Hackspace

There is a gathering place and their work shop for the electronic hackers called  

Hackspace  in Hackney, London.  —– Why Hackspace in Hackney may not have

any connection and I’m not interested in pun.   😀

And this evening, a group of enthusiast of  Arduino (ready to use programmable

controller)  demonstrate what he has done.

(A guy in the photo right was going to demonstrate how he programmed an

Arduino device to control his industrial robot)

(They got quite hefty collection of books which may cover all the question ! )

To deal with even the same electronics, there are hundred of different approaches.   

Some are purely pursuit how the electronics work, others are to achieve the

purpose,  by utilizing the electronics, electro-mechanics —– and to use it in

likely way to the most unlikely way etc etc.  the possibilities are literally endless.

Other group, Dorkbot is a group using the electronics, electrics in rather strange way,

or they may say, more artistic way  😀   —–  And I’m saying my sculptures are often

happen to move —– to make it, it often need to have a mechanism and its controller,

in most of the case it was done by the electro-mechanics.  (It could be done with pure

clock-work as well though, it would be more time-consuming to make)

One of the largest group, this  Hackspace  are having  700 members and two floor

huge space in a building, of which basement is for storage and a GOOD workshop.

It seems, quite few heavy machineries were donated by the academic institute such as

Imperial College (when they got new one, old one has to go somewhere, anyway  🙂 ) 

And the place is 24 hours open for the members to use the space and work shop,

otherwise just come and chat ! —— for a monthly pay of  £5 ~£15  depend on

how often you suppose to use.  (Can you believe ! )

Their website is —–   Hackspace (link)

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Rare Earth Gig or Party ?

Last night, there was a gig or party in a corner of north London, somewhere

undisclosed address, having had 100 of the visitors.  —– In fact, the place was

a disused office building occupied by 40 of the Artists or Musicians —– it was

said to be 37 people are living though, always having their friend etc staying,

so about 70 is the population there. 

The performance was Experimental Jazz kind of live music and many

live DJs, mostly rather experimental techno kind  —– still some were

quite  danceable good beats, not just an out of rhythm loud noise. 

So, I had an opportunity to have some rapid steps.  🙂

Those photos are for those who participated the performance, to download

and use for their own promotion, hence I didn’t put their names here.

Any how they are my friend’s friends etc.  

The place is not only undisclosed, but officially not exists, hence it’s a kind

of a vacuum in the society = more likely in other planet.  Some of residents

might have found a freedom and a free studio, free rehearsal, performance

space and some are just having a gap time in their life.  

And as the Artists respects each others, despite its chaotic looks, it’s quite

relaxed nice atmosphere there ( — and the kitchen looks very clean !)  

—– So, I might go back there again.

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Spanish Art

Last evening there was a PV of  Spanish Artists’ Exhibition in Lewisham,

south London. —– Since when I was captivated by the Surrealism Art,

the images and the extraordinary creativity of the Spanish artists were

almost an enigma to me.  I never be impressed by a twist of thinking kind,

but Spanish often conceive utterly inconceivable vision in their

subconscious, long before it become clear image. 

So that, when I saw Sacra da Familia Church of Gaudi in Barcelona,

before my jaw dollop, my hair stood.  = where  imagination came from ? ?

—– The photo above is the typical sample of that kind.  = What a hell !

(It didn’t resort any known figure or style still, utilizing the character

and the possibility of the material to fully express the image = if it was

a stone or wood carving,  such wired distortion couldn’t be created !

— So,  I bought one of black piece,  second from the left on the photo 🙂 )

Photo left is a tree made by colourful fabric, so, it has flowers

and a bird on top and so on. =  Rather stale staff  though, as

it is colourful nice decoration,  at least it was photogenic !

(Still, real tree in the nature teachs us 100 times more.  😀 ) 

Photo right was created by the same artist of top photo, Maria.  

Strangely, I felt quite strong spirituality here.   M m m m ???

