consolidation manifested from urban and industrial transformation through a massive transfer of energy that interwove the religious and political orders to the citizenry in order to secure the economic interests of the ruling class.
a system's self-regulation mechanism offers insight into how deviant agents behave in the pursuit of stability
in order to transcend a linear view of historical and social phenomena, it is necessary to see the larger cyclical processes of planetary and cosmic transformation, in contrast to the view of human "progress".
Nonlinear views also act as a critique of capitalist labour relationships in contrast to the accepted notion of social progress. in light of the alleged progress in science, technology and morality, these are inherently tied to the hyperaccelerated systems of capitalist organisation.