Alex Head - Here Comes Trouble - Art, Magic and Madness

• 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