(Something common with their traditional religious paintings)

As many of familiar faces there, some were not seen years, so,  lots

of talking as well — they said there is a good Spanish wine though, 

I don’t drink alcohol or plastic bottled water, —- I rather wished to

pick a grape or strawberry kind.  😉

Nevertheless, it was an interesting evening, worth visiting there.

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This is their Info’ :

—– The exhibition “Take It Or Leave It” organised by SAL

(Spanish Artists in London)

at the Art House Gallery, 140 Lewisham Way, London SE14-6PD.

Private view on the 29th of May from 7-9pm.

The exhibition opening dates & times are the following:

Wednesday-Sunday from 10-6pm

Friday 31st of May from 6-7pm special event with

invited musician Iggy Rathmann

The exhibition includes installation, painting, photography

& sculpture from the following artists:

Maria Alvarez Echenique, Trinidad Ball, Marisol Cavia,

Loli Cardenoso, Silvia Ramona Estevez, 

Manuel Noguera & Natalia Rivero.

Curator Manuel Noguera has written about the exhibition:

“Their creations explore the incredible possibility of what their artistic

voices can say to others. They celebrate the diversity of the many ways

that creativity and artistry can be revealed to those who view them.

A voice that expresses our feelings through the work that we produce.

This voice is unique to each one of us. Our creations are expressions of

our concerns & beliefs, our fears, or our deepest hopes.

They represent a personal journey through life that uses a

universal language, art. —– Take it or Leave it.”

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Hand-made Bag

This not a museum piece from the Captain Scot’s camp.  

This is a bag I made about 1976 and used over 10 years since.

Unless I was on a Shooting assignment to carry full gear,

I only needed to carry A5 size Duplicate Notebook and,

may be just one Nikon with wide angle lens. — Only to carry

little things, ordinary bag on the market was too big.

Then I found a leather-goods shop selling  off-cut leather,

I decided to make one, fit to my use.

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 —– To make a bag out of off-cut pieces need to have just

a cut and stitch work though, being off-cut, the leather

pieces are  irregular shaped mixed sizes,

I needed to do a jig-saw puzzle first, to make required, workable

flat piece of leather.  And how to design such as closing fitting

on the top flap was the another fun.  🙂  

(I used the same key system for the small coin-purse too.)

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—– Whether you convinced or not, this is a Zen practice.  

When making it, there wouldn’t be any other thoughts.  (Mindfulness)

And while stitching it, just fingers were working.  (Mushin)

Considering the time spent, it wouldn’t make much financial gain nor

as it is not a kind of Master piece to show-off, it’s far from any Arrogance.

Still it was a fully absorbed commitment to deal with the material and the work.  

So, it was, I would say in Ichijo. ( Oneness = Non Duality )

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—– Forget the brah brah, anyway the bag worked well, for its purpose

and it was my good companion for rather long time on my life.

___/\___

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Tablet ZEN

Last night there was an essay read by a philosopher Julian Benjamin

on BBC Radio 3.   In it, he talked about how our attitude had changed

during the rapid advancement of the technology.

And he typified it in the situation to use a gadget such as a Tablet

saying “Matter of Familiarity taken over the Understanding

or Comprehension” —– we may no longer able to understand

how those quantum theory is working behind the electronics and

its design neither need to be, but have to become familiar

with its touch-pad operation and each function.

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He found an interesting talking point though, his thought didn’t

go deep enough that in fact the situation has been always the

same even in the time of our ancestor, Hunter Gatherer’s day.

I don’t think even a good archer did know a theory of

Aerodynamics or effect of air resistance etc yet, as long as familiar

with the use of Bow and Arrow, he could have a good hunting.

= And that was what THE matter for them.

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You believe or not, this is exactly the point what

Lord Buddha taught, hence this is the Zen Buddhism.

Even though some of the people loves and attached to their gadget,

say a Tablet so much, and using it all day long for everything, still,

funny to say, virtually all of them are completely detached from

the questions of what this Tablet is and why such thing exists.

They accepted it almost granted as a part of their life.

—– Except the programmer working for App design, very few of us

know the code of its OS, even fewer people know it in the hardware

level, let alone the theory behind of all those micro electronics.

Instead, we just accept it, as it is and just concentrating practical

aspect and try maximise smooth operation and the efficiency,

in order to have own life fulfilled.

To be a master of Tablet, we needed to become a machine 

to operate it. = even finger moves automatic,

without conscious !

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As I said, this is not a Tablet phenomenon, but derived

from our inherent processing system in the brain ! =

This is the System to maximise the efficiency of our life.

—– The way to extend and apply this Operating System

to all aspect of the Life, was what

Lord Buddha taught as the Buddhism.

—– (Bemused ? !    Just open your eyes and see it.  😀 )

___/\___ 

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Last event on Stubnitz

While I’m putting this post, the Ship Stubnitz is leaving  Canary Wharf and taking

a voyage to Normandy, France.

So, the last night, there was a kind of noisy farewell party on the ship.

(I went there with my Sound-reactive Flushing Pendant. = one of my disco regalia.   🙂 )

It was called  Algorave.  And the Info’ here was copied from their web site.

[ Featuring Cursor Miner making dance music in the frequency domain, Ardisson augmenting his tb303

and tr606 acid house with gamelan, Alo Allik twisting his audio/visual algomusic into beat-driven techno,

Alexandra Cárdenas live coding minimal techno from supercollider impulses, Martin Klang making

Euclidean acid with hybrid digital/analogue algorithms, Shelly and some Mandelbrots uniting

Birmingham and Karlsruhe with three-way live coded house, and Meta-eX leading us into the night by

live hacking an extended build up with code and controllers..

plus algorave residents Slub (with guest Elvi$ Ca$h) and Sick Lincoln. ]

Some of their music creation were quite experimental  (hence, not necessary natural to

a body to dance, or even impossible to follow.)  😀   and some were quite aggressive, still

good to dance.  (Loud drumming doesn’t necessary mean strong beat.  The matter is the

syncopation and minute gap, which gives instantaneous tension to the body movement.)

Live means,  lots of adjustments, conjuring, connecting / disconnecting cable,  

moment to moment on the spot, etc. etc.  —– looks messy business.   😀

Any how, it was a very enjoyable vibrant evening. 

(May be I was the one, dancing most.)   😀  

Good luck to Algorave and the ship Stubnitz.

Line Drawings — Space Odyssey

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Those drawings were created about the same time with others.

When a friend Brazilian artist, organized an exhibition called “Draw Drawing” (2004)

at the Brazilian Embassy,  I helped him to set up and I prepared to exhibit those drawings

too,  in case if not many drawings were submitted (in order to fill the wall space.  🙂 ) 

It was organized through Internet (= one of very early attempt of this kind),  surprisingly,

huge number of  drawings were submitted from all over the world, in A-0 to post-card size. 

But, in order to put up all  600 drawings,  we needed to create  new walls in the Embassy’s

big conference room.

—– Exhibition was a huge success  (the amount itself overwhelmed  visitors  🙂 )  though,

after the event, my friend got huge headache to send them back to each artist because he

couldn’t anticipate the power of Internet in such extent.

He thought, only the friends and the friend of  friends in England who can come and

collect their work,  may respond to his call,  but more than half of the artists who sent

their work for exhibition,  were from abroad.

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My drawings here got the same idea to Space Odyssey 2001,  that the life-form originated

from other planet and spread from there.   (Left drawing was designed to test the pure

imagination =  how impossible posture (hence no photo) could be realistically created) 

—– (This series got two more drawings though,  I couldn’t find them in this moment, 

whether they are somewhere else with its frame or I might have given to my friend in

the mids of chaos of taken-down the exhibition.   🙂 )

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Line-Drawing = Precursor to Wire Figure

Somebody asked me how I got the first imagination to create

a Wire Figure like “St. Lucia”.

In fact there is a Spanish painting (by Zulbaran ?) of a woman who was hit

by the Good’s revelation.  The design or her posture was after this painting.

But to make it as a wire figure there was a long accumulation of practice to

configure human body into simple contour lines.

(It was not came from Manga drawings)  😀

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Those line-Drawings were created around 1993, soon after my court case

for which I had to sell most of my professional cameras and lenses =

it’s mean I became out of business.  (I fought this case up to the Court of

Appeal without lawyer, since I didn’t know I could get Legal Aide and

didn’t need to sell livelihood. = demerit of  DIY.  Ha ha ha.   🙂 )

Out of business mean I got plenty time but not much money.  

So, I did quite a lots of drawings which costs virtually nothing.

But before this, there was an interesting discussion with

other photographers

“How we can figure out dark faint image or just a contour to

particular object ?”

“How do we know a curved one line to such as woman’s front

body or back ?”

“Is it a pattern recognition or intuitive creativity

to make-up an image ?”

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—– so, I experimented to draw the line, simplified to the limit,

no longer recognizable to any meaningful figure.  

Or figured out the minimum, still able to convey the meaning.

And found that the same line could be seen in the different meaning

or can be seen as other part of the figure.

—– strange discovery was that even if it is utterly illogical,

as long as it contain the recognizable parts, our brain

accepts it as what we normally understand as a pattern.

May be because our brain is not necessary seeing the things

(or drawing) as it is, but reconfigure it as we understand.  

Our thinking or even first-hand perception is never free

but always “Wishful” !

= We see the things as what we wants to see.

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So, the drawing above center, [Two headed woman] = our brain

accepts it as “One woman is facing front with her left hand swing back

and other woman stretching her right hand front” =

our brain never reject it all together with a reason of its 

irrationality,  but try to process each woman independently.  

Because, we are not familiar with two headed woman, the brain

ignore the conflict and stick to see it is two different woman

just happen to be in the same place, while try to think,

“She twisted her front body completely backward”.

—– So, it is a joint operation of our eyes and the brain =

the eye’s detailed vision is only the centre of our vision, about 20 degree

and the peripheral area is rather vague. = very similar phenomenon to 

selectively listen the voice among the other noise.   

(Please test it yourself  🙂 )

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The drawing right was my challenge (in the matter of imagination,

not a drawing or painting skill :-)) to Bosch who showed surrealistic

image in the hell, still never go to this kind of illogical confusion. 😀

—– Even Dalli couldn’t go beyond a crèche.

(May be from a religious restriction, God’s creation shouldn’t have

such freak.) If you see only a part of this drawing while hiding the rest,

your eyes accepts the image. —– One line could be a line of the hand

but it is also the line of the thigh etc.

Our brain ignore the part which is not taking part to configure one

image. ( —– And this is  what all about the Rorschach Inkblot Test =

pick up the pattern in a part, and make up familiar  image in the brain.)

= this function creates a monster from a vague image of a tree

in the woods. = we only pick-up the element which is enough to

configure monster and disregards the rests so, we see a monster.  

Seeing is believing — is it ?

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Some of you might see the top drawing as a kind of Hindu Goddess,

hence may be accept this image straight.   It looks strange though,

if you hide one side, it may not so strange. —– (She supposedly

sitting on a lotus flower though, I have not finished it yet.)

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With those (in fact 300 of ) drawings behind, to conceive and

configure the wire figure was not far away.  

And to draw 300 drawings in the same approach, it has to

get somewhere. = Zen would say

“Even rain drops can curve a rock ” 🙂

—– Drawing was done and each line was adjusted by way of copying

it on the light-box again and again until it become perfect (well, sort of)

so that those 300 are not 300 different images but lots of slightly

different same pictures.  = It was a process of step by step Kaizen.

If I were a real master of drawing, I could have done perfect drawing

straight though I wasn’t, I had to take slower process.

— May be draw a perfect circle looks much more like a Zen Master

though, I needed to know human perception, not a holy pretence. 🙂

And this approach gave me an opportunity to analyze how

we feel different if the line was slightly different or

the same line could be seen in different context. 

So, it was really interesting and a fun. 😀

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WHAT to Eat and HOW to Eat

I spent most of my youth in the mountain (rest of the school time).

Especially in a mountain shelter as a voluntary keeper (小屋番)

—– in a hind sight, I was very lucky to have this kind of life as it has shaped my

life-style and its backbone = and made me physically and mentally indestructible.

(save some cuts and bruises. 🙂 )

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Another aspect, what I’ve gained there was the opportunity to deal and observe

literally ten of the thousands of people, often in the condition of their limit.

When people face their limit, it expose the core of their disposition in harshest way.

Some are become utterly an animal of Ego and Self-preservation.   Some were

completely lost.    Still some can maintain the human spirit and the wit.

[]

An interesting observation we made was the eating habit of the people,

and a kind of consensus among us was that the people who are not

eating enough good food in their daily life, tend to make a complaint. 🙂

The shelter situated 2300m high in the mountain where the water boils 85 degree

centigrade.  Naturally the boiled rice is far from ideal or might say only edible.

Hence, the person who complained about it never had own experience to cook the rice

in such high mountain.    And the others complained the poor ingredient such as not

much meat in the Cary-rice is rather poor looking, gray-skinned person.

In contrast, a person who just eat contented was always having good skin-tone and

well-fed, healthy looks type and often high in social scale.  🙂

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Because of eating is the most fundamental element to form ourselves,

WHAT to Eat determine who you are.    And it reflects one’s back ground of

up-bringing (cultural and family, more than a personal preference).

But HOW to eat, reflect the personal disposition.   (In the same family,

same food still, each one eat their own way — one might eat rather messy and so on)

Therefore, to observe HOW the person eat, we can see what this person is,

and what sort of mind-set the person possess.

Eating messy with chewing noise is the worst.   Waste the food is a disrespect to the

food producer and the whole nature who provided the food for us, and the life itself.

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What you can eat is also restricted by the situation.

To understand the situation and environment of the mountain shelter, where all

the materials were brought up by the shoulder of the volunteer keeper, no wonder

it is far from ideal hence easy to complain, yet still, some are just accept what

was offered, and eat contented. — This mind-set shapes the person’s whole life.

As eating is the basis of the life, it is parallel to the life, numerous phrase, metaphor

using the food, such as “Eat humble pie” “Cold turkey” “Scrape the life” etc etc. =

HOW you eat is synonym of HOW you live.

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And what you were given on a dish has exactly the same meaning as what

you were given on your life.   You may complain, or you may eat it contented

= result is to end up grey-skinned frustrated man or positive man with nice shiny-skin.

—– A funny joke I heard before said “Have you ever seen healthy looking

staff in a [Health Food Shop] ?” the people fussing about the food too much,

such mind-set = a delusion makes the person even more unhealthy. 😀

(I wouldn’t imply junk-food obesity has nicer shiny-skin.

It’s need to be judged by seeing whole body. 😀 )

—– Don’t fooled by a buzz-word “Hungly-Spirit” —– Its meaning is not

just ASKING more.    Now the Millionaire Richard Branson had eaten a

poor meal yet in full in each moment, while building up his business.

That is where very energy came from.

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A Buddhist’s term “Live in its moment” mean, when you were given even

meager meal, “The food on front” is the food you have to eat in full.

Take it and swallow it as there is nothing else, which could be the last food in the whole

planet.    You will not have any another choice, another Life.

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So, all of us, the volunteers had witnessed and learned, a man who couldn’t eat even a

meager food contented, wouldn’t reach any better food all through the life, as the

self-centered Ego is just stacked in the mind.

Under one’s Ego and Greed, any food is not good enough.

Don’t waste the time for complaining.   The time is limited.

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But if you cook, it is a totally different story.    Don’t cook bad meal.

Spend the same time and the cost, it could be a good meal but could be bad meal too.

Cook bad meal is the waste of the food material and the time.

Even worse, it may not give you enough energy and the health.

—– So, be mindful, when you eat, or cook. =

It lead you to have mindful, fulfilling LIFE.

___/\___

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St.Lucia — Wire Figure — Preconception (2)

(Please see the Photo,  one eye closed = you may have better 3D view = her chest come-out front and the head looks tilted backward)

St. Lucia said to be an early martyr who lost her eyes through torture hence became a saint for vision.  Greek word Lux mean the light and the name Lucia mean light.  (I haven’t figured out the relation, her name and a sainthood, which one came first.) 

So, she is receiving God’s Annunciation (through Photoshop  🙂 ) to become a saint.

—– What so ever, this is a wire-figure I made in the same time of yet another wire figure to show how our 3D conception works,

 when it was under Preconception.    🙂

—– now it’s 21st century.   With the cultural change, even a holly woman need to have a Holiday and enjoy sun bathing.  So,  she is asking her mate  “Could you put an oil on my back”   “Bloody hell, you don’t have a back”.

—– Did you noticed, they are in fact the same figure.  Only, whether standing  on the knee or lying —– in different settings.  =  And we are seeing  it in the completely different context. 

(Do you agree ?)

(By the way, figure was made one continuous wire, starting from her ear and finishing on the arm-pit of right arm, except short additional wire on her boobs.  It was like a puzzling game, and a good fun.    😀

—– This is the most unlikely depiction of the human-body though, yet still our brain can re-configure it as a human-figure.      

Isn’t it amazing ? !!!

—————–

PS : I’ve tested the reaction of the people how they see the Top Photo.   (Since I started to use my tablet as my photo book, when I need I show the photos of my works.  Then I noticed the differences of the people’s reaction in two types.   And another fact behind was the Google’s reaction ! — If you Google “St.Lucia, Art figure” this photo of the St.Lucis come-up on the top = They think this is an Art —– See how they react.   ? )

In fact, against to the hundreds of the people = and found, that the person who was an artist, they react to hold the breath.   And the person who is not an artist start to make questions such as “Did you made this ?”  “How big ?” or “Is it wire ?” kind = it is an intellectual response to fitting the subject into an existing pattern and categorize it. 

(it is a process to “understand” what it is)   This intellectual process  in the brain mask the bare intuitive perception in the Hippocampus where 2D vision was converted into the spatial 3D (real life) image.

A real artist grasp the image with bare subconscious and the emotion.  Though, the image is nothing but a perplexity = looks human figure but it is a twisted wire = WHAT a hell this is ? !  — brain just got confused and freeze.  Hence loose the word.

It’s mean, this figure works as a touchstone to distinguish real artist.

(If you are interested in this phenomenon, try this by showing this image to your friend and see the each reaction. — provided the person didn’t know this beforehand ) 

— A funniest reaction I ever found was, when a man  who has been asking about the material etc. realized that he was tested, suddenly started to say “Oh, this is a tree” (started to play innocent / ignorant = try pretend to be a “Non- intellectual” = but in obvious tactical way —– Artist couldn’t make such highly complexed reaction.)

— Yet funny encounter of the third kind was, a woman who asked me the material on return, then realized that it was a kind of test, started to argue, saying “Because you asked ma how do I think, so that I replied how I thought, not what I felt” —– the woman has been doing a kind of conceptual art = typical “thinking kind”. 

It was the first ever encounter to a person who started to argue about right or wrong.  I only testing to see what type of the brain, whether the person got “Intuitive” or “High level thinking” dominant brain, which would be apparent in a quick response or instant reflection, — not about right or wrong of the person.    😀

—– Then I realized, I’ve met a lots of this “kind” of person, in a protest campaign group.   Yes, they are the kind, shouting  System is wrong, the law is wrong, the official is wrong BUT only I am right !  (And funnily enough all of them said “I’m an artist” ! )  — but I’m not sure what they meant Art.

.

PPS :  you might be rather confused by the explanation by “Intuitive Hippocampus” etc = Yes we are having two “Mind” (?) which we human being Did know thousands of years. = Thinking logic and the Heart. 

.

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